Fabrication of inorganic alumina particles at nanoscale by a pulsed laser ablation technique in liquid and exploring their protein binding,anticancer and antipathogenic activities

The interaction of nanoparticles with biological systems can provide useful information about their therapeutic applications. The aluminum nanoparticles (Al₂O₃ NPs) were synthesized by laser ablation technique and well-characterized by different methods. Fluorescence spectroscopy, circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, and molecular docking studies were employed to evaluate the effect of Al₂O₃ NPs on the protein structure. Growth inhibitory and apoptotic effects of the Al₂O₃ NPs against K562 cancer cells and lymphocyte cells were assessed using [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide] (MTT), flow cytometry, and real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays. The antipathogenic activity of Al₂O₃ NPs against a diverse range of Gram-negative and Gram-positive pathogens was explored through a disk diffusion method. The characterization techniques determined that the Al₂O₃ NPs were successfully synthesized in the nanoscales. Intrinsic, 1-anilino-8-naphthalenesulfonate (ANS) and acrylamide fluorescence spectroscopy studies disclosed that Al₂O₃ NPs can partially change the tertiary structure of human serum albumin (HSA), whereas CD spectroscopy investigation depicted that the secondary structure of HSA remained intact. Molecular docking investigation also manifest that the Al₂O₃ nano-clusters preferably bind to electrostatic residues. Al₂O₃ NPs exhibited promising and selective anticancer features through reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, apoptosis induction, and elevation of Bax/Bcl-2 mRNA ratio. Furthermore, the Al₂O₃ NP showed a remarkable antibacterial activity against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive pathogens. In conclusion, it may be suggested that the synthesized Al₂O₃ NPs can be integrated in the development of anticancer and antipathogenic agents.     

Removal of anionic dyes with glycidyl methacrylate-grafted polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fibers modified with ethylenediamine

Research on Chemical Intermediates - In this work, the epoxy groups of poly (ethylene terephthalate) PET copolymers grafted with glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) were modified with ethylenediamine (EDA)...     

Pathogen detection in complex samples by quartz crystal microbalance sensor coupled to aptamer functionalized core–shell type magnetic separation

A quartz crystal microbalance sensor (QCM) was developed for sensitive and specific detection of Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium cells in food samples by integrating a magnetic bead purification system. Although many sensor formats based on bioaffinity agents have been developed for sensitive and specific detection of bacterial cells, the development of robust sensor applications for food samples remained a challenging issue. A viable strategy would be to integrate QCM to a pre-purification system. Here, we report a novel and sensitive high throughput strategy which combines an aptamer-based magnetic separation system for rapid enrichment of target pathogens and a QCM analysis for specific and real-time monitoring. As a proof-of-concept study, the integration of Salmonella binding aptamer immobilized magnetic beads to the aptamer-based QCM system was reported in order to develop a method for selective detection of Salmonella. Since our magnetic separation system can efficiently capture cells in a relatively short processing time (less than 10 min), feeding captured bacteria to a QCM flow cell system showed specific detection of Salmonella cells at 100 CFU mL⁻¹ from model food sample (i.e., milk). Subsequent treatment of the QCM crystal surface with NaOH solution regenerated the aptamer-sensor allowing each crystal to be used several times.     

On closed timelike and spacelike ruled surfaces

In this study, by using the concepts and results on spherical curves in dual Lorentzian space, we give the criterions for ruled surfaces with non‐lightlike ruling to be closed (periodic). Moreover, we obtain the necessary and sufficient conditions to guarantee that a timelike or a spacelike ruled surface is closed (periodic). Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Attractors for the strongly damped wave equation with p‐Laplacian

This paper is concerned with the initial‐boundary value problem for one‐dimensional strongly damped wave equation involving p‐Laplacian. For p > 2 , we establish the existence of weak local attractors for this problem in . Under restriction 2 < p < 4, we prove that the semigroup, generated by the considered problem, possesses a strong global attractor in , and this attractor is a bounded subset of . Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A new UPLC approach for the quantitation of ephedrine and guaifenesin in a syrup formulation using multivariate optimization strategy

A new ultraperformance liquid chromatography (UPLC) method with photodiode array detection was developed for the quantitative analysis of a commercial syrup formulation containing ephedrine (EPH) and guaifenesin (GUA). In the development of UPLC method, experimental chromatographic conditions, flow rate, column temperature, and percentage of 0.1?M H₃PO₄ in mobile phase, were optimized using chemometric multivariate strategy. From the application of a 3³ full factorial design, the optimal chromatographic conditions were obtained as the flow rate of 0.29?mL/min, column temperature of 36.4°C, and 56.9% of 0.1?M H₃PO₄ in the mobile phase. The optimal conditions gave us a good chromatographic separation of the analyzed drugs with short analysis runtime within 3?min. Calibration curves for EPH and GUA in the linear working range of 4–64 and 6–96?µg/mL, respectively, were obtained using peak areas detected at 215?nm. Performance and validity of the optimized UPLC method were estimated by analyzing independent binary mixtures, inter-day and intra-day samples, and standard addition solutions containing EPH and GUA substances. It was concluded that the proposed method was a promising approach for the quantitative determination and routine analysis of a commercial syrup formulation of the titled substances.     

Kinetic spectrophotometric analysis of pantoprazole in commercial dosage forms.

A kinetic spectrophotometric method has been developed which is based on the oxidation of pantoprazole with Fe(III) in sulfuric acid medium. Fe(III) subsequently reduces to Fe(II), which is coupled with potassium ferricyanide to form Prussian blue. The reaction is followed spectrophotometrically by measuring the increase in absorbance with time (1-8 min) at 725 nm. The initial rate method is adopted for constructing the calibration graph, which is linear in the concentration range of 5-90 microg ml(-1). The regression analysis yields the calibration equation, nu = 3.467 x 10(-6) + 4.356 x 10(-5)C. The limits of detection and quantitation are 1.46 and 4.43 microg ml(-1), respectively. The proposed method was optimized and validated both statistically and through recovery studies. The experimental true bias of all samples is < +/-2.0%. The method has been successfully applied to the determination of pantoprazole in pharmaceutical preparations.     

Two‐way and three‐way approaches to ultra high performance liquid chromatography–photodiode array dataset for the quantitative resolution of a two‐component mixture containing ciprofloxacin and ornidazole

Two‐way and three‐way calibration models were applied to ultra high performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array data with coeluted peaks in the same wavelength and time regions for the simultaneous quantitation of ciprofloxacin and ornidazole in tablets. The chromatographic data cube (tensor) was obtained by recording chromatographic spectra of the standard and sample solutions containing ciprofloxacin and ornidazole with sulfadiazine as an internal standard as a function of time and wavelength. Parallel factor analysis and trilinear partial least squares were used as three‐way calibrations for the decomposition of the tensor, whereas three‐way unfolded partial least squares was applied as a two‐way calibration to the unfolded dataset obtained from the data array of ultra high performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection. The validity and ability of two‐way and three‐way analysis methods were tested by analyzing validation samples: synthetic mixture, interday and intraday samples, and standard addition samples. Results obtained from two‐way and three‐way calibrations were compared to those provided by traditional ultra high performance liquid chromatography. The proposed methods, parallel factor analysis, trilinear partial least squares, unfolded partial least squares, and traditional ultra high performance liquid chromatography were successfully applied to the quantitative estimation of the solid dosage form containing ciprofloxacin and ornidazole.     

Two new pentacyclic triterpenoids from Lantana camara LINN

Two new pentacyclic triterpenoids, namely lantanoic acid (1) and camaranoic acid (2), and six known compounds such as lantic acid, camarinic acid, camangeloyl acid, camarinin, oleanonic acid, and ursonic acid were isolated from the aerial parts of Lantana camara LINN. Structures of the new constituents were elucidated by chemical transformation and spectral studies including 1D ((1)H- and (13)C-NMR) and 2D ((1)H-(1)H correlation spectroscopy (COSY), nuclear Overhauser effect spectroscopy (NOESY), (1)H-(1)H total correlation spectroscopy (TOCSY), J-resolved, (1)H-detected heteronuclear multiple quantum coherence (HMQC), and heteronuclear multiple bond connectivity (HMBC)) NMR spectroscopy.     

High-frequency nanofluidics: an experimental study using nanomechanical resonators

Here we apply nanomechanical resonators to the study of oscillatory fluid dynamics. A high-resonance-frequency nanomechanical resonator generates a rapidly oscillating flow in a surrounding gaseous environment; the nature of the flow is studied through the flow-resonator interaction. Over the broad frequency and pressure range explored, we observe signs of a transition from Newtonian to non-Newtonian flow at omega tau approximately 1, where tau is a properly defined fluid relaxation time. The obtained experimental data appear to be in close quantitative agreement with a theory that predicts a purely elastic fluid response as omega tau --> infinity.