Tuning Cellular Biological Functions Through the Controlled Release of NO from a Porous Ti‐MOF

Materials for the controlled release of nitric oxide (NO) are of interest for therapeutic applications. However, to date, many suffer from toxicity and stability issues, as well as poor performance. Herein, we propose a new NO adsorption/release mechanism through the formation of nitrites on the skeleton of a titanium‐based metal–organic framework (MOF) that we named MIP‐177, featuring a suitable set of properties for such an application: (i) high NO storage capacity (3 μmol mg^?1_solid), (ii) excellent biocompatibility at therapeutic relevant concentrations (no cytotoxicity at 90 μg mL^?1 for wound healing) due to its high stability in biological media (<9 % degradation in 72 hours) and (iii) slow NO release in biological media (≈2 hours for 90 % release). The prospective application of MIP‐177 is demonstrated through NO‐driven control of mitochondrial respiration in cells and stimulation of cell migration, paving the way for the design of new NO delivery systems for wound healing therapy.     

A data-driven,high-throughput methodology to determine tissue-specific differentially methylated regions able to discriminate body fluids

Tissue-specific differentially methylated regions (tDMRs) are regions of the genome with methylation patterns that modulate gene expression in those tissue types. The detection of tDMRs in forensic evidence can permit the identification of body fluids at trace levels. In this report, we have performed a bioinformatic analysis of an existing array dataset to determine if new tDMRs could be identified for use in body fluid identification from forensic evidence. Once these sites were identified, primers were designed and bisulfite modification was performed. The relative methylation level for each body fluid at a given locus was then determined using qPCR with high-resolution melt analysis (HRM). After screening 127 tDMR's in multiple body fluids, we were able to identify four new markers able to discriminate blood (2 markers), vaginal epithelia (1 marker) and buccal cells (1 marker). One marker for each target body fluid was also tested with pyrosequencing showing results consistent with those obtained by HRM. This work successfully demonstrates the ability of in silico analysis to develop a novel set of tDMRs capable of being differentiated by real time PCR/HRM. The method can rapidly determine the body fluids left at crime scenes, assisting the triers of fact in forensic casework.     

Heck reactions in monoglyme and diglyme using BmimCl as pre‐ligand

Heck reactions between iodobenzene and methyl acrylate were carried out in monoglyme and diglyme as solvents, using different ligands and palladium sources, and good to high yields were obtained in the production of (E)‐substituted olefins. The ionic liquid BmimCl was successfully utilized as pre‐ligand to substitute triphenylphosphine. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

1D to 3D NMR study of microporous alumino‐phosphate AlPO4‐40

From one‐ to two‐ and three‐dimensional MAS NMR solid‐state experiments involving ³¹P and ²⁷Al, we show that the structure of microporous alumino‐phosphate AlPO₄‐40 contains at least four times more sites than expected, and we attribute two types of Al_IV sites. The newly described ²⁷Al‐³¹P MQ‐HMQC opens new possibilities of describing details of three‐dimensional bounded networks. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the determination of the Young’s modulus of thin films using indentation tests

The main difficulty with the characterization of thin coatings using depth-sensing indentation tests is related to the determination of the contributions of the substrate and the film to the measured properties. In this study, three-dimensional numerical simulations of the Vickers hardness test are used in order to examine the influence of the elastic and plastic properties of the substrate and the film on the composite’s Young’s modulus results. The hardness of the film is equal to or higher than the substrate hardness. A study of the stress distributions and the indentation geometry of composites, film/substrate, was performed, taking into account the relative mechanical properties of the film and substrate. In addition, stress evolution during indentation was studied, in order to quantify the critical indentation depth under which the substrate is not elastically deformed. The accurate evaluation of the Young’s modulus of the films using weight functions is also examined: some of these have previously been proposed and one was introduced for this study. Two different fitting procedures were used to compare the results obtained from eight fictive film/substrate combinations using six weight functions. The first procedure, commonly used, considers the substrate’s modulus as a known parameter in the fitting process. In the second, the film and the substrate’s modulus are considered as unknown variables that are calculated simultaneously during the fitting process. The validity of the conclusions obtained using the fictive materials was checked by applying the weight functions to four real composites.