Identification of metabolites of rupestonic acid in rat urine by liquid chromatography combined with electrospray ionization quadrupole time‐of‐flight tandem mass spectrometry

Rupestonic acid, a potential anti‐influenza agent, is an important and characteristic compound in Artemisia rupestris L., a well‐known traditional Uighur medicine for the treatment of colds. In the present study, high‐performance liquid chromatography combined with electrospray ionization quadrupole time‐of‐flight tandem mass spectrometry was used to detect and identify the metabolites in rat urine after oral administration of rupestonic acid. A total of 10 metabolites were identified or partially characterized. The structure elucidations of the metabolites were performed by comparing the changes in accurate molecular masses and fragment ions with those of the parent compound. The results showed that the main metabolites of rupestonic acid in rat urine were formed by oxidation, hydrogenation and glucuronidation. A metabolism pathway was proposed for the first time based on the characterized structures. This metabolism study can provide essential information for drug discovery, design and clinical application of rupestonic acid. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improvement in dye sensitized solar cells from past to present

Several emerging renewable technologies are available to satisfy the current energy demand and to minimize the effect of environmental degradation caused by high consumption of fossil fuels. These technologies are not mature enough to solve this problem but require more time for improving the efficiency, and cost reduction to become the economical alternative of fossil fuels. In this paper Dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) has been discussed in detail owing to advancement in the technology. Since each component of DSSC is responsible for a specific function, therefore, comprehensive literature studies has been done on individual section to understand the technology in depth. All the advancement in sensitizer, semiconductors, electrolyte, electrodes, additives, sealing and anchoring groups are included in this review with performance parameter of DSSC. Focus of this article is to provide summary of all available literature since beginning to date.     

Modulation of the photocycle of a LOV domain photoreceptor by the hydrogen-bonding network

An extended hydrogen-bonding (HB) network stabilizes the isoalloxazine ring of the flavin mononucleotide (FMN) chromophore within the photosensing LOV domain of blue-light protein receptors, via interactions between the C(2)═O, N(3)H, C(4)═O, and N(5) groups and conserved glutamine and asparagine residues. In this work we studied the influence of the HB network on the efficiency, kinetics, and energetics of a LOV protein photocycle, involving the reversible formation of a FMN-cysteine covalent adduct. The following results were found for mutations of the conserved amino acids N94, N104, and Q123 in the Bacillus subtilis LOV protein YtvA: (i) Increased (N104D, N94D) or strongly reduced (N94A) rate of adduct formation; this latter mutation extends the lifetime of the flavin triplet state, i.e., adduct formation, more than 60-fold, from 2 μs for the wild-type (WT) protein to 129 μs. (ii) Acceleration of the overall photocycle for N94S, N94A, and Q123N, with recovery lifetimes 20, 45, and 85 times faster than for YtvA-WT, respectively. (iii) Slight modifications of FMN spectral features, correlated with the polarization of low-energy transitions. (iv) Strongly reduced (N94S) or suppressed (Q123N) structural volume changes accompanying adduct formation, as determined by optoacoustic spectroscopy. (v) Minor effects on the quantum yield, with the exception of a considerable reduction for Q123N, i.e., 0.22 vs 0.49 for YtvA-WT. The data stress the importance of the HB network in modulating the photocycle of LOV domains, while at the same time establishing a link with functional responses.     

Design and synthesis of bombykol analogues for probing pheromone-binding protein-ligand interactions

Mono-, difluorinated, and thioanalogues of Bombyx mori female sex pheromones (bombykol, 1) were designed according to the ab initio calculations. These rationally designated analogues were synthesized using hydroboration and Sonogashira coupling strategy via (5E,7Z)-undecadien-1-ol (10) as a common intermediate. A new simplified binding assay based on nanoLC-linear ion trap ESI-MS for quantifying complexation of the B. mori pheromone-binding protein (BmPBP) with native (1) and prepared analogues was developed. The binding properties of native 1 and thioanalogue 4 with PBP were studied in detail. The dissociation constant (K_D) of 1 and 4 was determined to be 2.1×10⁻⁶ M and 2.4×10⁻⁶ M, respectively. The similar values for both ligands correlated with ab initio calculations. The new binding assay could be used to determine the K_D of other PBPs.     

A non-linear structure preserving matrix method for the low rank approximation of the Sylvester resultant matrix

A non-linear structure preserving matrix method for the computation of a structured low rank approximation of the Sylvester resultant matrix S(f,g) of two inexact polynomials f=f(y) and g=g(y) is considered in this paper. It is shown that considerably improved results are obtained when f(y) and g(y) are processed prior to the computation of , and that these preprocessing operations introduce two parameters. These parameters can either be held constant during the computation of , which leads to a linear structure preserving matrix method, or they can be incremented during the computation of , which leads to a non-linear structure preserving matrix method. It is shown that the non-linear method yields a better structured low rank approximation of S(f,g) and that the assignment of f(y) and g(y) is important because may be a good structured low rank approximation of S(f,g), but may be a poor structured low rank approximation of S(g,f) because its numerical rank is not defined. Examples that illustrate the differences between the linear and non-linear structure preserving matrix methods, and the importance of the assignment of f(y) and g(y), are shown.     

Design,synthesis and bioactivity of chalcones and its analogues

The Vernohia anthelmintica L.'s extract is one of the most popular Uygur medicines used for vitiligo. It is believed that the chalcone compounds of the plant play an important role in the treatment since they may activate tyrosinase and improve melanin production. In this study, twenty-one chalcones and nine analogues were synthesized in view of three different components of chalcone(A, B ring and a,b-unsaturated carbonyl). After biological evaluation of their activity on tyrosinase in cell-free systems,the result showed that most compounds(except polyhydroxy chalcones) possess activator effect on the tyrosinase, especially for 13a–15a, 20 a and 1b, which bearing a comparable activity to the positive control8-MOP. SAR of these tyrosinase activator was summed up for the first time as well. Finally, compound 13 a was found to increase melanin contents and tyrosinase activity 1.75 and 1.3 fold, respectively, compared with that of untreated murine B16 cells at the concentration of 40 mg/m L.     

The enhancement of the oxidation resistance of carbonyl iron by polyaniline coating and consequent changes in electromagnetic properties

In order to enhance the stability of commercially unmodified processed carbonyl iron (CI) and to prevent corrosion, CI powders were coated with polyaniline (PANI) by using surfactant-stabilized PANI colloids in chloroform. PANI coats the individual particles with a film of a few micrometres thickness. Electromagnetic properties, as well as thermal and storage stability, of polymer composites filled with pristine and PANI-coated CI have been studied. The PANI overlayer has negligible influence on the magnetic and dielectric spectra of CI-filled polymer composites at ambient temperature. However, the temperature-frequency study of complex permittivity demonstrated that the composites containing PANI-coated CI powders are characterized by temperature-independent dielectric spectra, whereas the complex permittivity of polymer composites with pristine powders drastically decreased at elevated temperature. Additionally, the thermogravimetric analysis of pristine and PANI-coated CI powders in air has shown improvement in the stability. PANI overlayer prevents the oxidation of particles and acts as corrosion protection of CI.     

Excited State Processes in 1-Deazariboflavin Studied by Ultrafast Fluorescence Kinetics

The photochemical reactions of the 1-deaza derivative of riboflavin (RF) have been studied by sub-ps time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. A potential effect of the solvent polarity and hydrogen bonding capability on the excited state (ES) dynamics was tested by measuring 1-deaza RF in water and, after acetylation of the sugar moiety, also in acetonitrile. Opposite to former reports, which indicated no fluorescence after laser excitation (Spencer et al. [1977] Biochemistry 16 : 3586–3594), we find a significant fluorescence in either solvent. For both compounds, the fluorescence decays are biexponential with lifetimes in the ps time domain (1.8 and 12.5 ps for 1-deaza RF, and 3 and 87 ps for Ac₄-1-deaza RF). In addition, a third, independent fluorescence decay was observed for both compounds. The remarkably slower second decay process for the measurements of the tetra-acetyl derivative in acetonitrile points to the involvement of hydrogen bonding or changes in the protonation/tautomerization state in the ES. In contrast to the parent compound (RF), no triplet state formation can be detected for 1-deaza RF, making the internal conversion and the fluorescence the only decay processes of the ES.