Potent Anticancer Efficacy of First-In-Class CuII and AuIII Metaled Phosphorus Dendrons with Distinct Cell Death Pathways

First-in-class Cu^II and Au^III metaled phosphorus dendrons were synthesized and showed significant antiproliferative activity against several aggressive breast cancer cell lines. The data suggest that the cytotoxicity increases with reducing length of the alkyl chains, whereas the replacement of Cu^II with Au^III considerably increases the antiproliferative activity of metaled phosphorus dendrons. Very interestingly, we found that the cell death pathway is related to the nature of the metal complexed by the plain dendrons. Cu^II metaled dendrons showed a potent caspase-independent cell death pathway, whereas Au^III metaled dendrons displayed a caspase-dependent apoptotic pathway. The complexation of plain dendrons with Au^III increased the cellular lethality versus dendrons with Cu^II and promoted the translocation of Bax into the mitochondria and the release of Cytochrome C (Cyto C).     

Central neurocytoma: typical magnetic resonance spectroscopy findings and atypical ventricular dissemination

PURPOSE: Central neurocytomas (CNCs) are rare neuronal tumors that have a favorable prognosis and lower rate of recurrence compared with other intraventricular neoplasms. Although it may be difficult to distinguish CNC on conventional neuroimaging, typical MR spectroscopy (MRS) features have been reported. We describe the MRI and MRS features of CNC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eight patients with CNC were reviewed. Three patients underwent presurgical in vivo single-voxel MRS at short echo time (TE, 35 ms) and multi-voxel MR spectroscopic imaging at long TE (144 ms). The surgically resected tumor specimen of one of these patients was also studied ex vivo using high-resolution magic angle spinning (HRMAS) nuclear magnetic resonance. RESULTS: All eight tumors were located in the lateral ventricles. In six patients, CNC extended into the third ventricle, and in two patients the tumor showed further contiguous intraventricular dissemination into the fourth ventricle. In all three patients who underwent MRS, a characteristic metabolite peak was detected at 3.55 parts per million (ppm) at both long and short TE. HRMAS confirmed the presence of elevated glycine (Gly) at 3.55 ppm, without increase in the concentration of myo-inositol found at the same chemical shift. Elevated choline (at 3.2 ppm) was also seen in all three patients. CONCLUSION: On MRS, CNCs have a typical appearance with a metabolite peak at 3.55 ppm due to increased Gly, and this feature may be helpful in presurgical diagnosis. Although they are rare benign intraventricular tumors, in atypical cases, CNCs can show extensive intraventricular dissemination into the fourth ventricle.     

照相光谱增感染料在溴化银沉淀表面的吸附及吸附热测量

用离心分离法得到25℃菁染料Ⅱ和Ⅲ分别在几种溶剂的溴化银分散系中的吸附等温线;记录了染料溶液的吸收光谱和吸附态染料的反射光谱。采用精密量热技术得到25±0.01℃溴化银从DMF-水溶液中吸附染料Ⅱ等位摩尔吸附热为-(3.18±0.09)KJ/mol(θ=0.87)。还对从DMF溶液中吸附染料Ⅱ的体系绘制了以单位溴化银表面的吸附热表示的吸附等温线,表明用精密量热技术可以研究染料的吸附过程。     

The degree of charge transfer in ground and charge-separated states revealed by ultrafast visible pump/mid-IR probe spectroscopy

We demonstrate a new femtosecond visible pump/mid-IR probe spectroscopic approach to assess directly the ground- and excited-state degrees of charge transfer (CT) in donor-spacer-acceptor (D-Sp-A) structures. Two classes of (porphinato)zinc(II) (PZn)-based D-Sp-A compounds with either quinonyl (Q) or N-(N'-octyl)pyromellitic diimide (PI) electron acceptors were interrogated. Carbonyl antisymmetric stretching mode frequency domain transient-IR spectra of these species were recorded and analyzed for the Q/PI moieties. These data show that the acceptor mode frequency shift, DeltanuA, determined by this method provides a more accurate measure of the degree of CT in ground and charge-separated states relative to other techniques which rely on the ground-state frequency shift alone. This approach enables determination of new experimental benchmarks to test the power of complimentary computational methods and provides a means to probe the degree of CT in transitions that either overlap strongly with other bands or possess low oscillator strength.     

A facile pollutant-free approach toward a series of nutritionally effective calcium phosphate nanomaterials for food and drink additives

Micronutrient malnutrition is widespread and constitutes one of the main nutritional problems worldwide. Vitamins, amino acids, carbohydrates and Ca-phosphate (CaP) minerals are important to human health and disease prevention. Herein we developed a simple wet-chemical method to prepare multinary nutrients-containing CaP nanomaterials in diluted apple, orange, and grape juices. The scanning electron microscopy observation shows that these nanomaterials are short plate-like CaP nanocrystals of ~500 nm in length. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, nitrogen adsorption, thermogravimetric analyses confirm the different specific surface area and organic nutrient contents. The Fourier transform infrared and X-ray diffraction analyses indicate there exist similar organic groups (i.e., COO⁻, HN-CO) but different CaP species in the precipitates. The dissolution test in vitro simulated stomach juice pH condition indicates that these inorganic–organic nanohybrid materials are multidoped by micronutrients (such as Zn, Sr, Mg, K, vitamin c) and can be readily dissolved in the weak acidic aqueous solutions. This highly efficient utilization of fruit juice to produce CaP-based micronutrient composites may minimize the adverse side effect, so that the nanomaterials are promising as functional food/drink additives. Thus, this novel approach is environmentally and biologically friendly to produce edible nutrients while production cost is attained.     

Ex-vivo NMR of unprocessed tissue in water: a simplified procedure for studying intracranial neoplasms

Ex-vivo and in-vitro nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy techniques have been used for studying chemical metabolites in surgically resected specimens of human neoplasms, and may provide complementary information to in-vivo whole-body magnetic-resonance spectroscopy (MRS). We describe an ex-vivo NMR in water method for measurement of water-soluble metabolites in unprocessed normal rat brain tissue and human intracranial neoplasms. The NMR spectra obtained using the method described here were comparable to those obtained using high-resolution magic-angle spinning (HRMAS) NMR methods, with good correlation in metabolite concentrations relative to creatine (r ² = 0.7635). Improved spectral resolution and baseline were noted compared to HRMAS, but macromolecule resonances were not detected. Ex-vivo NMR of unprocessed tissue in water is rapid and technically simple to perform, and has the potential to be used for direct assessment of intracranial neoplasms.     

Two new diterpenoids from the buds of Wikstroemia chamaedaphne

Two new diterpenoids, wikstroelide Q (1) and prostratin Q (5), together with three known diterpenoids, pimelea factors P? (2), P? (3), and prostratin (4), and five known lignans, (+)-epipioresinol (6), (+)-isolariciresinol (7), (?)-lariciresinol (8), (+)-epi-sesaminone (9), and prestegane B (10), were isolated from the buds of Wikstroemia chamaedaphne Meissn. Their structures were elucidated by a combination of spectroscopic analyses. Compounds 1–10 were evaluated for their cytotoxicities against HL-60, SMMC-7721, A549, MCF-7, SW480, and BEAS-2B cell lines in vitro.     

金纳米粒子单层膜表面SPR催化反应的原位SERS研究

表面增强拉曼散射（SERS）基底的活性和均匀性是其SERS应用研究的关键,通过气-液两相界面自发组装的方式及控制组装的时间可制备致密性不同的金纳米粒子单层膜（Au MLF）.由于疏松和致密基底表面的LSPR产生的方式和强度不同导致SERS增强效应和均匀性两者无法同时兼顾,通常得到局域表面等离激元共振（SERS）增强性能及表面等离激元共振（SPR）催化性能优异但均匀性欠佳的疏松基底,或SERS增强性能与SPR催化性能中等但均匀性优越的致密基底.研究表明SERS增强效应的提高与粒子密度增加和“热点”活性增加有关,而SPR催化转化率仅与“热点”活性有关.本文以致密的Au MLF为基底,以对巯基苯胺（PATP）和对巯基苯甲酸（MBA）为探针分子系统研究了激光功率对SPR催化反应效率的影响,研究发现激光功率提高可显著提升PATP偶联反应及MBA脱羧反应的转化率.同时发现后者脱羧反应的速率与激光功率平方的倒数成线性关系,为相关表面过程的动力学参数测定提供了新的途径.