Tetramethylguanidinium‐polyallylamine (Tmg‐PA): A new class of nonviral vector for efficient gene transfection

Highly toxic polyallylamine (PA) was reacted with a varying amount of a novel linker, 6‐(N,N,N′,N′‐tetramethylguanidinium chloride) hexanoic acid (Tmg‐HA), to prepare a series of tetramethylguanidinium‐PA (Tmg‐PA) polymers, which were used as vectors for gene transfection. The extent of attachment of the linker, Tmg‐HA, to the PA backbone was determined by 2,4,6‐trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid assay. The modified polymers (Tmg‐PAs), when complexed with pDNA, exhibited good condensation ability. The nanoparticles, so formed, were characterized by their size and zeta potential and were subsequently evaluated for their toxicity and transfection ability on various mammalian cells, viz., HeLa, CHO, and HEK 293 cells. Mobility shift assay revealed that on increasing the percent substitution of Tmg‐HA onto PA (from Tmg‐PA1 to Tmg‐PA6), relatively higher amounts of modified polymers were required to retard the mobility of a fixed amount of DNA. Besides, Tmg‐PA polymers provided sufficient protection (ca. 84–88%) to bound DNA against nucleases and one of the formulations, Tmg‐PA2 (ca. 15% substitution) displayed the highest transfection efficiency outcompeting the commercial transfection reagent, Lipofectamine? with minimal cytotoxicity. More impressively, the transfection efficiency increased despite recording a decrease in the buffering capacity of the grafted polymers suggesting that buffering capacity is not the sole parameter in determining the gene delivery efficiency of a vector system. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012     

Imidazole derivatives as the organic precursor of ZnO nano particle

N₁-Hydroxy-2,4,5-trisubstituted imidazoles were synthesized starting from 1,2-diketones. The crystal structure of 4,5-dimethyl-2-(3-nitrophenyl)-1H-imidazol-1-ol has been determined. An unusual intermolecular hydrogen bonding through the association of water molecule has been reported. These imidazole derivatives can be thought of as the organic precursor for the synthesis of zinc oxide nano particles.     

Characterization and photoluminescence properties of some MLn2(1−x)O4:2xEu or 2xTb systems (M=Ba or Sr, Ln=Gd or La)

BaGd₂O₄, BaLa₂O₄ and SrLa₂O₄ powders doped with different concentrations of Eu³⁺ or Tb³⁺ are prepared by combustion synthesis method and the samples were further heated to 500, 700 and 900 °C to improve the crystallinity of the materials. The structure and morphology of materials have been examined by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. It is remarkable that all the samples of BaGd₂O₄, BaLa₂O₄ and SrLa₂O₄ have similar morphology. The SEM images show homogeneous aggregates of varying shapes and sizes, which are composed of a large number of small elliptical shaped crystallites with an average diameter of about 0.5-3.0 μm. Photoluminescence for all materials increases with increase of temperature and shows a maximum for the samples heated to 900 °C with 4 mole% doping of Eu³⁺ or Tb³⁺ ions. The luminescence is almost same for all powders when doped with same concentration of Eu³⁺.     

Catalyst electronic polarizability and enantiomeric excess in asymmetric hydrogenation

In the classical rhodium-diphosphine complexes-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of enamide substrates, examination on the role of catalyst electronic polarizability in the origin of enantioselectivity reveals its linear free energy relationship with the product enantiomeric ratio that is much more pronounced than analogous correlation with steric effect in the same systems. From a conceptually novel scenario, this work suggests that the often-overlooked chiral catalyst local polarizability property may function as a controlling force in enantioselection thus has important implication in rational catalyst design.     

Optimal Eighth Order Iterative Methods

We develop an eighth order family of methods, consisting of three steps and three parameters, for solving nonlinear equations. Per iteration the methods require four evaluations (three function evaluations and one evaluation of the first derivative). Convergence analysis shows that the family is eighth-order convergent which is also substantiated through the numerical work. Computational results ascertain that family of methods are efficient and demonstrate equal or better performance as compared with other well known methods.     

Homotopy analysis Sumudu transform method for time—fractional third order dispersive partial differential equation

In this article, we apply the newly introduced numerical method which is a combination of Sumudu transforms and Homotopy analysis method for the solution of time fractional third order dispersive type PDE equations. It is also discussed generalized algorithm, absolute convergence and analytic result of the finite number of independent variables including time variable.     

Stereoselective and facile total synthesis of (+)-goniodiol,a styryllactone from carbohydrates

The stereoselective synthesis of (+)-goniodiol, a cytotoxic styryllactone, has been accomplished in 10 steps starting from inexpensive and readily available d-manitol and δ-gluconolactone involving the direct and straightforward reaction conditions of Grignard addition, chain elongation, and hydroboration, thus making the synthesis simple and convenient.