Neocinnamomum caudatum Essential Oil Ameliorates Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Inflammation and Oxidative Stress in RAW 264.7 Cells by Inhibiting NF-κB Activation and ROS Production

Neocinnamomum caudatum (Lauraceae) plant is used in the traditional system of medicine and is considered a potential source of edible fruits, spices, flavoring agents and biodiesel. The leaves, bark and roots of the species are used by local communities for the treatment of inflammatory responses, such as allergies, sinusitis and urinary tract infections. However, there is no scientific evidence to support the molecular mechanism through which this plant exerts its anti-inflammatory effect. The aim of the current research was to characterize the chemical constituents of bark (NCB) and leaf (NCL) essential oil of N. caudatum and to elucidate its anti-inflammatory action in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-treated RAW 264.7 cells. Essential oils extracted by hydrodistillation were further subjected to gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. The major constituents in bark essential oil identified as β-pinene (13.11%), α-cadinol (11.18%) and α-pinene (10.99%), whereas leaf essential oil was found to be rich in β-pinene (45.21%), myrcene (9.97%) and α-pinene (9.27%). Treatment with NCB and NCL at a concentration of 25 µg/mL exerted significant anti-inflammatory activity by significantly reducing LPS-triggered nitric oxide (NO) production to 45.86% and 61.64%, respectively, compared to the LPS-treated group. In the LPS-treated group, the production of proinflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-1β, decreased after treatment with essential oil, alleviating the mRNA levels of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase (COX)-2. The essential oil also inhibited the production of intracellular ROS and attenuated the depletion of mitochondrial membrane potential in a concentration-dependent manner. Pretreatment with NCB also reduced nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB)/p65 translocation and elevated the levels of endogenous antioxidant enzymes in LPS-induced macrophages. The present findings, for the first time, demonstrate the anti-inflammatory potential of both bark and leaf essential oils of N. caudatum. The bark essential oil exhibited a significantly more important anti-inflammatory effect than the leaf essential oil and could be used as a potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of inflammatory diseases.     

Correction: Expanding medicinal chemistry into 3D space: metallofragments as 3D scaffolds for fragment-based drug discovery

Correction for ‘Expanding medicinal chemistry into 3D space: metallofragments as 3D scaffolds for fragment-based drug discovery’ by Christine N. Morrison et al., Chem. Sci., 2020, 11, 1216–1225, https://doi.org/10.1039/C9SC05586J.

The authors regret that in the original article, inhibitory values reported for some metallofragments were incorrect. Unfortunately, DMSO stock solutions of reportedly active ferrocene-based metallofragments were found to decompose in the presence of light, which resulted in inaccurate inhibition values. The authors maintain that the core conclusions of the paper are accurate and the utility of three-dimensional metal complexes for fragment-based drug discovery has merit.In the original article, ‘class A’ metallofragments are comprised of ferrocene derivatives (Fig. 1). Some of these ferrocene fragments (specifically those containing carbonyl groups) are reported as broadly inhibiting several protein targets. It was noted in our original report that the ferrocene scaffold was likely promiscuous due to its lipophilicity and potential redox activity, but that it might still serve as a useful metallofragment for fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) campaigns. However, re-evaluation of these compounds against the influenza endonuclease (PA_N) failed to reproduce our original inhibition results for the class A metallofragments using freshly prepared stocks, indicating a problem with the materials used in the original study.Open in a separate windowFig. 1Chemical structures of class A metallofragments.Several compounds from class A were originally reported as having near complete (100%) inhibition against PA_N endonuclease at an inhibitor concentration of 200 μM (​and2).2). However, when re-evaluated under identical conditions, using freshly prepared DMSO stock solutions, inhibition was only observed with one fragment of this class (A22, Fig. 1), with the previously reported highly active fragments (A4, A7–A21,

Die Hydrolyse von Ammoniumsalzen in Gegenwart von Jodiden und Jodaten

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

New measurements of Cabibbo-suppressed decays of mesons with the CLEO-c detector

Using of data collected with the CLEO-c detector, we report on first observations and measurements of Cabibbo-suppressed decays of D mesons in the following six decay modes: pi+ pi- pi0 pi0, pi+ pi+ pi- pi- pi0, pi+ pi0 pi0, pi+ pi+ pi- pi0, eta pi0, and omega pi+ pi-. Improved branching fraction measurements in eight other multipion decay modes are also presented. The measured D --> pi pi rates allow us to extract the ratio of isospin amplitudes A(DeltaI = (3/2) / A(DeltaI = (1/2)) = 0.420 +/- 0.014(stat) +/- 0.016(syst) and the strong phase shift of delta1 = (86.4 +/- 2.8 +/- 3.3) degrees, which is quite large and now more precisely determined.     

Synthesis, structure, and spectroscopy of phenylacetylenylene rods incorporating meso-substituted dipyrrin ligands

The synthesis, structure, and spectroscopic characterization of a series of phenylacetylenylene rodlike molecules containing dipyrromethene (dipyrrin) ligands are described. The combination of the phenylacetylenylene groups with the porphyrinogenic dipyrrin moieties results in a rich absorption spectroscopy for these compounds, although the fluorescence of the phenylacetylenylene moiety is quenched by presence of the dipyrrin chelator. The Cu(2+) and Fe(3+) complexes of these ligands have been prepared and three of these compounds have been structurally characterized by using single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Unlike other octahedral metal-dipyrrin complexes described to date, one of the iron complexes demonstrates ideal threefold symmetry in the solid-state. The elongated structure and high symmetry of these complexes suggests the use of these meso-substituted phenylacetylenylene ligands as an interesting class of extended, branched molecules for the construction of supramolecular architectures.     

Self-assembly of heteroleptic [Cu(dipyrrinato)(hfacac)] complexes directed by fluorine-fluorine interactions

Heteroleptic copper(II) complexes were synthesized from three different meso-substituted pyridyl- and quinoline-dipyrrinato ligands (3-pyrdpm, 3-quindpm, and 4-quindpm). Metal complexes were prepared with both acetylacetonate (acac) and hexafluoroacetylactonate (hfacac) ancillary ligands. The complexes undergo a self-complementary self-assembly process upon crystallization to generate a range of solid-state topologies including one-dimensional coordination polymers and discrete hexameric rings. The self-assembly of these molecular aggregates is driven by metal-ligand bonding, but is also modulated by fluorine-fluorine interactions. Perfluorination of the spectator ligand tends to generate more compact structures, which is attributed to aggregation of the perfluoromethyl groups. The results presented here demonstrate that fluorine-fluorine contacts can be used to modulate supramolecular structures in the solid state.     

Solvent relaxation of a room-temperature ionic liquid [bmim][PF6] confined in a ternary microemulsion

In this paper we have reported the solvent and rotational relaxation of 1-butyl-3-methyl-imidazolium hexafluorophosphate ([bmim][PF₆]) confined in tween 20/([bmim][PF₆]/water microemulsion using coumarin 153 (C-153) as probe. The most interesting feature of our experiment was that we observed an increase in solvent relaxation time with increase in R (R = tween 20-to-[bmim][PF₆] molar ratio). This is due to the fact that with increase in [bmim][PF₆] content of the microemulsions, the microviscosity of the pool of the microemulsions increases, and motion of ions of [bmim][PF₆] is hindered in the pool of microemulsions. Since motion of ions is responsible for solvation in room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs), solvent-relaxation time increases with increase in R.     

Large relativistic effects in molecular properties of the hydride of superheavy element 111

Relativistic and electron correlation contributions in the hydride of the recently discovered superheavy element 111 were studied using ab-initio methods within different relativistic approaches. Relativistic effects decrease the (111)H bond distance by 0.42 Å. As a result of this large bond contraction, the bond distance of (111)H (1.51 Å) is comparable to that of the hydride of its lighter congener AuH (1.52 Å), but below that of AgH (1.60 Å). The dissociation energy is relativistically increased by approximately 1.2 eV and the stretching force constant is more than quadrupled from 1.1 mdyn/Å at the nonrelativistic level to 5.0 mdyn/Å at the relativistic level.