Natural Compounds and Products from an Anti-Aging Perspective

Aging is a very complex process that is accompanied by a degenerative impairment in many of the major functions of the human body over time. This inevitable process is influenced by hereditary factors, lifestyle, and environmental influences such as xenobiotic pollution, infectious agents, UV radiation, diet-borne toxins, and so on. Many external and internal signs and symptoms are related with the aging process and senescence, including skin dryness and wrinkles, atherosclerosis, diabetes, neurodegenerative disorders, cancer, etc. Oxidative stress, a consequence of the imbalance between pro- and antioxidants, is one of the main provoking factors causing aging-related damages and concerns, due to the generation of highly reactive byproducts such as reactive oxygen and nitrogen species during the metabolism, which result in cellular damage and apoptosis. Antioxidants can prevent these processes and extend healthy longevity due to the ability to inhibit the formation of free radicals or interrupt their propagation, thereby lowering the level of oxidative stress. This review focuses on supporting the antioxidant system of the organism by balancing the diet through the consumption of the necessary amount of natural ingredients, including vitamins, minerals, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), essential amino acids, probiotics, plants’ fibers, nutritional supplements, polyphenols, some phytoextracts, and drinking water.     

Zinc Interactions with a Soluble Mutated Rat Amylin to Mimic Whole Human Amylin: An Experimental and Simulation Approach to Understand Stoichiometry,Speciation and Coordination of the Metal Complexes

Islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) is a hormone co-secreted with insulin and zinc from pancreatic β-cells. To overcome the low solubility of human IAPP, we characterized zinc complexes species formed with 1) a mutated form of rat-IAPP(1–37; R18 H) able to mimic the human IAPP, 2) the r-IAPP(1–37) and the IAPP(1–8) fragment. Stoichiometry, speciation and coordination features of zinc(II) complexes were unveiled by ESI-MS, potentiometry and NMR measurements combined with DFT and free-energy simulations. Mononuclear species start to form around pH 6; Zn²⁺ binds both His18 and N-amino terminus in rat-IAPP(1–37; R18 H). The in silico study allows us to assess not only a structured turn compact domain in r-IAPP(1–37) and r-IAPP(1–37; R18 H) featured by a different free energy barrier for the transition from the compact to elongated conformation upon the coordination of Zn²⁺, but also to bring into light a coordination shell further stabilized by noncovalent interactions.     

Antibacterial activity of a new class of tris homoleptic Ru (II)-complexes with alkyl-tetrazoles as diimine-type ligands

Herein, we describe a new family of tris chelate homoleptic Ru (II) complexes, [Ru(N^N) ₃ ] ²⁺ , where the role of the diimine-type ligands (N^N) was fulfilled by 2-pyridyl (PTZ) or 2-quinolyl tetrazole (QTZ) derivatives decorated with various alkyl substituents at the N-2 position of the tetrazole ring. The new Ru (II) complexes with general formula [Ru (PTZ-R) ₃ ] ²⁺ and [Ru (QTZ-R) ₃ ] ²⁺ , were obtained as mixtures of facial (fac) and meridional (mer) isomers, as suggested by NMR (¹H, ¹³C) experiments, and confirmed in the case of mer-[Ru (QTZ-Me) ₃ ] ²⁺ , by X-ray crystallography. The photophysical behavior of the tetrazole-based [Ru(N^N) ₃ ] ²⁺ type species was investigated by UV–vis absorption spectroscopy, providing trends typical of polypyridyl Ru (II) complexes. The new homoleptic complexes fac/mer- [Ru (PTZ-R) ₃ ] ²⁺ and fac/mer- [Ru (QTZ-R) ₃ ] ²⁺ have been assessed for any eventual antimicrobial activity towards two different bacteria such as Gram-negative Escherichia coli and Gram-positive Deinococcus radiodurans. Whereas being inactive toward E. coli, the response of agar disks diffusion tests suggested that some of the new fac/mer Ru (II) complexes could inhibit the growth of D. radiodurans. This effect was further investigated by determining the growth kinetics in liquid medium of D. radiodurans exposed to the fac/mer- [Ru (PTZ-R) ₃ ] ²⁺ and fac/mer- [Ru (QTZ-R) ₃ ] ²⁺ complexes at different concentrations. The outcome of these experiments highlighted that the turn-on of the growth inhibitory effect took place as the linear hexyl chain was appended to the PTZ or QTZ scaffold, suggesting also how the inhibitory activity appeared more pronouncedly exerted by the facial isomers fac- [Ru (PTZ-Hex) ₃ ] ²⁺ and fac- [Ru (QTZ-Hex) ₃ ] ²⁺ (MIC = ca. 3.0 μg/ml) with respect to the corresponding meridional isomers (MIC = ca. 6.0 μg/ml).     

Microwave assisted free radical cyclisation of alkenyl and alkynyl isocyanides with thiols

Alkenyl and alkynyl isocyanides were synthesised and then reacted, using microwave flash-heating technology, with thiophenol, 2-mercaptoethanol and ethanethiol, in the presence of a radical initiator, to give highly functionalised pyrrolines and pyroglutamates. Direct comparison with results obtained using traditional heating techniques showed the advantage of using the microwave technology in terms of faster reactions and better yields.     

Expression of AMPA and NMDA receptor subunits in the cervical spinal cord of wobbler mice

Background  

The localisation of AMPA and NMDA receptor subunits was studied in a model of degeneration of cervical spinal motoneurons, the wobbler mouse. Cervical regions from early or late symptomatic wobbler mice (4 or 12 weeks of age) were compared to lumbar tracts (unaffected) and to those of healthy mice.     

Femtosecond dynamics of Co thin films on Si support

The ultrafast electron and spin dynamics of Co films was investigated using a femto-second pump-probe technique. The samples were magnetically characterized by means of magnetooptical Kerr effect and non-optical magnetometers, i.e. superconductive quantum interference device and alternating gradient field magnetometer. Time evolution of both, Kerr rotation and ellipticity, was measured at different points of the static hysteresis cycle. This allowed separating magnetic and non-magnetic contributions to the signal. The sample magnetization was found to drop within 200 fs, following the pulse cross-correlation trace, while the magnetization recovery time was found to last few picoseconds.     

Contractions on a manifold polarized by an ample vector bundle

A complex manifold of dimension together with an ample vector bundle on it will be called a generalized polarized variety. The adjoint bundle of the pair is the line bundle . We study the positivity (the nefness or ampleness) of the adjoint bundle in the case . If this was previously done in a series of papers by Ye and Zhang, by Fujita, and by Andreatta, Ballico and Wisniewski.

If is nef then, by the Kawamata-Shokurov base point free theorem, it supports a contraction; i.e. a map from onto a normal projective variety with connected fiber and such that , for some ample line bundle on . We describe those contractions for which . We extend this result to the case in which has log terminal singularities. In particular this gives Mukai's conjecture 1 for singular varieties. We consider also the case in which for every fiber and is birational.

     

Initial nucleation of platinum clusters after reduction of K(2)PtCl(4) in aqueous solution: a first principles study

The initial nucleation of platinum clusters after the reduction of K(2)PtCl(4) in aqueous solution is studied by means of first principles molecular dynamics simulations. A reaction mechanism leading to a Pt dimer is revealed both by gas-phase simulations and by simulations which model the solution environment. The key step of the observed reaction process is the formation of a Pt-Pt bond between a Pt(I) complex and an unreduced Pt(II) complex. In light of this result, we discuss the reduction process leading to the formation of platinum nanoparticles. In the generally accepted model, the nucleation of Pt particles starts only when a critical concentration of Pt(0) atoms is reached. Here, we discuss a complementary mechanism where metal-metal bonds form between Pt complexes in higher oxidation states. This is consistent with a number of experimental results which show that a high concentration of zerovalent atoms is not necessary to start the nucleation.