Physical fabrication of colloidal ZnO nanoparticles combining wet-grinding and laser fragmentation

Combination of wet-grinding and laser fragmentation is a promising approach to advance both methods: Laser fragmentation will be more efficient when combined with mechanical treatment and wet-grinding may take advance of the abrasion-free laser process to achieve fabrication of smaller particles. By mechanical pre-treatment of zinc oxide microparticles in a stirred-media mill, the starting material is activated by generation of crystallographic defects, which strongly enhance the efficiency of subsequent laser fragmentation. Picosecond-laser irradiation of mechanically treated and untreated microparticles suspended in water yielded in colloidal zinc oxide nanoparticles. Furthermore, nanoparticle productivity and properties can be controlled by variation of anionic surfactant concentration.     

Syntheses of methylpyridine and methylpyridine N-oxide decorated benzoxazine and naphthoxazine platforms

Simple, aqueous-based syntheses of methylpyridine and methylpyridine N-oxide decorated 3,4-dihydro-2H-naphthoxazine and 2,3-dihydro-1H-naphthoxazine monomers, as well as thermally promoted syntheses of 3,4-dihydro-2H-benzoxazine monomers and bisoxazine methylpyridine derivatives of substituted 1,5-, 2,6-, and 2,7-dihydroxynaphthalenes are described. The crystal structures of two derivatives are presented.     

Unravelling the Time Scale of Conformational Plasticity and Allostery in Glycan Recognition by Human Galectin-1

The interaction of human galectin-1 with a variety of oligosaccharides, from di-(N-acetyllactosamine) to tetra-saccharides (blood B type-II antigen) has been scrutinized by using a combined approach of different NMR experiments, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, and isothermal titration calorimetry. Ligand- and receptor-based NMR experiments assisted by computational methods allowed proposing three-dimensional structures for the different complexes, which explained the lack of enthalpy gain when increasing the chemical complexity of the glycan. Interestingly, and independently of the glycan ligand, the entropy term does not oppose the binding event, a rather unusual feature for protein-sugar interactions. CLEANEX-PM and relaxation dispersion experiments revealed that sugar binding affected residues far from the binding site and described significant changes in the dynamics of the protein. In particular, motions in the microsecond-millisecond timescale in residues at the protein dimer interface were identified in the presence of high affinity ligands. The dynamic process was further explored by extensive MD simulations, which provided additional support for the existence of allostery in glycan recognition by human galectin-1.     

The development and validation of a novel LC–MS/MS method for the quantification of cenicriviroc in human plasma and cerebrospinal fluid

A high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometric method was developed and validated for cenicriviroc (CVC) quantification in human plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The method involved precipitation with acetonitrile and injecting supernatants onto the column. Separation was achieved on an XBridge C₁₈ column with a gradient elution of 0.1% formic acid in water and acetonitrile. Analyte detection was conducted in positive ion mode using selected reaction monitoring. The m/z transitions were: CVC (697.3 → 574.3) and CVC-d7 (704.4 → 574.3). Calibration curve ranged from 5 to 1000 ng/mL for plasma and from 0.241 to 15.0 ng/mL for CSF. The intra- and inter-day precision and accuracy were <15% for both plasma and CSF across four different concentrations. CVC recovery from plasma and artificial CSF was >90%. The method was utilized for the measurement of patients’ plasma and CSF samples taking a dose of 50, 150 and 300 mg q.d.     

Simple HPLC‐UV for the quantification of a new leishmanicidal candidate (E)‐1‐4(trifluoromethyl) benzylidene)‐5‐(2‐4‐dichlorozoyl) carbonylhydrazine (LASSBio‐1736) in rat plasma for pharmacokinetics assessment

In this study, a sensitive HPLC‐UV assay was developed and validated for the determination of LASSBio‐1736 in rat plasma with sodium diclofenac as internal standard (IS). Liquid–liquid extraction using acetonitrile was employed to extract LASSBio‐1736 and IS from 100 μL of plasma previously basified with NaOH 0.1 M. Chromatographic separation was carried on Waters Spherisorb^®S5 ODS2 C₁₈ column (150 × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) using an isocratic mobile phase composed by water with triethylamine 0.3% (pH 4), methanol and acetonitrile grade (45:15:40, v/v/v) at a flow rate of 1 mL/min. Both LASSBio‐1736 and IS were eluted at 4.2 and 5 min, respectively, with a total run time of 8 min only. The lower limit of quantification was 0.2 μg/mL and linearity between 0.2 and 4 μg/mL was obtained, with an R² > 0.99. The accuracy of the method was >90.5%. The relative standard deviations intra and interday were <6.19 and <7.83%, respectively. The method showed the sensitivity, linearity, precision, accuracy and selectivity required to quantify LASSBio‐1736 in preclinical pharmacokinetic studies according to the criteria established by the US Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rapid Discrimination of Crystal Handedness by X-ray Natural Circular Dichroism (XNCD) Mapping

An original method for determining the handedness of individual non-centrosymmetric crystals in a mixture using a tightly-focused, circularly polarized X-ray beam is presented. The X-ray natural circular dichroism (XNCD) spectra recorded at the metal K-edge on selected crystals of [Δ-M(en)₃](NO₃)₂ and [Λ-M(en)₃](NO₃)₂ (M=Co^II, Ni^II) show extrema at the metal pre-edge (7712 eV for Co, 8335 eV for Ni). A mapping of a collection of some 220 crystals was performed at the respective energies by using left and right circular polarizations. The difference in absorption for the two polarizations, being either negative or positive, directly yielded the handedness of the crystal volume probed by the beam. By using this technique, it was found that the addition of l -ascorbic acid during the synthesis of [Co(en)₃](NO₃)₂ resulted in an enantiomeric enrichment of the Λ-isomer of 67±13 %, whereas the Ni analogue was similarly, but conversely, enriched in the Δ-isomer (65±22 %).     

Photodynamic Therapy and Immunity: An Update

Dr. Thomas Dougherty and his Oncology Foundation of Buffalo were the first to support my (S.O.G.) research into the effects of photodynamic therapy (PDT) on the host immune system. The small grant I was awarded in 2002 launched my career as an independent researcher; at the time, there were few studies on the importance of the immune response on the efficacy of PDT and no studies demonstrating the ability of PDT to enhance antitumor immunity. Over the last decades, the interest in PDT as an enhancer of antitumor immunity and our understanding of the mechanisms by which PDT enhances antitumor immunity have dramatically increased. In this review article, we look back on the studies that laid the foundation for our understanding and provide an update on current advances and therapies that take advantage of PDT enhancement of immunity.     

1,2-Diketones as photoinitiators of both cationic and free-radical photopolymerization under UV (392 nm) or Blue (455 nm) LEDs

The photoinitiation abilities of three 1,2-diketones [i.e., acenaphthenequinone ( ANPQ ), aceanthrenequinone ( AATQ ), and 9,10-phenanthrenequinone ( PANQ )]-based photoinitiating systems [PISs, with additives such as iodonium salt, N-vinylcarbazole (NVK), tertiary amine, and phenacyl bromide (R-Br)] for cationic photopolymerization and free-radical photopolymerization under the irradiation of ultraviolet (UV; 392 nm) or blue (455 nm) light-emitting diode (LED) bulb are investigated. All 1,2-diketones studied exhibit ground state absorption that match with the emission spectra of UV (392 nm) or blue LED (455 nm) better than that of the well-known blue-light-sensitive photoinitiator camphorquinone (CQ). In particular, AATQ /iodonium salt/NVK can show high photoinitiating ability (with epoxide conversion yield >70%) under the UV light irradiation due to the effect of NVK. In addition, 1,2-diketone/iodonium salt (and optional NVK) systems are capable of initiating free-radical photopolymerization of methacrylates, with conversions of 50–58%. Furthermore, some 1,2-diketone/tertiary amine (and optional R-Br) combinations are found to demonstrate high efficiency to initiate free-radical photopolymerization, and 71% of methacrylate conversion can be achieved with PANQ /tertiary amine/R-Br PIS. Some 1,2-ketone-based PISs can even exhibit higher efficiency than the CQ-based systems. The photochemical mechanism of the radical generation from the 1,2-diketone-based PISs is investigated and found to be consistent with the related photopolymerization efficiency. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci. 2020 , 58, 792–802     

Electron transfer at different electrode materials: Metals,semiconductors, and graphene

Electron transfer reactions are the most important processes at electrochemical interfaces. They are determined by the interplay between the interaction of the reactant with the solvent and the electronic levels of the electrode surface. Theoretical treatments only based on Density Functional Theory calculations are not sufficient. This review emphasizes mainly the effect of the electronic structure of the electrode material on electron transfer under different kinetic regimes. Our goal is to understand experimental results in the framework of a theory valid for arbitrary strengths of electronic coupling.