Melatonin Rescues the Dendrite Collapse Induced by the Pro-Oxidant Toxin Okadaic Acid in Organotypic Cultures of Rat Hilar Hippocampus

The pro-oxidant compound okadaic acid (OKA) mimics alterations found in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) as oxidative stress and tau hyperphosphorylation, leading to neurodegeneration and cognitive decline. Although loss of dendrite complexity occurs in AD, the study of this post-synaptic domain in chemical-induced models remains unexplored. Moreover, there is a growing expectation for therapeutic adjuvants to counteract these brain dysfunctions. Melatonin, a free-radical scavenger, inhibits tau hyperphosphorylation, modulates phosphatases, and strengthens dendritic arbors. Thus, we determined if OKA alters the dendritic arbors of hilar hippocampal neurons and whether melatonin prevents, counteracts, or reverses these damages. Rat organotypic cultures were incubated with vehicle, OKA, melatonin, and combined treatments with melatonin either before, simultaneously, or after OKA. DNA breaks were assessed by TUNEL assay and nuclei were counterstained with DAPI. Additionally, MAP2 was immunostained to assess the dendritic arbor properties by the Sholl method. In hippocampal hilus, OKA increased DNA fragmentation and reduced the number of MAP2(+) cells, whereas melatonin protected against oxidation and apoptosis. Additionally, OKA decreased the dendritic arbor complexity and melatonin not only counteracted, but also prevented and reversed the dendritic arbor retraction, highlighting its role in post-synaptic domain integrity preservation against neurodegenerative events in hippocampal neurons.     

Carbon Dots (C‐dots) from Cow Manure with Impressive Subcellular Selectivity Tuned by Simple Chemical Modification

Improved cellular selectivity for nucleoli staining was achieved by simple chemical modification of carbon dots (C‐dots) synthesized from waste carbon sources such as cow manure (or from glucose). The C‐dots were characterized and functionalized (amine‐passivated) with ethylenediamine, affording amide bonds that resulted in bright green fluorescence. The new modified C‐dots were successfully applied as selective live‐cell fluorescence imaging probes with impressive subcellular selectivity and the ability to selectively stain nucleoli in breast cancer cell lineages (MCF‐7). The C‐dots were also tested in four other cellular models and showed the same cellular selection in live‐cell imaging experiments.     

pH-Dependent Hydration Change in a Gd-Based MRI Contrast Agent with a Phosphonated Ligand

The heptadentate ligand L was shown to form an extremely stable Gd complex at neutral pH with a pGd value of 18.4 at pH 7.4. The X-ray crystal structures of the complexes formed with Gd and Tb displayed two very different coordination behaviors being, respectively, octa- and nonacoordinated. The relaxometric properties of the Gd complex were studied by field-dependent relaxivity measurements at various temperatures and by ¹⁷O NMR spectroscopy. The pH-dependence of the longitudinal relaxivity profile indicated large changes around neutral pH leading to a very large value of 10.1 mm ⁻¹⋅s⁻¹ (60 MHz, 298 K) at pH 4.7. The changes were attributed to an increase of the hydration number from one water molecule in basic conditions to two at acidic pH. A similar trend was observed for the luminescence of the Eu complex, confirming the change in hydration state. DOSY experiments were performed on the Lu analogue, pointing to the absence of dimers in solution in the considered pH range. A breathing mode of the complex was postulated, which was further supported by ¹H and ³¹P NMR spectroscopy of the Yb complex at varying pH and was finally modeled by DFT calculations.     

Efficient palladium-catalyzed C-S cross-coupling reaction of benzo-2,1,3-thiadiazole at C-5-position: A potential class of AChE inhibitors

Functionalization of 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole (BTD) with thiols at C-5 position remains low explored. Moreover, the arylthiol-substitutions at this position are also unexplored and can not be found by a S_N2 or S_N1 reaction. In this sense, herein we present a new palladium-catalyzed methodology for a wide variety of unpublished 5-arylsulfanyl-benzo-2,1,3-thiadiazole derivatives synthesis with moderate to high yields using a low catalytic loading of Pd(L-Pro)₂ as low-coast, and efficient catalyst in low reaction time. Besides, we concluded that the pKa of thiol species has an important role in this catalysis, mainly in the CMD like catalytic cyclo process, which strongly interferes in the reaction yields. Furthermore, arylsulfanyl-benzo-2,1,3-thiadiazoles derivatives have been assessed (in vitro) as potential acetylcholinesterase inhibitors.     

Gaps in the number of generators of monomial Togliatti systems

Let $I_{d,n}?k[x_0,?,x_n]$ be a minimal monomial Togliatti system of forms of degree d. In [4], Mezzetti and Miró-Roig proved that the minimal number of generators $\mu (I_{d,n})$ of $I_{d,n}$ lies in the interval $[2n+1,\left(\begin{array}{c}n+d?1\\ n?1\end{array}\right)]$. In this paper, we prove that for $n\ge 4$ and $d\ge 3$, the integer values in $[2n+3,3n?1]$ cannot be realized as the number of minimal generators of a minimal monomial Togliatti system. We classify minimal monomial Togliatti systems $I_{d,n}?k[x_0,?,x_n]$ of forms of degree d with $\mu (I_{d,n})=2n+2$ or 3n (i.e. with the minimal number of generators reaching the border of the non-existence interval). Finally, we prove that for $n=4$, $d\ge 3$ and $\mu \in [9,\left(\begin{array}{c}d+3\\ 3\end{array}\right)]?\{11\}$ there exists a minimal monomial Togliatti system $I_{d,n}?k[x_0,?,x_n]$ of forms of degree d with $\mu (I_{n,d})=\mu$.     

Approximations in Sobolev spaces by prolate spheroidal wave functions

Recently, there is a growing interest in the spectral approximation by the Prolate Spheroidal Wave Functions (PSWFs) ${\psi }_{n,c},c>0$. This is due to the promising new contributions of these functions in various classical as well as emerging applications from Signal Processing, Geophysics, Numerical Analysis, etc. The PSWFs form a basis with remarkable properties not only for the space of band-limited functions with bandwidth c, but also for the Sobolev space $H^s([?1,1])$. The quality of the spectral approximation and the choice of the parameter c when approximating a function in $H^s([?1,1])$ by its truncated PSWFs series expansion, are the main issues. By considering a function $f\in H^s([?1,1])$ as the restriction to $[?1,1]$ of an almost time-limited and band-limited function, we try to give satisfactory answers to these two issues. Also, we illustrate the different results of this work by some numerical examples.     

Facile Formation of Sulfurized Nanorod-Like ZnO/Zn(OH)2 and Hierarchical Flower-Like γ-Zn(OH)2/ϵ-Zn(OH)2 from a Green Synthesis and Application as Luminescent Solar Concentrator

This research endeavors to overcome the significant challenge of developing materials that simultaneously possess photostability and photosensitivity to UV-visible irradiation. Sulfurized nanorod (NR)-like ZnO/Zn(OH)₂ and hierarchical flower-like γ-Zn(OH)₂/ϵ-Zn(OH)₂ were identified from XRD diffraction patterns and Raman vibrational modes. The sulfurized material, observed by FEG-SEM and TEM, showed diameters ranging from 10 and 40 nm and lengths exceeding 200 nm. The S²⁻ ions intercalated Zn²⁺, modulating NRs to dumbbell-like microrods. SAED and HRTEM illustrated the atomic structure in (101) crystal plane. Its direct band gap of 3.0 eV was attributed to the oxygen vacancies, which also contribute to the deep-level emissions at 422 and 485 nm. BET indicated specific surface area of 4.4 m² g⁻¹ and pore size as mesoporosity, which are higher compared to the non-sulfurized analogue. These findings were consistent with the observed photocurrent, photostability and photoluminescence (PL), further supporting the suitability of sulfurized NR-like ZnO/Zn(OH)₂ as a promising candidate for Luminescent solar concentrators (LSC)-photovoltaic (PV) system.