We report here the direct synthesis of a hexagonal form of manganese dioxide using mild hydrothermal methods. The reaction of potassium or sodium permanganate in water at 170 °C leads directly to potassium or sodium manganese dioxide, Alk≈0.25MnO2·0.6H2O, with a R3̄m rhombohedral structure like Li x (H2O)TiS2 and a 7 Å repeat distance indicative of a monolayer of water between the manganese dioxide layers. This manganese oxide reacts readily and reversibly with lithium ions.

Xu, Hua, Rongji Chen, and Fayez K. Ghishan. Subcloning, localization, and expression of the rat intestinal sodium-hydrogen exchanger isoform 8.

Efficient assembly of hepatitis delta virus (HDV) was achieved by cotransfection of Huh7 cells with two plasmids: one to provide expression of the large, middle, and small envelope proteins of hepatitis B virus (HBV), the natural helper of HDV, and another to initiate replication of the HDV RNA genome. HDV released into the media was assayed for HDV RNA and HBV envelope proteins and characterized by rate-zonal sedimentation, immunoaffinity purification, electron microscopy, and the ability to infect primary human hepatocytes. Among the novel findings were that (i) immunostaining for delta antigen 6 days after infection with 300 genome equivalents (GE) per cell showed only 1% of cells as infected, but this was increased to 16% when 5% polyethylene glycol was present during infection; (ii) uninfected cells did not differ from infected cells in terms of albumin accumulation or the presence of E-cadherin at cell junctions; and (iii) sensitive quantitative real-time PCR assays detected HDV replication even when the multiplicity of infection was 0.2 GE/cell. In the future, this HDV assembly and infection system can be further developed to better understand the mechanisms shared by HBV and HDV for attachment and entry into host cells.

No abstract

No abstract