Smart Approach for In Situ One‐Step Encapsulation and Controlled Delivery of a Chemotherapeutic Drug using Metal–Organic Framework–Drug Composites in Aqueous Media

Controlled release of an anticancer drug, doxorubicin (dox), from metal–organic framework (MOF)–drug composites is demonstrated under different external stimuli. 1,3,5‐Benzenetricarboxylic acid (H₃BTC) is used as an organic ligand, and iron acetate and zinc nitrate are used as metal sources to synthesize Fe–BTC and Zn–BTC MOFs, which are known to be biocompatible. The in situ formation of MOF–drug composites demonstrates high drug loading capacity compared to conventional methods. The present methodology is devoid of any extra steps for loading the drug after synthesis. Moreover, the drug loading is also independent of pore size of the MOF as the drug molecules are embedded inside the MOF during their in situ formation. The drug release was monitored under external stimuli including change to acidic pH and the presence of biocompatible liposomes for a period of more than 72 h. Steady‐state fluorescence spectroscopy is used to monitor the drug release as a function of time and confocal laser scanning microscopy is used to unravel the post‐release fate of doxorubicin in the presence of liposomes. It is found that drug release rate is higher for the Zn–BTC–dox composite than for the Fe–BTC–dox composite. This is attributed to the stronger binding between dox and Fe‐BTC than that between dox and Zn–BTC. This study highlights a novel approach for the preparation of MOF–drug composites in an aqueous medium for future biomedical applications.     

Asymmetric construction of quaternary carbon stereocenters: high stereoselection in Mukaiyama aldol reactions of 2-siloxyindoles with chiral aldehydes

[reaction: see text] A new synthesis of enantiopure 3,3-disubstituted oxindoles by stereoselective Mukaiyama aldol reaction of 3-substituted 2-siloxyindoles and chiral, enantiopure aldehydes having nitrogen or oxygen substituents at the alpha carbon is described. When the C3 substituent of the prochiral nucleophile is aryl or heteroaryl, stereoselectivity is high (10-80:1).     

Cation complexation with p-tert-butylcalix[5]arene pentacarboxylic acid derivative: an allosteric regulation of the first metal ion for stepwise extraction of the second ion

A calix[5]arene based solvent extraction reagent 3, appending carboxylic acid groups at the lower rim, has been developed and its complexation behavior towards some transition metal ions has been studied. The host 3 can selectively and quantitatively extract Pb(II) ions above pH 1.8 while other divalent ions such as Cu(II), Zn(II), Co(II), Ni(II) are extracted quantitatively only above pH 3.0. The outstanding Pb(II) selectivity of 3 comes from the size fit complementarity effect of the Pb(II) ion in the calix[5]arene cavity. One molecule of 3 extracts two Pb(II) ions in a stepwise manner. The first Pb(II) ion is extracted into the deep cavity of the calix[5]arene defined by phenoxy oxygen atoms. The first complexed Pb(II) ion acts as a template to bring the host into a cone conformation and induces a positive allosteric effect for the extraction of the second Pb(II) ion at an oxygen rich coordinating site composed of carboxyl groups. Both the Pb(II) ions are extracted through an ion exchange mechanism and the electroneutral complex in the organic phase is formed by the release of an equivalent number of hydrogen ions into aqueous solution. The loaded Pb(II) is easily back-extracted from Pb(II)-complexed 3 using dilute acid solution.     

ZnO-CNT composite nanotubes as nanoresonators

This Letter reports the very first vibration analysis of the novel composite nanotubes (NTs) synthesized by coating carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with piezoelectric zinc oxide (ZnO). Timoshenko beam theory was used and modified to account for the interlayer van der Waals (vdW) interaction in the inner CNT and hybrid structures of the NTs. The distinctive vibration behaviours of the NTs were captured and the physics behind these unique features was investigated in terms of the critical role of the vdW interaction and the effect of the ZnO coating layer on the structural rigidity of the NTs. The composite NTs are found to be promising for gigahertz/terahertz electromechanical nanoresonators whose frequency can be even higher than that of the core CNTs.     

Dynamic stability of a nonlinear multiple-nanobeam system

Nonlinear Dynamics - We use the incremental harmonic balance (IHB) method to analyse the dynamic stability problem of a nonlinear multiple-nanobeam system (MNBS) within the framework of...     

Extended Born-Oppenheimer equation for a three-state system

We present explicit forms of nonadiabatic coupling (NAC) elements of nuclear Schrodinger equation (SE) for a coupled three-state electronic manifold in terms of mixing angles of real electronic basis functions. If the adiabatic-diabatic transformation (ADT) angles are the mixing angles of electronic bases, ADT matrix transforms away the NAC terms and brings diabatic form of SE. ADT and NAC matrices are shown to satisfy a curl condition with nonzero divergence. We have demonstrated that the formulation of extended Born-Oppenheimer (EBO) equation from any three-state BO system is possible only when there exists a coordinate-independent ratio of the gradients for each pair of mixing angles. On the contrary, since such relations among the mixing angles lead to zero curl, we explore its validity analytically around conical intersection(s) and support numerically considering two nuclear-coordinate-dependent three surface BO models. Numerical calculations are performed by using newly derived diabatic and EBO equations and expected transition probabilities are obtained.     

Bright Vortex Solitons in Bose Condensates

We suggest the possibility of observing and studying bright vortex solitons in attractive Bose-Einstein condensates in three dimensions with a radial trap. Such systems lie on the verge of critical stability and we discuss the conditions of their stability. We study the interaction between two such solitons. Unlike the text-book solitons in one dimension, the interaction between two radially trapped and axially free three-dimensional solitons is inelastic in nature and involves exchange of particles and deformation in shape. The interaction remains repulsive for all phase between them except for 0.