Contamination of therapeutic human immunoglobulin preparations with apolipoprotein H (β2‐glycoprotein I)

Polyclonal immunoglobulin (Ig) concentrates are important biological medicinal products and the assurance of their quality and safety is crucial. In our present approach we used proteomic methods to check the purity of commercial Ig products of different origin. The experimental setup included nonreducing 2DE or DIGE combined with MALDI‐TOF and the thrombin generation assay, a routine safety test for pharmaceutical Ig preparations, and was complemented by a specific immunoassay. 2DE patterns displayed contaminations with trace amounts of human apolipoprotein H (Apo‐H), transferrin, albumin, and its fragments. In contrast to the latter, Apo‐H is a protein that is active in the coagulation cascade, and thus a potential involvement in thromboembolic events in vivo cannot be excluded. It was found by 2DE and MALDI‐TOF to be a contaminant of several Ig preparations. Spiking experiments of Ig preparations with pure Apo‐H demonstrated an Apo‐H concentration dependent increase in thrombin generation assay values. Traces of Apo‐H are possibly also contributing to unwanted side effects, as already known for factor XIa. The significance of Apo‐H contaminations for these side effects might be verified by detailed analyses of pharmacovigilance data.     

A solution procedure for the discrete time, cost and quality tradeoff problem using electromagnetic scatter search

Decisions concerning a project’s expedition, traditionally involved considerations regarding time and cost tradeoff. It was recently suggested that the quality of a project should also be taken into considerations. In this paper, we propose a meta-heuristic solution procedure for the discrete time, cost and quality tradeoff problem. This problem involves the scheduling of project activities in order to minimize the total cost of the project while maximizing the quality of the project and also meeting a given deadline. We apply a so called electromagnetic scatter search to solve this problem. In this process, we initially generate a population of feasible solutions. In so doing, we use frequency memory to well sample the feasible region. A number of these solutions are then selected and improved locally. The improved solutions are then combined to generate new set of solutions. The combination process utilizes attraction–repulsion mechanisms borrowed from the electromagnetism theory. The whole process is stopped when no significant improvement in the set of solutions are observed. The validity of the proposed solution procedure is demonstrated, and its applicability is tested on a randomly generated large and complex problem having 19,900 activities.     

Palladium-catalyzed oxidative C–H bond coupling of indoles and benzaldehydes: a new approach to the synthesis of 3-benzoylindoles

A palladium-catalyzed dehydrogenative acylation of indoles using easily accessible aldehydes as the acyl source is described. This reaction provides a new approach for the synthesis of 3-acylindoles.     

A mild conversion of arylboronic acids and their pinacolyl boronate esters into phenols using hydroxylamine

Hydroxylamine was found to be a mild reagent for conversion of arylboronic acids and their pinacolyl boronate esters into phenols. This procedure works on most arylboronic acids at room temperature, yielding phenols in moderate to good yields, and efficiently on arylboronates also yielding phenols in good yields.     

Role of Zr4+ cations in NO2 adsorption on Ce(1-x)Zr(x)O2 mixed oxides at ambient conditions

Mixed oxides Ce(1-x)Zr(x)O(2) prepared by slow coprecipitation in NaOH were tested for NO(2) adsorption in dynamic conditions at room temperature. The samples were characterized before and after exposure to NO(2) by XRD, N(2)-adsorption, thermal analysis, potentiometric titration, and FT-IR. Mixed oxides show a better NO(2) adsorption capacity than the parent materials (CeO(2) and Zr(OH)(4)). This effect is linked to the presence of reduced cerium and oxygen vacancies induced by the addition of Zr(4+) cations to the structure. The results indicate that NO(2) reacts with Ce(3+) to form nitrite and nitrate species on the surface. The NO retention increases with an increase in the Zr(OH)(4) content. A decrease in the density of -OH groups on the surface after the exposure to NO(2), suggests their involvement in reactive adsorption of NO and/or NO(2). From the structural point of view, no real difference was observed on the Ce(1-x)Zr(x)O(2) materials before and after exposure to NO(2).     

Numerical study of induction heating in melt growth systems—Frequency selection

A set of 2D finite element numerical simulation of induction heating process for an oxide Czochralski crystal growth system has been made for a range of f=1–100 kHz applied frequency of driving current. It was shown that the frequency selection has a marked effect in all basic induction phenomena, including electromagnetic field distribution, skin depth, coil efficiency, and intensity and structure of heating in the growth setup.     

Cu-based atom transfer radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate using a novel tridentate ligand with mixed donor atoms

This study is aimed at atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of methyl methacrylate (MMA) using a novel catalyst. The bis-(2-dodecylsulfanyl-ethyl)-amine (SNS) tridentate ligand with mixed donor atoms was synthesized in high purity using inexpensive reagents and was reacted with copper(I) bromide to produce the CuBr/SNS catalyst. The catalyst mediated living polymerization of MMA yielding polymers with controlled molecular masses and narrow molecular mass distributions (PDI < 1.25). Also, the kinetic plot exhibited a linear increase of ln([M]₀/[M]) versus time, indicating constant concentration of propagating radicals during the polymerization. The products were characterized by ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, FT-IR, UV-VIS, GC and elemental analyses (CHNS) and by GPC.