Recent advances in microcontact printing

Microcontact printing is a remarkable surface patterning technique. Developed about 10 years ago, it has triggered enormous interest from the surface science community, as well as from engineers and biologists. The last five years have been rich in improvements to the microcontact printing process itself, as well as in new technical innovations, many designed to suit new applications. In this review, we describe the evolution of microcontact printing over the past five years. The review is categorized into three main sections: the improvements made to the technique, new variations, and new applications.     

Revealing indigenous Indonesian traditional medicine: anti-infective agents

Indonesia is rich in medicinal plants which the population has used traditionally from generation to generation for curing diseases. Our interest in the treatment of infectious diseases has lead to the investigation of traditional Indonesian treatments. In this review, we present a comprehensive review of ethnopharmacologically directed screening in Indonesian medicinal plants to search for new anti-viral, antimalarial, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal agents. Some potent drug leads have been isolated from Indonesian medicinal plants. Further research is still required for the lead development as well as the search for new bioactive compounds from the enormous medicinal plant resources.     

Preclinical Testing of Radiopharmaceuticals for the Detection and Characterization of Osteomyelitis: Experiences from a Porcine Model

The development of new and better radioactive tracers capable of detecting and characterizing osteomyelitis is an ongoing process, mainly because available tracers lack selectivity towards osteomyelitis. An integrated part of developing new tracers is the performance of in vivo tests using appropriate animal models. The available animal models for osteomyelitis are also far from ideal. Therefore, developing improved animal osteomyelitis models is as important as developing new radioactive tracers. We recently published a review on radioactive tracers. In this review, we only present and discuss osteomyelitis models. Three ethical aspects (3R) are essential when exposing experimental animals to infections. Thus, we should perform experiments in vitro rather than in vivo (Replacement), use as few animals as possible (Reduction), and impose as little pain on the animal as possible (Refinement). The gain for humans should by far exceed the disadvantages for the individual experimental animal. To this end, the translational value of animal experiments is crucial. We therefore need a robust and well-characterized animal model to evaluate new osteomyelitis tracers to be sure that unpredicted variation in the animal model does not lead to a misinterpretation of the tracer behavior. In this review, we focus on how the development of radioactive tracers relies heavily on the selection of a reliable animal model, and we base the discussions on our own experience with a porcine model.     

Advanced Materials Based on Nanosized Hydroxyapatite

The development of new materials based on hydroxyapatite has undergone a great evolution in recent decades due to technological advances and development of computational techniques. The focus of this review is the various attempts to improve new hydroxyapatite-based materials. First, we comment on the most used processing routes, highlighting their advantages and disadvantages. We will now focus on other routes, less common due to their specificity and/or recent development. We also include a block dedicated to the impact of computational techniques in the development of these new systems, including: QSAR, DFT, Finite Elements of Machine Learning. In the following part we focus on the most innovative applications of these materials, ranging from medicine to new disciplines such as catalysis, environment, filtration, or energy. The review concludes with an outlook for possible new research directions.     

Recent developments of cyclopropene chemistry

This critical review discusses recent developments in the field of cyclopropene chemistry. Although several excellent reviews that mainly focused on the thermolysis and pyrolysis as well as metal-mediated reactions of cyclopropenes have been published, significant new developments have also been achieved in recent years. This brand new review provides an overview of the progress from 2007 to 2011 on the syntheses and transformations of cyclopropenes as well as their related mechanistic studies (238 references).     

Recent applications of kinetic methods in multi-component analysis

This review on multi-component kinetic-based determinations covers most publications in this field during the period 2000–2007. The methodologies applied during recent years have been based on differential reaction rates for simultaneous multicomponent analysis. The literature shows a great attempt to apply chemometric methods, such as partial least squares regression, artificial neural networks, H-point standard addition and a new method involving mean centering of ratio spectra in this field. This review also describes some applications of advanced multiway analysis such as PARAFAC and NPLS from 2000 in the multicomponent kinetic analysis.     

The impact of plant-pathogen studies on medicinal drug discovery

The pharmaceutical industry is reliant on a constant supply of new chemical entities and molecular targets for disease intervention. In this tutorial review, we want to illustrate that basic research studies on the biological function of natural products involved in plant-pathogen interactions can serve as an inspiring source for the identification of new bioactive entities as well as of strategies on how to achieve small molecule manipulation of biological systems. An application of findings from plant-pathogen interaction studies might therefore display a significant impact on drug discovery.     

Phytochemistry and Pharmacological Activity of Plants of Genus Curculigo: An Updated Review Since 2013

The genus Curculigo, as a folk herbal medicine, has been used for many years in China, treating impotence, limb limpness, and arthritis of the lumbar and knee joints. The last systematic review of the genus Curculigo was written in 2013, scientifically categorizing the phytochemistry and biological activities. Hitherto, the original compounds and their pharmacological activities were presented as the development of this genus, but there is not an updated review. To conclude the progression of the genus Curculigo, we collected the new literature published from 2013 to 2021 in PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar databases, and the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure. The novel chlorophenolic glucosides, curculigine, phenolic glycosides, orcinosides and polysaccharides were isolated from Curculigo. The new analyzing methods were established to control the quality of Curculigo as a herbal medicine. In addition, the pharmacological effects of Curculigo focused on anti-diabetes, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, osteoporosis, antioxidation, etc. The antitumor and neuroprotective activities were newly explored in recent years. The application of herbal medicine was gradually developed in scientific methods. The medicinal value of the genus Curculigo needs to further investigate its pharmacological mechanisms. This new review offers more insights into the exploitation of the pharmacological value of the genus Curculigo.     

Structure and mechanical properties of polysaccharides

This article serves both as a review of polysaccharides as gelling and thickening agents and as an introduction to polysaccharides, other than starch and cellulose, their source and extraction, and how molecular detail is reflected in their macromolecular and supramolecular properties. The whole is summarised for workers in the synthetic polymer area interested in new “green” polymers. We also introduce results for a new polysaccharide extracted from a Nigerian tree pod, and describe details of its structural and physicochemical characterisation including light scattering and rheological measurements.     

碎片法合成金属原子簇:Isolobal Analogy的应用和推广

本文讨论了等瓣相似原理的推广并应用于混合金属原子簇化合物的合成。特别是把等瓣相似概念作进一步地推广, 即满足于9n-l规则的金属簇合物等瓣相似于满足4n-1规则的碳烷, 因此等瓣相似概念以及它的推广在碎片法合成金属簇合物的研究中是十分有用的。     

Capillary electrophoresis coupled to mass spectrometry for clinical diagnostic purposes

The introduction of fast, sensitive, and robust techniques for proteomic analysis into clinical practice represents a major step toward a new diagnostic approach of body fluids. In addition, proteomics emerges as a key technology for the discovery of disease biomarkers in various body fluids. However, even in relatively protein-deprived body fluids such as urine, the complexity and wide dynamic range of protein expression pose a considerable challenge to both separation and identification technologies. In the present review we discuss from a clinical point-of-view recent advances of the use of proteomics in clinical diagnosis as well as therapy evaluation. We focus on capillary electrophoresis coupled to mass spectrometry (CE-MS) and discuss CE-MS from an application point of view evaluating its merits and vices with regard to biomarker discovery. This review further presents examples of clinical applications of CE-MS for detection and identification of biomarkers in urine.     

Stir bar sorptive extraction for central nervous system drugs from biological fluids

A review with 75 references is presented that deals with the reported methods for analysis of some important central nervous system (CNS) drugs in biological fluids utilizing stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) technique covering the years from 2000 to 2008. The theoretical aspects of SBSE, as well as an significant number of applications have been published, showing the advantages of this technique over the classical extraction techniques (liquid–liquid extraction (LLE) and solid-phase extraction (SFE). In this review, recent SBSE developments and a focus on the development of new instrumental approaches and sorbent phases are presented.     

虎皮楠生物碱研究进展

虎皮楠生物碱结构多变且具有复杂的多环骨架, 该类生物碱奇特的多环结构使其成为化学和生物合成研究的热点之一. 最近的关于虎皮楠生物碱的综述是由Kobayashi和Morita等于2003年报道的, 文章对1987到2002年间虎皮楠生物碱的研究进行了概括. 其后又有从11种虎皮楠植物中分离到的60多个新的虎皮楠生物碱报道, 其中三分之二是由中国学者从分布于中国的虎皮楠植物中分离得到. 这些新生物碱有的骨架类型已知, 有的骨架新颖. 故对这些新生物碱的结构分类、可能的生物合成途径和生物活性进行了综述. 对生物碱的分类基本按照以前提出的方法, 但增加了7种新的骨架类型. 对各种骨架的结构特点及在生物合成中的相互关系也进行了讨论.     

Advances in chiral separation using capillary electromigration techniques

This review gives an overview of recent developments in CZE, EKC, and CEC covering the literature since the year 2004. Since there appeared a special issue on applications, this review focuses on the progress in electromigration techniques and new methodological developments. New techniques, new chiral selectors as well as new chiral stationary phases for CEC are discussed.     

Synthesis of psoralens and analogues.

This review presents briefly the various classical syntheses of psoralens and angelicins which generally start from preformed suitably substituted coumarin or benzofuran derivatives. However, the discovery of the photocyclo-C-4 addition of psoralens to pyrimidine bases prompted new developments in this area. In particular, improved synthesis of psoralens and substituted angelicins, and synthesis of new analogues such as furochromenes, pyridopsoralens, pyrano benzopyrandiones, dioxinocoumarins and aza-psoralens were described recently. This review focuses on the chemical syntheses of these various compounds.     

Emerging materials for sample preparation

This review provides an update on the implementation of emerging materials as sorbents for sample preparation in combination with chromatographic separation. We have focused on recent applications of metal–organic frameworks, layered double hydroxides, porous carbons obtained from polymers or biomass precursors, and silicates (clays and zeolites). The review is directed toward the strategies followed by the authors to engineer suitable supports enabling the application of materials with unconventional size and shape as high‐performance sorbents to explore new boundaries in sample pretreatment in manual or automated modes.     

发光多孔硅的化学传感特征

发光多孔是一种新型的光电器件材料。其荧光的猝灭或增敏，以及其电学特性的变化可作为化学伟感信息用于电化学传感技术。本文评述了自发光多孔硅首次报道以来在化学传感领域的应用研究进展。     

Evolution of emission manners of organic light-emitting diodes: From emission of singlet exciton to emission of doublet exciton

The emission manners of organic light-emitting diodes(OLEDs) have experienced almost three-decade evolution.In this review,we briefly summarized the emission manners of OLEDs including:(ⅰ) emission from singlet exciton;(ⅱ) emission from triplet exciton;(ⅲ) emission from singlet exciton converted from triplet exciton.Then we introduced a new type of OLEDs with the emission from doublet exciton,wherein organic neutral radicals are used as emitters.Due to the spin-allowed transition of doublet excitons,using neutral radicals as emitters is believed to be a new way to break the 25%upper limit of internal quantum efficiency of OLEDs.The progress of emissive stable neutral radicals is also shortly reviewed.