Metabolite Identification of Myricetin in Rats Using HPLC Coupled with ESI-MS

Myricetin, a naturally occurring flavonol, shows multifarious pharmacological activities, e.g., antidiabetic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, and liver protection effects. In order to obtain an understanding of the myricetin’s metabolism in vivo, a rapid and sensitive method by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray-ionization mass spectrometry (HPLC-MSⁿ) techniques was employed to investigate the biotransformation in rats after oral administration of myricetin. Recognition and structural exposition of the metabolites were operated by comparing the changes in molecular mass (ΔM) and MSⁿ spectra with the parent drug. As a result, the parent compound and seven metabolites were found in rat plasma, urine, and feces. In addition, besides 3,5-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (M1) and 3,4,5-trihydroxyphenylacetic acid (M2), five other compounds were first discovered in the metabolite research of myricetin. These results indicated that, besides ring-fission, there were methylate (M3, M4, M5) and glucuronide (M6, M7) biotransformations of myricetin occurring in vivo.

     

γ-Ray-Radiation-Scissioned Chitosan as a Gene Carrier and Its Improved in uitro Gene Transfection Performance

Chitosan (CS) is expected to be an ideal gene carrier for its high biosafety. In this work, CS with low molecular weight were prepared through the γ-ray radiation on the acetic acid solution of CS. The CS chains were scissioned under the γ-ray radiation, and the molecular weight (MW) of CS decreased with the absorbed dose. When the absorbed dose was above 30 kGy, the molecular weight of CS decreased about an order of magnitude. The γ-ray-radiation-scissioned CS can e ectively bind with plasmid (pEGFP) through complex coacervation method, forming pEGFP/ γ-ray-radiation-scissioned CS complex particles with a size of 200-300 nm. The complex particles have good stability and little cytotoxicity. The in uitro gene transfection efficiencies of the pEGFP/ γ-ray-radiation-scissioned CS complex particles were investigated by fluorescence microscope and flow cytometry. The results showed that the gene vectors using γ-ray-radiation-scissioned CS as the carrier will possess better gene transfection efficiency than those using natural high-MW CS as the carrier. The higher the absorbed dose, the smaller the MW of CS and the better transfection efficiency of the corresponding gene vector. This work provides a green and simple method on the preparation of CS-based gene vectors with high efficiency and biosafety.     

Central configurations of the collinear three-body problem and singular surfaces in the mass space

This Letter is to provide a new approach to study the phenomena of degeneracy of the number of the collinear central configurations under geometric equivalence. A direct and simple explicit parametric expression of the singular surface H₃ is constructed in the mass space (m₁,m₂,m₃)∈³(R⁺). The construction of H₃ is from an inverse respective, that is, by specifying positions for the bodies and then determining the masses that are possible to yield a central configuration. It reveals the relationship between the phenomena of degeneracy and the inverse problem of central configurations. We prove that the number of central configurations is decreased to 3!/2−1=2, m₁, m₂, and m₃ are mutually distinct if m∈H₃. Moreover, we know not only the number of central configurations but also what the nonequivalent central configurations are.     

Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescent Polymers

The development of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on fluorescent materials has made a great progress in improving light emitting efficiency and full range colors. But it still encounters the low singlet excitons generation ratio of 25% in device. As a solution to this problem, thermally activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) materials can convert the triplet excitons to the singlet ones, thus achieve theoretically 100% exciton utilization efficiency. Up to now, the small TADF molecules have achieved great breakthrough in realizing high external quantum efficiency and full color range including blue, green, and red. While the OLED devices based on macromolecules possess the inherent advantages of simplicity and lower cost in the rapid deposition of large areas at room temperature, especially on large flexible substrates, it is still relatively difficult to realize TADF effect in macromolecules, although several reports have partially confirmed them promising candidates for practical applications. This review summarizes the recent progress in the field of TADF polymers and their device performances in OLEDs, and also gives some outlooks for the further exploration in this field at the end of this paper. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017 , 55, 575–584     

Fluorescent Triphenyl Substituted Maleimide Derivatives: Synthesis,Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Calculations

In this paper we describe a semi-empirical quantum method for predicting the wavelength of maximum fluorescence excitation and emission for several known and new maleimide derivatives. All new maleimides, containing a N-Benzyl attachment, were successfully synthesised via a tandem Suzuki reaction with aryl boronic acids containing either an electron donating, electron withdrawing functional groups. Absorption and emission spectra calculated using the semi-empirical AM1 method with excited state ZINDO calculations proved more reliable than either Hartree-Fock Configuration interaction or time dependent density functional methods. Calculated absorption and emission wavelengths were compared with 26 experimental spectra from known or newly synthesised maleimides and found to have provide reasonable predictions, with an average deviation of less the 6% for absorption maxima and less than 4% for emission peaks. The described method provides a strong benchmark for the accuracy that can be expected from theoretical predictions of fluorescence spectra.     

Encapsulation of nanocrystals with responsive gels for spatial optical identification

A tripeptide (β-AspFF) gelator was designed and synthesised using solid-phase peptide synthesis. The as-prepared gelator formed a stable and clear multi-responsive gel in toluene solution. Encapsulating the quantum dots with β-AspFF effectively increased stability and antioxidisation ability which are beneficial for optical identification.     

Effect of Injection Parameters and Addition of Nanoscale Materials on the Shrinkage of Polypropylene Copolymer

The effect of variation of injection conditions and addition of nano-calcium carbonate (CaCO₃), nano-silicon dioxide (SiO₂) and full-vulcanized nano-powdered styrene butadiene rubber (PSBR) on the shrinkage of injection-molded polypropylene-ethylene copolymer (90/10, co-PP) were investigated. The results showed that the shrinkage was different for different locations along the flow path. The shrinkage in the length direction of the injection-molded sample varied with the adjustment of the processing parameters, while the shrinkage in the width and thickness direction was almost unchanged. The addition of nano-CaCO₃ and PSBR decreased the shrinkage of co-PP, while the shrinkage of co-PP/ SiO₂ composite was almost unchanged.