Cytoprotective Potential of Aged Garlic Extract (AGE) and Its Active Constituent,S-allyl-l-cysteine,in Presence of Carvedilol during Isoproterenol-Induced Myocardial Disturbance and Metabolic Derangements in Rats

This study was conducted to determine the potential interaction of aged garlic extract (AGE) with carvedilol (CAR), as well as to investigate the role of S-allyl-l-cysteine (SAC), an active constituent of AGE, in rats with isoproterenol (ISO)-induced myocardial dysfunction. At the end of three weeks of treatment with AGE (2 and 5 mL/kg) or SAC (13.1 and 32.76 mg/kg), either alone or along with CAR (10 mg/kg) in the respective groups of animals, ISO was administered subcutaneously to induce myocardial damage. Myocardial infarction (MI) diagnostic predictor enzymes, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and creatinine kinase (CK-MB), were measured in both serum and heart tissue homogenates (HTH). Superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, and thiobarbituric acid reactive species (TBARS) were estimated in HTH. When compared with other groups, the combined therapy of high doses of AGE and SAC given alone or together with CAR caused a significant decrease in serum LDH and CK-MB activities. Further, significant rise in the LDH and CK-MB activities in HTH was noticed in the combined groups of AGE and SAC with CAR. It was also observed that both doses of AGE and SAC significantly increased endogenous antioxidants in HTH. Furthermore, histopathological observations corroborated the biochemical findings. The cytoprotective potential of SAC and AGE were dose-dependent, and SAC was more potent than AGE. The protection offered by aged garlic may be attributed to SAC. Overall, the results indicated that a high dose of AGE and its constituent SAC, when combined with carvedilol, has a synergistic effect in preventing morphological and physiological changes in the myocardium during ISO-induced myocardial damage.     

Analysis of Mercury in Skin Lightening Cream by Microwave Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (MP-AES)

This research aimed at developing an analysis method, which was optimized and validated to determine the content of mercury in skin lightening cream discovered in the market in Bandar Lampung, Indonesia, through the use of microwave plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (MP-AES). The optimization on the analysis method was conducted on pump rate, viewing position, and reductant concentration in order to obtain the highest mercury emission intensity, while the solution stability was optimized to know the stability of mercury in the solution. The result showed that the method developed had precision with a relative standard deviation of 2.67%, recovery value of 92.78%, and linearity with an r value of 0.993, respectively. The sensitivity of the instrument detection had a limit of analysis method detection and quantification of 0.59 and 1.98 µg/L, respectively. The results of the test of the lightening cream (8 of 16 samples) positively contained mercury in the range of 422.61–44,960.79 ng/g. Therefore the method of analysis developed may be used for routine analysis of chemicals in any cosmetics products.     

A Caputo–Fabrizio Fractional-Order Model of HIV/AIDS with a Treatment Compartment: Sensitivity Analysis and Optimal Control Strategies

Although most of the early research studies on fractional-order systems were based on the Caputo or Riemann–Liouville fractional-order derivatives, it has recently been proven that these methods have some drawbacks. For instance, kernels of these methods have a singularity that occurs at the endpoint of an interval of definition. Thus, to overcome this issue, several new definitions of fractional derivatives have been introduced. The Caputo–Fabrizio fractional order is one of these nonsingular definitions. This paper is concerned with the analyses and design of an optimal control strategy for a Caputo–Fabrizio fractional-order model of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The Caputo–Fabrizio fractional-order model of HIV/AIDS is considered to prevent the singularity problem, which is a real concern in the modeling of real-world systems and phenomena. Firstly, in order to find out how the population of each compartment can be controlled, sensitivity analyses were conducted. Based on the sensitivity analyses, the most effective agents in disease transmission and prevalence were selected as control inputs. In this way, a modified Caputo–Fabrizio fractional-order model of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is proposed. By changing the contact rate of susceptible and infectious people, the atraumatic restorative treatment rate of the treated compartment individuals, and the sexual habits of susceptible people, optimal control was designed. Lastly, simulation results that demonstrate the appropriate performance of the Caputo–Fabrizio fractional-order model and proposed control scheme are illustrated.     

Unique cascade ring-opening/cyclization reaction of azlactones and DBU or DBN: Synthesis of new pyrrolam A analogues

1-Azabicyclo[3.3.0]oct-3-en-2-one derivatives were synthesized efficiently through the facile cascade reaction of 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) or 1,5-diazabicyclo[4.3.0]non-5-ene (DBN) with arylidene azlactones. This research provides a straightforward procedure for the synthesis of a novel class of multicyclic semi-alkaloids which shows good antimicrobial activity. Under catalyst-free, mild, and solventless condition, a wide range of fused tricyclic derivatives was obtained in high yields.     

Reactions of cisplatin hydrolytes, cis-[Pt(15NH3)2(H2O) 2]2+, with N-acetyl-L-cysteine

The reaction of cis-[Pt(¹⁵NH₃)2(H₂O) ₂] ²⁺ (3) with N-acetylcysteine [H₃accys] was investigated in aqueous solution. In this reaction, the ammine in the platinum complex formed was liberated. A mono-dentate sulfur-boundplatinum(II) product cis-[Pt(¹⁵NH₃)₂(H₂O)(H2accys-S)]⁺ (7) and six-membered che-late ring complex cis-[Pt(¹⁵NH₃)₂ (Haccys-S,O)] (8) were formed in solution. The dinuclear sulfur-bridged complex 9, giving a broad peak in ¹⁵N NMR, was also observed, but only present in very tiny amounts. The mass spectrometry (ES-MS) was undertaken from this re action, and the product detected was only the dinuclear sulfur bridged platinum species and species related to it by ammine loss.     

Enantioselective synthesis of bicylco[3.2.1]octan-8-ones using a tandem Michael-Henry reaction

Bicyclo[3.2.1]octan-8-ones have been prepared from a tandem Michael-Henry reaction between cyclohexane-1,2-diones and nitroalkenes using a quinine-derived thiourea as the catalyst. Although four stereogenic centers were created during the reaction, only two diastereomers were obtained in good diastereoselectivity and high enantioselectivity (92-99% ee). When 3-methylcyclohexane-1,2-dione (R¹=Me) was used as the substrate, only the regioisomeric product of the corresponding thermodynamic enolate was obtained.     

Design and synthesis of a new series of amphiphilic peptide-β-cyclodextrins as phase transfer carriers for glucosamine

A new series of amphiphilic β-cyclodextrins were designed and synthesized by grafting peptide chains on to all primary hydroxyl groups via ester bond formation. The desired amphiphilic structures have been produced from ester connection between the C-6 of β-cyclodextrin and the carboxyl group of N-acetylated resides: H₂N-Leu-COOH, H₂N-Leu-Gly-COOH, H₂N-Leu-Gly-Leu-COOH, and H₂N-Leu-Gly-Leu-Gly-COOH (3a-d). The synthetic pathway involves selective bromination of all primary hydroxyls of β-cyclodextrins and then substitution with the carboxylate moiety of the mentioned N-acetyl residues in the presence of DBU (1,8-diazabicyclo[5,4,0]undec-7-ene). The ability of the synthetic compounds for extraction and phase transfer of glucosamine, as a hydrophilic organic compound, was then studied. The results showed a considerable ability of these amphiphilic compounds for extraction and a selective tendency of 3c for phase transfer of glucosamine.     

Palladium-catalyzed asymmetric allylic alkylation (AAA) with alkyl sulfones as nucleophiles

An efficient palladium-catalyzed AAA reaction with a simple α-sulfonyl carbon anion as nucleophiles is presented for the first time. Allyl fluorides are used as superior precursors for the generation of π-allyl complexes that upon ionization liberate fluoride anions for activation of silylated nucleophiles. With the unique bidentate diamidophosphite ligand ligated palladium as catalyst, the in situ generated α-sulfonyl carbon anion was quickly captured by the allylic intermediates, affording a series of chiral homo-allylic sulfones with high efficiency and selectivity. This work provides a mild in situ desilylation strategy to reveal nucleophilic carbon centers that could be used to overcome the pK_a limitation of “hard” nucleophiles in enantioselective transformations.

A variety of “hard” α-sulfonyl carbanions of aryl, heteroaryl and alkyl sulfones were successfully employed as nucleophiles in palladium-catalyzed asymmetric allylic alkylation with excellent enantioselectivities.     

Efficient visible-light-induced photocatalytic degradation of MO on the Cr-nanocrystalline titania-S

In order to improve visible light photocatalytic activities of the nanometer TiO₂, a novel and efficient Cr,S-codoped TiO₂ (Cr-TiO₂-S) photocatalyst was prepared by precipitation-doping method. The crystalline structure, morphology, particle size, and chemical structure of Cr-TiO₂-S were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) techniques, respectively. Results indicate that the doping of Cr and S, cause absorption edge shifts to the visible light region (λ > 420 nm) compare to the pure TiO₂, reduces average size of the TiO₂ crystallites, enhances desired lattice distortion of Ti, promotes separation of photo-induced electron and hole pair, and thus improves pollutant decomposition under visible light irradiation. The photocatalytic activities of Cr-TiO₂-S nanoparticles were evaluated using the photodegradation of methyl orange (MO) as probe reaction under the irradiation of UV and visible light and it was observed that the Cr-TiO₂-S photocatalyst shows higher visible photocatalytic activity than the pure TiO₂. The optimal Cr-TiO₂-S concentration to obtain the highest photocatalytic activity was 5 mol% for both of Cr and S.     

Strong and Weak Solutions to Second Order Differential Inclusions Governed by Monotone Operators

In this paper we introduce the concept of a weak solution for second order differential inclusions of the form u″(t) ∈ Au(t) + f(t), where A is a maximal monotone operator in a Hilbert space H. We prove existence and uniqueness of weak solutions to two point boundary value problems associated with such kind of equations. Furthermore, existence of (strong and weak) solutions to the equation above which are bounded on the positive half axis is proved under the optimal condition tf(t) ∈ L ¹(0, ∞; H), thus solving a long-standing open problem (for details, see our comments in Section 3 of the paper). Our treatment regarding weak solutions is similar to the corresponding theory related to the first order differential inclusions of the form f(t) ∈ u′(t) + Au(t) which has already been well developed.