Theoretical Encapsulation of Fluorouracil (5-FU) Anti-Cancer Chemotherapy Drug into Carbon Nanotubes (CNT) and Boron Nitride Nanotubes (BNNT)

Introduction: Chemotherapy with anti-cancer drugs is considered the most common approach for killing cancer cells in the human body. However, some barriers such as toxicity and side effects would limit its usage. In this regard, nano-based drug delivery systems have emerged as cost-effective and efficient for sustained and targeted drug delivery. Nanotubes such as carbon nanotubes (CNT) and boron nitride nanotubes (BNNT) are promising nanocarriers that provide the cargo with a large inner volume for encapsulation. However, understanding the insertion process of the anti-cancer drugs into the nanotubes and demonstrating drug-nanotube interactions starts with theoretical analysis. Methods: First, interactions parameters of the atoms of 5-FU were quantified from the DREIDING force field. Second, the storage capacity of BNNT (8,8) was simulated to count the number of drugs 5-FU encapsulated inside the cavity of the nanotubes. In terms of the encapsulation process of the one drug 5-FU into nanotubes, it was clarified that the drug 5-FU was more rapidly adsorbed into the cavity of the BNNT compared with the CNT due to the higher van der Waals (vdW) interaction energy between the drug and the BNNT. Results: The obtained values of free energy confirmed that the encapsulation process of the drug inside the CNT and BNNT occurred spontaneously with the free energies of −14 and −25 kcal·mol⁻¹, respectively. Discussion: However, the lower value of the free energy in the system containing the BNNT unraveled more stability of the encapsulated drug inside the cavity of the BNNT comparing the system having CNT. The encapsulation of Fluorouracil (5-FU) anti-cancer chemotherapy drug (commercial name: Adrucil^®) into CNT (8,8) and BNNT (8,8) with the length of 20 Å in an aqueous solution was discussed herein applying molecular dynamics (MD) simulation.     

Astounding Health Benefits of Jamun (Syzygium cumini) toward Metabolic Syndrome

Syzygium cumini, also called Jamun, or black plum, is an excellent source of bioactive components such as flavonoids, polyphenols, antioxidants, iron, and vitamin C. The Jamun tree is a tropical evergreen blooming plant and is an important medicinal plant from the Myrtaceae family that has been used for a long time in Indian and other traditional medicines across the world. Jamun is mainly cultivated in Asian countries such as Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. Since ancient medicine, it has been utilized to treat a variety of diseases and physiological conditions. Currently, it is mostly used as a medication to treat various metabolic issues, including diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, obesity, etc. Therefore, Jamun could serve a beneficial role against metabolic syndrome (MS). In this work, the latest available scientific literature on Jamun was collected and the clinical trials investigating its effect on diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and hyperlipidemia were analyzed to find out how Jamun could improve the symptoms and biomarkers of MS. Overall, the results of this study found a significant association of Jamun with the prevention and treatment of these biomarkers of MS. In many studies, Jamun showed pharmacological modifications not only in MS but in many other diseases as well. Currently, its utilization as a folk medicine for the treatment of patients with MS is widely acknowledged. Hence, the findings of a large number of clinical studies confirmed the ameliorating effects of Jamun against MS due to its antioxidation, antidiabetic, anti-inflammation anticarcinogenic, and hyperlipidemic effects. More research is still needed to determine and identify the Jamun compounds and to elucidate their mechanisms of action that are responsible for these astounding bioactive properties and health benefits.     

Ultra-Large-Scale Screening of Natural Compounds and Free Energy Calculations Revealed Potential Inhibitors for the Receptor-Binding Domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2

The emergence of immune-evading variants of SARS-CoV-2 further aggravated the ongoing pandemic. Despite the deployments of various vaccines, the acquired mutations are capable of escaping both natural and vaccine-induced immune responses. Therefore, further investigation is needed to design a decisive pharmacological treatment that could efficiently block the entry of this virus into cells. Hence, the current study used structure-based methods to target the RBD of the recombinant variant (Deltacron) of SARS-CoV-2, which was used as a model variant. From the virtual drug screenings of various databases, a total of four hits were identified as potential lead molecules. Key residues were blocked by these molecules with favorable structural dynamic features. The binding free energies further validated the potentials of these molecules. The TBE for MNP was calculated to be −32.86 ± 0.10 kcal/mol, for SANC00222 the TBE was −23.41 ± 0.15 kcal/mol, for Liriodenine the TBE was −34.29 ± 0.07 kcal/mol, while for Carviolin the TBE was calculated to be −27.67 ± 0.12 kcal/mol. Moreover, each complex demonstrated distinct internal motion and a free energy profile, indicating a different strategy for the interaction with and inhibition of the RBD. In conclusion, the current study demands further in vivo and in vitro validation for the possible usage of these compounds as potential drugs against SARS-CoV-2 and its variants.     

Über 3,4-Benzoxanthen, 5. Mitt.: Direkte Substitution des 3,4-Benzoxanthons

Zusammenfassung Direkte Nitrierung und direkte Bromierung von 3,4-Benzoxanthon greift das Molekül in ein und derselben Stellung an, welche jedenfalls nicht Stellung 7 ist.4. Mitt.: Mh. Chem.91, 523 (1960).     

Downstream processing of lactic acid-whey permeate fermentation broths by hollow fiber ultrafiltration

Membrane filtration is a suitable method for cell harvesting and clarification of fermentation broths. Hollow fiber ultrafilters gave essentially 100% rejection ofL. bulgaricus cells from a whey permeate fermentation broth. A combination of low pressures and high velocity generally gave the best permeate flux. Fermentation media components (in this case, from the whey permeate) contributed significantly to fouling. Considering the pressure limitations of the current generation of asymmetric hollow fiber modules and the changes in physical properties of the fermentation broths, a cell concentration of 100–150 g/L could be obtained with the flux still relatively high (above 20LMH), although the chemical compatibility of the membrane module itself under long-term exposure to high acid conditions should be considered.     

Production and partial characterization of extracellular peroxidases produced bystreptomyces avermitilis UAH30

The effect of a number of environmental parameters (pH, temperature, carbon and nitrogen ratio of nutrient) on the production of extracellular peroxidase enzymes byStreptomyces avermitilis UAH30 was examined. Maximum specific peroxidase activity (0.12 U/mg of protein) was obtained after 72 hours of 1 incubation at 45‡C in a minimal salt medium (pH 7.5) containing 0.6% (w/v) yeast extract and 0.6% (w/v) xylan corresponding to a C:N ratio of 4 to 1. A study of the effect of incubation on peroxidase activity showed that the enzyme was stable and active for at least one hour after incubation at 50‡C while at higher temperatures the stability and activity of the peroxidase was reduced such that at 60‡C the peroxidase activity has a half life of 20 min while at 80‡C the half life was reduced to 5 min. The activation energy for deactivation as a result of thermal denaturation of the enzyme was calculated to be 80 ±7 kJ/mol. The optimum pH for the activity occurred between a pH range of 6.5–8.5 with pKa₁ and pKa₂ of 5.1 ±0.1 and 9.7 ±0.1, respectively. The K_m and V_max for the peroxidase activity were determined to be 1.45 mM and 0.31 unit per mg protein respectively using 2,4dicholorophenol (2,4-DCP) as a substrate. Characterization of the peroxidase activity revealed activity against L,3–4 dihydroxyphenylalanine and guaiacol, while no inhibition of peroxidase activity could be detected with the haem inhibitors such as potassium cyanide and sodium azide, suggesting the lack of haem component in the tertiary structure. Aspects of using the crude peroxidase preparation in the pulp and paper industry are discussed.     

Ultra high performance liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry method for the simultaneous determination of phenolic constituents in honey from various floral sources using multiwalled carbon nanotubes as extraction sorbents

An ultra high performance liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry method has been developed for the simultaneous separation, identification and determination of 22 phenolic constituents in honey from various floral sources from Yemen. Solid‐phase extraction was used for extraction of the target phenolic constituents from honey samples, while multiwalled carbon nanotubes were used as solid‐phase adsorbent. The chromatographic separation of all phenolic constituents was performed on a BEH C₁₈ column using a linear gradient elution with a binary mobile phase mixture of aqueous 0.1% formic acid and methanol. The quantitation was carried out in selected ion reaction monitoring acquisition mode. The total amount of phenolic acids, flavonoids and other phenols in each analyzed honey was found in the range of 338–3312, 122–5482 and 2.4–1342 μg/100 g of honey, respectively. 4‐Hydroxybenzoic acid was found to be the major phenolic acid. The main detected flavonoid was chrysin, while cinnamic acid was found to be the major other phenol compound. The regeneration of solid phase adsorbent to be reused and recovery results confirm that the proposed method could be potentially used for the routine analysis of phenolic constituents in honey extract.     

A Lightweight Image Encryption Algorithm Based on Chaotic Map and Random Substitution

Chaotic-maps-based image encryption methods have been a topic of research interest for a decade. However, most of the proposed methods suffer from slow encryption time or compromise on the security of the encryption to achieve faster encryption. This paper proposes a lightweight, secure, and efficient image encryption algorithm based on logistic map, permutations, and AES S-box. In the proposed algorithm, SHA-2 based on the plaintext image, a pre-shared key, and an initialization vector (IV) are used to generate the initial parameters for the logistic map. The logistic map chaotically generates random numbers, which are then used for the permutations and substitutions. The security, quality, and efficiency of the proposed algorithm are tested and analyzed using a number of metrics, such as correlation coefficient, chi-square, entropy, mean square error, mean absolute error, peak signal-to-noise ratio, maximum deviation, irregular deviation, deviation from uniform histogram, number of pixel change rate, unified average changing intensity, resistance to noise and data loss attacks, homogeneity, contrast, energy, and key space and key sensitivity analysis. Experimental results reveal that the proposed algorithm is up to 15.33× faster compared to other contemporary encryption methods.     

Cross-linking of Polymer of Intrinsic Microporosity (PIM-1) via nitrene reaction and its effect on gas transport property

Polymer of Intrinsic Microporosity (i.e. PIM-1) has been crosslinked thermally via nitrene reaction using polyethylene glycol biazide (PEG-biazide) as a crosslinker. The crosslinking temperature was optimized using TGA coupled with FT-IR spectroscopy. The dense membranes containing different ratios of PIM-1 to PEG-biazide were cast from chloroform solution. Crosslinking of PIM-1 renders it insoluble even in excellent solvents for the uncrosslinked polymer. The resulting crosslinked membranes were characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy, TGA and gel content analysis. The influence of crosslinker content on the gas transport properties of PIM-1, its density and fractional free volume (FFV) were investigated. Compared to the pure PIM-1 membrane, the crosslinked PIM-1 membranes showed better gas separation performance especially for CO₂/N₂, CO₂/CH₄ and propylene/propane (C₃H₆/C₃H₈) gas pairs and as well as suppressed penetrant-induced plasticization under high CO₂ pressure.     

Di-photon Higgs signals at the LHC in the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model

The NMSSM contains a Higgs singlet in addition to the two Higgs doublets typical of the MSSM, thus resulting in a total of seven physical Higgs mass states. Therefore, the phenomenology of the NMSSM Higgs sector can differ considerably from that of the MSSM, and there are good prospects of finding in regions of the NMSSM parameter space Higgs signals that cannot be reproduced in the MSSM. We examined here the two-photon decay mode of a Higgs boson and found that up to three neutral Higgs states, heavy and/or light, could be simultaneously observable at the LHC, a possibility precluded to the MSSM. There are also some possibilities that only the lightest NMSSM Higgs boson be detectable via this mode, with a mass beyond the upper limit of the corresponding MSSM state, thus also allowing one to distinguish between the two scenarios. However, in most of the NMSSM parameter space the configurations of the non-minimal model are not very different from those arising in the minimal case.