Fecal Metabolic Profiling of Breast Cancer Patients during Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Reveals Potential Biomarkers

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common form of cancer among women worldwide. Despite the huge advancements in its treatment, the exact etiology of breast cancer still remains unresolved. There is an increasing interest in the role of the gut microbiome in modulating the anti-cancer therapeutic response. It seems that alteration of the microbiome-derived metabolome potentially promotes carcinogenesis. Taken together, metabolomics has arisen as a fascinating new omics field to screen promising metabolic biomarkers. In this study, fecal metabolite profiling was performed using NMR spectroscopy, to identify potential biomarker candidates that can predict response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) for breast cancer. Metabolic profiles of feces from patients (n = 8) following chemotherapy treatment cycles were studied. Interestingly, amino acids were found to be upregulated, while lactate and fumaric acid were downregulated in patients under the second and third cycles compared with patients before treatment. Furthermore, short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) were significantly differentiated between the studied groups. These results strongly suggest that chemotherapy treatment plays a key role in modulating the fecal metabolomic profile of BC patients. In conclusion, we demonstrate the feasibility of identifying specific fecal metabolic profiles reflecting biochemical changes that occur during the chemotherapy treatment. These data give an interesting insight that may complement and improve clinical tools for BC monitoring.     

Synthesis and chemistry of new spiro‐Δ1‐pyrazoline

In explorations of syntheses and chemistry of spiroheterocycles, we found that the reaction of 2‐diazopropane with (E)‐α‐arylidenepyrrolin‐2‐one, (E)‐α‐arylidene‐γ‐butyrolactone, and (E)‐arylidene‐N‐arylsuccinimide derivatives produced spiro‐Δ¹‐pyrazolines. The photolysis of Δ¹‐pyrazolines has led to cyclopropanes. The structures of the obtained adducts have been assigned by means of spectroscopic measurements. J. Heterocyclic Chem., (2011).     

The effect of activated fillers on the properties of styrene–acrylic adhesives

Results of kaolin modification by thermal activation, sonication and 3% solution of acetic acid are considered. It is shown that the introduction of thermally activated kaolin to compositions based on styrene–acrylic filming agents increases the adhesion characteristics by 1.25–1.4 times (for steel and cement–sand surfaces) and cohesive strength by 1.5–2 times.     

On the higher-order strong isochronism of Cauchy-Riemann systems with homogeneous polynomial perturbations of a linear center

We indicate the maximum order of the general and partial (with an initial polar angle) strong higher-order isochronism of Cauchy-Riemann systems with homogeneous polynomial perturbations of a linear center.     

Partial Characterization of Xylanase Produced by Caldicoprobacter algeriensis,a New Thermophilic Anaerobic Bacterium Isolated from an Algerian Hot Spring

To date, xylanases have expanded their use in many processing industries, such as pulp, paper, food, and textile. This study aimed the production and partial characterization of a thermostable xylanase from a novel thermophilic anaerobic bacterium Caldicoprobacter algeriensis strain TH7C1^T isolated from a northeast hot spring in Algeria. The obtained results showed that C. algeriensis xylanase seems not to be correlated with the biomass growth profile whereas the maximum enzyme production (140.0 U/ml) was recorded in stationary phase (18 h). The temperature and pH for optimal activities were 70 °C and 11.0, respectively. The enzyme was found to be stable at 50, 60, 70, and 80 °C, with a half-life of 10, 9, 8, and 4 h, respectively. Influence of metal ions on enzyme activity revealed that Ca⁺² enhances greatly the relative activity to 151.3 %; whereas Hg²⁺ inhibited significantly the enzyme. At the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the production of xylanase by the thermophilic bacterium C. algeriensis. This thermo- and alkaline-tolerant xylanase could be used in pulp bleaching process.     

An inverse gas chromatographic characterization of polypyrrole-coated poly(vinyl chloride) powder particles

Polypyrrole-coated poly(vinyl chloride) powder particles (PPy-PVC) were prepared by the in-situ chemical polymerization of pyrrole in aqueous solutions in the presence of PVC powder particles using the method of Ouyang and Chan [Polymer 39 (1998) 1857] and characterized by inverse gas chromatography (IGC). By employing n-alkane, 1-heptene, chloroform and tetrahydrofuran molecular probes, the dispersive and acid–base components of the surface energy of the composite materials were estimated at infinite dilution. The values of the dispersive contribution to the surface energy (γ_S^d), at 50 °C, range from 30.3 to 43.5 mJ/m² for the composites, which is much lower than the value of 83.2 mJ/m² obtained for para-toluene sulfonate-doped polypyrrole (PPyTS) bulk powder. This indicates that the injected molecules probe both polypyrrole and the underlying PVC, thus indicating that the conducting polymer is rather patchy at the surface of the insulating polymer substrate. This conclusion supports the previous results obtained by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) [19], indicating that both the coating PPyTS and the substrate PVC are detected by their elemental markers nitrogen and sulfur, and chlorine, respectively.     

New materials derivatives of tetrathiapentalene functionalized by amide groups: Synthesis,characterization, and electrical study

A new series of bis-fused tetrathiafulvalene containing functional groups was synthesized. The synthesis was carried out by using routes involving cross coupling, reduction, and oxidation reactions. The identity of these new donors is confirmed by ¹ Wudl, F.; Smith, G. M.; Hufnagel, E. J. J. Chem. Soc. Chem. Commun. 1970, 21, 1453-1454.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar] H NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and elemental analysis. We have used the cyclic voltammetry in order to determine the character π-donors of these molecules and to verify the reversibility of the redox process involved. Molecular orbital diagram has been calculated using density-functional calculations. Charge transfer complexes with tetracyanoquinodimethane (TNQ) were prepared by chemical redox reactions.     

Recovering boundary data: The Cauchy Stokes system

This paper is concerned with the severely ill-posed Cauchy–Stokes problem. We are interested in a data completion problem which is exploited to detect small leaks to control water loss Kim et al. (2008) [1]. This inverse problem is rephrased into an optimization one: An energy-like error functional is introduced. We prove that the optimality condition of the first order is equivalent to solving an interfacial equation which turns out to be a Cauchy-Steklov-Poincaré operator. Numerical trials highlight the efficiency of the method.     

Efficient Synthesis of Chiral 1,1′‐Sulfonyl Bisaziridines

An efficient three‐step synthesis of chiral 1,1′‐(sulfonyl)bisaziridines is described. Preparation of these compounds was carried out easily starting from N,N′‐sulfonyl bis‐(α‐L‐aminoester) to afford the title compounds in very good yields. These 1,1′‐(sulfonyl)bisaziridines can constitute interesting synthetic building blocks.