Direct synthesis of Poly(Ԑ-Caprolactone)-block-poly (glycidyl methacrylate) copolymer and its usage as a potential nano micelles carrier for hydrophobic drugs

Ring-opening (ROP) and enzymatic copolymerization (ECP) are among the most widely used approaches for synthesizing copolymers of polycaprolactone (PCL). It involves multiple-step reactions and the utilization of enzymes that make the process a lot more complicated, time consuming, and expensive. Atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) has been adopted to synthesize a novel amphiphilic copolymer in our study. The study presents a method to eliminate the ROP/ECP multiple steps in monomer polymerization thus making the process simpler and smoother. The synthesis of cationic polymer micelles copolymer of PCL-PGMA (polycaprolactone grafted poly glycidyl methacrylate) was carried out using direct functionalization of hydroxy group in crude PCL to achieve a higher degree of functionalization, i.e., 12.8% for macroinitiator. FTIR and ¹H-NMR confirmed the successful synthesis of the copolymer with better control over the molecular weight with a PDI (1.84). DSC and XRD results showed the reduction of crystallinity by 86.81%, making copolymer more compatible for drug delivery application. The synthesized copolymer was further converted to nano-micelles drug carrier having an average size of 96.08 ± 21.22 nm. The drug encapsulation efficiency achieved was 60.0 ± 1.7%, and nano-micelles rendered a slow and controlled release of naproxen with long-term storage stability.     

Synthesis of Peptide Cysteine Dimedone Using Fmoc-Cys(Dmd)-OH: Glutathione Cysteine Dimedone as a Probe in Investigating the Sulfenic Acid Mediated Oxidation of Glutathione

Dimedone is the most widely used chemical probe for detection of cysteine sulfenic acid in peptides and proteins. The reaction of dimedone with cysteine sulfenic acid results in the formation of unique cysteine dimedone motif containing thioether bridge. Based on the structure of cysteine dimedone residue in polypeptide, a new building block of Fmoc-Cys(Dmd)-OH was developed for solid phase synthesis of peptide cysteine dimedone. Mass spectrometric sequencing of synthetic peptides have confirmed successful incorporation of cysteine dimedone in peptide chain using HBTU/HOBt as a coupling agent. The new method permits synthesis of peptides containing both cysteine thiol and cysteine dimedone in the same sequence which was difficult to achieve by conventional methods. The synthetic peptide of glutathione cysteine dimedone was used as a standard in probing the air-mediated oxidation of thiol to disulfide form of glutathione. The co-elution of standard peptide and reaction mixture of oxidation of glutathione in presence of dimedone using RP-HPLC have confirmed the formation of glutathione cysteine sulfenic as an intermediate in the air-mediated oxidation of glutathione. The synthetic peptides of cysteine dimedone may find application in the field of redox proteomics and generation of antibodies against modified cysteine residue.     

Metformin and glitazones: does similarity in biomolecular mechanism originate from tautomerism in these drugs?

This theoretical study attempts to find out similarity between metformin and glitazone class of antidiabetic drugs. It was found that some tautomeric forms of both metformin and thiazolidinedione ring of glitazones have similar molecular electrostatic potential (MESP) surface and may bind to a common complementary surface. Complexation and docking studies were also carried out in order to support this hypothesis. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Higher-Order $(F,\alpha, \beta, \rho, d, E) $-Convexity in Fractional Programming

In this paper we define higher order $(F,\alpha, \beta, \rho,d, E)$-convex function with respect to $E$-differentiable function $K$ and obtain optimality conditions for nonlinear programming problem (NP) from the concept of higher order $(F,\alpha, \beta, \rho,d)$-convexity. Here, we establish Mond-Weir and Wolfe duality for (NP) and utilize these duality in nonlinear fractional programming problem.     

Radiolabeled Nanogels for Nuclear Molecular Imaging

An efficient and simple synthesis approach to form stable ⁶⁸Ga‐labeled nanogels is reported and their fundamental properties investigated. Nanogels are obtained by self‐assembly of amphiphilic statistical prepolymers derivatised with chelating groups for radiometals. The resulting nanogels exhibit a well‐defined spherical shape with a diameter of 290 ± 50 nm. The radionuclide ⁶⁸Ga is chelated in high radiochemical yields in an aqueous medium at room temperature. The phagocytosis assay demonstrates a highly increased internalization of nanogels by activated macrophages. Access to these ⁶⁸Ga‐nanogels will allow the investigation of general behavior and clearance pathways of nanogels in vivo by nuclear molecular imaging.

     

Metabolite assignment of ultrafiltered synovial fluid extracted from knee joints of reactive arthritis patients using high resolution NMR spectroscopy

Currently, there are no reliable biomarkers available that can aid early differential diagnosis of reactive arthritis (ReA) from other inflammatory joint diseases. Metabolic profiling of synovial fluid (SF)—obtained from joints affected in ReA—holds great promise in this regard and will further aid monitoring treatment and improving our understanding about disease mechanism. As a first step in this direction, we report here the metabolite specific assignment of ¹H and ¹³C resonances detected in the NMR spectra of SF samples extracted from human patients with established ReA. The metabolite characterization has been carried out on both normal and ultrafiltered (deproteinized) SF samples of eight ReA patients (n = 8) using high-resolution (800 MHz) ¹H and ¹H─¹³C NMR spectroscopy methods such as one-dimensional ¹H CPMG and two-dimensional J-resolved¹H NMR and homonuclear ¹H─¹H TOCSY and heteronuclear¹H─¹³C HSQC correlation spectra. Compared with normal SF samples, several distinctive ¹H NMR signals were identified and assigned to metabolites in the ¹H NMR spectra of ultrafiltered SF samples. Overall, we assigned 53 metabolites in normal filtered SF and 64 metabolites in filtered pooled SF sample compared with nonfiltered SF samples for which only 48 metabolites (including lipid/membrane metabolites as well) have been identified. The established NMR characterization of SF metabolites will serve to guide future metabolomics studies aiming to identify/evaluate the SF-based metabolic biomarkers of diagnostic/prognostic potential or seeking biochemical insights into disease mechanisms in a clinical perspective.     

The effect of laser beam size in a zig-zag collimator on transverse cooling of a krypton atomic beam

The effect of size of a cooling laser beam in a zig-zag atomic beam collimator on transverse cooling of a krypton atomic beam is investigated. The simulation results show that discreteness in the interaction between the cooling laser beam and atomic beam, arising due to finite size and incidence angle of the cooling laser beam, significantly reduces the value of transverse velocity capture range of the collimator. The experimental observations show the trend similar to that obtained from simulations. Our study can be particularly useful where a small zig-zag collimator is required.     

Determination of metabolic profile of anti-malarial trioxane CDRI 99/411 in rat liver microsomes using HPLC

CDRI 99/411 is a potent 1,2,4‐trioxane anti‐malarial candidate compound of the Central Drug Research Institute, India. This study aimed to conduct comprehensive in vitro metabolic investigations of CDRI 99/411 to corroborate its preclinical investigations. Preliminary in vitro metabolic investigations were performed to assess the metabolic stability [in vitro half‐life (t_1/2) and in vitro hepatic intrinsic clearance (Cl_int)] of CDRI 99/411 in male Sprague–Dawley rat and human liver microsomes using validated high‐performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detector. The observed in vitro t_1/2 of the compound in rat and human liver microsomes was 13 min with in vitro Cl_int 130.7 ± 25.0 μL/min/mg and 19 min with in vitro Cl_int 89.3 ± 17.40 μL/min/mg. These observations suggested moderate metabolic degradation and in vitro Cl_int with insignificant difference (p > 0.05) in the metabolic stability profile in rat and human. Hence, in vitro metabolic investigations were performed with rat liver microsomes. It was observed that CDRI 99/411 exhibited sigmoidal kinetics. At nonlinear regression (r ≥ 0.99) EC₅₀ and Hill slope values were 17 µm and 1.50, respectively. The metabolism of CDRI 99/411 was primarily mediated by CYP3A2 and was inferred by CYP reaction phenotyping with known potent inhibitors. Two metabolites of CDRI 99/411 were detected which were undetectable on incubation with 1‐aminobenzotriazole and ketoconazole. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.