Anchoring Supramolecular Polymers to Human Red Blood Cells by Combining Dynamic Covalent and Non-Covalent Chemistries

Understanding cell/material interactions is essential to design functional cell-responsive materials. While the scientific literature abounds with formulations of biomimetic materials, only a fraction of them focused on mechanisms of the molecular interactions between cells and material. To provide new knowledge on the strategies for materials/cell recognition and binding, supramolecular benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxamide copolymers bearing benzoxaborole moieties are anchored on the surface of human erythrocytes via benzoxaborole/sialic-acid binding. This interaction based on both dynamic covalent and non-covalent chemistries is visualized in real time by means of total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy. Exploiting this imaging method, we observe that the functional copolymers specifically interact with the cell surface. An optimal fiber affinity towards the cells as a function of benzoxaborole concentration demonstrates the crucial role of multivalency in these cell/material interactions.     

Determination of 5‐fluorocytosine, 5‐fluorouracil,and 5‐fluorouridine in hospital wastewater by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry

Chemotherapeutics are pharmaceutical compounds the occurrence of which in the environment is of growing concern because of the increase in treatments against cancer diseases. They can reach the aquatic ecosystems after passing through wastewater treatment plants without complete removal. One of the most frequently used chemotherapeutics is 5‐fluorouracil which exhibits a strong cytostatic effect. In this paper, an analytical methodology was developed, validated, and applied to determine 5‐fluorouracil, its precursor, 5‐fluorocytosine, and its major active metabolite, 5‐fluorouridine, in hospital wastewater samples. Due to the expected low concentrations after dilution and interferences present in such a complex matrix, a very selective and sensitive detection method is required. Moreover, an extraction method must be implemented prior to the determination in order to purify the sample extract and preconcentrate the target analytes at micrograms per liter concentration levels. Solid‐phase extraction followed by liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry was the combination of choice and all included parameters were studied. Under optimized conditions for wastewater samples analysis, recoveries from 63 to 108% were obtained, while intraday and interday relative standard deviations never exceeded 20 and 25%, respectively. Limits of detection between 61 and 620 ng/L were achieved. Finally, the optimized method was applied to samples from hospital wastewater effluents.     

An Instrumental Correction for the Determination of Mercury in Biological and Sediment Samples Using Cold Vapor Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry

Low recovery rate and inconsistent measurements were found in the determination of mercury by method of cold vapor atomic absorption spectrophotometry using the hydride formation system (Hitachi HFS-2, Hitachi Ltd., Tokyo). To overcome this problem of insufficient reaction time we developed a simple T-joint device attaching to the commercial HFS-2 system for the determination of mercury in various biological tissues and sediment samples. The T-joint device was designed to combine sample and reductant injection which increased the reaction time of the sample allowing a complete formation of mercury vapor and speeding up the analysis process in comparison to the traditional cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometric method. Recoveries of mercury were in the range 95% - 100%. The corrected procedure gave precise and accurate readings with several certified reference materials: NIES No. 2 from the Japan Environment Agency; IAEA-356 from the International Atomic Energy Association, and DOLT-2, DORM-2, TORT-2, PACS-1 and MESS-2 from the National Research Council of Canada. Simple acid digestion methods were developed based on the sample Hg level and the nature of the sample. The sample detection limits were 0.0125 μg g⁻¹ fresh weight and 0.0625 μg g⁻¹ dry weight for biological samples, and as low as 0.0125 μg g⁻¹ dry weight for sediment samples. These analytical protocols we established met the general requirements in environmental research and monitoring of mercury pollution.     

Antihyperglycemic activity of chalcone based novel 1-{3-[3-(substituted phenyl) prop-2-enoyl] phenyl} thioureas

Abstract

The present study describes the synthesis of novel chalcone based 1-{3-[3-(substituted phenyl) prop-2-enoyl] phenyl} thioureas (4a-c) using Claisen Schmidt condensation and investigates their protective role in diabetic conditions and associated oxidative stress. Spectral properties for the synthesized compounds were studied. Novel compounds were screened for antihyperglycemic effect in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats in a 6?week study and compound 4b exhibited significant (p?≤?.05) results similar to the standard drug glipizide. Treatment of diabetic animals with compound 4b (10 and 20?mg/kg, body weight) for 12?weeks, reduced the increased blood glucose level significantly (p?≤?.01) and restored attenuated serum biochemical parameters to normal levels. Altered antioxidant enzyme activity was also considerably (p?≤?.01) restored to the standard normal range. β-apoptotic TUNEL assay indicated that compound 4b (AI: 1.2?±?0.05) could prevent further β-cell death in the pancreas of diabetic animals in a dose-dependent manner, which highlights its potentiality as an effective antihyperglycemic agent.     

Determination of ametryn in soils via microwave-assisted solvent extraction coupled to anodic stripping voltammetry with a gold ultramicroelectrode

An extraction-anodic adsorptive stripping voltammetric procedure using microwave-assisted solvent extraction and a gold ultramicroelectrode was developed for determining the pesticide ametryn in soil samples. The method is based on the use of acetonitrile as extraction solvent and on controlled adsorptive accumulation of the herbicide at the potential of 0.50 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) in the presence of Britton-Robinson buffer (pH 3.3). Soil sample extracts were analysed directly after drying and redissolution with the supporting electrolyte but without other pre-treatment. The limit of detection obtained for a 10 s collection time was 0.021 g g^–1. Recovery experiments for the global procedure, at the 0.500 g g^–1 level, gave satisfactory mean and standard deviation results which were comparable to those obtained by HPLC with UV detection.     

Solid ink-printed filter paper as a green adsorbent material for the solid-phase extraction of UV filters from water samples

This work describes the development of a new green solid-phase extraction approach, which is based on the use of low-cost extraction discs composed of plain filter papers that are covered with a synthetic wax-like coating. The filter papers are printed in a commercial solid ink printer, which dispenses a synthetic wax-like ink on the surface of the paper, to cover the hydrophilic cellulose fibre matrix with an interface of lipophilic domains where non-polar analytes can partition through hydrophobic interactions. The modified paper filters were used to extract hydrophobic organic compounds from water samples following the customary procedure of solid-phase extraction without sorbent preconditioning and needless of high-vacuum sources. As a proof-of-concept application, a series of non-polar organic UV filters were used as model analytes to optimise the extraction parameters and evaluate the performance of the method in spiked water samples. Based on this principle, a new sample preparation platform with low environmental footprint has been developed that enables extraction to be carried out using low-cost, environmental benign and non-toxic conventional materials. The advantages and disadvantages of the method, alongside with its future prospects towards the development of custom-made ‘printed extraction kits’, are envisioned and discussed.     

Off-line SFE-CZE analysis of carbamates residues in tobacco samples

Summary Determination of carbamate residues in tobacco samples was carried out by solid-liquid extraction (SLE) and supercritical-fluid extraction (SFE) methods, both developed for this purpose. The clean-up step was carried out on SPE-Florisil cartridges and the extracts analysed by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) with UV detection.The results were compared and SFE using CO₂-acetone showed the best results in terms of recovery and generally higher extraction power. SFE in conjunction with CZE proved suitable for carbamate residue analysis in real tobacco samples.     

Sampling and gas chromatographic analysis of volatile organic compounds in hot and extremely humid emissions

Adsorptive enrichment on hydrophobic adsorbents, thermal desorption, and capillary gas-chromatographic analysis have been used to determine volatile organic compounds in extremely humid stack-gas emissions from the residential burning of brown-coal briquets. One hundred and fifty two compounds were identified and quantified. Quantitative emission factors were determined for the identified individual compounds in relation to the amount of the fuel used. These factors enable a first assessment of the pollution of the city of Leipzig with volatile organic compounds resulting from the burning of indigenous lignite.     

Syringe-to-syringe-dispersive liquid–phase microextraction combined with flame atomic absorption spectrometry for pre-concentration and determination of cobalt with the aid of experimental design

A rapid and selective technique has been proposed for the extraction, pre-concentration and determination of trace amounts of cobalt in water and pharmaceutical samples by syringe-to-syringe-dispersive liquid–phase microextraction (SS-DLPME) combined with flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS). In the developed method, 1-nitroso-2-naphthol was used as a selective complexing agent and 1-octanol was selected as the extraction solvent. Factors such as pH of the sample solution, concentration of the complexing agent, volume of the extraction solvent, number of injections and centrifugation time affecting the extraction efficiency were screened using a Plackett–Burman design (PBD) and optimised using a Box–Behnken design (BBD). Under optimum conditions, a dynamic linear range of 2.5–650 μg L^?1 with the coefficient of determination r² = 0.997 was obtained. The resultant limit of detection (LOD) was 0.68 μg L^?1, whereas the enrichment factor (EF), intraday precision and inter-day precision were 281, 1.43% and 1.93%, respectively. This method was used successfully for pre-concentration and determination of the analyte in environmental water and drug samples.     

Exact Singularity Subtraction from Boundary Integral Equations in Modeling Vesicles and Red Blood Cells

The study of vesicles, capsules and red blood cells (RBCs) under flow is a field of active research, belonging to the general problematic of fluid/structure interactions. Here, we are interested in modeling vesicles, capsules and RBCs using a boundary integral formulation, and focus on exact singularity subtractions of the kernel of the integral equations in 3D. In order to increase the precision of singular and near-singular integration, we propose here a refinement procedure in the vicinity of the pole of the Green-Oseen kernel. The refinement is performed homogeneously everywhere on the source surface in order to reuse the additional quadrature nodes when calculating boundary integrals in multiple target points. We also introduce a multi-level look-up algorithm in order to select the additional quadrature nodes in vicinity of the pole of the Green-Oseen kernel. The expected convergence rate of the proposed algorithm is of order$\mathcal{O}(1/N^2)$ while the computational complexity is of order$\mathcal{O}$($N^2$ln$N$), where $N$ is the number of degrees of freedom used for surface discretization. Several numerical tests are presented to demonstrate the convergence and the efficiency of the method.