Detection of caffeine and its main metabolites for early diagnosis of Parkinson's disease using micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography

Caffeine (CA) is a common xanthine alkaloid found in tea leaves, coffee beans, and other natural plants, and is the most widely used psychotropic substance in the world. Accumulating evidence suggests that low plasma levels of CA and its metabolites may serve as reliable diagnostic markers for early Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. In this study, we demonstrated a new MEKC method for determining CA and its three main downstream metabolites, paraxanthine (PX), theobromine (TB), and theophylline (TP), in human plasma. Plasma samples were collected, and analyzed using MEKC, after SPE. The running buffer was composed of 35 mM phosphate, pH of 10.5, and 25 mM SDS. The separation voltage was 15 kV and the detection wavelength was at 210 nm. Under the optimum conditions, four distinct analytes were completely separated and detected in less than 12 min. Method limits of detection were as low as 7.5 ng/mL for CA, 5.0 ng/mL for TB, and 4.0 ng/mL for both PX and TP. The recoveries were between 88.0% and 105.9%. This method was successfully applied to 27 human plasma samples. The results indicate that the plasma concentrations of the four analytes are significantly lower in patients with early PD than in control subjects (p < 0.05). The area under curve was improved to 0.839 when CA and its three main metabolites were included, suggesting that MEKC testing of CA, TP, TB, and PX may serve as a potential method for early diagnosis of PD.     

磺酰脲类化合物在水稻田中的除草性能

水稻是我国重要的粮食作物,但杂草对水稻的产量和品质产生了严重影响。 化学防除是治理水稻田杂草最有效的途径。 文中设计合成了苯环2,6-取代和2,5-取代两个系列磺酰脲类化合物,并通过核磁共振波谱仪(NMR)和高分辨质谱仪(HRMS)等对其进行了结构表征。 通过水稻田除草活性和安全性测试发现化合物在水稻田中具有较好的除草活性,尤其是化合物10a对水稻田中的主要杂草稗草和醴肠除草活性(目测初筛防效大于90%)优于对照药醚苯磺隆和氯磺隆,安全性与之相当。     

具有抗生物污染活性的分子筛膜用于高效油水分离

The development of the global economy has been accompanied by frequent oil spills caused by accidental leaks and industrial manufacturing, which have seriously threatened the aquatic environment and human health. Traditional methods for the treatment of oily wastewater include centrifugation, skimming, flotation, oil-absorbing technology, etc., which are limited by low separation efficiency as well as secondary pollution during the post-processing of oil absorption materials. Recently, separation technologies utilizing the special wettabilities of filtration membranes have been developed to enrich and recycle oils from wastewater. Among these, the fabrication of superhydrophilic/underwater superhydrophobic membranes have attracted intensive research interest, which can selectively allow the passage of water through the membrane while blocking the oils. However, microorganisms are more likely to breed on these hydrophilic surfaces, eventually leading to the blockage of the membranes. In this study, ZSM-5 zeolite crystals (MFI topological structure) were coated onto the stainless-steel meshes by means of seeding and secondary hydrothermal growth. Then, 70% of the total Na⁺ ions in the zeolite channels were substituted by Ag⁺ ions via an ion exchange process. The resultant membranes (Ag@ZCMFs) were superamphiphilic in air, with both water contact angle and oil contact angle of approximately 0°. However, they became superoleophobic when immersed in water, and the underwater oil contact angle reached 151.27° ± 4.34°. In terms of special wettability, Ag@ZCMF achieved efficient separation for various oil-water mixtures with separation efficiencies above 99%. The water flux and intrusion pressure of Ag@ZCMF depended on the diameter of pinholes in the membrane, which could be modulated by altering the time of secondary hydrothermal growth. For instance, the average diameter of pinholes in Ag@ZCMF with optimum secondary growth time of 14 h (Ag@ZCMF-14) reached approximately 21 μm, giving rise to the water flux and intrusion pressure of 54720 L·m^-2·h^-1 and 4357 Pa, respectively. The anti-corrosion test and rubbing test confirmed the high chemical and mechanical stability of Ag@ZCMF-14, respectively. The separation efficiency of Ag@ZCMF-14 remained stable during ten purification-regeneration cycles, and no obvious attenuation was observed, proving the high separation stability of Ag@ZCMF-14. Furthermore, the loaded Ag⁺ ions afforded the membrane excellent anti-biofouling activity, which could effectively inhibit the growth of both alga and bacteria in the operating environment, thus preventing membrane blockage during the oil-water separation process. In particular, the bacteriostatic rate of Ag@ZCMF-14 to Escherichia coli reached to 99.6%. These results demonstrate that Ag@ZCMFs with anti-biofouling activity has promising potential future applications in the removal of oil slicks from oily wastewater.     

铂合金氧还原催化剂:合成、结构和性能

质子交换膜燃料电池是一种将燃料中的化学能直接转化为电能的装置,它具有转化效率高、能量密度高、低温启动、易于操作等优点,因而被认为是最具发展前景的新能源利用方式,在电动汽车、便携电源及分散式电站有着广泛应用.但是,目前质子交换膜燃料电池技术的发展面临着巨大挑战,主要问题包括高成本、低功率密度和低寿命.众所周知,质子交换膜燃料电池中的阴极氧还原反应在酸性条件下是一个复杂的四电子过程,动力学速度缓慢,限制了电池的最终性能.目前大量使用的阴极氧还原催化剂是细小的铂或铂合金纳米颗粒负载在碳载体上,其成本占燃料电池总成本的比例最大.制约燃料电池商业化发展的另一个重要问题是电池寿命低,其中氧还原催化剂的稳定性是决定电池寿命的主要因素.在这样的研究背景下,如何降低催化剂中铂的用量、提高催化剂活性和稳定性显得尤为重要,这也是近年来国内外学者研究的热点.在铂基合金催化剂中,通常采用过渡金属元素作为掺杂元素,由于原子半径不匹配(几何效应)以及电子结构不同(电子效应),合金催化剂表现出优于纯铂催化剂的催化性能.近几年,对于铂基合金催化剂的研究已取得重大进展,以合金组成和结构研究为基础,通过精确控制原子结构、调控表面电子状态以及制备工艺,获得了各种特殊形貌的催化剂,大大提高了催化活性.本文深入综述了近年来铂基合金氧还原催化剂制备、形貌和性能,特别关注了催化剂形貌和催化活性之间的关系.值得注意的是,具有有序原子排列的铂合金催化剂不仅在半电池中表现出优异活性,在实际质子交换膜燃料电池中也显示了很好的活性和稳定性.另一方面,碳载体的形貌及微观结构也对提高催化活性和稳定性起到决定性作用,通过化学手段加强金属纳米颗粒与碳载体之间的相互作用也是提高催化剂稳定性的重要途径.尽管铂基氧还原催化剂在近几年取得了重要进展,但在实际商业化过程中还存在诸多挑战,本文在综述进展的基础上,对铂基催化剂的发展提出了展望.首先,对于氧还原反应机理仍需要深入研究,采用更加精确的理论模型模拟氧还原动力学过程,以获得影响催化活性的关键因素.其次,提高催化剂在膜电极中的催化活性和利用率.目前,氧还原催化剂在半电池测试中性能优异,但是实际燃料电池操作条件下其性能远不能达到要求,这与膜电极、催化剂层及扩散层结构相关.因此,基于不同铂基催化剂的特性,合理设计膜电极组件的结构是将催化剂进行实际应用的基础.最后,催化剂的稳定性仍需进一步提高,尽管目前大部分催化剂在实验室半电池研究中表现了很好的稳定性,但在实际燃料电池中的稳定性研究还不足,而且对催化剂在膜电极中性能衰退机理的研究也非常有限.因此,对于铂基氧还原催化剂的研发仍需要国内外科研工作者不懈的努力.     

含二芳胺基的吡啶甲酰胺的合成、晶体结构与除草活性

新化合物N-[2-(苯胺基)苯基]-2甲氧基吡啶-3-甲酰胺(C19H17N3O2)通过三步反应合成, 其结构通过1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, ESI-MS表征,其晶体结构通过 X-ray单晶射线衍射仪解析。该晶体属单斜晶系,空间群为P 1 21/n 1,晶胞参数为：a = 10.6329(18)?,b = 13.026(2) ?,c = 12.267(2) ?;Z =4, V =1669.7(5) ?3, Mr = 319.35, Dc = 1.270 mg/m3, S = 1.027, F(000) = 672, μ (MoKα) = 0.085 mm-1 ,可观测点精修最终偏离因子R = 0.0535 以及wR = 0.1353 和3854 个可观测点 I > 2σ(I). 晶体结构表明分子间存在氢键N(3)–H(3)???O(2)对晶体结构起到稳定的作用。初步除草活性表明,化合物N-[2-(苯胺基)苯基]-2甲氧基吡啶-3-甲酰胺在3000 g a.i/hm2对稗草的茎叶处理抑制率为91.81%。     

The Diversity of a Polyclonal FluCell-SELEX Library Outperforms Individual Aptamers as Emerging Diagnostic Tools for the Identification of Carbapenem Resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Textbook procedures require the use of individual aptamers enriched in SELEX libraries which are subsequently chemically synthesized after their biochemical characterization. Here we show that this reduction of the available sequence space of large libraries and thus the diversity of binding molecules reduces the labelling efficiency and fidelity of selected single aptamers towards different strains of the human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa compared to a polyclonal aptamer library enriched by a whole-cell-SELEX involving fluorescent aptamers. The library outperformed single aptamers in reliable and specific targeting of different clinically relevant strains, allowed to inhibit virulence associated cellular functions and identification of bound cell surface targets by aptamer based affinity purification and mass spectrometry. The stunning ease of this FluCell-SELEX and the convincing performance of the P. aeruginosa specific library may pave the way towards generally new and efficient diagnostic techniques based on polyclonal aptamer libraries not only in clinical microbiology.     

CdS@g-C3N4复合核壳纳米微粒的制备与光催化性能

采用水热法,在乙二胺和EDTA-2Na作用下,成功制备了CdS@g-C3N4复合核壳纳米微粒,并探讨了其生长机理。结果显示:CdS@g-C3N4复合核壳纳米微粒的比表面积是纯CdS纳米颗粒的14.0倍,具有良好的光催化活性和光稳定性。当反应条件为180℃、4 h、CdS/g-C3N4质量比1.9∶1时,CdS@g-C3N4的可见光催化性能最好,300 W氙灯光照2 h,RhB的降解率达95.2%,明显高于纯CdS。重复使用3次后,CdS@g-C3N4形貌、结构及光催化性能无明显变化。     

Structurally Interesting Diarymethane Derivatives from Securidaca inappendiculata

Securines A—E, three dimeric diarymethane derivatives ( 1 — 3 ) and two enantiomeric diarymethane derivative monomers ( 4 and 5 ), were isolated and characterized from the medicinal plant Securidaca inappendiculata. Compounds 1 and 2 are a pair of enantiomeric diarymethane derivative dimers, and compound 3 is a mesomeric diarymethane derivative dimer. Their structures were determined by a combination of spectroscopic data, X‐ray crystallography, electronic circular dichroism (ECD) analysis, and computational ECD calculations. Dimeric compounds 1 — 3 showed moderate antiplasmodial activities with IC₅₀ values of 0.9, 1.4, and 1.5 μM, respectively.     

Synthesis of Z-scheme g-C3N4 nanosheets/Ag3PO4 photocatalysts with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic performance for the degradation of tetracycline and dye

Graphene-like C3N4/Ag3PO4 photocatalysts are synthesized by calcination and solutions precipitating method.The obtained g-C3N4/Ag3PO4 composites display excellent photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methylene orange(MO),rhodamine B(RhB)and tetracycline(TC)under visible light irradiation.The solutions containing RhB(10 mg/L)and MO(10 mg/L)can be efficiently degraded within15 min and 30 min.Especially,nearly 80%of TC(50 mg/L)is degraded within 20 min.which are much better than those of pure g-C3N4 nanosheets and Ag3PO4,implying that strong interaction and reasonable energy band alignment in the contact interface can effectively transfer the carries.Furthermore,the g-C3N4/Ag3PO4 composites exhibit the improved stability,and only a slight decrease is observed after three recycling runs.Moreover,the impact of inorganic ions and PH values on the degradation performance is rather small.The Z-scheme photocatalytic mechanism of the g-C3N4/Ag3PO4 composites based on the active species trapping experimental is proposed.This work demonstrates the promising applications of the g-C3N4/Ag3PO4 composites in environmental issues.     

Evaluation of pharmaceutical activities of G-protein coupled receptor targeted pharmaceuticals in Chinese wastewater effluent

The occurrence of biologically active pharmaceuticals in aquatic environments raised the potential risks to aquatic species. Among these marketed biological active pharmaceuticals, it has been estimated that 40% of them target G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). We have illustrated pharmaceutical activities of GPCR targeted pharmaceuticals in English and Japanese wastewater by the in vitro transforming growth factor-α (TGFα) shedding assay. However, as the most important producer and consumer of pharmaceuticals, the occurrence of GPCR targeted pharmaceuticals in China had remained unclear. In this study, we investigated the pharmaceutical activities of GPCR targeted pharmaceuticals in secondary effluents of Chinese wastewater treatment plants. We discovered antagonistic activities against angiotensin (AT1) receptor at up to 7.2 × 102 ng-valsartan-equivalent quantity/L in Chinese wastewater for the first time as well as agonistic activities against dopamine (D2) receptor. Furthermore, in parallel with the assay, we determined concentrations of GPCR targeted pharmaceuticals in target wastewater by liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS). Through the comparison of predicted antagonistic activities calculated by concentrations and potency values from the assay, we found that the measured antagonistic activities against AT1 receptor from the assay were higher than the predicted AT1 activities from valsartan, irbesartan, and losartan, indicating the potential existence of other unknown AT1 antagonists in wastewater.