Meeting Report: UK SR User Meeting

Diamond Light Source was delighted to welcome more than 250 delegates to the annual UK SR User Meeting on September 12–13, 2006. Trevor Rayment, of Birmingham University and chair of the UK SR Forum, welcomed delegates to the proceedings and invited Gerd Materlik, the CEO of Diamond, to give his progress report on Diamond.     

Synthesis of Depo‐Medrol–chitosan hydrogel as new drug slow‐release appliance and investigation of release kinetics by high‐performance liquid chromatography

The present study deals with preparation and optimization of a novel chitosan hydrogel‐based matrix by suspension cross‐linking method for controlled release of Depo‐Medrol. The controlled release of Depo‐Medrol for effective Rheumatoid arthritis disease has become an imperative field in the drug delivery system. In this context, it was intended to optimize loading circumstances by experimental design and also study the release kinetics of Depo‐Medrol entrapped in the chitosan matrix in order to obtain maximal efficiency for drug loading. The optimum concentrations of chitosan (2.5 g), glutaraldehyde (3.05 μL) and Depo‐Medrol (0.1 mg) were set up to achieve the highest value of drug loaded and the most sustained release from the chitosan matrix. In vitro monitoring of drug release kinetic using high‐performance liquid chromatography showed that 73% of the Depo‐Medrol was released within 120 min, whereas remained drug was released during the next 67 h. High correlation between first‐order and Higuchi's kinetic models indicates a controlled diffusion of Depo‐Medrol through the surrounding media. Moreover, recovery capacity >82% and entrapment efficiency of 58–88% were achieved under optimal conditions. Therefore, the new synthesized Depo Medrol–chitosan is an applicable appliance for arthritis therapy by slow release mechanism. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Facile synthesis of highly substituted 2-pyrone derivatives via a tandem Knoevenagel condensation/lactonization reaction of β-formyl-esters and 1,3-cyclohexadiones

A mild and efficient tandem process for the synthesis of new highly substituted 2-pyrones starting from commercially available 2-arylacetic acids has been developed. The synthesis is based on the Knoevenagel condensation of 1,3-cyclohexadiones with various β-formyl-esters, followed by lactonization in the presence of nano ZnO (20 mol %). Moderate to high yields and readily available cheap starting materials are the key features of the present method.     

Investigation and comparison of biological effects of regioselectively synthesized thiazole derivatives

In this study, anticancer, antibacterial (against hospital-isolated antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli strains), antifungal, and antioxidant effects of synthesized heterocyclic compounds 5 and 7 containing thiazole core were examined. Cytotoxicity testing was utilized against MCF-7 breast cancer cells via MTT cell viability assay. Antibacterial and antifungal activities were checked out according to Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines, and antioxidant properties were evaluated through scavenging 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radicals. Results showed the viability of breast cancer cell lines was reliant on concentration of heterocycles and time of incubation. Synthetic compounds exhibited excellent antibacterial and antifungal properties base on their minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC), and minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) values as well as high antioxidant activities according to their IC₅₀ values. Higher anticancer and antibacterial properties were observed with compound 7; on the contrary, thiazole 5 had better antioxidant effects. They can be introduced as potent antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anticancer agents.     

MODELISATION DE MACROCYCLES BICY CLOPHOSPHORANIQUES

Abstract

La modélisation de 14 macrocycles bicyclophosphoraniques des types I, II et III a été réussie à l'aide du programme Biosym. V95 basé sur le champ de forces ESFF et utilisant les deux modules Insight II et Discover 3.

Molecular modeling of 14 bicyclophosphoranic macrocycles I, II and III has been carried out using Biosym V95 program based on the ESFF forcefield and including the modules Insight II and Discover 3.     

A uniformly well-conditioned, unfitted Nitsche method for interface problems

A finite element method for elliptic partial differential equations that allows for discontinuities along an interface not aligned with the mesh is presented. The solution on each side of the interface is separately expanded in standard continuous, piecewise-linear functions, and jump conditions at the interface are weakly enforced using a variant of Nitsche’s method. In our method, the solutions on each side of the interface are extended to the entire domain which results in a fixed number of unknowns independent of the location of the interface. A stabilization procedure is included to ensure well-defined extensions. We prove that the method provides optimal convergence order in the energy and the L ² norms and a condition number of the system matrix that is independent of the position of the interface relative to the mesh. Numerical experiments confirm the theoretical results and demonstrate optimal convergence order also for the pointwise errors.