The design and characterisation of sol–gel coatings for the controlled-release of active molecules

The controlled release of active agents from a matrix has become increasingly important for oral, transdermal or implantable therapeutic systems, due to the advantages of safety, efficacy and patient convenience. Controlled-release hybrid (organic–inorganic) sol–gel coating synthesis has been performed to create a sol with an active molecule included (procaine). Synthesis procedures included acid-catalysed hydrolysis, sol preparation, the addition of a procaine solution to the sol, and the subsequent gelation and drying. The alkoxide precursors used were triethoxyvinylsilane and tetraethyl-orthosilicate (TEOS) in molar ratios of 1:0, 9:1, 8:2 and 7:3. After the determination of the optimal synthesis parameters, the material was physicochemically characterised by silicon-29 nuclear magnetic resonance (²⁹Si-NMR) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, contact angle analysis and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy tests. Finally, the materials were assayed in vitro for their ability to degrade by hydrolysis and to release procaine in a controlled manner. The sustained release of procaine over a 3-day period was demonstrated. A close correlation between release and degradation rates suggests that film degradation is the main mechanism underlying the control of release. Electrochemical analysis reveals the formation of pores and water uptake during the degradation. The quantity of TEOS is one of the principal parameters used to determine the kinetics of degradation and procaine release.     

Synthesis and properties of a blue bipolar indenofluorene emitter based on a D-π-A design

Through a rational design, a novel Donor-Acceptor π-conjugated (D-π-A) blue fluorescent indenofluorene dye, DA-DSF-IF, has been synthesized for application in single-layer Small Molecule Organic Light Emitting Diodes (SMOLEDs). This new blue emitter possesses bipolar properties as well as good morphological and emission color stabilities and has been successfully used in a blue emitting single-layer SMOLED, with performances impressively magnified compared to a nonbipolar indenofluorene emitter.     

Computational design of a self-assembling β-peptide oligomer

The first computationally designed self-assembling oligomer consisting of exclusively β-amino acids (βAAs) is presented. The packing of a β-3(14) helix into coiled-coils of varying stoichiometries as a function of amino acid sequence is examined. β-Peptides with hVal repeating every third residue in the sequence appeared to have a strong propensity to pack into hexameric bundles. The designed sequence was synthesized and characterized with CD spectroscopy, NMR, and analytical ultracentrifugation, suggesting that the peptide adopts a well-folded hexameric structure.     

The design and synthesis of a novel organophosphorus compound containing the structure of both β-amino acid and β-aminophosphonate

<正>A novel organophosphorus compound containing the structure of bothβ-amino acid andβ-aminophosphonate is designed and synthesized.Arbuzov reaction with P(OEt)_3,the N-Boc protected iodide 3 cannot provide the desired product but 2-oxazolidinone 4 because of the neighboring-group participation of the Boc moiety.To avoid the intramolecular participation of the carbamates,the Ts protecting group is employed and the Ts-protected iodide 5 affords the target product successfully.     

Computer-aided design and discovery of protein–protein interaction inhibitors as agents for anti-HIV therapy

Protein–protein interactions (PPI) are involved in most of the essential processes that occur in organisms. In recent years, PPI have become the object of increasing attention in drug discovery, particularly for anti-HIV drugs. Although the use of combinations of existing drugs, termed highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), has revolutionized the treatment of HIV/AIDS, problems with these agents, such as the rapid emergence of drug-resistant HIV-1 mutants and serious adverse effects, have highlighted the need for further discovery of new drugs and new targets. Numerous investigations have shown that PPI play a key role in the virus’s life cycle and that blocking or modulating them has a significant therapeutic potential. Here we summarize the recent progress in computer-aided design of PPI inhibitors, mainly focusing on the selection of the drug targets (HIV enzymes and virus entry machinery) and the utilization of peptides and small molecules to prevent a variety of protein–protein interactions (viral–viral or viral–host) that play a vital role in the progression of HIV infection.     

Action mechanism of antioxidation and anticorrosion and molecular design for perfluoropolyether fluid additives (Ⅰ)——Action mechanism of additive and property of donating-accepting electron

The combination energy and chemical adsorption energy of N-substituted perfluoropoly-alkyletherphenylamide (PFPEA) additive to perfluoropolyalkylether oxygen radical (RfO.) and to Fe atom have been calculated by quantum chemical methods. Structural characteristics, action mechanism, property of donating-accepting electron and substituent effect for antioxidant and anticorrosive additive are investigated. It is found that HOMO of the additives is a π-molecular orbital with lone pair electron of heteroatom. The HOMO of PFPEA additive reacts with LUMO of Fe atom to result in chemical adsorption. The LUMO of additive can interact with the SOMO of RfO. and accept electron of RfO. to form stable addition product. The additives have the property of donating-accepting electron. The electron-releasing group, particularly, the phenyl group, introduced to N atom of phenylamide can increase the combination energy and chemical adsorption energy, and enhance the antioxidant and anticorrosive efficiency. The research achi     

Action mechanism of antioxidation and anticorrosion and molecular design for perfluoropolyether fluid additives (Ⅱ)——Synthesis and measurement of N-substituted perfluoropolyalkylether phenyla-mide

Three kinds of the antioxidation and anticorrosion additives from the N-substituted per-fluoropolyalkylether phenylamide (PFPEA) were selected and synthesized. UV and IR spectral analyses were carried out, and strong absorption peaks of UV from benzene ring are about 240.7, 215.4 and 230.1 nm, respectively. The characteristic peaks of IR from the C=O are about 1713.9, 1712.2 and 1710.8 cm-1, respectively. The antioxidant and anticorrosive property was tested for the three synthesized additives. The results show that the weight loss of lubrication oil can decrease by 1/7, 1/9 and 1/25 respectively after adding synthesized additives. The thermal decomposition temperature(TD) in the presence of AI2O3 can increase by 19-22℃. From theoretic and experimental study it indicates that the PFPEAs with nitrogen heteroatom not only accepts electron from perfluoropolyalkylether oxygen radical (RfO.) to form a stable adduct and to prevent RfO. decomposing further, but also donates electron to form chemical adsorption fil     

Design and Synthesis of a Selective Chemosensor for Zn^2＋

A hydroxyl substituted phenolic Schiff base 1, used as sensor for detection of Zn^2＋, was synthesized and investigated. It was found that a strong fluorescence emission was observed when 1 bound to Zn^2＋ in acetonitrile, whereas no fluorescence emission was detected when 1 bound to other metal ions （Fe^2＋, Co^2＋, Ni^2＋, Cu^2＋, Cd^2＋, Hg^2＋, Mg^2＋, Pb^2＋, Ca^2＋, Ba^2＋, Sr^2＋） except for Mg^2＋, for which a weak fluorescence emission was detected in the same condition. Competition experiment showed that no obvious interference was observed in its fluorescence while 1 performed the titration with Zn^2＋ in the different mixtures of metal ions. To understand the site where Zn^2＋ coordinated to the ligand and the mechanism of binding, three other hydroxyl substituted phenolic Schiff bases 2-4 were synthesized and their binding reactions with Zn^2＋were also investigated.     

Structure-based design and in-parallel synthesis of inhibitors of AmpC β-lactamase

Background: Group I β-lactamases are a major cause of antibiotic resistance to β-lactams such as penicillins and cephalosporins. These enzymes are only modestly affected by classic β-lactam-based inhibitors, such as clavulanic acid. Conversely, small arylboronic acids inhibit these enzymes at sub-micromolar concentrations. Structural studies suggest these inhibitors bind to a well-defined cleft in the group I β-lactamase AmpC; this cleft binds the ubiquitous R1 side chain of β-lactams. Intriguingly, much of this cleft is left unoccupied by the small arylboronic acids.Results: To investigate if larger boronic acids might take advantage of this cleft, structure-guided in-parallel synthesis was used to explore new inhibitors of AmpC. Twenty-eight derivatives of the lead compound, 3-aminophenylboronic acid, led to an inhibitor with 80-fold better binding (2; K_i 83 nM). Molecular docking suggested orientations for this compound in the R1 cleft. Based on the docking results, 12 derivatives of 2 were synthesized, leading to inhibitors with K_i values of 60 nM and with improved solubility. Several of these inhibitors reversed the resistance of nosocomial Gram-positive bacteria, though they showed little activity against Gram-negative bacteria. The X-ray crystal structure of compound 2 in complex with AmpC was subsequently determined to 2.1 Å resolution. The placement of the proximal two-thirds of the inhibitor in the experimental structure corresponds with the docked structure, but a bond rotation leads to a distinctly different placement of the distal part of the inhibitor. In the experimental structure, the inhibitor interacts with conserved residues in the R1 cleft whose role in recognition has not been previously explored.Conclusions: Combining structure-based design with in-parallel synthesis allowed for the rapid exploration of inhibitor functionality in the R1 cleft of AmpC. The resulting inhibitors differ considerably from β-lactams but nevertheless inhibit the enzyme well. The crystal structure of 2 (K_i 83 nM) in complex with AmpC may guide exploration of a highly conserved, largely unexplored cleft, providing a template for further design against AmpC β-lactamase.     

Synthesis and Characterization of a Novel Polymer Electrolyte for Lithium-ion Battery

A novel polymer electrolyte with the formula of Li2B4O7-PVA for lithium-ion battery was synthesized and its ion conductivity and mechanical properties were also tested. It is found that the conductivity of the prepared polymer electrolytes is higher than that of LiClO4/PEO or LiClO4/EC-DMC by two or three orders in magnitude and a large delocalized bond formed in Li2B4O7-PVA lead to transportation of Li ion easier, this electrolyte possesses high thermo-stability and can be used under 200℃.     

Computational design of a β-peptide that targets transmembrane helices

The design of β-peptide foldamers targeting the transmembrane (TM) domains of complex natural membrane proteins has been a formidable challenge. A series of β-peptides was designed to stably insert in TM orientations in phospholipid bilayers. Their secondary structures and orientation in the phospholipid bilayer was characterized using biophysical methods. Computational methods were then devised to design a β-peptide that targeted a TM helix of the integrin α(IIb)β(3). The designed peptide (β-CHAMP) interacts with the isolated target TM domain of the protein and activates the intact integrin in vitro.     

Synthesis and Application of a Novel Organosilane Modifier for Surface Paintability of Organosiloxane Sealants

A novel organosilane, N-n-butyl-γ-aminopropylmethyldimethoxysilane was synthesized through aminization reaction and the chemical structure of resulting products was characterized by ^1HNMR, ^13CNMR, FT-IR and elemental analysis. The results of test on probation for this organosilane proved that it was effective to modify surface-paintability of organosiloxane sealants.     

Computational design of a Diels–Alderase from a thermophilic esterase: the importance of dynamics

A novel computational Diels–Alderase design, based on a relatively rare form of carboxylesterase from Geobacillus stearothermophilus, is presented and theoretically evaluated. The structure was found by mining the PDB for a suitable oxyanion hole-containing structure, followed by a combinatorial approach to find suitable substrates and rational mutations. Four lead designs were selected and thoroughly modeled to obtain realistic estimates of substrate binding and prearrangement. Molecular dynamics simulations and DFT calculations were used to optimize and estimate binding affinity and activation energies. A large quantum chemical model was used to capture the salient interactions in the crucial transition state (TS). Our quantitative estimation of kinetic parameters was validated against four experimentally characterized Diels–Alderases with good results. The final designs in this work are predicted to have rate enhancements of ≈10³–10⁶ and high predicted proficiencies. This work emphasizes the importance of considering protein dynamics in the design approach, and provides a quantitative estimate of the how the TS stabilization observed in most de novo and redesigned enzymes is decreased compared to a minimal, ‘ideal’ model. The presented design is highly interesting for further optimization and applications since it is based on a thermophilic enzyme (T _opt ?=?70?°C).     

Development and Box–Behnken design optimization of a green extraction method natural deep eutectic solvent-based for phenolic compounds from barley malt rootlets

In recent years, attention has been turned finding new sources of phenolic compounds, antioxidant molecules, main by-products from the agri-food chain like barley malt rootlets (BMRs). Traditionally, phenolic compounds are extracted from food matrices using different procedures, for example, solid–liquid, liquid–liquid, or solid-phase extraction techniques employing organic solvents. With the advent of green chemistry, attention has been paid to the search for green, nontoxic, inexpensive, and nonflammable solvents and the natural deep eutectic solvents (NADESs) respect these characteristics. The aim of this project was to develop and optimize an environmentally friendly, inexpensive, and rapid extraction method for phenolic compounds from BMRs using natural DESs as extractive solvents. Several natural DESs were tested as extractive solvents and, among them, the best results in terms of total phenolic content were obtained using a choline chloride-malic acid (1:2 molar ratio)-based mixture. Box–Behnken experimental design guaranteed the extraction of 9.51 ± 0.83 gallic acid equivalent/g of BMRs, under the following optimal extraction conditions: 1:21 solid-to-liquid ratio, 80°C as extraction temperature, 43 min as the time of extraction, and 29% as a percentage of added water in the NADESs. Phenolic acids and flavonoids were detected in the BMRs extract through HPLC-PDA/MS analysis.     

Rational design of iron catalysts for C–X bond activation

We have quantum chemically studied the iron-mediated C X bond activation (X = H, Cl, CH₃) by d⁸-FeL₄ complexes using relativistic density functional theory at ZORA-OPBE/TZ2P. We find that by either modulating the electronic effects of a generic iron-catalyst by a set of ligands, that is, CO, BF, PH₃, BN(CH₃)₂, or by manipulating structural effects through the introduction of bidentate ligands, that is, PH₂(CH₂)_nPH₂ with n = 6–1, one can significantly decrease the reaction barrier for the C X bond activation. The combination of both tuning handles causes a decrease of the C H activation barrier from 10.4 to 4.6 kcal mol⁻¹. Our activation strain and Kohn-Sham molecular orbital analyses reveal that the electronic tuning works via optimizing the catalyst–substrate interaction by introducing a strong second backdonation interaction (i.e., “ligand-assisted” interaction), while the mechanism for structural tuning is mainly caused by the reduction of the required activation strain because of the pre-distortion of the catalyst. In all, we present design principles for iron-based catalysts that mimic the favorable behavior of their well-known palladium analogs in the bond-activation step of cross-coupling reactions.     

Genetic algorithms as a tool for helix design – computational and experimental studies on prion protein helix 1

Summary Evolutionary computing is a general optimization mechanism successfully implemented for a variety of numeric problems in a variety of fields, including structural biology. We here present an evolutionary approach to optimize helix stability in peptides and proteins employing the AGADIR energy function for helix stability as scoring function. With the ability to apply masks determining positions, which are to remain constant or fixed to a certain class of amino acids, our algorithm is capable of developing stable helical scaffolds containing a wide variety of structural and functional amino acid patterns. The algorithm showed good convergence behaviour in all tested cases and can be parameterized in a wide variety of ways. We have applied our algorithm for the optimization of the stability of prion protein helix 1, a structural element of the prion protein which is thought to play a crucial role in the conformational transition from the cellular to the pathogenic form of the prion protein, and which therefore poses an interesting target for pharmacological as well as genetic engineering approaches to counter the as of yet uncurable prion diseases. NMR spectroscopic investigations of selected stabilizing and destabilizing mutations found by our algorithm could demonstrate its ability to create stabilized variants of secondary structure elements.     

Flotation-assisted dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction method for preconcentration and determination of trace amounts of cobalt: Orthogonal array design

A simple, rapid, and efficient flotation-assisted dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction method was developed for preconcentration of trace amount of cobalt(II) ions. In this technique, a mixture of toluene and methanol (20: 80, v/v) was injected through the septum in the bottom of a narrow-bore tube containing cobalt solution. Afterwards, the fine droplets of extraction solvent were formed and cobalt (as 1-nitroso-2- naphtol complex) was collected on the surface of solution by aeration. The effect of different variables on the extraction efficiency of cobalt such as pH of solution, ligand concentration and injection volume was investigated using orthogonal array design. At optimum conditions, the calibration curve was linear over the range of 10–1000 μg/L. The detection limit, relative standard deviation and enrichment factor were 3 μg/L, 3.9% (n = 10) and 120, respectively. The developed method was successfully applied to the determination of cobalt in water and drug samples.     

Development and Validation of a RP-HPLC–PDA Method for Determination of Curcuminoids in Microemulsions

A sensitive, specific and rapid high-performance liquid chromatography method was developed in an effort to quantify extremely low curcuminoid levels for the future transdermal experiments where the curcuminoids are incorporated with excipients such as microemulsion, liposomes, and micelles. The chromatographic separation was performed using a Symmetry^® C₁₈, 250 × 4.6 mm, 5-μm column, with a mobile phase composed of 5 mM acetonitrile:phosphoric acid (45:55, v/v) at a flow rate of 1.0 mL min⁻¹, it was sensitive with a low limit of quantitation for curcuminoids (0.626 ng mL⁻¹ for curcumin) and good linearity (r ² ≥ 0.999) over the range 1–100 ng mL⁻¹. All the validation data, such as accuracy and precision, were within the required limits from the ICH guideline. The assay method was successfully applied during forced degradation of curcuminoid solutions. The method retained its accuracy and precision when the standard addition technique was applied.