Stereochemistry of cercosporin

The absolute configuration of the asymmetric carbons and the axial chirality of the natural mold metabolite cercosporin (from $\text{Cercospora sp}$.) have been established on the basis of X-ray analysis and chemical reactions. The results confirm the inherent dissymmetry of the perylenequinone ring, the twisting of which gives rise to the diastereoisomer isocercosporin. The energy barrier for the conversion of cercosporin into isocercosporin has been evaluated.     

Enzymatic erosion of bioartificial membranes to control drug delivery

The preparation of an enzymatic controlled drug release system from blends of PVA/starch/alphaA, in the form of films, is described. It was shown that alphaA hydrolyses the starch within these films, resulting in a time-dependent change of the porosity in the matrix. Films were characterized by calorimetric analysis to study the interactions between the enzyme and the polymeric constituents at the molecular level. The presence of alphaA, in fact, influenced the PVA crystallization in the blends. Release tests and permeability experiments were carried out to evaluate the transport properties of the films. An increase in porosity and permeability was observed by increasing alphaA content (16-28 wt.-%). Films loaded with theophylline and caffeine were also prepared to analyze drug release properties of the matrix. Drug release kinetics were coherent with the measured changes in porosity: at higher alphaA concentrations the amount of released drug increased under the influence of diffusion and erosion processes. The results obtained are promising for the realization of drug delivery devices for a rapid release or for the release of poorly soluble drugs which usually remain entrapped in the matrix.SEM images of a PVA/starch/alphaA film before (A) and after (B) the erosion.     

Materials for peripheral nerve regeneration

Recent efforts in scientific research in the field of peripheral nerve regeneration have been directed towards the development of artificial nerve guides. We have studied various materials with the aim of obtaining a biocompatible and biodegradable two layer guide for nerve repair. The candidate materials for use as an external layer for the nerve guides were poly(caprolactone) (PCL), a biosynthetic blend between PCL and chitosan (CS) and a synthesised poly(ester-urethane) (PU). Blending PCL, which is a biocompatible synthetic polymer, with a natural polymer enhanced the system biocompatibility and biomimetics, fastened the degradation rates and reduced the production costs. Various novel block poly(ester-urethane)s are being synthesised by our group with tailored properties for specific tissue engineering applications. One of these poly(ester-urethane)s, based on a low molecular weight poly(caprolactone) as the macrodiol, cycloesandimethanol as the chain extender and hexamethylene diisocyanate as the chain linker, was investigated for the production of melt extruded nerve guides. We studied natural polymers such as gelatin (G), poly(L-lysine) (PL) and blends between chitosan and gelatin (CS/G) as internal coatings for nerve guides. In vitro and in vivo tests were performed on PCL guides internally coated either with G or PL to determine the differences in the quality of nerve regeneration associated with the type of adhesion protein. CS/G natural blends combined the good cell adhesion properties of the protein phase with the ability to promote nerve regeneration of the polysaccharide phase. Natural blends were crosslinked both by physical and chemical crosslinking methods. In vitro neuroblast adhesion tests were performed on CS/G film samples, PCL/CS and PU guides internally coated with G to evaluate the ability of such materials towards nerve repair.     

Phthalocyanine-modulated isomerization behaviour of an azo-based photoswitch

A photoswitchable azobenzene-phthalocyanine-azobenzene triad has been synthesized and its electrochemical properties determined. Energy transfer among the subunits allows for modification of the E-Z ratio by selective excitation of the phthalocyanine moiety.     

A segmentation procedure of the pervious area of the aorta artery from CT images without contrast medium

In this paper, we develop an algorithm for the segmentation of the pervious lumen of the aorta artery in computed tomography (CT) images without contrast medium, a challenging task due to the closeness gray levels of the different zones to segment. The novel approach of the proposed procedure mainly resides in enhancing the resolution of the image by the application of the algorithm deduced from the mathematical theory of sampling Kantorovich operators. After the application of suitable digital image processing techniques, the pervious zone of the artery can be distinguished from the occluded one. Numerical tests have been performed using 233 CT images, and suitable numerical errors have been computed and introduced ex novo to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. The above procedure is completely automatic in all its parts after the initial region of interest (ROI) selection. The main advantages of this approach relies in the potential possibility of performing diagnosis concerning vascular pathologies even for patients with severe kidney diseases or allergic problems, for which CT images with contrast medium cannot be achieved.     

Symmetry in the geometry of metric contact pairs

We prove that the universal covering of a complete locally symmetric normal metric contact pair manifold with decomposable ? is a Calabi‐Eckmann manifold or the Riemannian product of a sphere and . We show that a complete, simply connected, normal metric contact pair manifold with decomposable ?, such that the foliation induced by the vertical subbundle is regular and reflections in the integral submanifolds of the vertical subbundle are isometries, is the product of globally ?‐symmetric spaces or the product of a globally ?‐symmetric space and . Moreover in the first case the manifold fibers over a locally symmetric space endowed with a symplectic pair.     

Screening and identification of major phytochemical compounds in seeds,sprouts and leaves of Tuscan black kale Brassica oleracea (L.) ssp acephala (DC) var. sabellica L.

We report the spectrophotometric determination of total polyphenols, flavonoids, glucosinolates and antioxidant activity in seeds, seedlings and leaves of Tuscan black kale. The highest content of phytochemicals was observed in 10 days sprouts and antioxidant activity was maximum in 2, 4 days seedlings. Identification and characterisation of phytochemicals were performed by mass spectrometry (MS), high resolution and tandem MS with electrospray ionisation mode. Low-molecular-weight metabolites were evidenced in seeds while metabolites at high m/z range were detected in cotyledons and leaves. MS spectra evidenced different phenolic compounds (flavonoid caffeoyl glucose, hydroxycinnamic acid sinapine) and glucosinolates (glucoerucin, glucobrassicin and glucoraphanin) in function of developmental stage; galactolipids ω3 and ω6 were observed in leaves. Identification of stages with the highest phytochemicals content encourages the consumption of black kale sprouts and young leaves. Our research can support food and pharmaceutical industries for production of health promoting products from black kale.