Synthesis, characterisation and in vitro anti-angiogenic potential of dendron VEGF blockers

To overcome the lack of in vivo stability of certain peptides used in cancer treatment and to increase their retention time in the extracellular matrix of the target tissue, the anti-angiogenic WHLPFKC sequence is synthesised at the uppermost branching generation of a poly(ε-lysine) dendron. The root of these dendrons is designed to interact preferentially with macromolecules of the extracellular matrix, whilst the uppermost branching generation of the dendron increased the exposed density of the bioactive peptide. Bioactivity testing of the blockers is performed on HUVECs. The results show that the dendron tethered with VEGF blockers was still able to inhibit proliferation and angiogenesis. Their relatively larger structure did not prevent the interaction with VEGF.     

Poly(ester urethane) guides for peripheral nerve regeneration

A biocompatible and elastomeric PU was synthesized from low-molecular-weight PCL as macrodiol, CMD as chain extender and HDI as chain linker for applications in the field of peripheral nerve repair. PU cast films supported in vitro attachment and proliferation of NOBEC. The in vitro adhesion and proliferation of S5Y5 neuroblastoma cells on the inner surface of uncoated, gelatin- and PL-coated PU guides were compared. Due to their superior in vitro performance, PL-coated PU guides were tested in vivo for the repair of 1.8 cm-long defects in rat sciatic nerves. The progressive regeneration was confirmed by EMG and histological analysis showing the presence of regenerating fibers in the distal stumps.     

Oil droplet size determination in complex flavor delivery systems by diffusion NMR spectroscopy

Droplet size distribution of flavor oils in two different solid flavor delivery systems were determined with pulsed field gradient NMR spectroscopy: yeast encapsulation system, a spray dried flavor encapsulation system based on empty yeast cells, and glassy encapsulation system, an extruded solid water soluble carbohydrate delivery system. The oil droplet sizes are limited by the yeast cell walls in the yeast encapsulation system and the size distribution is unimodal according to images from transmission electron microscopy. The droplet size determination with diffusion NMR is based on the Murday and Cotts theory of restricted diffusion of liquids in geometrical confinements. Good fits of the diffusion data could be obtained by applying a unimodal, log-normal size distribution model and average droplet sizes of about 2 μm were found that correspond approximately to the inner diameter of the yeast cells. Scanning electron microscopy images showed a multimodal droplet size distribution in the glassy extruded delivery systems. To fit the NMR data a bimodal log-normal distribution function with five independent fitting parameters was implemented that yielded consistent and robust results. The two size populations were found in the micron and sub-micron range, respectively. The method was sufficiently accurate to depict variation of droplet size distributions in glassy encapsulation systems of different formulation.     

Puroindoline-a, a lipid binding protein from common wheat, spontaneously forms prolate protein micelles in solution

The self-assembly in solution of puroindoline-a (Pin-a), an amphiphilic lipid binding protein from common wheat, was investigated by small angle neutron scattering, dynamic light scattering and size exclusion chromatography. Pin-a was found to form monodisperse prolate ellipsoidal micelles with a major axial radius of 112 ± 4.5 ? and minor axial radius of 40.4 ± 0.18 ?. These protein micelles were formed by the spontaneous self-assembly of 38 Pin-a molecules in solution and were stable over a wide pH range (3.5-11) and at elevated temperatures (20-65 °C). Pin-a micelles could be disrupted upon addition of the non-ionic surfactant dodecyl-β-maltoside, suggesting that the protein self-assembly is driven by hydrophobic forces, consisting of intermolecular interactions between Trp residues located within a well-defined Trp-rich domain of Pin-a.     

Existence and regularity for a chemotaxis model involved in the modeling of multiple sclerosis

We study in this work the global existence of solutions to a system of reaction cross diffusion equations appearing in the modeling of multiple sclerosis, in the one-dimensional case. Weak solutions are obtained for general initial data, and existence, uniqueness, stability and smoothness are proven when initial data are smooth.

     

How Does Diet Influence Our Lives? Evaluating the Relationship between Isotopic Signatures and Mortality Patterns in Italian Roman Imperial and Medieval Periods

The present research investigates the relationship between dietary habits and mortality patterns in the Roman Imperial and Medieval periods. The reconstructions of population dynamics and subsistence strategies provide a fascinating source of information for understanding our history. This is particularly true given that the changes in social, economic, political, and religious aspects related to the transition from the Roman period to the Middle Ages have been widely discussed. We analyzed the isotopic and mortality patterns of 616 individuals from 18 archeological sites (the Medieval Latium sites of Colonna, Santa Severa, Allumiere, Cencelle, and 14 Medieval and Imperial funerary contexts from Rome) to compile a survivorship analysis. A semi-parametric approach was applied, suggesting variations in mortality patterns between sexes in the Roman period. Nitrogen isotopic signatures influenced mortality in both periods, showing a quadratic and a linear effect for Roman Imperial and Medieval populations, respectively. No influence of carbon isotopic signatures has been detected for Roman Imperial populations. Conversely, increased mortality risk for rising carbon isotopic values was observed in Medieval samples.     

Nucleophilic trifluoromethylation of organic substrates using (trifluoromethyl)trimethylsilane in the presence of a fluoride anion II. A convenient route to aryltrifluoromethyl-sulfides, -sulfoxides and -sulfones

Aryltrifluoromethyl-sulfides, -sulfoxides and -sulfones can be prepared by trifluoromethylation of the corresponding arylsulfenyl, -sulfinyl and -sulfonyl halides using (trifluoromethyl)trimethylsilane in the presence of fluoride sources, such as TASF [tris(dimethylamino)sulfonium difluorotrimethylsilicate].     

New conditions for non-stagnation of minimal residual methods

In the solution of large linear systems, a condition guaranteeing that a minimal residual Krylov subspace method makes some progress, i.e., that it does not stagnate, is that the symmetric part of the coefficient matrix be positive definite. This condition results in a well-established worst-case bound for the convergence rate of the iterative method, due to Elman. This bound has been extensively used, e.g., when the linear system comes from discretized partial differential equations, to show that the convergence of GMRES is independent of the underlying mesh size. In this paper we introduce more general non-stagnation conditions, which do not require the symmetric part of the coefficient matrix to be positive definite, and that guarantee, for example, the non-stagnation of restarted GMRES for certain values of the restarting parameter. Work on this paper was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy under grant DE-FG02-05ER25672.