Carbon dioxide emulsion assisted loading of polymer microspheres toward sustained release materials

An organic solvent-free method for encapsulating progesterone at high loadings within micron-sized inert latex polymer beads is reported. This approach makes use of a polymeric surfactant to emulsify carbon dioxide into an aqueous latex suspension. In this way, preformed approximately 4 microm polystyrene (PS) microparticles surface-grafted with poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) were plasticized and swollen followed by rapid partitioning of progesterone into the polymer matrix. The as-prepared polystyrene beads incorporated over 10% progesterone by weight while maintaining their initial size and morphological uniformity. Dissolution experiments were also carried out to obtain the release profile of progesterone entrapped within the PVP/PS particles.     

Efficient transesterification/acylation reactions mediated by N-heterocyclic carbene catalysts

Imidazol-2-ylidenes, a family of N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHC), are efficient catalysts in the transesterification involving numerous esters and alcohols. Low catalyst loadings of aryl- or alkyl-substituted NHC catalysts mediate the acylation of alcohols with enol acetates in short reaction times at room temperature. Commercially available and more difficult to cleave methyl esters react with primary alcohols in the presence of alkyl-substituted NHC to efficiently form the corresponding esters. While primary alcohols are selectively acylated over secondary alcohols with use of enol esters as acylating agents, methyl and ethyl esters can be employed as protective agents for secondary alcohols in the presence of the more active alkyl-substituted NHC catalysts. The NHC-catalyzed transesterification protocol was simplified by generating the imidazol-2-ylidene catalysts in situ.     

Degradation of aromatic compounds in ground-water, and methods of sample preservation

The degradation of acenaphthylene, acenaphthene, 2-methylnaphthalene, 2-methylindene, 3-methylindene and indene in water solutions was studied. These compounds at the 25-150 mug/l. level were almost totally degraded at ambient temperature within three days. The microbial population responsible for the degradation occurs naturally in ground-water taken from an aquifer in Ames, Iowa, which is contaminated with coal-tar products. These unidentified micro-organisms adapt readily to other waters when used as an inoculant for the degradation of aromatic compounds. The preservation of water to prevent such degradation was also investigated. Filtration through a 0.45-mum filter was found the most effective procedure for preserving the hydrocarbons in these waters.     

Synthesis of a model system for the preparation of phloroglucinol containing natural products

A model system for the synthesis of phloroglucinol containing natural products was synthesized. Key steps include a manganic acetate-mediated cyclization and the facile conversion of an alkene into a β-bromoenone.     

Ab initio molecular-dynamics simulation of aqueous proton solvation and transport revisited

The solvation and transport of the hydrated excess proton is studied using the Car-Parrinello molecular-dynamics (CPMD) simulation method. The simulations were performed using BLYP and HCTH gradient-corrected exchange-correlation energy functionals. The fictitious electronic mass was chosen to be small enough so that the underlying water structural and dynamical properties were converged with respect to this important CPMD simulation parameter. An unphysical overstructuring of liquid water in the CPMD simulations using the BLYP functional resulted in the formation of long-lived hydrogen-bonding structures involving the excess proton and a particular (special) water oxygen. The excess proton was observed to be attracted to the special oxygen through the entire length of the BLYP CPMD simulations. Consequently, the excess proton diffusion was limited by the mobility of the special oxygen in the slowly diffusing water network and, in turn, the excess proton self-diffusion coefficient was found to be significantly below the experimental value. On the other hand, the structural properties of liquid water in the HCTH CPMD simulation were seen to be in better agreement with experiment, although the water and excess proton diffusions were still well below the experimental value.     

Novel heterocycle-based two-photon absorbing dyes

[structure: see text]. The synthesis and nonlinear optical characterization of two novel heteroaromatic-based chromophores is described. The new dyes present an A-pi-D-pi-A general framework, where A is a pi-deficient heteroaromatic ring (pyridine, quinoline, benzothiazole) and D a pi-excessive pyrrolyl moiety. Both systems exhibit large two-photon absorption (TPA) values in the femtoseconds regime (TPA cross section as high as 150 x 10(-50) cm(4) s photon(-1) molecule(-1) with 150 fs laser pulses). Their TPA-based optical limiting activity is also shown.     

Probing the molecular-scale lipid bilayer response to shear flow using nonequilibrium molecular dynamics

A nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulation of the response of dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) bilayers to a solvent shear flow is presented. Application of shear flow to planar, stationary DMPC bilayers results in a redistribution of the membrane density profile along the bilayer normal due to the alignment of the lipids in the direction of flow and an increase in average lipid chain length. An increase in the intermolecular and intramolecular order of the lipids in response to the shear flow is also observed. This study provides groundwork for understanding the mechanism of the full response of lipid bilayers to externally imposed solvent shear flows, beginning with the response in the absence of collective lipid motions such as undulations and bilayer flow.     

Spectrofluorometric determination of certain quinolone antibacterials using metal chelation

Simple, rapid, reliable, and sensitive spectrofluorometric methods were developed for the determination of eight quinolone antibacterials namely ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin, lomefloxacin, difloxacin, amifloxacin, pefloxacin, ofloxacin, and nalidixic acid. The methods depend on the chelation of each of the studied drugs with zirconium, molybdenum, vanadium or tungsten to produce fluorescent chelates. Different factors affecting the relative fluorescence intensity of the resulting chelates were studied and optimised. At the optimum reaction conditions, the drug-metal chelates showed excitation maxima ranging from 274 to 295 nm and emission maxima ranging from 409 to 495 nm. The chelates were found to be stable at room temperature for 2 days and show good stability upon increasing temperature to 50 °C for about 1 h. Rectilinear calibration graphs were obtained in the range of 10-60 ng ml⁻¹ for each of the investigated drugs and the limits of detection and quantitation ranged from 1.214 to 2.046 and from 4.047 to 6.819 ng ml⁻¹, respectively. The molar ratios of the formed chelates were determined by Job's method and their association constants were also calculated. The developed methods were applied successfully for the determination of the studied drugs in their pharmaceutical dosage forms with a good precision and accuracy compared to official and reported methods as revealed by t- and F-tests. They were also applied for the determination of studied drugs in spiked urine and plasma samples.     

Toward the molecular flashlight: preparation,properties, and photophysics of a hypericin-luciferin tethered molecule

The synthesis of a molecule containing hypericin and luciferin moieties joined by a tether is reported. The light-induced (in vitro) antiviral activity as well as the photophysical properties of this new compound are measured and compared with those of the parent compounds, hypericin and pseudohypericin. This tethered molecule exhibits excited-state behavior that is very similar to that of its parent compounds and antiviral activity that is identical, within experimental error, to that of its more closely related parent compound, pseudohypericin. The implications for a photodynamic therapy that is independent of external light sources are discussed.     

Novel fragmentation reaction of correolide

[reaction: see text] Pentacyclic triterpenoid natural product correolide (1) was converted to ketone 2 via ozonolysis. An unusual fragmentation reaction of ketone 2 with LiCl was discovered. This reaction is general among several similar substrates examined and appears to be specific for the correolide-type E-ring structure (ketone). A mechanism involving a retroaldol reaction, a nucleophilic opening of the epoxide, and a subsequent acetoxy elimination reaction was proposed.