Mechanistic Insights into the Ameliorative Effect of Cichoriin on Diabetic Rats—Assisted with an In Silico Approach

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is considered to be a substantial socioeconomic burden worldwide on both patients and governments. Coumarins are biomolecules with a diversity of biological activities. The current investigation aimed to explore the ameliorative effects of cichoriin, which is a type of coumarin, on high-fat diet/streptozotocin (HFD/STZ)-induced diabetic rats. Methods: Rats were allocated into five groups. Group I was considered as the control group, while the other groups were HFD/STZ-induced diabetic rats. Group II was assigned as the diabetic control. Groups III and IV were treated with cichoriin (50 or 100 mg/kg, respectively). Group V received glibenclamide (5 mg/kg) (as a positive control). The blood glucose (BG), serum insulin, triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), total antioxidant capacity (TAC), catalase, hepatic superoxide dismutase (SOD) and content of malondialdehyde (MDA) were assessed. Histopathological and immunohistochemistry analysis of pancreatic tissue were performed. mRNA and protein expressions of GLUT4, AMPK, and PI3K were estimated. Results: Cichoriin treatment ameliorated HFD/STZ-induced diabetic conditions and mitigated the histopathological characteristics of the pancreas, as well as increasing pancreatic insulin expression. This decreased the levels of BG, TG, TC, and MDA and improved the TAC, catalase and SOD contents. Cichoriin demonstrated upregulation of mRNA and protein expressions of GLUT4, AMPK, and PI3K. The in silico binding of cichoriin with GLUT4, AMPK, and PI3K supported the possible current activities. Conclusion: Collectively, this work highlighted the potential role of cichoriin in mitigating HFD/STZ-induced diabetic conditions and showed it to be a valuable product.     

T3P-promoted synthesis of a series of novel 3-aryl-2-phenyl-2,3-dihydro-4H-1,3-benzothiazin-4-ones

A series of 11 novel 3-aryl-2-phenyl-2,3-dihydro-4H-1,3-benzothiazin-4-ones was prepared at room temperature by T3P-mediated cyclization of N-aryl-C-phenyl imines with thiosalicylic acid. This provides simple and ready access to N-aryl compounds in this family, which have been generally difficult to prepare.     

Sulfonated salicylidene thiadiazole complexes with Co (II) and Ni (II) ions as sustainable corrosion inhibitors and catalysts for cross coupling reaction

Condensation of 2,5‐dihydrazinyl thiadiazole with 5‐sodium sulfonate salicylaldehyde afforded dibasic tetradentate pincer N,O,O,N‐salicyldiene thiadiazole ligand (H₂Sanp). The novel dipolar ligand formed para‐magnetic pincer complexes within Co (II) and Ni (II) ions (Co‐Sanp and Ni‐Sanp) under sustainable conditions. The water‐soluble ligand and its metal‐complexes were estimated by mass, IR and UV–Visible spectroscopy, EA (elemental analyses), TGA (Thermogravimetric analyses), magnetic susceptibility, and conductivity measurements. The catalytic reactivity of Co‐Sanp and Ni‐Sanp were evaluated in the Suzuki and Buchwald‐Hartwig cross coupling reaction in aqueous‐methanol binary mixtures. Both reactions of boronic acid or aryl amines with aryl halides gave high chemoselective yield of C―C or C―N product. The inhibition characteristics of H₂Sanp and its Ni‐ and Co‐complexes were performed for the C‐steel corrosion in 1.0 M HCl using electrochemical measurements and surface analysis methods. These methods indicated that the synthesized compounds have served as efficient mixed‐type corrosion inhibitors and their adsorption on the steel surface obeyed isotherm model of Langmuir. Co‐Sanp inhibitor displays the best corrosion inhibition efficiency, and the capacity is up to 97.11% at of 250 mg L^?1. Surface analysis confirms formation of protective layer on the C‐steel surface.     

Reactions of N , N -Disubstituted 5-Arylmethylidene-2-amino-thiazol-4(5 H )-ones with CH Acids

 N,N-Disubstituted 5-arylmethylidene-2-aminothiazol-4(5H)-ones reacted with diethyl malonate, ethyl benzoylacetate, acetylacetone, or cyclopentadiene in refluxing toluene and in presence of powdered sodium to give the respective 5-arylmethylidene-2′-amino-2,5′-bithiazolylidene-4,4′-dione derivatives in moderate yields. 5-Benzylidene-2-morpholin-4-yl-2-thiazol-4(5H)-one reacted with malononitrile in toluene and in presence of powdered sodium under mild conditions to afford the 1:1 adduct, benzylmalononitrile, and 2-morpholin-4-yl-2-thiazol-4(5H)-one. However, similar treatment of 5-(4-methoxyphenylmethylidene)-2-morpholin-4-yl-2-thiazol-4(5H)-one with malononitrile yielded the 2,5′-bithiazolylidene-4,4′-dione derivative together with 4-methoxyphenylmethylidene malononitrile. Treatment of 5-benzylidene- and 5-(4-methoxyphenylmethylidene)-2-morpholin-4-yl-2-thiazol-4(5H)-ones with 3-phenyl-4-oxo-2-thioxo-1,3-thiazolidine in refluxing toluene and in presence of powdered sodium produced 5-arylmethylidene-3-phenyl-4-oxo-2-thioxo-1,3-thiazolidines in good yields. The structures of all products were deduced from microanalytical and spectroscopic data, mechanistic details are discussed.     

Contributions to the analysis of organic xenobiotics in fish

For the residue-analysis of fish samples, a method has been developed to separate the medium polar triazines and acetamides together with lipophilic xenobiotics (organochlorine pesticides, PCBs and octachlorostyrene) from fish tissue. The detection limits of the analytes are mostly within the ppt-range (ng/kg fillet) and vary between 40 and 1050 ng/kg fillet of fish. Their recoveries range from 75 to 108%, spiked at 1.5 g/kg. The substances are extracted with a mixture of petroleum ether/ethylacetate (2:1) using a soxhlet apparatus. Subsequently, the lipids in the sample extracts are reduced to 0.4% by gel chromatography. A 5 g silica gel clean-up separates the analytes according to their polarity. First, the lipophilic compounds elute with n-hexane/ethylacetate (91:9) and afterwards the more polar compounds with n-hexane/ethylacetate (1:1). Finally, the organic extracts are concentrated to 150–300 L and the compounds are detected and quantified by GC/MS.     

New Polymer Syntheses Part 60: A Facile Synthetic Route to Polyamides Based on Thieno[2,3-b]thiophene and Their Corrosion Inhibition Behavior

Polyamides containing thieno[2,3-b]thiophene moiety were prepared via a simple polycondensation reaction of the diaminothieno[2,3-b]thiophene monomer 1 a with different kinds of diacid chlorides(including oxalyl, adipoyl, sebacoyl, isophthaloyl,terephthaloyl, 4,4′-azodibenzoyl, 3,3′-azodibenzoyl, p-phenylene diacryloyl) in the presence of Li Cl and NMP as a solvent through lowtemperature solution polycondensation. The chemical structures of model compound and synthesized polyamides were confirmed by FTIR, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy(including ~1H-NMR and ~(13)C-NMR) and elemental analysis. In addition, the thermal stability, crystallinity structure and surface morphology of synthesized polyamides were characterized via thermogravametric analysis(TGA), wide-angle X-ray diffraction analysis(WAXD) and scanning electron microscopy(SEM). Also, the corrosion inhibition behavior of selected examples of polyamides was investigated; the inhibitive effect of the investigated polymers for carbon steel in 1.0 mol·L~(-1) HCl was studied using potentiodynamic polarization(PDP) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy(EIS) methods. PDP results displayed that the polyamides containing thieno[2,3-b]thiophene moiety can be as mixed-type inhibitors. The inhibition efficiency(P, %) was found to be in the range from 67.13% to 96.01%. There is an increase in P by the synthesized polymers in comparison to the starting monomer.The adsorption of these polymers was found to obey Langmuir adsorption isotherm.     

Cold Atmospheric Pressure Nitrogen Plasma Jet for Enhancement Germination of Wheat Seeds

Plasma Chemistry and Plasma Processing - The possibility to improve the germination characterization of the wheat seeds by cold atmospheric nitrogen plasma jet treatment was report. Spectroscopic...     

Synthesis of Cationic and Ampholytic Starch Graft Acrylamide and their Aqueous Salt Absorption

Acrylamide was grafted onto starch using ceric(IV) ion as initiator. Starch–graft-polyacrylamide was then modified through Mannich reaction using formaldehyde and diethylamine to give poly(N, N′-[(diethylamino) methyl]-acrylamide). The modified-graft copolymer was quaternized using different reagents; methyl iodide, n-butylbromide, sodium chloroacetate and propane sultone to give cationic and ampholytic graft materials. The absorbing properties of the produced materials toward deionized water and aqueous salt solutions were investigated. Studies of the absorbing properties of polyampholytes have revealed that these materials do not shrink upon increasing salt concentration. Kinetics of swelling in deionized water is also discussed.     

Electrochemical melting-curve analysis

Genotyping technologies need to tackle issues of cost-effectiveness, flexibility, and mutiplexability to meet the ever-increasing demands for clinical diagnostics, addressing the future medical paradigm. Here we report on a facile method for the rapid detection of mutations using electrochemical melting-curve analysis. The concept is based on the use of an immobilised probe hybridised to the mutant region of a ferrocene labelled amplicon. Following hybridisation, the temperature is ramped and the dissociation of the ferrocene labelled DNA from the electrode surface is monitored using differential pulse voltammetry. Using a model system consisting of short probe and target, the proposed approach was demonstrated to clearly discriminate between complementary and mismatch duplexes. The melting temperature of the surface confined DNA duplex was observed to be markedly lower than that obtained in solution, with melting temperatures of 38 and 59 °C, observed, respectively. The approach can be extended to array based melting-curve analysis, allowing the simultaneous detection of multiple mutations, as well as for genosensor design.     

Photocatalytic degradation of ciprofloxacin drug in water using ZnO nanoparticles

We report the synthesis of nanostructure ZnO semiconductor with ～2.1 nm diameter using a chemical precipitation method. The resulting nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The optical properties were investigated by UV–vis and fluorescence techniques. The absorption spectra exhibit a sharp absorption edge at ～334 nm corresponding to band gap of ～3.7 eV. The fluorescence spectra displayed a near-band-edge ultraviolet excitonic emission at ～410 nm and a green emission peak at ～525 nm, due to a transition of a photo-generated electron from the conduction band to a deeply trapped hole. The photocatalytic activity of the prepared ZnO nanoparticles has been investigated for the degradation of ciprofloxacin drug under UV light irradiation in aqueous solutions of different pH values. The results showed that the photocatalytic degradation process is effective at pH 7 and 10, but it is rather slow at pH 4. Higher degradation efficiency (～50%) of the drug was observed at pH 10 after 60 min. Photodegradation of the drug follows a pseudo-first-order kinetics.