Unsaturated four-membered N-heterocycles: From synthesis to applications

The ubiquity of strained motifs in drug discovery has recently witnessed a large regain of interest, as such scaffold can be used to modulate the properties of drug candidates. Unsaturated N-containing four-membered heterocycles present unique opportunities to access functionalized azetidines, which play an essential role in pharmacological studies. Even though those unsaturated patterns have been much less reported than the corresponding saturated versions, the consequent impact that those structures could have on molecular design with implementation of strained modules deserves to be summarized. In this review, synthetic accesses to substituted azetes, 1-azetines and 2-azetines are depicted, as well as their involvement in further transformations.     

A novel method for serum lipoprotein profiling using high performance capillary isotachophoresis

A new capillary isotachophoresis (cITP) method for lipoprotein profiling with superior lipoprotein coverage compared to previous methods has been developed, resolving twice as many lipoprotein species (18 peaks/fractions) in serum or plasma in less than 9.5 min. For this, a novel mixture of 24 spacers, including amino acids, dipeptides and sulfonic acids, was developed and fine-tuned, using predictive software (PeakMaster) and testing of spiked serum samples. Lipoprotein peaks were identified by serum-spiking with reference lipoproteins. Compatibility with common lipophilic stains for selective lipoprotein detection with either UV/Vis or laser-induced fluorescence was demonstrated. A special new capillary with a neutral coating (combining water-compatible OV1701-OH deactivation and methylation) was used for the first time for electrodriven separations, allowing very stable separations in a pH 8.8–9.4 gradient system, being functional for more than 100 injections. Excellent reproducibility was achieved, with coefficients of variation lower than 2.6% for absolute migration times. Comparison was performed with human plasma samples analyzed by NMR, leading to similar results with cITP after multivariate statistics, regarding group-clustering and lipoprotein species correlation. The new cITP method was applied to the analysis of serum samples from a LDL receptor knock-out mice model fed either a normal diet or a western-type diet. Differences in the lipoprotein levels and in the sublipoprotein types were detected, showing a shift to more atherogenic particles due to the high cholesterol diet. In summary, this novel method will allow more detailed and informative profiling of lipoprotein particle subtypes for cardiovascular disease research.     

Die Bestimmung von Lysozym mit einerDiffusionsmethode

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Trace fluoride determination with specific ion electrode

A method is described for determining 10^-5–10^-4M fluoride in a variety of solutions potentiometrically with a fluoridc-specific electrode, by a standard addition method. Any change of ionic strength or the nature of the solution that might alter activity coefficients or junction potentials is minimized. The relationship between potential and fluoride concentration thus follows the Nernst equation, and the unknown concentration can be calculated. Experimental data are given for solutions of sodium choride, sodium nitrate, acidified sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide, lithium chloride, and phosphoric acid. Metal ions (e.g., Al³⁺, UO₂²⁺, Fe³⁺, Th⁴⁺) that interfere by forming complexes with fluoride can be precomplexed with phosphoric acid. The relative error is estimated at 10%, and the relative standard deviation is less than 5% over the concentration range 10^-5–10^-4M fluoride.