Pharmacokinetic properties of N‐nitrosofenfluramine after its administration to rats

N‐Nitrosofenfluramine (N‐Fen), a synthetic adulterant in Chinese herbal diet products, is believed to cause hepatotoxicity in people who use these products. N‐Fen is a relatively new compound, and thus pharmacological and toxicological studies are insufficient. The aim of this work was to (1) define N‐Fen's plasma pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution after single intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration of 25 mg/kg to rats; (2) define its bioavailability; and (3) identify fenfluramine (Fen) and norfenfluramine (Norf) as N‐Fen metabolites. N‐Fen rapidly appeared in the circulation and was distributed to all tissues. Norf was found to be the primary metabolite and not Fen. Plasma and tissue levels of N‐Fen and Norf were low with bioavailability of N‐Fen after i.p. administration was <3%. The AUC_0−t of N‐Fen in the liver and kidney were 6.6 and 12.1 times, respectively, greater than the brain, and 17.8 and 32.6 times, respectively, greater than the plasma. In conclusion, N‐Fen did not show local accumulation in the liver, the site of toxicity, with concentrations represented as percentage of the total dose ranginng from 0.008 to 0.122%; hence the cause of hepatotoxicity could be related to the mechanisms other than toxicity consequences accumulation. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Preparation and Acid‐Responsive Photophysical Properties of T‐Shaped π‐Conjugated Molecules Containing a Benzimidazole Junction

T‐shaped π‐conjugated molecules with an N‐methyl‐benzimidazole junction have been synthesized and their acid‐responsive photophysical properties owing to the change in the π‐conjugation system are discussed. T‐shaped π‐conjugated molecules consist of two orthogonal π‐conjugated systems including a phenyl thiophene extended from the 2‐position and alkyl phenylenes connected through various π‐spacers from the 4,7‐positions of the N‐methyl‐benzimidazole junction. The π‐spacers, such as thiophene, ethyne, and ethane, have an effect on the acid response of photophysical properties in terms of changes in conformation, excited‐state energy and charge‐transfer (CT) characteristics. In particular, the π‐conjugated molecule with ethynyl spacers exhibited a marked redshift in the fluorescence spectrum with a large Stokes shift upon the addition of acid, whereas the other molecules showed substantial quenching. The redshift in emission was studied in detail by temperature‐dependent fluorescence measurements, which indicated the transition to a CT state over the finite activation energy at the excited state. The change in the frontier molecular orbitals upon acid addition was further discussed by means of DFT calculations.     

A free-energy perturbation method based on Monte Carlo simulations using quantum mechanical calculations (QM/MC/FEP method): application to highly solvent-dependent reactions

This study describes the framework of the quantum mechanical (QM)/Monte Carlo (MC)/free‐energy perturbation (FEP) method, a FEP method based on MC simulations using quantum chemical calculations. Because a series of structures generated by interpolating internal coordinates between transition state and reactant did not produce smooth free‐energy profiles, we used structures from the intrinsic reaction coordinate calculations. This method was first applied to the Diels–Alder reaction between methyl vinyl ketone and cyclopentadiene and produced ΔG values of 20.1 and 21.4 kcal mol^?1 in aqueous and methanol solutions, respectively. They are very consistent with the experimentally observed values. The other two applications were the free‐energy surfaces for the Cope elimination of N,N‐dimethyl‐3‐phenylbutan‐2‐amine oxide in aqueous, dimethyl sulfoxide, and tetrahydrofuran solutions, and the Kemp decarboxylation of 6‐hydroxybenzo‐isoxazole‐3‐carboxylic acid in aqueous, dimethyl sulfoxide, and CH₃CN solutions. The calculated activation free energies differed by less than 1.8 kcal mol^?1 from the experimental values for these reactions. Although we used droplet models for the QM/MC/FEP simulations, the calculated results for three reactions are very close to the experimental data. It was confirmed that most of the interactions between the solute and solvents can be described using small numbers of solvent molecules. This is because a few solvent molecules can produce large portions of the solute–solvent interaction energies at the reaction centers. When we confirmed the dependency on the droplet sizes of solvents, the QM/MC/FEP for a large droplet with 106 water molecules produced a ΔG value similar to the experimental values, as well as that for a small droplet with 34 molecules. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem, 2011     

DFT studies of ESR parameters for N?O centered radicals,N‐alkoxyaminyl and aminoxyl radicals

Theoretical calculations of ESR parameters for aminoxyl radicals have been widely studied using the density functional theory (DFT) calculations. However, the isomer N‐alkoxyaminyl radicals have been limitedly studied. With the use of experimental data for 46 N‐alkoxyaminyl and 38 aminoxyl radicals, the isotropic ¹⁴N hyperfine coupling constants (a_N) and g‐factors have been theoretically estimated by several DFT calculations. The best calculation scheme of a_N for N‐alkoxyaminyl radicals was PCM/B3LYP/6‐31 + + G(d,p) (R² = 0.9519, MAE = 0.034 mT), and that for aminoxyl radicals was PCM/BHandHLYP/6‐31 + + G(3df,3pd) (R² = 0.9336, MAE = 0.057 mT). For aminoxyl radicals, the solvation models in calculations enhanced the accuracy of reproducibility. In contrast, for N‐alkoxyaminyl radicals the calculations with solvation models provided no improvement. The differences in the best functionals between two types of radicals were thought to come from the contribution ratios of neutral and dipolar canonical structures in resonance forms. The a_N for N‐alkoxyaminyl radicals that were stabilized by small contribution of dipolar canonical structures could be precisely reproduced by B3LYP with only 20% HF exact exchange. In contrast, the a_N for aminoxyl radicals stabilized by large contribution of dipolar canonical structures was well reproduced by BHandHLYP with 50% HF exchange. The best calculation scheme of g‐factors was IEFPCM/B3LYP/6‐31 + G(d,p) (R² = 0.9767, MAE = 0.0001) for not only aminoxyl but also N‐alkoxyaminyl radicals. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Solubilization of C60 by micellization with a thermoresponsive block copolymer in water: Characterization,singlet oxygen generation,and DNA photocleavage

Water‐soluble diblock copolymer, poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide)‐block‐poly(N‐vinyl‐2‐pyrroridone) (PNIPAM_m‐b‐PNVP_n), was found to associate with fullerene (C₆₀), and thus C₆₀ can be solubilized in water. The 63C₆₀/PNIPAM_m‐b‐PNVP_n micelle formed a core‐shell micelle‐like aggregate comprising a C₆₀/PNVP hydrophobic core and a thermoresponsive PNIPAM shell. The C₆₀‐containing polymer micelle formation and its thermoresponsive behavior were characterized using light scattering and ¹H NMR techniques. The hydrodynamic radius (R_h) of the C₆₀‐bound polymer micelle increased with increasing temperature, which was ascribed to the hydrophobic association between dehydrated PNIPAM shells above lower critical solution temperature (LCST). ¹H NMR data suggest that the motion of the PNIPAM block is restricted above LCST due to the dehydration of the PNIPAM shell in water. The generation of singlet oxygen by photosensitization by the C₆₀‐bound polymer micelle was confirmed from photooxidation of 9,10‐anthracenedipropionic acid. Furthermore, DNA was found to be cleaved by visible light irradiation in the presence of the C₆₀‐bound polymer micelle. Therefore, there may be a hope for a pharmaceutical application of the C₆₀‐bound polymer micelle to cancer photodynamic therapy. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2011.     

Site-specific C content by quantitative isotopic C Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectrometry: A pilot inter-laboratory study

Isotopic ¹³C NMR spectrometry, which is able to measure intra-molecular ¹³C composition, is of emerging demand because of the new information provided by the ¹³C site-specific content of a given molecule. A systematic evaluation of instrumental behaviour is of importance to envisage isotopic ¹³C NMR as a routine tool. This paper describes the first collaborative study of intra-molecular ¹³C composition by NMR. The main goals of the ring test were to establish intra- and inter-variability of the spectrometer response. Eight instruments with different configuration were retained for the exercise on the basis of a qualification test. Reproducibility at the natural abundance of isotopic ¹³C NMR was then assessed on vanillin from three different origins associated with specific δ¹³C_i profiles. The standard deviation was, on average, between 0.9 and 1.2‰ for intra-variability. The highest standard deviation for inter-variability was 2.1‰. This is significantly higher than the internal precision but could be considered good in respect of a first ring test on a new analytical method. The standard deviation of δ¹³C_i in vanillin was not homogeneous over the eight carbons, with no trend either for the carbon position or for the configuration of the spectrometer. However, since the repeatability for each instrument was satisfactory, correction factors for each carbon in vanillin could be calculated to harmonize the results.     

First Cellulose Langmuir‐Blodgett Films towards Photocurrent Generation Systems

Langmuir‐Blodgett films of a cellulose derivative containing porphyrins, porphyrin‐cellulose, were fabricated in order to construct a cellulose‐based molecular photocurrent generation system. On visible light illumination of the LB monolayer film deposited on an ITO electrode, anodic photocurrents were observed with a quantum yield of 1.6% at an applied potential of 0 V versus SCE, and 3.8–4.6% at 0.2–0.3 V versus SCE. These values indicate that the self‐quenching of the photoexcited porphyrins in the cellulose LB film was suppressed, while porphyrin moieties in the LB film had a densely packed structure. This is because the porphyrins are located at a distance of approximately 1.0 nm along the cellulose backbone.

     

Structure and Mechanical Properties of Chitosan/Poly(Vinyl Alcohol) Blend Films

Summary: The origins of the thermal and mechanical properties of chitosan and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) with inter- and intra-hydrogen bonds were investigated systematically by using X-ray, DSC, positron annihilation and viscoelastic measurements. Based on their individual properties, the characteristics of the blend films were estimated in relation to their morphology and mechanical properties as a function of chitosan content. The characteristics of the blend films were also analyzed in terms of the deviation from a simple additive rule of chitosan and PVA content. These results suggested that the miscibility of chitosan and PVA could be ensured by entanglement of the amorphous chain segments of chitosan and PVA. Further detailed analysis revealed that the chitosan content on the film surface is higher than that of the admixture content of chitosan after elongation, although the chitosan and PVA chains were crystallized independently. The elongation could be achieved for the blend films whose PVA content was higher than 50% and the drawn blend films were transparent. Thus, it may be expected that sufficiently entangled meshes formed between chitosan and PVA amorphous chains within the film, the PVA content being higher than 50%, were maintained under the elongation process.     

Ferroelectric Coordination Polymers Self‐Assembled from Mesogenic Zinc(II) Porphyrin and Dipolar Bridging Ligands

A new class of ferroelectric coordination‐based polymers has been developed by the self‐assembly of lipophilic zinc porphyrin ( ZnP ) and ditopic bridging ligands. The ligands contain dipolar benzothiadiazole or fluorobenzene units, which are axially coordinated to ZnP with the dipole moments oriented perpendicular to the coordination axes. The coordination‐based polymers show ferroelectric characteristics in the liquid crystalline state, as revealed by distinctive hysteresis in the polarization–electric field (P–E) loops and inversion current peaks in current–voltage (I–V) loops. The observed ferroelectric properties are explainable by flip–flop rotation of the dipolar axle ligands induced by the applied electric field, as demonstrated by the positive‐up–negative‐down (PUND) measurements. The present system provides a new operating principle in supramolecular ferroelectrics.