Photodynamic Therapy of 9L Gliosarcoma with Liposome-Delivered Photofrin

Abstract— The effect of Photofrin encapsulated in a liposome delivery vehicle for photodynamic therapy (PDT) of the 9L gliosarcoma and normal rat brain was tested. We hypothesized that the liposome vehicle enhances therapeutic efficacy, possibly by increasing tumor tissue concentration of Photofrin. Male Fisher rats bearing a 9L gliosarcoma were treated 16 days after intracerebral tumor implantation with either Photofrin in dextrose (n = 5) or Photofrin in liposome (n = 6). Nontumor-bearing animals were treated with Photofrin delivered either in dextrose (n = 4) or liposome (n = 4) vehicle. Tissue concentrations of Photofrin delivered either in dextrose (n = 4) or liposome (n = 4) vehicle were measured in tumor, brain adjacent to tumor and in normal brain tissue. Photofrin was administered (intraperitoneally) at a dose of 12.5 mg/kg and PDT (17 J/cm₂ of 632 nm light at 100 mW/cm₂) was performed 24 h after Photofrin administration. Brains were removed 24 h after PDT and stained with hematoxylin and eosin for analysis of cellular damage. The PDT using Photofrin in the liposome vehicle caused significantly more damage to the tumor ( P < 0.001) than did PDT with Photofrin in dextrose. The PDT of tumor with Photofrin delivered in liposomes caused a 22% volume of cellular necrosis, while PDT of tumor with Photofrin delivered in dextrose caused only scattered cellular damage. Photofrin concentration in tumors was significantly higher ( P = 0.021) using liposome (33.8 ± 18.9 μg/g) compared to dextrose delivery (5.5 ± 1.5 μg/g). Normal brain was affected similarly in both groups, with only scattered cellular necrosis. Our data suggest that the liposome vehicle enhances the therapeutic efficacy of PDT treatment of 9L tumors.     

Two-Photon Excitation of 4'-Hydroxymethyl-4,5',8-Trimethylpsoralen

Abstract— Psoralens are a class of pharmaceutical agents commonly used to treat several cutaneous disorders. When irradiated with a mode-locked titanium: sapphire (Ti: sapphire) laser tuned to 730 nm, an aqueous solution of 4'-hydroxymethyl-4,5',8-trimethylpsoralen (HMT) emits blue light. The emission spectrum is centered at 452 nm and is identical to that obtained by one-photon excitation with UVA excitation, and its magnitude depends quad-ratically on the intensity of laser excitation. These results suggest that two-photon excitation occurs to a potentially photochemically active state. To estimate the two-photon absorption cross section, it was first necessary to measure the emission quantum yield of HMT using 365 nm excitation at room temperature that resulted in a value of 0.045 ± 0.007. The two-photon absorption cross section of HMT at 730 nm is therefore estimated to be 20 ± 10⁻⁵⁰ cm⁴ s (20 Göppert-Mayer). The excited-state photophysics and photochemistry of psoralens suggest potential applications to cutaneous phototherapy in diseases such as psoriasis and dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa.     

Silicone-modified starch/protein microparticles: protecting biopolymers with a hydrophobic coating

Silicone-coated starch/protein (human serum albumin, HSA) microparticles were prepared by precipitation of a starch/HSA/DMSO/water (water-in-oil) emulsion into acetone containing a silicone: the silicone polymer was either unfunctionalized (SiMe₃ terminated, PDMS) or functionalized at its termini with Si(OEt)₃ groups (TES-PDMS). The microparticles of approximate diameter 2–7 μm were highly hydrophobic with advancing contact angles 115°. Over several minutes, however, the contact angle decreased to ca. 40–70°. Soxhlet extraction with water led to degradation of the microparticles, irrespective of the nature of their silicone coating, as evidenced by release of the protein from them. Intraperitoneal (IP) or gastric administration of the two different particles to mice, however, showed a clear difference between the two silicones. The microparticles coated with either PDMS or TES-PDMS led to very different immune responses. Oral administration of the microparticles prepared with functionalized silicone elicited a significant production of antibodies, whereas the particles prepared with the unfunctionalized silicone (PDMS) were only weakly active. By contrast, the IP results demonstrated that particles coated with PDMS elicited an immune response that was established much more rapidly than with the particles modified with TES-PDMS. It is proposed that the TES-PDMS forms a physically adhering film or covalent bond to the protein molecules, which serves to protect the microparticle from biological degradation in the gut and/or facilitates the microparticle/protein interaction with the immune system.     

Synthesis of ferrocenyl-1,2-diketones and related compounds: Crystal and molecular structures of 1,2-diferrocenylethanedione and 1-ferrocenyl-2-(4-biphenylyl) ethanedione

Ferrocenyl-1,2-diketones FcCOCOR, 3, [Fc = (C₅H₅)Fe(C₅H₄)] can be prepared by oxidation of acylferrocenes FcCOCH₂R or, more efficiently, by oxidation of the isomeric ketones FcCH₂COR, 2. The ketones 2 are in turn readily synthesized from the salt (FcCH₂PPh₃)⁺I⁻ via the acylated salts [FcCH(COR)PPh₃]⁺I⁻. The haloacylferocenes FcCOCCl_x H_3−x (x = 1, 2, 3, of which the x = 2 example is synthetically equivalent to a diketone) are synthesized by Friedel—Crafts acylation of ferrocene using CCl_xH_3−xCOCl/AlCl₃, but the reaction proceeds via two parallel pathways, one giving the normal acyl derivatives FcCOCCl_xH_3−x and the other giving the reduced products FcCOCCl_x−1H_4−x. Two diketones FcCOCOFc 3b and FcCOCOC₆H₄Ph 3c have been structurally characterised by single-crystal X-ray diffraction.     

Gas Storage in Porous Molecular Materials

Molecules with permanent porosity in the solid state have been studied for decades. Porosity in these systems is governed by intrinsic pore space, as in cages or macrocycles, and extrinsic void space, created through loose, intermolecular solid-state packing. The development of permanently porous molecular materials, especially cages with organic or metal–organic composition, has seen increased interest over the past decade, and as such, incredibly high surface areas have been reported for these solids. Despite this, examples of these materials being explored for gas storage applications are relatively limited. This minireview outlines existing molecular systems that have been investigated for gas storage and highlights strategies that have been used to understand adsorption mechanisms in porous molecular materials.     

Rational Development of Guanidinate and Amidinate Based Cerium and Ytterbium Complexes as Atomic Layer Deposition Precursors: Synthesis,Modeling, and Application

Owing to the limited availability of suitable precursors for vapor phase deposition of rare-earth containing thin-film materials, new or improved precursors are sought after. In this study, we explored new precursors for atomic layer deposition (ALD) of cerium (Ce) and ytterbium (Yb) containing thin films. A series of homoleptic tris-guanidinate and tris-amidinate complexes of cerium (Ce) and ytterbium (Yb) were synthesized and thoroughly characterized. The C-substituents on the N-C-N backbone (Me, NMe₂, NEt₂, where Me=methyl, Et=ethyl) and the N-substituents from symmetrical iso-propyl (iPr) to asymmetrical tertiary-butyl (tBu) and Et were systematically varied to study the influence of the substituents on the physicochemical properties of the resulting compounds. Single crystal structures of [Ce(dpdmg)₃] 1 and [Yb(dpdmg)₃] 6 (dpdmg=N,N'-diisopropyl-2-dimethylamido-guanidinate) highlight a monomeric nature in the solid-state with a distorted trigonal prismatic geometry. The thermogravimetric analysis shows that the complexes are volatile and emphasize that increasing asymmetry in the complexes lowers their melting points while reducing their thermal stability. Density functional theory (DFT) was used to study the reactivity of amidinates and guanidinates of Ce and Yb complexes towards oxygen (O₂) and water (H₂O). Signified by the DFT calculations, the guanidinates show an increased reactivity toward water compared to the amidinate complexes. Furthermore, the Ce complexes are more reactive compared to the Yb complexes, indicating even a reactivity towards oxygen potentially exploitable for ALD purposes. As a representative precursor, the highly reactive [Ce(dpdmg)₃] 1 was used for proof-of-principle ALD depositions of CeO₂ thin films using water as co-reactant. The self-limited ALD growth process could be confirmed at 160 °C with polycrystalline cubic CeO₂ films formed on Si(100) substrates. This study confirms that moving towards nitrogen-coordinated rare-earth complexes bearing the guanidinate and amidinate ligands can indeed be very appealing in terms of new precursors for ALD of rare earth based materials.     

Organic room-temperature phosphorescence from halogen-bonded organic frameworks: hidden electronic effects in rigidified chromophores

Development of purely organic materials displaying room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) will expand the toolbox of inorganic phosphors for imaging, sensing or display applications. While molecular solids were found to suppress non-radiative energy dissipation and make the RTP process kinetically favourable, such an effect should be enhanced by the presence of multivalent directional non-covalent interactions. Here we report phosphorescence of a series of fast triplet-forming tetraethyl naphthalene-1,4,5,8-tetracarboxylates. Various numbers of bromo substituents were introduced to modulate intermolecular halogen-bonding interactions. Bright RTP with quantum yields up to 20% was observed when the molecule is surrounded by a Br⋯O halogen-bonded network. Spectroscopic and computational analyses revealed that judicious heavy-atom positioning suppresses non-radiative relaxation and enhances intersystem crossing at the same time. The latter effect was found to be facilitated by the orbital angular momentum change, in addition to the conventional heavy-atom effect. Our results suggest the potential of multivalent non-covalent interactions for excited-state conformation and electronic control.

The number and position of halogen substituents in purely organic π–π* chromophores critically affect the efficiency of phosphorescence.     

Short-chain reactive probes as tools to unravel the Pseudomonas aeruginosa quorum sensing regulon

In recent years, the world has seen a troubling increase in antibiotic resistance among bacterial pathogens. In order to provide alternative strategies to combat bacterial infections, it is crucial deepen our understanding into the mechanisms that pathogens use to thrive in complex environments. Most bacteria use sophisticated chemical communication systems to sense their population density and coordinate gene expression in a collective manner, a process that is termed “quorum sensing” (QS). The human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa uses several small molecules to regulate QS, and one of them is N-butyryl-l-homoserine lactone (C₄-HSL). Using an activity-based protein profiling (ABPP) strategy, we designed biomimetic probes with a photoreactive group and a ‘click’ tag as an analytical handle. Using these probes, we have identified previously uncharacterized proteins that are part of the P. aeruginosa QS network, and we uncovered an additional role for this natural autoinducer in the virulence regulon of P. aeruginosa, through its interaction with PhzB1/2 that results in inhibition of pyocyanin production.

Short-chain reactive probes can be used as tools to shed new light on virulence mechanisms in bacterial pathogens.     

How metallylenes activate small molecules

We have studied the activation of dihydrogen by metallylenes using relativistic density functional theory (DFT). Our detailed activation strain and Kohn–Sham molecular orbital analyses have quantified the physical factors behind the decreased reactivity of the metallylene on going down Group 14, from carbenes to stannylenes. Along this series, the reactivity decreases due to a worsening of the back-donation interaction between the filled lone-pair orbital of the metallylene and the σ*-orbital of H₂, which, therefore, reduces the metallylene–substrate interaction and increases the reaction barrier. As the metallylene ligand is varied from nitrogen to phosphorus to arsenic a significant rate enhancement is observed for the activation of H₂ due to (i) a reduced steric (Pauli) repulsion between the metallylene and the substrate; and (ii) less activation strain, as the metallylene becomes increasingly more predistorted. Using a rationally designed metallylene with an optimal Group 14 atom and ligand combination, we show that a number of small molecules (i.e. HCN, CO₂, H₂, NH₃) may also be readily activated. For the first time, we show the ability of our H₂ activated designer metallylenes to hydrogenate unsaturated hydrocarbons. The results presented herein will serve as a guide for the rational design of metallylenes toward the activation of small molecules and subsequent reactions.

Quantum chemical analyses reveal how model metallylene catalysts activate H₂. This is the first step towards the rational design of metallylenes for the activation of small molecules and subsequent reactions.     

Synthesis of an elusive,stable 2-azaallyl radical guided by electrochemical and reactivity studies of 2-azaallyl anions

The super electron donor (SED) ability of 2-azaallyl anions has recently been discovered and applied to diverse reactivity, including transition metal-free cross-coupling and dehydrogenative cross-coupling processes. Surprisingly, the redox properties of 2-azaallyl anions and radicals have been rarely studied. Understanding the chemistry of elusive species is the key to further development. Electrochemical analysis of phenyl substituted 2-azaallyl anions revealed an oxidation wave at E_1/2 or E_pa = −1.6 V versus Fc/Fc⁺, which is ∼800 mV less than the reduction potential predicted (E_pa = −2.4 V vs. Fc/Fc⁺) based on reactivity studies. Investigation of the kinetics of electron transfer revealed reorganization energies an order of magnitude lower than commonly employed SEDs. The electrochemical study enabled the synthetic design of the first stable, acyclic 2-azaallyl radical. These results indicate that the reorganization energy should be an important design consideration for the development of more potent organic reductants.

The super electron donor (SED) capabilities of 2-azaallyl anions has recently been discovered and applied to diverse reactivity; their structures and electron transfer characteristics are reported herein.