Study of torsional wave in a poroelastic medium sandwiched between a layer and a half-space of heterogeneous dry sandy media

In this article, the propagation of torsional surface wave in an anisotropic poroelastic layer of finite thickness sandwiched between two heterogeneous dry sandy media is investigated. The first uppermost dry sandy medium is considered as a layer of finite thickness and the second one is considered as a lower half-space. The heterogeneities in both dry sandy media are assumed to arise due to quadratic variations in elastic moduli and mass densities. Whittaker’s functions and variable separable techniques have been taken into the application to calculate the interior deformations inside the assumed model; consequently, we obtain a closed form dispersion relation for the torsional wave using effective boundary conditions. Moreover, casewise dispersion equations for some particular aspects of the problem have been studied, which serve as the focal theme of the study. Some significant observations have been made by detailed numerical calculations and graphical visuals related to the effects of tensile and compressive initial stresses, sandy parameters, heterogeneity parameters, porosity parameter, and thickness ratio parameter on the phase velocity of the torsional wave.     

Syntheses of Salmonella Paratyphi A Associated Oligosaccharide Antigens and Development towards Anti-Paratyphoid Fever Vaccines

With the emergence of multidrug resistant Salmonella strains, the development of anti-Salmonella vaccines is an important task. Currently there are no approved vaccines against Salmonella Paratyphi A, the leading cause of paratyphoid fever. To fill this gap, oligosaccharides corresponding to the O-polysaccharide repeating units from the surface of Salmonella Paratyphi A have been synthesized through convergent stereoselective glycosylations. The synthetic glycan antigen was conjugated with a powerful immunogenic carrier system, the bacteriophage Qβ. The resulting construct was able to elicit strong and long-lasting anti-glycan IgG antibody responses, which were highly selective toward Salmonella Paratyphi A associated glycans. The availability of well-defined glycan antigen enabled the determination that one repeating unit of the polysaccharide is sufficient to induce protective antibodies, and the paratose residue and/or the O-acetyl modifications on the backbone are important for recognition by antibodies elicited by a Qβ-tetrasaccharide conjugate. Immune sera provided excellent protection to mice from lethal challenge with Salmonella Paratyphi A, highlighting the potential of the synthetic glycan-based vaccine.     

Synthesis of isoxazoles by hypervalent iodine-induced cycloaddition of nitrile oxides to alkynes

Treatment of oximes with hypervalent iodine leads to substituted isoxazoles via rapid formation of nitrile oxides. Reaction with terminal alkynes led to a series of 3,5-disubstituted isoxazoles with complete regioselectivity and high yield, in a procedure mild enough to prepare a range of nucleoside and peptide conjugates. Exceptionally high reaction rates were found for the formation of 3,4,5-trisubstituted isoxazoles from a cyclic alkyne.     

Preferential inhibition of xanthine oxidase by 2-amino-6-hydroxy-8-mercaptopurine and 2-amino-6-purine thiol

Background  

The anticancer drug, 6-mercaptopurine (6MP) is subjected to metabolic clearance through xanthine oxidase (XOD) mediated hydroxylation, producing 6-thiouric acid (6TUA), which is excreted in urine. This reduces the effective amount of drug available for therapeutic efficacy. Co-administration of allopurinol, a suicide inhibitor of XOD, which blocks the hydroxylation of 6MP inadvertently enhances the 6MP blood level, counters this reduction. However, allopurinol also blocks the hydroxylation of hypoxanthine, xanthine (released from dead cancer cells) leading to their accumulation in the body causing biochemical complications such as xanthine nephropathy. This necessitates the use of a preferential XOD inhibitor that selectively inhibits 6MP transformation, but leaves xanthine metabolism unaffected.     

An Antibacterial β‐Lactone Kills Mycobacterium tuberculosis by Disrupting Mycolic Acid Biosynthesis

The spread of antibiotic resistance is a major challenge for the treatment of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections. In addition, the efficacy of drugs is often limited by the restricted permeability of the mycomembrane. Frontline antibiotics inhibit mycomembrane biosynthesis, leading to rapid cell death. Inspired by this mechanism, we exploited β‐lactones as putative mycolic acid mimics to block serine hydrolases involved in their biosynthesis. Among a collection of β‐lactones, we found one hit with potent anti‐mycobacterial and bactericidal activity. Chemical proteomics using an alkynylated probe identified Pks13 and Ag85 serine hydrolases as major targets. Validation through enzyme assays and customized ¹³C metabolite profiling showed that both targets are functionally impaired by the β‐lactone. Co‐administration with front‐line antibiotics enhanced the potency against M. tuberculosis by more than 100‐fold, thus demonstrating the therapeutic potential of targeting mycomembrane biosynthesis serine hydrolases.     

Stable Expanded Porphycene‐Based Diradicaloid and Tetraradicaloid

The synthesis of a bithiophene‐bridged 34π conjugated aromatic expanded porphycene 1 and a cyclopentabithiophene bridged 32π conjugated anti‐aromatic expanded porphycene 2 by a McMurry coupling strategy is presented. Magnetic measurements and theoretical calculations reveal that both 1 and 2 exhibit an open‐shell singlet ground state with significant radical character (y₀=0.63 for 1 ; y₀=0.68, y₁=0.18 for 2 ; y₀: diradical character, y₁: tetraradical character) and a small singlet–triplet energy gap (ΔE_S‐T=?3.25 kcal mol^?1 for 1 and ΔE_S‐T=?0.92 kcal mol^?1 for 2 ). Despite the open‐shell radical character, both compounds display exceptional stability under ambient air and light conditions owing to effective delocalization of unpaired electrons in the extended cyclic π‐conjugation pathway.     

Concise synthesis of a hexasaccharide present in the cell wall lipopolysaccharide of Azospirillum lipoferum Sp59b

Concise chemical synthesis of a hexasaccharide repeating unit found in the cell wall lipopolysaccharide of Azospirillum lipoferum Sp59b was achieved in excellent yield. A [3+3] block synthetic strategy has been applied for the construction of the target hexasaccharide. During the synthesis, the orthogonal property of thioglycosides has been successfully exploited. Yields were high in all intermediate steps.     

Photopolymerized diffusion-defined polyacrylamide gradient gels for on-chip protein sizing

We report on a facile diffusion-based photopatterning technique for generating linear and non-linear decreasing pore-size gradients in cross-linked polyacrylamide gels. Diffusion of low viscosity polymer precursor solutions and a two-step photopatterning process were used to define the decreasing pore-size gradient gels in a microfluidic format, thus eliminating the need for controlled mixing and delivery of polymer precursor solutions. We present an analytical model of the non-steady state diffusion process and numerically evaluate that model for direct comparison with empirical characterizations of the gradient gels. We show that the analytical model provides an effective means to predict the steepness and linearity of a desired gradient gel prior to fabrication. To assess electrophoretic assay performance in the microfluidic gradient gels, on-chip sizing of protein samples (20-116 kDa) was investigated. Baseline resolution of six proteins was demonstrated in 4 s using 3.5% to 10% polyacrylamide gradient gels. The demonstrated ability to conduct efficient protein sizing in ultra-short separation lengths (0.3 cm) means low applied electric potentials are needed to achieve the electric field strengths required for protein separations. The low required electric potentials relax operating constraints on electrical components, as is especially important for translation of the assay into pre-clinical and clinical settings. The gradient gel fabrication method reported is amenable to adaptation to non-sizing protein assays, as well as integration with upstream sample preparation steps and subsequent orthogonal downstream assays.