Developing a structure-function relationship for anionic porphyrazines exhibiting selective anti-tumor activity

The porphyrazines (pzs) are a class of porphyrin derivatives being studied for their use as optical imaging agents and photodynamic therapy (PDT) anti-tumor agents. A previous study revealed that the anionic pz, 18--of the form H2[pz(An;B4-n)], where A is [S(CH2)3CO2-], B is a fused beta',beta'-diisopropyloxy benzo group, with n=2 (trans)--selectively killed tumor cells, while analogous neutral and positively charged pzs lacked this property. In this report, we compare the properties of a suite of three H2[pz(An;B4-n)] pzs containing the same A and B groups as 18, but differing in their values of n: pzs 4 (n=4) and 11 (n=3), and 18 (n=2, trans) exhibit a progressive variation in charge due to the carboxylates, balance between hydrophobic/hydrophilic character, as well as a progressive variation in the singlet oxygen quantum yield (PhiDelta): PhiDelta (18)>PhiDelta (11)>PhiDelta (4). The biological activity of the pzs was tested in human lung carcinoma (A549) and SV40 transformed embryonic (WI-38 VA13) cell lines. Pzs 4 and 11 exhibited significant toxicity in both tumor and normal cells, while 18 showed selective anti-tumor cell activity in a dose-dependent manner. As the number of net negative charges decreased, the compounds became less toxic to normal cells, and the killing effect observed with these compounds was light independent. These observations indicate that the toxicity may have little to do with singlet oxygen quantum yields, but rather is more dependent on the net number of negative charges a pz contains. The study reported herein presents an example of how the porphyrazines can be easily modified to vary their biological behavior and specifically suggest that anionic porphyrazines pzs with lower n (fewer carboxylates, larger hydrophobic core) are more specific tumor killers, while those with larger n (increased net negative charge) are more potent tumor killers.     

On factorization of polynomials in henselian valued fields

Guàrdia, Montes and Nart generalized the well-known method of Ore to find complete factorization of polynomials with coe?cients in finite extensions of p-adic numbers using Newton polygons of higher order (cf. [Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 364 (2012), 361–416]). In this paper, we develop the theory of higher order Newton polygons for polynomials with coe?cients in henselian valued fields of arbitrary rank and use it to obtain factorization of such polynomials. Our approach is different from the one followed by Guàrdia et al. Some preliminary results needed for proving the main results are also obtained which are of independent interest.     

Template-engineered metal macrocyclic complexes: Synthesis and biological activity

Three new azamacrocylic complexes of divalent transition-metal ions were synthesized by taking Co(II), Ni(II), and Cu(II) metal ions as templates. The macrocyclic ligand (1²Z,5²Z,5⁴E)-1¹,1²,1³,1⁴,1⁵,1⁶,5¹,5²,5³,5⁴,5⁵,5⁶-dodecahydro-2,4,6,8-tetraaza-1 (2,4),5(4,2)-pyrimidine-3,7(1,2)-dibenzenacyclooctaphane-1⁶,5⁶-dione was derived from o-phenylenediamine (OPD) and 2-thiobarbituric acid (TBA). All the complexes were fully characterized through spectroscopic techniques and elemental analyses. The structures of the macrocyclic complexes were determined by IR, UV–vis, ESI-MS, TGA, molar conductance, magnetic moment, and electron spin resonance data. On the basis of the above studies, the complexes may be formulated as [MLX₂], in which L is a macrocyclic ligand and X = CH₃COO⁻. All the macrocyclic complexes were biologically screened to evaluate their antimicrobial efficacy. DNA binding study of two representative complexes was performed by UV–vis titrations.     

Role of electron correlation in the polydeprotonation of benzene to form trianions

Computations for anion, dianions, and trianions of benzene are carried out to study the role of electron correlation in the polydeprotonation of benzene leading to benzene trianions both in the singlet and triplet states. The computations, while assessing the use of polarization and diffuse functions, are performed with Møller–Plesset second‐order (MP2) perturbation theory and coupled‐cluster theory up to the level of CCSD(T)/6‐311++G(d,p)//MP2/6‐311++G(d,p), and with density functional theory (DFT) employing a hybrid, B3LYP, and a meta‐hybrid, M05‐2X, exchange‐correlation functionals with Gaussian basis set 6‐311++G(d,p) and correlation consistent basis set aug‐cc‐pVDZ. The deprotonation energies, including zero‐point energy correction, of benzene anion and dianions are found to be highly sensitive to the quantum mechanical method and the basis set used. The formation of dianions and trianions, where the anionic centers lie adjacent to each other, is observed with unusual behavior in the deprotonation energy and the geometrical parameters obtained from the different level of the theories. The two exchange‐correlation functionals compared show contrasting and unusual results for the trianionic species particularly for the triplet states, even if the diffuse functions are included in the basis set. Besides this, the ortho‐dianion and 1,3,5‐trianion are predicted to be ground‐state triplet at CCSD(T)/6‐311++G(d,p)//MP2/6‐311++G(d,p) and DFT/M05‐2X/6‐311++G(d,p) levels, whereas DFT/B3LYP/6‐311++G(d,p) predicts meta‐dianion and 1,2,3‐trianion to be ground‐state triplet where all the anionic centers lie adjacent to each other. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.