Monosaccharide-Directed Selective Internalization of Gold and Silver Nanoparticles in Hepatic Cancer Cells

The therapeutic success of nanomedicines requires nanomaterials to either adhere to the surface or internalize within the cytoplasm. The endocytosis phenomenon is controlled by the nanomaterial's shape, size, composition, charge, and capping molecules. The membrane potential-based non-specific internalization of therapeutic nanomedicines offers limited benefits than receptor-based specific delivery. Glut receptor-based internalization of glucose molecules is a well-known process in cancerous cells, which is one of the most exploited strategies to target cancer cells using nanoparticles. However, the internalization process of other structurally similar monosaccharides (D-Galactose, Mannose, and D-Fructose) conjugated nanoparticles remains to be unexplored. Herein, D-Glucose, D-Galactose, Mannose, and D-Fructose-coated AuNPs and AgNPs have been synthesized and studied the role of Glut receptors in their internalization in liver cancer cells, and compared them with non-cancerous cells. Results revealed that almost all monosaccharide-coated NPs exhibited high uptake in liver cancer cells than non-cancerous cells. Glut-1 receptor is observed to play a key role in the uptake and inhibition of Glut-1 receptors by genistein lead to a significant decrease in nanoparticle uptake. In conclusion, monosaccharide-conjugated nanoparticles can be used to direct the selective internalization of AuNPs and AgNPs in hepatic cancer cells to realize therapeutic and imaging applications.     

Triphosgene: An Efficient Catalyst for Synthesis of Isothiocyanates

Isothiocyanates are bioactive molecules that show various biological activities such as antifungal and anathematic activities. They play a vital role in the synthesis of various heterocyclic compounds. Various isothiocyanates were prepared in good to high yield using triphosgene.     

Synthesis of polymer-supported Brønsted acid-functionalized Zn–porphyrin complex,knotted with benzimidazolium moiety for photodegradation of azo dyes under visible-light irradiation

Research on Chemical Intermediates - A polymer-supported Brønsted acid-functionalized Zn–porphyrin complex, knotted with benzimidazolium moiety (PSBAZnPP), has been synthesized and...     

Electronic and ligating properties of carbocyclic carbenes: A theoretical investigation

Carbocyclic carbenes (CCCs) are a class of nucleophilic carbenes which are very similar to N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) in terms of their reactivity, but they do not contain a stabilizing heteroatom in their cyclic ring system. In this study, 17 representative known CCCs and 34 newly designed CCCs are evaluated using quantum chemical methods, and the results are compared in terms of their stability, nucleophilicity, and proton affinity (PA) parameters. The results are divided on the basis of ring size of the known and reported CCCs. The stability, nucleophilicity, PA, complexation energy, and bond strength–related parameters were estimated using M06/6-311++G(d,p) method. The results indicated that the CCCs known in the literature are strong σ-electron donating species and have considerable π-accepting properties. This study led to the design and identification of a few new CCCs with dimethylamine and diaminomethynyl substituents which can be singlet stable and are substantially nucleophilic. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Magnetic study of phase separation and charge ordering in La1−xSrxMnO3 near x=0.5

We have investigated the magnetic phase diagram of polycrystalline and single-crystal La_1−xSr_xMnO₃ near 0.46≤x≤0.50. It turns out that for x<0.48, the polycrystalline material is ferromagnetic (FM), but for x≥0.48, incipient charge ordering takes place along with antiferromagnetism. At x=0.48, the ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic phase transition in ceramics occurs at less than 85 kOe but requires significantly larger field for increasing x. These observations are in contrast to what is found in the single crystals, which are all FM.     

Frequency dependence of ferromagnetic resonance in amorphous magnets: Ferromagnetic and reentrant alloys

We report measurements on magnetic resonance in a number of transition metal-glass former complexes. Data were taken over a wide range of frequencies (2–35 GHz) and temperatures (2–300 K). In the ferromagnetic regime all the systems have a term in their linewidth which points strongly to noncolinearity of spin in glassy magnets even in a nominally saturated state. At low temperatures, in the reentrant alloys, there is a characteristic exponential term describing the increase in linewidth, with reducing T. Such a contribution appears in most random spin systems. There is no adequate microscopic picture to account for many of the results.     

Ultra HPLC Method for Fixed Dose Combination of Azilsartan Medoxomil and Chlorthalidone: Identification and <Emphasis Type="Italic">in silico</Emphasis> Toxicity Prediction of Degradation Products

The fixed dose combination of azilsartan medoxomil potassium and chlorthalidone has been introduced for the effective treatment of hypertension. In the present work a rapid, simple and accurate stability indicating ultra HPLC assay method has been developed. The separation of azilsartan medoxomil, chlorthalidone and their degradation products were accomplished on an Acquity UPLC BEH C18 (100 mm × 2.1 mm, 1.7 μm) column using mobile phase combination of 0.02% trifluoroacetic acid in water and acetonitrile in gradient mode. The forced degradation products were identified using liquid chromatography?electrospray ionisation-quadrupole time of flight-tandem mass spectrometry (LC?ESIQTOF–MS/MS) and accurate mass experiments. The in silico toxicities of the degradation products for both the drugs were evaluated. The proposed method was validated as per the ICH Q2 (R1) guideline for selectivity, linearity, precision, accuracy and robustness.     

Molecular Design of Novel Heterometallic Alkoxides as Precursors

In view of the advantages of employing heterometallic alkoxides as precursors for ceramic materials by the sol-gel process, efforts are being made to develop novel routes for their synthesis and to design single source precursors suited to the final targeted material. Three such new pathways are briefly presented in this paper: (i) varying the ratio of constituent metals; (ii) dissolution of metal chlorides in alkoxides of tetravalent metals; and (iii) reactions of acidic protons of metal glycolate derivatives with alkoxides of another metal yielding derivatives containing other alkoxometallates in cationic form.     

Hall resistivity of a magnetic amorphous alloy — Effects of thermal cycling and annealing

We have studied the effects of thermal cycling and annealing on the Hall resistivity ?_H and electrical resistivity ? of an amorphous magnetic material, Metglas 2826A. Thermal cycling up to 600 K has no significant effect on ? but changes ?_H, especially at T > 300 K. Annealing at higher temperatures T_a affects ?_H more strongly that it influences ?. For T_a = 650 K the Curie temperature jumps by ～300 K and this, combined with X-ray data, is regarded as being symptomatic of the onset of crystallization. It is demonstrated that, for a fixed T, the variation of the extraordinary Hall coefficient R₁ is simply correlated with that of ? for both the amorphous material and the annealed (crystallized) specimens. Furthermore, for a given T_a, the variations of R₁ and ? as functions of temperature exhibit the same formal relationship. The temperature dependence of ? in the annealed specimens is rendered plausible in terms of recent theories of disordered materials. Room-temperature studies of electron spin resonance and the field dependence of the magnetization are also reported.     

Synthesis of transparent silica aerogels with low density and better hydrophobicity by controlled sol–gel route and subsequent atmospheric pressure drying

In the present paper, attempts have been made to produce transparent silica aerogels with low density and better hydrophobicity by controlled sol–gel route and subsequent atmospheric pressure drying. The hydrogels were prepared by hydrolysis and polycondensation of sodium silicate (Na₂SiO₃) in the presence of acetic acid catalyzed water followed by several washing steps with water, methanol and hexane, respectively. The surface modification of the wet gel was carried out using a mixture of hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) in hexane. Since, the sol–gel chemistry provides a straightforward method to control the physical and optical properties of the aerogels, the influence of various sol–gel parameters viz. gel washing time, molar ratios of CH₃COOH/Na₂SiO₃ and HMDS/Na₂SiO₃ and silylation period on the physical and optical properties of the aerogels have been investigated. The aerogels have been characterized by bulk density, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Thermogravimetric and Differential Thermal Analysis (TG-DTA), Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) studies and Contact angle measurements.