Phospholipid Bilayers as Molecular Models for Drug-Cell Membrana Interactions. The Case of the Antiinflamatory Drug Diclofenac

Phospholipids are amphipatic molecules with long hydrophobic acyl chains and zwitterionic polar heads which assemble into different types of molecular aggregates. The most relevant is the bilayer because of its relation with cell membranes, which are very complex entities. For this reason, simpler molecular models based on phospholipids bilayers are widely used. We have determined the bilayer structure of phospholipids located in the outer and inner monolayers of most cell membranes, and use them as molecular models to study the way different chemicals of biological interest interact with cell membranes. We present the results of our studies on the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac, from which little is known about its effects on human erythrocytes. This report presents the following evidence that diclofenac interacts with the human red cell membrane: a) X-ray diffraction and fluorescence spectroscopy of phospholipids bilayers show that diclofenac interacts with a class of lipids found in the outer moiety of the erythrocyte membrane; b) in isolated unsealed human erythrocyte membranes the drug induced a disordering effect on the acyl chains of the membrane lipid bilayer; c) in scanning electron microscopy studies on human erythrocytes it was observed that the drug induced morphological changes different from their normal biconcave shape.     

Neutrons produced by 1.22 GeV antiproton interactions with nuclei

Inclusive neutron energy spectra were measured by time of flight using 1.22 GeV antiprotons from LEAR, CERN, as projectiles and targets from natural Al, Cu, Ag, Ho, Ta, Au, Pb, Bi, U. The sum of two Maxwellian distributions was fitted to the spectra obtained at several forward and backward angles yielding neutron multiplicities M_i and slope or temperature parameters T _i for the low-energy (evaporative, i=1) and high-energy (pre-equilibrium,i=2) parts, respectively. M ₁ increases with A, proportional to the nuclear volume, and M ₂ is growing with A , proportional to the nuclear radius. The T parameters are nearly independent of A. The results are compared with previous multiplicity measurements with a neutron detector, intranuclear cascade calculations and neutron spectra from stopped antiproton annihilation on nuclei. With the measured proton spectra also the ratio of emitted neutrons to protons was determined for Au. Received: 25 February 2000 / Accepted: 19 May 2000     

Synthesis,characterization, and thermal and dielectric properties of three different methacrylate polymers with zwitterionic pendant groups

The synthesis, characterization, thermal, and dielectric properties of three different zwitterionic methacrylates of the sulfobetaine type are presented. Diethylamine-ethyl-, 2-(diethylaminoethoxy)-ethyl-, and 2-(2-diethylaminoethoxy) ethoxy-ethyl-methacrylates were made to react with butanosultone to prepare monomers with variable flexibility. The flexibility of the lateral chain of the polymethacrylates decreased the glass transition temperature (T_g down to 300 K) of the polymers. A linear relationship between T_g and the number of carbon atoms was shown for these materials. X-ray diffraction and DSC experiments showed the formation of new ordered phases in these polymers, which inhibited their dipole conductivity. On heating, these phases were destroyed and values of conductivity of 10⁻⁷–10⁻³ S cm⁻¹ were obtained in the studied range of temperature. Variation of conductivity with temperature was established according to the Arrhenius equation. Dielectric properties exhibited a small deviation of the Debye type behavior, and β parameters of the Cole–Cole equations were calculated for the synthesized polymers. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Preparation and properties of some cationic norbornadiene rhodium(I) complexes with triarylphosphines

Summary The synthesis of [Rh(NBD){P(p-RC₆H₄)₃}₂]A complexes (A=ClO ₄ ^– or BPh ₄ ^– ; R=Cl, F, Me or MeO) is described. Treatment of these complexes with molecular hydrogen leads to the isolation of [RhH₂{P(p-RC₆H₄)₃}₂(OCMe₂)₂]ClO₄ or Rh{P(p-RC₆H₄)₃}₂PhBPh₃. These latter complexes contain tetraphenylborate coordinated to the metalvia arene interaction. [Rh(CO)₃{P(p-RC₆H₄)₃}₂]ClO₄ complexes have been isolated by carbonylations. The use of these complexes as homogeneous hydroformylation catalysts is also briefly investigated.     

Continuous production of cellulose acetate microspheres for textile impregnation using a mesostructured reactor

Cellulose - In this work, the emulsion step of a previously reported batch formulation, for production of cellulose acetate (CA) microspheres, is transposed to continuous mode using the NETmix...     

Modeling Insurgent Dynamics Including Heterogeneity

Despite the myriad complexities inherent in human conflict, a common pattern has been identified across a wide range of modern insurgencies and terrorist campaigns involving the severity of individual events—namely an approximate power-law x ^?α with exponent α≈2.5. We recently proposed a simple toy model to explain this finding, built around the reported loose and transient nature of operational cells of insurgents or terrorists. Although it reproduces the 2.5 power-law, this toy model assumes every actor is identical. Here we generalize this toy model to incorporate individual heterogeneity while retaining the model’s analytic solvability. In the case of kinship or team rules guiding the cell dynamics, we find that this 2.5 analytic result persists—however an interesting new phase transition emerges whereby this cell distribution undergoes a transition to a phase in which the individuals become isolated and hence all the cells have spontaneously disintegrated. Apart from extending our understanding of the empirical 2.5 result for insurgencies and terrorism, this work illustrates how other statistical physics models of human grouping might usefully be generalized in order to explore the effect of diverse human social, cultural or behavioral traits.     

Bimetric renormalization group flows in quantum Einstein gravity

The formulation of an exact functional renormalization group equation for quantum Einstein gravity necessitates that the underlying effective average action depends on two metrics, a dynamical metric giving the vacuum expectation value of the quantum field, and a background metric supplying the coarse graining scale. The central requirement of “background independence” is met by leaving the background metric completely arbitrary. This bimetric structure entails that the effective average action may contain three classes of interactions: those built from the dynamical metric only, terms which are purely background, and those involving a mixture of both metrics. This work initiates the first study of the full-fledged gravitational RG flow, which explicitly accounts for this bimetric structure, by considering an ansatz for the effective average action which includes all three classes of interactions. It is shown that the non-trivial gravitational RG fixed point central to the asymptotic safety program persists upon disentangling the dynamical and background terms. Moreover, upon including the mixed terms, a second non-trivial fixed point emerges, which may control the theory’s IR behavior.     

Thermodynamics of Mixing and Solvation of Ibuprofen and Naproxen in Propylene Glycol + Water Cosolvent Mixtures

By using the van’t Hoff and Gibbs equations, solubility data of ibuprofen (IBP) and naproxen (NAP) determined at several temperatures in propylene glycol (PG) + water (W) cosolvent mixtures were used to evaluate the Gibbs energies, enthalpies, and entropies of solution, mixing and solvation. The solubilities are greater in pure PG and lower in W in both cases at all studied temperatures. These results clearly show that a cosolvent effect is present in these systems. The solvation of these drugs was greater in W compared to PG, and it was lower in the cosolvent mixtures compared with the pure solvents. By means of an enthalpy-entropy compensation analysis, non-linear ΔH _soln^o versus ΔG _soln^o compensation plots were obtained, with negative and positive slopes if all of the composition intervals are considered. Accordingly, it follows that at low PG solvent fractions the dominant factor for the solubility of IBP and NAP in this cosolvent system is the entropy, probably due to loosening of the water structure caused by the addition of the cosolvent.