Catechins: Therapeutic Perspectives in COVID-19-Associated Acute Kidney Injury

Data obtained from several intensive care units around the world have provided substantial evidence of the strong association between impairment of the renal function and in-hospital deaths of critically ill COVID-19 patients, especially those with comorbidities and requiring renal replacement therapy (RRT). Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common renal disorder of various etiologies characterized by a sudden and sustained decrease of renal function. Studies have shown that 5–46% of COVID-19 patients develop AKI during hospital stay, and the mortality of those patients may reach up to 100% depending on various factors, such as organ failures and RRT requirement. Catechins are natural products that have multiple pharmacological activities, including anti-coronavirus and reno-protective activities against kidney injury induced by nephrotoxic agents, obstructive nephropathies and AKI accompanying metabolic and cardiovascular disorders. Therefore, in this review, we discuss the anti-SARS-CoV-2 and reno-protective effects of catechins from a mechanistic perspective. We believe that catechins may serve as promising therapeutics in COVID-19-associated AKI due to their well-recognized anti-SARS-CoV-2, and antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that mediate their reno-protective activities.     

Solvent Mixture Optimization in the Extraction of Bioactive Compounds and Antioxidant Activities from Garlic (Allium sativum L.)

Garlic is a health promoter that has important bioactive compounds. The bioactive extraction is an important step in the analysis of constituents present in plant preparations. The purpose of this study is to optimize the extraction with the best proportion of solvents to obtain total phenolic compounds (TPC) and thiosulfinates (TS) from dried garlic powder, and evaluate the antioxidant activities of the optimized extracts. A statistical mixture simplex axial design was used to evaluate the effect of solvents (water, ethanol, and acetone), as well as mixtures of these solvents, after two ultrasound extraction cycles of 15 min. Results showed that solvent mixtures with a high portion of water and pure water were efficient for TPC and TS recovery through this extraction procedure. According to the regression model computed, the most significant solvent mixtures to obtain high TPC and TS recovery from dried garlic powder are, respectively, the binary mixture with 75% water and 25% acetone and pure water. These optimized extracts presented oxygen radical absorbance capacity. Pure water was better for total antioxidant capacity, and the binary mixture of water–acetone (75:25) was better for DPPH scavenging activity. These optimized extracts can be used for industrial and research applications.     

High precision delta(17)O isotope measurements of oxygen from silicates and other oxides: method and applications

The use of infrared laser-assisted fluorination to release oxygen from milligram quantities of silicates or other oxide mineral grains is a well-established technique. However, relatively few studies have reported the optimisation of this procedure for oxygen-17 isotope measurements. We describe here details of an analytical system using infrared (10 μm) laser-assisted fluorination, in conjunction with a dual inlet mass spectrometer of high resolving power ( approximately 250) to provide (17)O and (18)O oxygen isotope measurements from 0.5-2 mg of silicates or other oxide mineral grains. Respective precisions (1) of typically 0.08 and 0.04 per thousand are obtained for the complete analytical procedure. Departures from the mass-dependent oxygen isotope fractionation line are quantified by Delta(17)O; our precision (1) of such measurements on individual samples is shown to be +/-0.024 per thousand. In turn, this permits the offset between parallel, mass-dependent fractionation lines to be characterised to substantially greater precision than has been possible hitherto. Application of this system to investigate the (17)O versus (18)O relationship for numerous terrestrial whole-rock and mineral samples, of diverse geological origins and age, indicates that the complete data set may be described by a single, mass-dependent fractionation line of slope 0.5244+/- 0.00038 (standard error). Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Copper and iron interactions with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors. A study by fast-atom bombardment tandem mass spectrometry

Fast atom bombardment, combined with high-energy collision-induced tandem mass spectrometry, has been used to investigate gas-phase metal-ion interactions with captopril, enalaprilat and lisinopril, all angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors.Suggestions for the location of metal-binding sites are presented. For captopril, metal binding occurs most likely at both the sulphur and the nitrogen atom. For enalaprilat and lisinopril, binding preferably occurs at the amine nitrogen. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evidence of the Presence of Dimethylated,Trimethylated and "Refractory' Arsenic Compounds in Estuarine Salt-marsh Halophytes

Five species of halophytes were sampled in the salt marshes of the Tagus estuary, dried, ground and digested. They were further extracted with ethanol and the extracts passed through weak and strong cationic ion-exchange resins, purified through TLC and submitted to pyrolysis mass spectrometry and HPLC–ICP/MS. Arsenic content and hydride-forming arsenic species were verified, in each step, by GF–AA and HG–QFAA. A high content of arsenic was found in the samples of halophytes studied, both di- and tri-methylated arsenic compounds being present. A considerable fraction of this arsenic content seems to be refractory to hydride generation. Moreover, the arsenic fraction found seems to have the same ion-exchange behaviour as the refractory fractions formerly studied in estuarine water. A partial characterization of these structures by pyrolysis–GC–MS suggests the presence of arsenobetaine and arsenocholine compounds. Furthermore, HPLC–ICP/MS data seem to confirm the presence of these compounds. In addition, the latter hyphenated technique strongly suggests the presence of a number of other organoarsenicals including tetramethylarsonium (TMAs), trimethylarsine oxide (TMAO), cacodylate (DMA) and possibly an arsenosugar-type compound. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cataracting-centrifuging transition investigation using nonspherical and spherical particles in a rotary drum through CFD simulations

This paper aims to systematically investigate the cataracting-centrifuging transition in a rotary drum involving spherical and nonspherical particles by using t...     

The role of ergodicity and mixing in the central limit theorem for Casati-Prosen triangle map variables

In this Letter we analyse the behaviour of the probability density function of the sum of N deterministic variables generated from the triangle map of Casati-Prosen. For the case in which the map is both ergodic and mixing the resulting probability density function quickly concurs with the Normal distribution. However, when the map is weakly chaotic, and fuzzily not mixing, the resulting probability density functions are described by power-laws. Moreover, contrarily to what it would be expected, as the number of added variables N increases the distance to Gaussian distribution increases. This behaviour goes against standard central limit theorem. By extrapolation of our finite size results we preview that in the limit of N going to infinity the distribution has the same asymptotic decay as a Lorentzian (or a q=2-Gaussian).     

A supramolecular zigzag chain of organometallic dipoles mediated by PF6− anions

The title compound, (η⁵‐cyclo­penta­dienyl)(4‐nitro­benzo­nitrile‐κN)(trimethyl­phosphine‐κP)(triphenyl­phosphite‐κP)iron(II) hexa­fluoro­phosphate, [Fe(C₅H₅)(C₇H₄N₂O₂)(C₁₈H₁₅O₃P)(C₃H₉P)]PF₆, has been characterized by spectroscopic and X‐ray diffraction in order to evaluate the tuning of the electron density at the metal centre and the extension of the π delocalization on the mol­ecule due to the presence of phosphite and phosphine co‐ligands. The compound crystallizes in the centrosymmetric space group P2₁/c, which destroys the possibility of exhibiting any quadratic non‐linear optical properties. The packing shows a supramolecular zigzag chain of antiparallel cations connected via the PF₆⁻ anions through C—H⋯F^δ− inter­actions, with H⋯F distances ranging from 2.39 to 2.67 Å. Each zigzag chain is composed of isomeric organometallic fragments containing either R or S mol­ecules. These chains are connected through weak inter­molecular C—H⋯C inter­actions, forming a two‐dimensional plane parallel to (101).     

Synthesis of new aza-bicyclic 2-isoxazolines by 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of endocyclic enecarbamates and enamides with nitrile oxides

Novel aza-bicyclic 2-isoxazolines, 4,5-dihydroisoxazole[5,4-b]pyrrolidines, and 4,5-dihydroisoxazole[5,4-b]piperidines were synthesized in a highly regioselective manner through a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction of 5- and 6-membered endocyclic enecarbamates and enamides with several nitrile oxides in good to excellent yields. Hydrogenolysis of 5- and 6-membered Cbz-cycloadducts led to secondary amines, which presented distinctive stabilities. 2-Isoxazoline bisamides were obtained in good yields through a N-benzoylation, followed by ammonolysis of the secondary amine, or directly from ammonolysis of the cycloadducts.     

Optical fiber biosensor coupled to chromatographic separation for screening of dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine in human urine and plasma

An optical fiber biosensor has been developed for the determination of catecholamines (dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine) based on the recognition capacity of the enzyme laccase. In this study, a glass tube constituted by a fused silica fiber coated with a film of polystyrene/divinylbenzene resin (PS/DVB) was used for catecholamines separation. Firstly, the analyzer was tested for calibration and its analytical performance for catecholamines detection was compared with a classical analytical method, namely high performance liquid chromatography-electrochemical detector (HPLC-ED). The developed analytical device shows a high potential for catecholamines quantification with a detection limit of 2.1, 2.6 and 3.4 pg mL⁻¹ for dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine, respectively. The analytical sensitivity, inferred from the slope of the calibration curves established for a range of concentrations between 5 and 125 pg mL⁻¹, was found to be 0.344, 0.252 and 0.140 dB/pg mL⁻¹ for dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine, respectively. Furthermore, catecholamines speciation with the PS/DVB fiber was completely achieved in 3 min. The analytical performance of the reported sensor was also evaluated and found adequate for catecholamines determination in human urine and plasma samples.