Optimized POCl3-assisted synthesis of 2-amino-1,3,4-thiadiazole/1,3,4-oxadiazole derivatives as anti-influenza agents

Although recent decades have witnessed the synthesis of 1,3,4-thiadiazoles via phosphorus POCl₃-promoted cyclization reaction, simultaneous access to 2-amino-1,3,4-thiadiazole and 2-amino-1,3,4-oxadiazole analogs remains unexpected and elusive. Herein, a detailed regiocontrolled synthesis of 2-amino-1,3,4-thiadiazoles in good to high yields with good regioselectivities from readily available thiosemicarbazides using POCl₃ was disclosed. Meantime, to establish a comprehensive structure–activity relationship, 2-amino-1,3,4-oxadiazole derivatives as single regioisomers were prepared via EDCI·HCl-triggered cyclization of the thiosemicarbazide intermediates. The in vitro anti-influenza assays proved that the selected compounds with the pyrazine/pyridine ring exhibited certain inhibitory activities against influenza A virus strains A/HK/68 (H3N2) and A/PR/8/34 (H1N1) in MDCK cells. Among them, N-(adamantan-1-yl)-5-(5-(azepan-1-yl)pyrazin-2-yl)-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-amine (4j) was the most active compound, and exhibited favorable activity with EC₅₀ values of 3.5 μM and 7.5 μM, respectively. In addition, the molecular docking results explained the reason why compound 4j had dual inhibitory activity and revealed the reasonable binding mode of this compound with the M2-S31N and M2-WT ion channels. This compound had the potential to be further developed as an anti-influenza drug.     

Transport properties of separating membranes MF-4SK during alkaline electrolysis of water

The transport properties of separating membranes MF-4SK are studied during electrolysis of H₂O in solutions of KOH. The effective diffusion coefficients of molecules of KOH and H₂O and the transfer coefficients of ions K⁺ and OH^? and molecules of H₂O are measured at KOH concentrations reaching 11 M, currents reaching 0.31 A cm^?2, at ambient temperature and at 80°C. In contact with a KOH solution in the concentration interval 0.1 to 11 M, the membranes that initially swelled in H₂O lose a considerable fraction of water that was present in them and the overall volume of clusters and solution-filled channels in them noticeably decreases. The coefficients of transfer by current of ions K⁺ out of anodic compartment into cathodic and the OH^? ions in the reverse direction, respectively, happen to be equal to about 0.6 and 0.4 at ambient temperature and 0.8 and 0.2 at 80°C. The coefficients of transfer of water molecules out of the anodic volume into the cathodic volume in the process of electrolysis happen to be in the limits 1.6–1.9 at ambient temperature and in the limits 2.2–2.8 at 80°C. The effective diffusion coefficients of molecules of KOH and H₂O at moderate concentrations of KOH (5.6 M) amount to ～2.6 × 10^?7 and 30 × 10^?7 cm²s^?1 at ambient temperature and ～4 × 10^?7 and 61 × 10^?7 cm²s^?1 at 80°C, respectively. At a high concentration of KOH (～10 M) these quantities substantially diminish.     

Design,synthesis, biological activity evaluation and mechanism of action of myricetin derivatives containing thioether quinazolinone

Plant bacteria and viruses have a huge negative impact on food crops in the world. Therefore, it is important to create new and efficient green pesticides. In this paper, a series of myricetin derivatives containing quinazolinone sulfide were introduced. Good antibacterial and antiviral activities of the drug molecules 2-((3-((5,7-dimethoxy-4-oxo-2-(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl)-4H-chromen-3-yl)oxy)propyl)thio)-6-fluoro-3-phenylquinazolin-4(3H)-one (T5) and 2-((4-((5,7-dimethoxy-4-oxo-2-(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl)-4H-chromen-3-yl)oxy)butyl)thio)-6-methyl-3-phenylquinazolin-4(3H)-one (T15) respectively were found by biological activity screening. The value of dissociation constant (K_d) of compound T15 to TMV CP was 0.024 ± 0.006 μM, determined by Microscale thermophoresis (MST), which was far less than the value of 8.491 ± 2.027 μM of commercial drug ningnanmycin (NNM). The interaction between compound T15 and TMV CP was further verified by molecular docking. Compound T15 formed strong hydrogen bonds with residues SER:49 and SER:15 (1.92 Å, 2.20 Å, respectively), which were superior to the traditional hydrogen bonds formed by NNM with residue SER:215 (3.64 Å). In addition, the effects of compound T15 on the contents of chlorophyll and peroxidase (POD) in tobacco were studied, and the results indicated that compound T15 could enhance the disease resistance of tobacco plants to a certain extent.     

A study for quality evaluation of Taxilli Herba from different hosts based on fingerprint-activity relationship modeling and multivariate statistical analysis

In this study, a fingerprint-activity relationship modeling between chemical fingerprints and antirheumatic activity was established, and multivariate statistical analysis was used to evaluate the quality of Taxilli Herba (TH) from different hosts. Characteristic fingerprints of 20 batches of TH samples were generated by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole-time of flight tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-Triple TOF-MS/MS), and the similarity analysis was calculated based on thirteen common characteristic peaks by hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA). Subsequently, nine efficacy markers were discovered by combining fingerprints and antirheumatic activity through grey correlation analysis (GCA) and bivariate correlation analysis (BCA). Meanwhile, the content of 5 constituents in 9 markers was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole-linear ion trap tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-QTRAP-MS/MS). The comprehensive quality of TH was assessed using multivariate statistical analysis, including principal components analysis (PCA) and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). The results showed that a high dose of TH extract could markedly ameliorate arthritis damage compared to other doses, with flavonoids playing an important role in the antirheumatic activity. The comprehensive quality of samples from Morus alba L. (SS) was superior to those from Liquidambar formosana Hance (FXS). The present study will demonstrate the markers associated with efficacy, and provide an applicable strategy for more comprehensive quality control and evaluation of TH.     

Thermodynamics of ionic solid solutions: II. Discontinuous series: A new treatment of existing distribution data

A method of finding the activity coefficients of salts, anhydrous or hydrated, in binary solid solutions, described in an earlier paper as it applies to continuous series, has been applied to discontinuous series. The salts must differ with respect to only one ion. The method requires isothermal distribution data for equilibria between liquid (aqueous) and solid solutions in the ternary system consisting of the two salts and water. The following salt pairs were used for illustration: K(I/Br) at 0, 15, 25, 35, and 50°C., (NH₄/K)SCN at 0, 30, 60, and 90°C., (K/Tl)C10₃ at 10°C., and (NH₄/K)SO₃NH₂, (NH₄/K)Br, (Mg/Co)SO₄-7H₂O, and (Mn/Cu) SO₄.n H₂O-all at 25°C. Two kinds of behavior were noted and treated differently: systems in which the two series have the same, and those in which they have different crystal lattices. For two salts, A and B, which have the same lattice, and whose rational activity coefficients, f _A and f _B , can be described by 2-suffix Margules equations (regular solutions), lnf _A =B_sx _B ² and lnf _B =B_sx _A ² to be partially miscible, B_s>2, but this requirement does not apply if the lattices are different. In each series, distribution constants for the equilibria were also determined. Where possible, the calculated activities of the salts or the Gibbs excess energies of the solid solutions were compared with values reported by others who determined them by other methods. All the salt pairs studied show slight or strong positive deviations from ideality.     

Determination of cocaine contamination on banknotes using tandem mass spectrometry and pattern recognition

Tandem mass spectrometry is used to monitor the contamination of banknotes by cocaine. By introducing a series of banknotes into an instrument a distribution of contamination can be obtained. The distribution of samples arising from defendants where the banknotes have been in close proximity to cocaine should differ from the distribution from the general background population. Peak picking and integration is used to produce a series of intensity readings for a batch of banknotes. By visually inspecting these distribution, and applying a variety of chemometric methods (principal components analysis, cluster analysis and class modelling via Mahalanobis distance) it is possible to discriminate effectively between the two classes of distribution (7157 background notes and 4826 case notes alleged to be from drug dealers). By calculating the Mahalonobis distance over 100 bootstrap iterations, background samples were correctly classified 96.48% of the time, while case samples were correctly classified 89.37% of the time.     

Quarter wave plates for submillimeter wavelengths

A review is given of different types of quarter wave plates as presently used in the optical and microwave spectral range, with a view to their application in the sub-mm wave-length range. Two types of quarter wave plates have been constructed and results of measurements at 640m are given.     

Novel aromatic carboxamides from dehydroabietylamine as potential fungicides: Design,synthesis and antifungal evaluation

The present study was carried out to design and synthesize a number of novel aromatic carboxamide derivatives of dehydroabietylamine. The preliminary antifungal assay indicated that most of title compounds displayed moderate to good antifungal activity toward the six fungal strains in vitro. Compounds 3i, 3q, 4b and 4d showed significant antifungal activity against Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, with EC₅₀ values ranging from 0.067 ～ 0.393 mg/L. Compounds 3i, 4b and 4d also showed pronounced mycelial growth inhibition activities against B. cinerea and A. solani. Furthermore, in the in vivo assay, compound 4b exhibited brilliant protective activity against S. sclerotiorum-infected rape leaves. Meanwhile, the in vivo bioassay on tomato plants infected by B. cinerea showed that compound 3i and 4d displayed excellent protective activity at 200 mg/L, which were near to boscalid. Primary mechanistic study revealed that 4b could inhibit sclerotia formation as well as reduce the exopolysaccharide level. SEM and TEM analysis indicated that 4b possessed a strong ability to destroy the surface morphology of mycelia, cell structure and seriously interfere with the growth of the fungal pathogen. In addition, 4b exhibited good inhibitory activity (IC₅₀ = 23.3 ± 1.6 μM) toward succinate dehydrogenase (SDH). Molecular modeling study confirmed the binding modes between compound 4b and SDH. The above antifungal results and fungicidal mechanism study revealed that this class of dehydroabietylamine derivatives could be potential SDH inhibitors and lead compounds for novel fungicides development.     

The effective ionization coefficients and electron drift velocities in gas mixtures of CF3I with N2 and CO2 obtained from Boltzmann equation analysis

The electron swarm parameters including the density-normalized effective ionization coefficients(α-η)/N and the electron drift velocities V e are calculated for a gas mixture of CF3I with N2 and CO2 by solving the Boltzmann equation in the condition of a steady-state Townsend(SST) experiment.The overall density-reduced electric field strength is from 100 Td to 1000 Td(1 Td = 10-17V·cm2),while the CF3I content k in the gas mixture can be varied over the range from 0% to 100%.From the variation of(αη)/N with the CF3I mixture ratio k,the limiting field strength(E/N) lim for each CF3I concentration is derived.It is found that for the mixtures with 70% CF3I,the values of(E/N) lim are essentially the same as that for pure SF 6.Additionally,the global warming potential(GWP) and the liquefaction temperature of the gas mixtures are also taken into account to evaluate the possibility of application in the gas insulation of power equipment.     

Shear-induced band texture of side group liquid crystalline polymers

The shear-induced band texture of conventional end-on fixed side group liquid crystalline polymers (LCPs) has been investigated by using polarizing optical microscopy (POM), small angle light scattering (SALS) and infra-red dichroism techniques. The band spacing is about 1 μm, which increases very slightly on increasing the temperature of shearing and is independent of shearing rate within the range studied. The band texture is not seen to exhibit an interchange of dark and bright bands on rotation of the sample with respect to the polarizer/analyser, but a typical periodical structure is reflected by the SALS patterns of the band texture. The relaxation behaviour of the bands indicates that the band texture formed here is the result of the orderly aligning of domains exhibiting the focal-conic texture, and this is totally different from the case of main chain LCPs where the band texture is substantially an optical effect of the periodic zigzag or sinusoidal structure of parallel aligned microfibrils. Infra-red dichroism and rotating parallel-plate shearing measurements show that the axes of the backbone of the polymer tend to orient in the shearing direction and the end-on fixed mesogenic side groups tend to align perpendicular to the shearing direction.