Highly isotactic polymethacrylates through radical polymerization of methacrylate esters of some ortho‐bridged triaryl carbinols

The polymerization of 9‐phenyl‐10,10‐dioxo‐thioxanthen‐9‐yl and 9‐phenyl‐10‐oxo‐9,10‐dihydroanthracen‐9‐yl methacrylates obtained under radical initiation (α,α‐azobisisobutyronitrile) in benzene solution proceeds with high isotactic specificity to afford homopolymers with a triad mm content higher than 95%, having presumably a helical main‐chain structure and showing significant resistance to solvolytic degradation in methanol. 9‐Phenyl‐10,10‐dipropyl‐9,10‐dihydroanthracen‐9‐yl methacrylate similarly affords isotactic polymers with an mm of 98% but is much less durable in contact with methanol. The high isotacticity observed for the aforementioned polymethacrylates as well as for poly(1‐phenyl‐dibenzosuberyl methacrylate), previously reported in the literature, reveal a tendency of ortho‐bridged triarylcarbinols to enforce isotacticity on their methacrylate polymers obtained under radical initiation. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 39: 1180–1186, 2001     

Using particle tracking to probe the local dynamics of barley β-glucan solutions upon gelation

The sol-gel transition of aqueous barley β-glucan solutions which undergo gelation with ageing has been studied by conventional bulk rheology, phase contrast microscopy and particle tracking microrheology. Characterisation of the primary structure of the β-glucan isolate was carried out by enzymic methods and HPLC. The Brownian diffusion of fluorescent microspheres (0.75 μm diameter, carboxylate-coated particles) was used to probe the spatial mechanical properties of the gelling systems at the scale of microns; the potential use of passive particle tracking to study biopolymer gelling systems that present spatial heterogeneities is thus explored. For the β-glucan gels cured at 25°C both microrheology and bulk rheology revealed that with increasing the polysaccharide concentration the gelation time decreased, while the gelation rate and gel strength of the barley β-glucan gels increased. The particle tracking method had higher sensitivity and could map molecular ordering and structural heterogeneities in the evolving polysaccharide network at a micro-level. That is, different size pores were generated upon ageing with regions of depleted or less amount of β-glucan molecules. Furthermore, this method could detect changes in the fine structure of the system before such events can be registered by bulk rheological measurements; i.e. microheterogeneity and aggregation of β-glucan chains were revealed by particle tracking at earlier temporal stages of the experiment.     

Chromenol Derivatives as Novel Antifungal Agents: Synthesis,In Silico and In Vitro Evaluation

Herein we report the synthesis of some new 1H-1,2,4-triazole functionalized chromenols (3a–3n) via tandem reactions of 1-(alkyl/aryl)-2-(1H-1,2,4-triazole-1-yl) with salicylic aldehydes and the evaluation of their antifungal activity. In silico prediction of biological activity with computer program PASS indicate that the compounds have a high novelty compared to the known antifungal agents. We did not find any close analog among the over 580,000 pharmaceutical agents in the Cortellis Drug Discovery Intelligence database at the similarity cutoff of 70%. The evaluation of antifungal activity in vitro revealed that the highest activity was exhibited by compound 3k, followed by 3n. Their MIC values for different fungi were 22.1–184.2 and 71.3–199.8 µM, respectively. Twelve from fourteen tested compounds were more active than the reference drugs ketoconazole and bifonazole. The most sensitive fungus appeared to be Trichoderma viride, while Aspergillus fumigatus was the most resistant one. It was found that the presence of the 2-(tert-butyl)-2H-chromen-2-ol substituent on the 4th position of the triazole ring is very beneficial for antifungal activity. Molecular docking studies on C. albicans sterol 14α-demethylase (CYP51) and DNA topoisomerase IV were used to predict the mechanism of antifungal activities. According to the docking results, the inhibition of CYP51 is a putative mechanism of antifungal activity of the novel chromenol derivatives. We also showed that most active compounds have a low cytotoxicity, which allows us to consider them promising antifungal agents for the subsequent testing activity in in vivo assays.     

Antioxidants and inflammatory disease: synthetic and natural antioxidants with anti-inflammatory activity

Oxidants play a significant role in the pathogenesis of a number of disorders such as inflammation, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, psoriasis and contact dermatitis leading to oxidative stress. Oxidative stress may be defined as an imbalance between cellular production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and antioxidant defense mechanisms. ROS (e.g., superoxide radical, peroxynitryl, hydroxyl radical and hydrogen peroxide) are constantly produced as a result of metabolic reactions in living systems. The aim of this review is to describe recent developments in the study of antioxidants and their role in preventing the formation of ROS. The processes associated with inflammatory responses are complex and often involve ROS. There are many mediators, which initiate and amplify the inflammatory response such as histamine, serotonin, pro-inflammatory cytokines (interleukin-1B (IL-1b) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha), inflammatory cells (leukotrienes, macrophages), metabolic products of arachidonic acid (thomboxane A(2), prostaglandins and leukotrienes). The first part of this review focuses on the role of ROS in inflammation. The second part concerns synthetic antioxidants with antiinflammatory activity, and the third part addresses naturally occurring antioxidants with antiinflammatory activity.     

Exploration of the Antimicrobial Effects of Benzothiazolylthiazolidin-4-One and In Silico Mechanistic Investigation

Background: Infectious diseases still affect large populations causing significant morbidity and mortality. Bacterial and fungal infections for centuries were the main factors of death and disability of millions of humans. Despite the progress in the control of infectious diseases, the appearance of resistance of microbes to existing drugs creates the need for the development of new effective antimicrobial agents. In an attempt to improve the antibacterial activity of previously synthesized compounds modifications to their structures were performed. Methods: Nineteen thiazolidinone derivatives with 6-Cl, 4-OMe, 6-CN, 6-adamantan, 4-Me, 6-adamantan substituents at benzothiazole ring were synthesized and evaluated against panel of four bacterial strains S. aureus, L. monocytogenes, E. coli and S. typhimirium and three resistant strains MRSA, E. coli and P. aeruginosa in order to improve activity of previously evaluated 6-OCF₃-benzothiazole-based thiazolidinones. The evaluation of minimum inhibitory and minimum bactericidal concentration was determined by microdilution method. As reference compounds ampicillin and streptomycin were used. Results: All compounds showed antibacterial activity with MIC in range of 0.12–0.75 mg/mL and MBC at 0.25–>1.00 mg/mL The most active compound among all tested appeared to be compound 18, with MIC at 0.10 mg/mL and MBC at 0.12 mg/mL against P. aeruginosa. as well as against resistant strain P. aeruginosa with MIC at 0.06 mg/mL and MBC at 0.12 mg/mL almost equipotent with streptomycin and better than ampicillin. Docking studies predicted that the inhibition of LD-carboxypeptidase is probably the possible mechanism of antibacterial activity of tested compounds. Conclusion: The best improvement of antibacterial activity after modifications was achieved by replacement of 6-OCF₃ substituent in benzothiazole moiety by 6-Cl against S. aureus, MRSA and resistant strain of E. coli by 2.5 folds, while against L. monocytogenes and S. typhimirium from 4 to 5 folds.     

Surface terracing on ferritic stainless-steel fibres and potential relevance to in vitro cell growth

Since many natural and biological materials are cellular, often with relatively high porosity levels (although sometimes these pores are partly filled with a fluid or a soft and compliant solid in the natural state), various types of porous materials are of interest for biological applications. A key feature for such applications is the space afforded for invasion, first by cells and ultimately by osseous tissue and vasculature. The surface should be chemically and topologically suitable for cells to penetrate and interlock. There is evidence that fine scale topographic features can affect both the adhesion and ingrowth of cells. One way of creating topographic features, such as terraces, is to employ suitable heat treatments so as to expose preferentially the low surface energy crystallographic planes via surface diffusion. The topography and crystallography of surface terraces, generated on solid-state-sintered ferritic stainless-steel fibre networks, have been characterised by electron back-scattered diffraction, atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Initial work on the effect of these fine scale topographic features on cell proliferation shows encouraging results.     

Scalable synthesis of an architectural library of well‐defined poly(acrylic acid) derivatives: Role of structure on dispersant performance

The synthesis and systematic comparison of a comprehensive library of well‐defined polymer architectures based on poly(acrylic acid) is reported. Through the development of new synthetic methodologies, linear, single branched, precision‐branched comb, and star polymers were prepared and their performance as dispersants was evaluated. The ability to accurately control chain lengths and branch points allows the subtle interplay between structure and dispersant performance to be defined and affords critical insights into the design of improved polymeric additives for coating formulations. The general industrial relevance of ionic polymers and branched macromolecular architectures supports these design rules for a wide range of other applications and materials, including as additives for personal care products and in water treatment. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2019 , 57, 716–725     

Methacrylic Zwitterionic,Thermoresponsive, and Hydrophilic (Co)Polymers via Cu(0)‐Polymerization: The Importance of Halide Salt Additives

The synthesis of hydrophilic, thermoresponsive, and zwitterionic polymethacrylates is reported by Cu(0)‐mediated reversible deactivation radical polymerization in water and/or water/alcohol mixtures. The predisproportionation of [Cu^I(PMDETA)Cl] in water prior to initiator and monomer addition is exploited to yield well‐defined polymethacrylates with full monomer conversions in 30 min. The addition of supplementary halide salts (NaCl) enables the synthesis of various molecular weight poly[poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate] (PEGMA₄₇₅) (DP_n = 10–80, M_n ≈ 10 000–40 000 g mol⁻¹) with full monomer conversion and narrow molecular weight distributions attained in all cases (Đ ≈ 1.20–1.30). A bifunctional PEG initiator (average M_n ≈ 1000 g mol⁻¹) is utilized for the polymerization of a wide range of methacrylates including 2‐dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate, 2‐morpholinoethyl methacrylate, [2‐(methacryloyloxy)ethyl]dimethyl‐(3‐sulfopropyl)ammonium hydroxide, and 2‐methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine. Despite the high water content, high end group fidelity is demonstrated by in situ chain extensions and block copolymerizations with PEGMA₄₇₅ yielding well‐defined functional telechelic pentablock copolymers within 2.5 h.

     

Determination of Free and Total Underivatized Amino Acids Including L-Canavanine in Bitter Vetch Seeds Using Hydrophilic Interaction Liquid Chromatography

A new hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography method coupled with diode-array detector was developed for the determination of 17 underivatized amino acids including L-canavanine in bitter vetch [Vicia ervilia (L.) Willd.] seeds. Amino acids were extracted as free as well as total extracts after acid hydrolysis, followed by chromatographic separation on a Zorbax Rx-SIL column with a mobile phase of acetonitrile/potassium phosphate buffer (12.5?mM; pH 3.0) using gradient elution and detection at 190?nm. The method is characterized by a wide linear range (0.01–200?µg/mL, r?>?0.9987), sufficient accuracy (relative error 86.3–109.1%), and suitable precision for the results (relative standard deviation <4.9% in the case of intra-day and <9.8% in the case of inter-day precision). The limits of detection and quantification for free amino acids ranged from 0.01 to 0.24?mg/g and 0.03 to 0.72?mg/g, respectively, whereas the total amino acids ranged from 0.02 to 0.47?mg/g and 0.07 to 1.43?mg/g, respectively. The mean recoveries of free and total amino acids in spiked samples exceeded 70.3% for most amino acids. The mean total content of free and total amino acids in bitter vetch seeds was 1.71 and 14.88?g/100?g seed, whereas the corresponding values for canavanine were 0.07 and 0.19?g/100?g seed, respectively.