Self-assembly of Ag nanoparticle-biotin composites into long fiberlike microstructures

An end-to-end assembly of spherical Ag nanoparticles takes place in the presence of biotin to form long fiberlike microstructures. These microstructures are about 4 mum long with a thickness of 1 mum, obtained from SEM studies. TEM studies showed the presence of spherical silver nanoparticles having an average size of 20 nm. ATR-FTIR studies revealed that silver ions interact with biotin involving the carboxylate group. A weak binding of the silver particles with the thioether and ureido groups helps in connecting the Ag nanoparticles to form long fiberlike structures. Elucidation of the mechanism of formation of the spherical Ag clusters was done by pulse radiolysis.     

"Click chemistry" inspired synthesis of pseudo-oligosaccharides and amino acid glycoconjugates

[reaction: see text] Various pseudo-oligosacchardies and amino acid glycoconjugates were synthesized via an intermolecular 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition ("click") reaction using easily accessible carbohydrate and amino acid derived azides and alkynes as building blocks. It is pertinent to mention that the conjugation reaction is highly regioselective and high yielding and can be carried out under mild reaction conditions.     

Propargyl glycosides as stable glycosyl donors: anomeric activation and glycoside syntheses

The advantages of stable glycosyl donors for saccharide coupling are many, and we describe herein the utility of propargyl glycosides for anomeric activation and glycoside synthesis exploiting the alkynophilicity of AuCl3. Various aglycones were reacted with propargyl glycosides, resulting in the formation of an alpha,beta-mixture of glycosides and disaccharides in good yields.     

Sensitive extractive spectrophotometric methods for the determination of trazodone hydrochloride in pharmaceutical formulations

Two simple, rapid and sensitive extractive spectrophotometric methods have been developed for the assay of trazodone hydrochloride (TRH) in pure and pharmaceutical formulations. These methods are based on the formation of chloroform soluble ion-association complexes of TRH with bromothymol blue (BTB) and with bromocresol purple (BCP) in KCl-HCl buffer of pH 2.0 (for BTB) and in NaOAc-AcOH buffer of pH of 3.6 (for BCP) with absorption maximum at 423 nm and at 408 nm for BTB and BCP, respectively. Reaction conditions were optimized to obtain the maximum color intensity. The absorbance was found to increase linearly with increase in concentration of TRH, which was corroborated by the calculated correlation coefficient values (0.9996, 0.9945). The systems obeyed Beer's law in the range of 0.2-14.5 and 0.2-14.1 microg/ml for BTB and BCP, respectively. Various analytical parameters have been evaluated and the results have been validated by statistical data. No interference was observed from common excipients present in pharmaceutical formulations. The proposed methods are simple, accurate and suitable for quality control applications.     

Concise total synthesis of the marine natural product ageladine A

A total synthesis of ageladine A has been achieved by exploiting a Pictet-Spengler-type condensation between 2-aminohistamine and 4,5-dibromo-2-formylpyrrole as the key step.     

Improved and rapid synthesis of new coumarinyl chalcone derivatives and their antiviral activity

Two closely structurally related coumarins, 4-hydroxy-8-isopropyl-5-methylcoumarin and 4-hydroxy-6-chloro-7-methylcoumarin were acylated at C-3 and further converted to the respective chalcones and two series of eighteen new compounds, which were evaluated for possible antiviral activity.     

Photoredox mediated CN cross coupling of sulfoximines with aryl iodides

A new photoredox-catalyzed CN coupling reaction of sulfoximines with aryl halides has been developed for a general N-arylation of sulfoximines. The reactions proceed in the presence of visible light with high levels of chemoselectivity and a wide range of functionality is tolerated. There is a rapidly increasing interest in sulfoximines as pharmacophores in drug discovery and this new method offers potential in terms of high functional group tolerance and late-stage functionalization of compounds.     

Laser-induced changes in silver metal nanoparticles incorporated in viscous media

The effect of laser pulse irradiation on silver metal nanoparticles in ethylene glycol and glycerol is studied and compared with the parallel processes in aqueous solutions. The influence of 355 nm laser pulse irradiation at the surface plasmon frequency and on the size of the silver nanoparticles is examined by UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy and by transmission electron microscopy. It appears that viscosity of the medium plays a crucial role for the stabilization of the melted particles in the absence of the stabilizer. In ethylene glycol containing PVP, fragmentation of particles was observed. In neat glycerol, similar excitation led to morphological changes as the nanoparticles fused to produce particles of larger size. The changes in reduction of shape and size are considered to occur through melting and vaporization of the silver nanoparticles.     

The impossibility of heavy neutrino dark matter in the Littlest Higgs Model with T-parity: Constraints from direct search

We consider the Littlest Higgs Model with T-parity (LHT), in the parameter region where a heavy neutrino is the lightest T-odd particle (LTP). Having emphasized that this corresponds to a sizable region in the parameter space of the theory, we show that both the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) and Xenon10 experiments disallow the entire region where the masses of the new particles in LHT can lie within several TeV. Therefore, any observation of the signals of a heavy neutrino LTP is likely to seriously reopen the issue of cold dark matter in the universe.