Isobornylchalcones as Scaffold for the Synthesis of Diarylpyrazolines with Antioxidant Activity

The pyrazoline ring is defined as a “privileged structure” in medicinal chemistry. A variety of pharmacological properties of pyrazolines is associated with the nature and position of various substituents, which is especially evident in diarylpyrazolines. Compounds with a chalcone fragment show a wide range of biological properties as well as high reactivity which is primarily due to the presence of an α, β-unsaturated carbonyl system. At the same time, bicyclic monoterpenoids deserve special attention as a source of a key structural block or as one of the pharmacophore components of biologically active molecules. A series of new diarylpyrazoline derivatives based on isobornylchalcones with different substitutes (MeO, Hal, NO₂, N(Me)₂) was synthesized. Antioxidant properties of the obtained compounds were comparatively evaluated using in vitro model Fe²⁺/ascorbate-initiated lipid peroxidation in the substrate containing brain lipids of laboratory mice. It was demonstrated that the combination of the electron-donating group in the para-position of ring B and OH-group in the ring A in the structure of chalcone fragment provides significant antioxidant activity of synthesized diarylpyrazoline derivatives.     

Failure of immunocompetitive capillary electrophoresis assay to detect disease-specific prion protein in buffy coat from humans and chimpanzees with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

The emergence of a new environmentally caused variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), the result of food-born infection by the causative agent of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), has stimulated research on a practical diagnostic screening test. The immunocompetitive capillary electrophoresis (ICCE) assay has been reported to detect disease-specific, proteinase-resistant prion protein (PrPres) in the blood of scrapie-infected sheep. We have applied this method to blood from CJD-infected chimpanzees and humans. The threshold of detection achieved with our ICCE was 0.6 nM of synthetic peptide corresponding to the prion protein (PrP) C-terminus, and 2 nM of recombinant human PrP at the optimized conditions. However, the test was unable to distinguish between extracts of leucocytes from healthy and CJD-infected chimpanzees, and from healthy human donors and patients affected with various forms of CJD. Thus, the ICCE assay as presently performed is not suitable for use as a screening test in human transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs).     

A very large Rh-Rh bond shortening on excitation of the [Rh2(1,8-diisocyano-p-menthane)4]2+ ion by time-resolved synchrotron X-ray diffraction

A very large Rh-Rh contraction of approximately 0.85 A occurs on excitation of the [Rh(2)(1,8-diisocyano-p-menthane)(4)](2+) ion to its triplet state.     

How well can density functional methods describe hydrogen bonds to pi acceptors?

We employed four newly developed density functional theory (DFT) methods for the calculation of five pi hydrogen bonding systems, namely, H2O-C6H6, NH3-C6H6, HCl-C6H6, H2O-indole, and H2O-methylindole. We report new coupled cluster calculations for HCl-C6H6 that support the experimental results of Gotch and Zwier. Using the best available theoretical and experimental results for all five systems, our calculations show that the recently proposed MPW1B95, MPWB1K, PW6B95, and PWB6K methods give accurate energetic and geometrical predictions for pi hydrogen bonding interactions, for which B3LYP fails and PW91 is less accurate. We recommend the most recent DFT method, PWB6K, for investigating larger pi hydrogen bonded systems, such as those that occur in molecular recognition, protein folding, and crystal packing.     

Mechanism of the oxidation reaction of Cu with N2O via nonadiabatic electron transfer

We treat the present work as an attempt to elucidate the mechanism of the oxidation reaction of the Cu atom by nitrous oxide based on our recent work (Kryachko, E. S.; Vinckier, C.; Nguyen, M. T. J Chem Phys 2001, 114, 7911) on the electron attachment to this molecule. We suggest that the title reaction in its Arrhenius regime occurs via the nonadiabatic electron transfer from Cu to the oxygen atom at the crossing of the potential energy surfaces Cu(4s ²S_1/2) + N₂O(X ¹Σ⁺) and Cu⁺ + N₂O^?, where the latter is linked to the complex N₂O^? originated from the higher‐energy T‐shape N₂O molecule and discovered in the aforementioned work. The calculations performed in the present work using a variety of quantum chemical methods support the proposed model. We also show the existence of other reaction pathways of the title reaction that, we believe, contribute to its non‐Arrhenius behavior observed experimentally at T > 1190 K. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2002     

Novel Ligands Incorporating Phosphinoxide Groups as Particularly Efficient Sensitizers for Lanthanide Emission

Helical molecular assemblies of bile acids and their derivatives were systematically investigated. These molecules have a common asymmetric structure with three different directions, and form characteristic inclusion crystals with the following hierarchical structure. First, such molecules arrange along their helical axes to yield the helical tapes with a definite direction. Second, the helical tapes are combined in a parallel fashion by using their side-chains through hydrogen bonds to produce chiral sheets. Third, the sheets stack together through van der Waals forces in a parallel or antiparallel fashion. Fourth, there exist chiral spaces for including guests among their sheets. Such hierarchical structure enables us to explain a role of the side-chains with different hydrogen bonding groups and length.     

Photochemical activities of polymers with aurone fragment

ABSTRACT

In this work we report preliminary results obtained for methacrylic polymers incorporating aurone side-group as photochemical active molecule. The aurone polymers were obtained by a three-step synthetic approach: (2Z)-6-hydroxy-2-(4-R-benzyliden)-1-benzofuran-3(2H)-ones were synthesized by using condensation reation of 6-hydroxybenzofuran-3-one with benzaldehydes; then methacrylate monomers were synthesized by reaction the alcohols with methacryloyl chloride; and the polymers were synthesized by free radical polymerization. Polymers were characterized by ¹HNMR spectroscopy and DSC techniques. Their physicochemical properties are determined by absorption, fluorescence excitation and emission spectroscopies.     

Magnetic-Field-Controlled Quantum Critical Points in the Triangular Antiferromagnetic Cs2CuCl4-xBrx Mixed System

The triangular antiferromagnetic Cs₂CuCl_4-xBr_x mixed system is studied by neutron single-crystal diffraction in magnetic field. It shows a rich magnetic phase diagram consisting of four regimes depending on the Br concentration and is characterized by different exchange coupling mechanisms. For the investigated compositions from regime I (0 < x ≤ 1.5), a critical magnetic field B_c is found for a Br concentration x = 0.8 at B_c = 8.10(1) T and for x = 1.1 at B_c = 7.73(1) T and from regime IV (3.2 < x < 4) for x = 3.3 at B_c = 0.99(3) T. For magnetic fields larger than the respective B_c, magnetic superlattice reflections of these compounds are not found. The incommensurate magnetic wave vector q = (0, 0.470, 0) appears below the ordering temperature T_N = 0.51(1) K for Cs₂CuCl_3.2Br_0.8, and q = (0, 0.418, 0) below T_N = 1.00(6) K for Cs₂CuCl_0.3Br_3.7. Neutron diffraction experiments at around 60 mK for x = 3.7 in a magnetic field show the critical magnetic field at B_c = 7.94(16) T and the formation of the second magnetic phase at around 8.5 T depending on the temperature. Inelastic neutron scattering experiments for the compound from regime III (2 < x ≤ 3.2) with x = 2.2 show dynamical correlations at a temperature around 50 mK giving evidence for a spin liquid phase.     

Modification of the lie‐algebraic scheme and approximation error estimations

A new modification of the the Lie‐algebraic scheme for solving partial differential equations with initial and boundary conditions based on constructing quasirepresentations of the Heisenberg‐Weyl algebra operators involving boundary conditions is proposed. Approximation errors for the modified scheme are evaluated. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Ce20Mg19Zn81: a new structure type with a giant cubic cell

Icosacerium nonadecamagnesium henoctacontazinc, Ce₂₀Mg₁₉Zn₈₁, synthesized by fritting of the pure elements with subsequent arc melting, crystallizes with an unusually large cubic unit cell [space group F3m, a = 21.1979 (8) Å] and represents a new structure type among the technologically important family of ternary rare earth–transition metal–magnesium intermetallics. The majority of atoms (two Ce and five Zn) display .3m site symmetry, two Ce and one Mg atom occupy three 2.mm positions, one Mg and one Zn have 3m site symmetry, one Mg and three Zn atoms sit in ..m positions, and one Zn atom is in a general position. The Ce₂₀Mg₁₉Zn₈₁ structure can be described using the geometric concept of nested polyhedral units, by which it consists of four different polyhedral units, viz.A (Zn+Zn₄+Zn₄+Zn₁₂+Ce₆), B (Mg+Zn₁₂+Ce₄+Zn₂₄+Ce₄), C (Zn₄+Zn₁₂+Mg₆) and D (Zn₄+Zn₄+Mg₁₂+Ce₆), with the outer construction unit being an octahedron or tetrahedron. All interatomic distances in the structure indicate metallic‐type bonding.