Amperometric monitoring of lactate accumulation in rabbit ischemic myocardium

Fabrication and characterization of miniature, flexible, planar biosensors for monitoring l-lactate accumulation in an ischemic myocardium are described. Three configurations of Au-based electrodes were fabricated by a photolithographic technique on flexible polyimide Kapton((R)) foil. All sensors are based on an immobilized lactate oxidase with amperometric detection of the enzymatically produced hydrogen peroxide at a platinum-electroplated-gold base electrode polarized at 0.5 V versus Ag/AgCl. An inner electropolymeric layer is used to prevent electrode fouling and to reject the interference effects of easily oxidizable molecules. In addition, a diffusion controlling outer layer that greatly enhances the linear dynamic range of the sensor, is obtained by casting a polyurethane external film. The developed sensor was evaluated in vitro and proved to have high selectivity, good operational stability, good accuracy and precision (average recovery = 102.3 +/- 0.4% for control sera), fast response time (t(95) = 20 s) and high upper limit of the linear dynamic range (25-80 mM, with sensitivity of 1.7-0.4 nA mM(-1) respectively at PO(2) = 15 mmHg). Subsequently, the sensor was brought into direct contact with the surface of the rabbit papillary muscle and used for continuous quantitative monitoring of extracellular lactate accumulation during no-flow ischemia.     

Organic Synthesis and Technetium-99m Labeling of Some Amino-Phenol Ligands

We reported the synthesis and labeling of one tetradentate and two pentadentate amino-phenol ligands with technetium-99m by the direct pertechnetate addition and by ligand exchange methods. Labeling by direct pertechnetate addition was attended by adding pertechnetate eluate to the ethanolic solution of the amino-phenol ligands at pH 9. Stannous chloride dihydrate was used as reducing agent. Exchange studies were carried out via the use of the following ^99mTc-chelates: ^99mTc-DTPA, ^99mTc-gluconate, ^99mTc-tartrate and ^99mTc-citrate complexes. Ligand exchange method was achieved by incubation the ligand solutions with ^99mTc-co-ligands complexes in 0.05M bicarbonate buffer pH 9. At this pH value the ^99mTc-co-ligands dissociated and the more stable new ^99mTc-ligands were formed with high radiochemical yield 95%. The radiochemical yield of ^99mTc-labeled amino-phenol ligands were estimated by solvent extraction, electrophoresis and HPLC methods. The produced technetium-99m amino-phenol complexes were neutral, lipophilic and stable during the period of 24 hours.     

Ultrasonic characterization of heavy metal TeO2–WO3–PbO glasses below room temperature

The longitudinal ultrasonic attenuation measurements have been made using pulse echo method at fundamental frequencies of 2, 4, 6 and 8 MHz in 20WO₃–(80−x) TeO₂–xPbO ternary tellurite glasses (x=10, 12.5, 15, 17.5 and 20 mol%) in the temperature range 160–280 K. The results showed the presence of a broad peak which shifts to higher temperature with increasing frequency. The ultrasonic attenuation peaks suggest that the experimental behavior is controlled by thermally activated structural relaxations. The internal friction, acoustic activation energy, deformation potential, relaxation strength, number of loss centers and density of state have been calculated both as a function of temperature and PbO content. The acoustic activation energy was found to decrease from 0.156 to 0.135 eV with the increase of PbO content. The results showed that both the number of loss centers and their activation energy decrease with the atomic ring size. An increase in the density of state is observed with addition of PbO content at the same frequency in the whole range of temperature which is associated with structural units formed when PbO is added.     

Synthesis,reactions, and antioxidant activity of 3-(pyrrol-1-yl)-4,6-dimethyl selenolo[2,3-b]pyridine derivatives

Ethyl 4,6-dimethyl-3-(pyrrol-1-yl) selenolo[2,3-b]pyridine-2-carboxylate (2) was synthesized by the reaction of previously prepared ethyl 3-amino-4,6-dimethyl selenolo[2,3-b]pyridine-2-carboxylate (1) with 2,5-dimethoxytetrahydrofuran in acetic acid. The pyrrolyl ester (2) was converted into the corresponding carbohydrazide 3 which reacted with acetyl acetone, aromatic aldehydes, carbon disulfide in pyridine, and sodium nitrite to afford the corresponding dimethyl pyrazolyl 4, arylidene carbohydrazides 5a–d, oxadiazolyl thiole 6, and caboazide compound 8, respectively. The carboazide 8 reacted with different alcohols and amines to give the corresponding carbamates 9a–c and the aryl urea derivatives 10a–d. Heating of carboazide 8 in dry xylene afforded the pyridoselenolo-pyrrolopyrazinone 11. The latter compound was used as a versatile starting precursor for synthesis of other pyridoselenolo-pyrrolopyrazine compounds. The newly synthesized compounds and their derivatives were characterized by elemental analysis and spectroscopy (IR, ¹H-NMR, and mass spectra). Some of the newly synthesized pyrrolyl selenolopyridine compounds showed remarkable antioxidant activity compared to ascorbic acid.     

Two new eudesmane derivatives from Verbesina virginica

<正>Two new eudesmane derivatives were isolated from the leaves and flowers of Verbesina virginica,along with the known 6-O-β-E -p-coumaroyl-4α-hydroxyeudesmane(1).Their structures were determined as 6-O-β-Z-p-coumaroyl-4α-hydroxyeudesmane(2) and 6-O-α-E-p-coumaroyl-1β-4α-dihydroxyeudesmane(3) by spectroscopic methods.     

Volatile constituents of two Hypericum species from Tunisia

The chemical composition of the essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation from the aerial parts of the Tunisian Hypericum perforatum and H. ericoides ssp. roberti was elucidated by a combination of GC and GC-MS analyses. The main constituents of the oil of H. perforatum were alpha-pinene (11.8%), alpha-ylangene (10.4%), germacrene-D (9.5%), n-octane (6.5%) and alpha-selinene (5.9%). The oil of H. ericoides ssp. roberti exhibited a higher amount of aliphatic and branched hydrocarbons and the main constituents were n-octane (29.1%), alpha-pinene (10.9%), pulegone (7.7%) and acetophenone (7%). Both qualitative and quantitative differences were observed between the studied oils. This chemical variability seems likely to result from the genetic variability, since samples of both species were collected at the same location and processed under the same conditions.     

Effect of Pr-Ca substitution on the transport and magnetic behavior of LaMnO3 perovskite

The effect of simultaneous substitution of a fluctuating cation and a divalent cation in LaMnO₃ perovskite modifies the properties of the material to exhibit large valence colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) effect. A good example of these properties is (La_1−2x Pr _x Ca _x )MnO₃ (LPCMO) type CMR material. In this communication it is reported that, with the increase in x (for x=0.1, 0.15, 0.2), the T _c varies between 100 and 120 K with improvisation in metal-insulator transition. Interestingly, resistance increases with x from few hundred ohms to few kilo ohms with corresponding decrease in the unit cell volume. The results of the studies using X-ray diffraction (XRD), electrical resistivity, magnetoresistance and ac susceptibility measurements on LPCMO samples for understanding the structural, transport and magnetic properties are discussed in detail.