Umbelliferone Decorated Water-soluble Zinc(II) Phthalocyanines – In Vitro Phototoxic Antimicrobial Anti-cancer Agents

In this contribution we report on the synthesis, characterization and application of water-soluble zinc(II) phthalocyanines, which are decorated with four or eight umbelliferone moieties for photodynamic therapy (PDT). These compounds are linked peripherally to zinc(II) phthalocyanine by a triethylene glycol linker attached to pyridines, leading to cationic pyridinium units, able to increase the water solubility of the system. Beside their photophysical properties they were analyzed concerning their cellular distribution in human hepatocyte carcinoma (HepG2) cells as well as their phototoxicity towards HepG2 cells, Gram-positive (S. aureus strain 3150/12 and B. subtilis strain DB104) and Gram-negative bacteria (E. coli strain UTI89 and E. coli strain Nissle 1917). At low light doses and concentrations, they exhibit superb antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive bacteria as well as anti-tumor activity against HepG2. They are even capable to inactivate Gram-negative bacteria, whereas the dark toxicity remains low. These unique water-soluble compounds can be regarded as all-in-one type photosensitizers with broad applications ranges in the future.     

Centerband-Only Detection of Exchange NMR with Natural-Abundance Correction Reveals an Expanded Unit Cell in Phenylalanine Crystals

The NMR pulse sequence CODEX (centerband-only detection of exchange) is a widely used method to report on the number of magnetically inequivalent spins that exchange magnetization via spin diffusion. For crystals, this rules out certain symmetries, and the rate of equilibration is sensitive to distances. Here we show that for ¹³C CODEX, consideration of natural abundance spins is necessary for crystals of high complexity, demonstrated here with the amino acid phenylalanine. The NMR data rule out the C₂ space group that was originally reported for phenylalanine, and are only consistent with a larger unit cell containing eight magnetically inequivalent molecules. Such an expanded cell was recently described based on single crystal data. The large unit cell dictates the use of long spin diffusion times of more than 200 seconds, in order to equilibrate over the entire unit cell volume of 1622 ų.     

Synthesis and properties of a newly obtained sorbent based on silica gel coated with a polyaniline film as the stationary phase for non-suppressed ion chromatography

The new sorbent for non-suppressed ion chromatography based on silica gel coated with a film of polyaniline (PANI) was obtained in a process of in situ polymerization of aniline by oxidation with ammonium peroxydisulfate. Raman analyses performed using a Thermo Scientific DXR confocal Raman Microscope equipped with the Omnic 8 software from Thermo Fisher Scientific have proved a uniform distribution of PANI on the surface of chromatographic beads and in the pores of the particle.     

A 1:1 cocrystal of baicalein with nicotinamide

Cocrystallization of baicalein with nicotinamide yields a 1:1 cocrystal [systematic name: pyridine‐3‐carboxamide–5,6,7‐trihydroxy‐2‐phenyl‐4H‐chromen‐4‐one (1/1)], C₆H₆N₂O·C₁₅H₁₀O₅. The asymmetric unit contains one baicalein and one nicotinamide molecule, both in neutral forms. Molecules in the cocrystal form column motifs stabilized by an array of intermolecular hydrogen bonds.     

Silver(I) complex with 2-amino-4,4α-dihydro-4α,7-dimethyl-3H-phenoxazin-3-one (Phx-1) ligand: crystal structure,vibrational spectra and biological studies

The first metal complex of Phx-1 ligand, bis(2-amino-4,4α-dihydro-4α,7-dimethyl-3H-phenoxazin-3-one)nitratosilver(I), [Ag(Phx-1)₂NO₃], has been obtained and investigated by single crystal X-ray diffraction and vibrational spectroscopy methods. The Ag⁺ is bonded to heterocyclic nitrogen atoms of two organic ligands and one oxygen atom of a nitrate anion. The Phx-1 ligand coordination mode is supported by IR and Raman spectra, interpreted with the help of theoretical DFT studies. The antibacterial activity of the ligand and its Ag(I) complex as well as some reference compounds were screened against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, applying microdilution procedures. High sensitivity to the studied complex was found for Rhodococcus erythropolis and Bacillus licheniformis strains. Modified Phx-1 ligand preparation procedures are also presented.     

An elastic network model to identify characteristic stress response genes

Exposing eukaryotic cells to a toxic compound and subsequent gene expression profiling may allow the prediction of selected toxic effects based on changes in gene expression. This objective is complicated by the observation that compounds with different modes of toxicity cause similar changes in gene expression and that a global stress response affects many genes. We developed an elastic network model of global stress response with nodes representing genes which are connected by edges of graded coexpression. The expression of only few genes have to be known to model the global stress response of all but a few atypical responder genes. Those required genes and the atypical response genes are shown to be good biomarker for tox predictions. In total, 138 experiments and 13 different compounds were used to train models for different toxicity classes. The deduced biomarkers were shown to be biologically plausible. A neural network was trained to predict the toxic effects of compounds from profiling experiments. On a validation data set of 189 experiments with 16 different compounds the accuracy of the predictions was assessed: 14 out of 16 compounds have been classified correctly. Derivation of model based biomarkers through the elastic network approach can naturally be extended to other areas beyond toxicology since subtle signals against a broad response background are common in biological studies.     

Spectra of nonlocally bound quantum systems

We discuss a class of nonlinear and nonlocal models for the dynamics of a composite quantum system. The models in question depend on the following constituents: on two subsystem Hamiltonians (denoted by H and ?), an analytic function (f), and a real parameter (s). As demonstrated elsewhere before, the stationary states can be described in these models fairly explicitly. In this article, we build upon that result, and discuss the topological as well as statistical characteristics of the spectra. Here, we concentrate on the special case f = log. It turns out that an energy spectrum of the nonlocally bound system substantially differs from that of its components. Indeed, we show rigorously that, if H is the harmonic oscillator and ? is completely degenerate with one energy level, then the energy spectrum of the composite system has the topology of the Cantor set (for s > 2). In addition, we show that, if H is replaced by the logarithm of the harmonic oscillator, then the spectrum consists of finitely many intervals separated by gaps (for s sufficiently large). In the last case, the key analytic object is the series Σn ^?s . In particular, as an interesting offshoot, this structure furnishes a nontautological immersion of fundamental number-theoretic functions into the quantum formalism.