Piperazine-based buffers for liposome coating of capillaries for electrophoresis

Anionic liposomes can be coated on fused-silica capillaries for electrophoresis in the presence of N-(hydroxyethyl)piperazine-N'-(2-ethanesulfonic acid) (HEPES) as background electrolyte (BGE) solution. In this work, the interaction of various compounds with zwitterionic and anionic phospholipid coatings was studied with HEPES at pH 7.4 as BGE solution. The chromatographic and electrophoretic behavior of three test sample solutions (anionic, cationic, and neutral) was investigated for evaluation of the phospholipid coatings. Our results show that hydrophobic interactions between analytes and the phospholipid coating are important for the migration of charged analytes. In addition, the performances of other piperazine-based buffers, i.e., N-(2-hydroxyethyl)piperazine-N'-(2-hydroxypropanesulfonic acid), piperazine-N,N'-bis(2-ethanesulfonic acid), and piperazine-N,N'-bis(hydroxypropane sulfonic acid), at pH 7.4, as liposome solvent and BGE solution were evaluated and compared with the performance of HEPES at pH 7.4. The anionic liposome solution comprised 80/20 mol% phosphatidylcholine/phosphatidylserine. A simple test solution was selected and the chromatographic and electrophoretic migration behavior of the analytes was evaluated. The results show that, in addition to HEPES, other piperazine-based buffers at pH 7.4 are suitable for coating of fused-silica capillaries with anionic liposomes.     

Enthalpies of Lyotropic Liquid Crystalline Phases. : 2. The Partial Molar Enthalpies of the Lamellar and Hexagonal Phases in the System N-Pentanol-Sodium N-Octanoate-Water

The relative partial molar enthalpies of the components in the system N-pentanol-sodium N-octanoate-water (C₅OH-NaC₈-H₂O) have been determined in the lamellar (D-) and hexagonal (E-) liquid crystalline phases formed in this system at 25°C. The enthalpies are correlated with Bragg spacings and earlier nmr studies. They indicate that (a) the minimum amount of water needed to hydrate the polar groups limits the region of existence of both D- and E-phase towards low water contents, (b) the interaction between -OH and -COO is especially important in stabilizing the D-phase containing large amounts of water, (c) the Bragg spacings and the enthalpies both change their concentration dependence markedly when the maximum amount of water that can be bound by primary hydration of the polar groups and the counter ions in the D-phase is exceeded, (d) enthalpies of transition from one phase to another are small compared to enthalpy changes with composition within the phases; the same holds for Bragg spacings. Hence, the composition of the sample (above all, the mole fraction of NaC₈) is more important than the phase structure in determining these properties. It is obvious that further studies of enthalpies in similar systems can give important information on the factors governing phase stabilities and structural changes within the phases.     

A Microfluidic Co-Flow Route for Human Serum Albumin-Drug–Nanoparticle Assembly

Nanoparticles are widely studied as carrier vehicles in biological systems because their size readily allows access through cellular membranes. Moreover, they have the potential to carry cargo molecules and as such, these factors make them especially attractive for intravenous drug delivery purposes. Interest in protein-based nanoparticles has recently gained attraction due to particle biocompatibility and lack of toxicity. However, the production of homogeneous protein nanoparticles with high encapsulation efficiencies, without the need for additional cross-linking or further engineering of the molecule, remains challenging. Herein, we present a microfluidic 3D co-flow device to generate human serum albumin/celastrol nanoparticles by co-flowing an aqueous protein solution with celastrol in ethanol. This microscale co-flow method resulted in the formation of nanoparticles with a homogeneous size distribution and an average size, which could be tuned from ≈100 nm to 1 μm by modulating the flow rates used. We show that the high stability of the particles stems from the covalent cross-linking of the naturally present cysteine residues within the particles formed during the assembly step. By choosing optimal flow rates during synthesis an encapsulation efficiency of 75±24 % was achieved. Finally, we show that this approach achieves significantly enhanced solubility of celastrol in the aqueous phase and, crucially, reduced cellular toxicity.     

Os(VIII)-catalysed oxidation of sulfides by sodium salt of N-chlorobenzenesulfonamide

Catalytic activity of Os(VIII) in the oxidation of some twenty organic sulfides with sodium salt of N-chlorobenzenesulfonamide (CAB) has been investigated in alkaline (pH8.7) t-butanol–water (1:1 v/v) medium. Significant retarding influence of [OH⁻] on the reactivity is exhibited. The catalysed reaction is strongly accelerated in the presence of Hg(II). Imperfections are observed in the linear Hammett relationship in the case of –NO₂ substituents.     

High molar mass ethene/1‐olefin copolymers synthesized with acenaphthyl substituted metallocene catalysts

The influence of ligand structure on copolymerization properties of metallocene catalysts was elucidated with three C₁‐symmetric methylalumoxane (MAO) activated zirconocene dichlorides, ethylene(1‐(7, 9)‐diphenylcyclopenta‐[a]‐acenaphthadienyl‐2‐phenyl‐2‐cyclopentadienyl)ZrCl₂ ( 1 ), ethylene(1‐(7, 9)‐diphenylcyclopenta‐[a]‐acenaphthadienyl‐2‐phenyl‐2‐fluorenyl)ZrCl₂ ( 2 ), and ethylene(1‐(9)‐fluorenyl‐(R)1‐phenyl‐2‐(1‐indenyl)ZrCl2 ( 3 ). Polyethenes produced with 1 /MAO had considerable, ca. 10% amount of trans‐vinylene end groups, resulting from the chain end isomerization prior to the chain termination. When ethene was copolymerized with 1‐hexene or 1‐hexadecene using 1 /MAO, molar mass of the copolymers varied from high to moderate (531–116 kg/mol) depending on the comonomer feed. At 50% comonomer feed, ethene/1‐olefin copolymers with high hexene or hexadecene content (around 10%) were achievable. In the series of catalysts, polyethenes with highest molar mass, up to 985 kg/mol, were obtained with sterically most crowded 2 /MAO, but the catalyst was only moderately active to copolymerize higher olefins. Catalyst 3 /MAO produced polyethenes with extremely small amounts of trans‐vinylene end groups and relatively low molar mass 1‐hexene copolymers (from 157 to 38 kg/mol) with similar comonomer content as 1 . These results indicate that the catalyst structure, which favors chain end isomerization, is also capable to produce high molar mass 1‐olefin copolymers with high comonomer content. In addition, an exceptionally strong synergetic effect of the comonomer on the polymerization activity was observed with catalyst 3 /MAO. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 373–382, 2008     

Time-dependent density functional approach for the calculation of inelastic x-ray scattering spectra of molecules

We apply time-dependent density functional theory to study the valence electron excitations of molecules and generalize the typically used time-propagation scheme and Casida's method to calculate the full wavevector dependent response function. This allows the computational study of dipole-forbidden valence electron transitions and the dispersion of spectral weight as a function of the wavevector. The method provides a novel analysis tool for spectroscopic methods such as inelastic x-ray scattering and electron energy loss spectroscopy. We present results for benzene and CF(3)Cl and make a comparison with experimental results.