Coloured complexes of all-trans-retinal with benzocaine and other local anaesthetics

Coloured Schiff base complexes with lambda max values of 500 nm or above were formed between the visual pigment all-trans-retinal and the local anesthetics procaine (lambda max = 533 nm), benzocaine (4-amino-benzoic acid ethyl ester, lambda max = 535 nm), 3-amino-benzoic acid ethyl ester (lambda max = 500 nm) and 2-amino-benzoic acid ethyl ester (lambda max = 509 nm) in methanol acidified with HCl. The anaesthetics lidocaine and urethane failed to form coloured compounds with lambda max values greater than 500 nm under the same conditions. The relevance of these observations to the effect of anaesthetics on the visual pigments is discussed.     

Is There a “Most Chiral Tetrahedron”?

A degree of chirality is a function that purports to measure the amount of chirality of an object: it is equal for enantiomers, vanishes only for achiral or degenerate objects and is similarity invariant, dimensionless and normalisable to the interval [0,1]. For a tetrahedron of non-zero three-dimensional volume, achirality is synonymous with the presence of a mirror plane containing one edge and bisecting its opposite, and hence it is easy to design degree-of-chirality functions based on edge length that incorporate all constraints. It is shown that such functions can have largest maxima at widely different points in the tetrahedral shape space, and by incorporation of appropriate factors, the maxima can be pushed to any point in the space. Thus the phrase "most chiral tetrahedron" has no general meaning: any chiral tetrahedron is the most chiral for some legitimate choice of degree of chirality.     

Systematics of bonding in non-icosahedral carbon clusters

General formulas are presented for the vertex numbers, , of pentagon+hexagon polyhedra of icosahedral, tetrahedral or dihedral symmetries. Criteria for uniqueness of representation, isomer counts and grouping of pentagons are established. All polyhedra with 256 vertices or less and belonging to T, D ₅, D₆or their supergroups are listed. With the addition of C₃ to the dihedral and higher groups, at least one pentagon+hexagon cluster is found for all even 20 except for = 22 which is unrealisable in any symmetry, and = 46 (for which a C₃ polyhedron exists). Carbon clusters with closed electronic shells are shown to be generated by a geometrical leapfrog procedure: for all = 60+6k (where k is zero or greater than one) at least one closed shell structure is predicted. In dihedral symmetry closed shells also exist for some other values of . Separation of the 12 pentagonal faces is not sufficient to ensure a closed electronic shell but appears to be a necessary condition in dihedral or tetrahedral symmetry.     

Ring-current aromaticity in open-shell systems

The ab initio ipsocentric approach to calculation and mapping of induced orbital current density is extended to open-shell π systems. ROHF/6-31G^** calculations document the (magnetic) aromaticity of planar 4nπ triplet states of 4π/8π annulenes and isobenzofulvene, and quintet excited-state azulene. An orbital model for currents rationalises the generalised form of Baird’s rules, by which 4n + 2 annulenes are aromatic (antiaromatic) in states of even (odd) total spin (vice versa for 4nπ annulenes). In contrast to geometric criteria, ring-currents predict antiaromaticity for the doublet naphthalene radical anion.     

Design and synthesis of macrocyclic peptomers as mimics of a quorum sensing signal from Staphylococcus aureus

We report the design and synthesis of macrocyclic peptide-peptoid hybrids (peptomers) as analogs of autoinducing peptide I (AIP-I) from Staphylococcus aureus. Our solid-phase synthetic route includes efficient microwave-assisted reactions and a tandem macrocyclization-cleavage step, and we demonstrate its compatibility with parallel synthesis through the generation of a focused peptomer library. One of the peptomers was capable of stimulating biofilm formation in S. aureus, a phenotype linked to AIP-I receptor (AgrC-I) inhibition.     

Correlation of delocalization indices and current-density maps in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

Using multicentre delocalization indices, the ring current maps of a large set of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are reconstructed and compared with ab initio computations of the same maps in the pseudo-pi version of the ipsocentric approach to magnetic response. The quality of the comparison indicates that both delocalization and ring current approaches capture the same information about the aromatic nature of the PAH. Aromaticity as a global property, requires knowledge of more than single circuits, but the present results suggest no need to introduce a "multidimensional character" for aromaticity.     

FTIR of touch imprint cytology: a novel tissue diagnostic technique

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic (FTIR) interrogation of biological tissues in real time has largely been a challenging proposition because of the strong absorption of mid-infrared light in water filled tissues. To enable sampling of tissues they must be sectioned and dried, which has time and resource implications. FTIR of touch imprint cytology (TIC) has been proposed to circumvent this problem. TIC is a well known histopathological method of rapidly analysing biological tissues. In this article we demonstrate the ability of FTIR of TIC to provide detailed spectra which can be used to differentiate various tissue pathologies. FTIR spectral profiles of TIC of lymph node and thyroid tissues differ visually when compared with TIC spectra of parathyroid tissue. The lymph node showed strong lipid spectral peaks at 1166cm(-1) and 1380cm(-1) including a very strong carbonyl-ester band at 1748cm(-1), and a strong methylene bending band (scissoring, at 1464cm(-1)). Smaller intensity protein peaks at 1547cm(-1) and 1659cm(-1) were also seen. The thyroid spectra, in addition to evident strong protein peaks at 1547cm(-1) and 1659cm(-1), also demonstrated possible nucleic acid signals at 1079cm(-1) and 1244cm(-1). The C-OH peak at 1037cm(-1) was attributed to carbohydrate signals. Parathyroid adenoma showed a marginal shift to lower wavenumbers with decreased amide I and II peak intensities when compared to hyperplasia. Nucleic acid peak positions at 1079cm(-1) and 1244cm(-1) were of higher intensity in adenomas compared to hyperplastic glands possibly demonstrating an increase in cell proliferation and growth. This study demonstrates the feasibility of cytoimprint FTIR for the intraoperative diagnosis of tissue during surgical neck exploration for the management of hyperparathyroidism. There is potential for the application of the technique in sentinel lymph node biopsy diagnosis and tumour margin evaluation.