Impact of Various Parameters Over the Stability of Water-in-Vegetable Oil Emulsion

Theory regarding emulsification, its coalescence and impact of emulsifier over its stability has been updated. For the verification of the proposed theory, water-in-oil emulsion was prepared by mixing water and soybean oil in the presence and absence of emulsifier, monoglyceride. The effect of different parameters like emulsification time, contents of water, and concentration of emulsifier has been investigated on the emulsification and coalescence process of the emulsion. It was noted that the emulsion quality was highest if the mixture was homogenized for about 15 minutes and the water contents were 40% v/v. The addition of monoglyceride up to 0.5% w/v gave the most stable emulsion having higher quality than other composition. The results obtained were compared with the proposed theory and found to have good compositions.      

Mechanistic aspects for the oxidation of brilliant green dye by chloramine-T in the presence of perchloric acid: a spectrophotometric kinetic approach

The kinetics of a triarylmethane dye, brilliant green (BG), by sodium N-chloro-p-toluenesulfonamide or chloramine-T (CAT) was studied spectrophotometrically in HClO₄ media at 303 K. Under identical experimental conditions, the rate law was ?d [BG]/dt = k [BG] [H⁺]. Variations in ionic strength (μ) of the medium had no effect on the oxidation velocity. Addition of p-toluenesulfonamide, the reduction product of CAT and Cl^?, had no significant effect on the rate of reaction. The values of rate constants observed at five different temperatures (298, 303, 308, 313, and 318 K) were utilized to calculate the activation parameters. The observed results have been explained by a general mechanism and the related rate law has been obtained. The process demonstrated in this study is cost effective, which holds great promise in potential application for pollutant control.     

Ferroptosis: A New Road towards Cancer Management

Ferroptosis is a recently described programmed cell death mechanism that is characterized by the buildup of iron (Fe)-dependent lipid peroxides in cells and is morphologically, biochemically, and genetically distinct from other forms of cell death, having emerged to play an important role in cancer biology. Ferroptosis has significant importance during cancer treatment because of the combination of factors, including suppression of the glutathione peroxidase 4 (Gpx4), cysteine deficiency, and arachidonoyl (AA) peroxidation, which cause cells to undergo ferroptosis. However, the physiological significance of ferroptosis throughout development is still not fully understood. This current review is focused on the factors and molecular mechanisms with the diagrammatic illustrations of ferroptosis that have a role in the initiation and sensitivity of ferroptosis in various malignancies. This knowledge will open a new road for research in oncology and cancer management.     

Specific Deuteration in Patuletin and Related Flavonoids via Keto–Enol Tautomerism: Solvent‐ and Temperature‐Dependent 1H‐NMR Studies

An H/D exchange process in patuletin ( 1 ) and its derivatives in D‐donor solvents (e.g., CF₃COOD), which occurs regioselectively at C(8) was observed for the first time during NMR studies. The effect of substituents and temperature on the deuteration of various flavonoids (see Fig. 1) which include apigenin, chrysin, galangin, kaempferol, luteolin, morin, myricetin, patuletin, patulitrin, and quercetin, as well as derivatives of patuletin was examined extensively under NMR conditions. The rate constant of deuteration at C(8) of patuletin ( 1 ) and two flavones, luteolin ( 3 ) and apigenin ( 12 ), was also determined in CF₃COOD. The D‐atom was introduced into the flavonoids via a keto–enol tautomerism (Scheme 1). During these studies, monodeuterated patuletin was also obtained as a new compound. The examined flavonoids have been reported to possess significant pharmacological activities, and their deuterated derivatives would be of importance for the identification and quantification of these compounds in biological matrices.     

Quantitative evaluation of thin-layer chromatograms. 5. Calculation of reflectance and transmission using Markov chains

Changes of reflected and transmitted light in cases where a band lies in different sublayers of a thin-layer chromatogram are calculated by the use of Markov chains. The problem of a “random walk with absorbing barriers” is described and compared with the problem of transmission and reflectance of light in a layer of sorbent.     

Electrostatic control of thickness and stiffness in a designed protein fiber

Attempts to design peptide-based fibers from first principles test our understanding of protein folding and assembly, and potentially provide routes to new biomaterials. Several groups have presented such designs based on alpha-helical and beta-strand building blocks. A key issue is this area now is engineering and controlling fiber morphology and related properties. Previously, we have reported the design and characterization of a self-assembling peptide fiber (SAF) system based on alpha-helical coiled-coil building blocks. With preceding designs, the SAFs are thickened, highly ordered structures in which many coiled coils are tightly bundled. As a result, the fibers behave as rigid rods. Here we report successful attempts to design new fibers that are thinner and more flexible by further programming at the amino-acid sequence level. This was done by introducing extended, or "smeared", electrostatic networks of arginine and glutamate residues to the surfaces of the coiled-coil building blocks. Furthermore, using arginine--rather than lysine--in these networks plays a major role in the fiber assembly, presumably by facilitating multidentate intra and intercoiled-coil salt bridges.     

Non-Maxwellian electron energy distribution function in He,He/Ar,He/Xe/H<Subscript>2</Subscript> and He/Xe/D<Subscript>2</Subscript> low temperature afterglow plasma

Experimental studies of the electron energy distribution function “EEDF” under well defined conditions in flowing afterglow plasma, using a Langmuir probe are reported. The EEDF is measured in He₂ ⁺ and Ar⁺ dominated plasmas and in XeH⁺ and XeD⁺ dominated recombining plasmas. He is used as a buffer gas at medium pressures in all experiments (1600 Pa, 250 K). The deviation of the measured EEDF from Maxwellian distribution is shown to depend on plasma composition and on the processes governing the plasma decay. The influence of energetic electrons produced during the plasma decay on the body and tail of the EEDF is observed. The mechanism of energy balance in afterglow plasma is discussed.     

Molecular Genomic Study of Inhibin Molecule Production through Granulosa Cell Gene Expression in Inhibin-Deficient Mice

Inhibin is a molecule that belongs to peptide hormones and is excreted through pituitary gonadotropins stimulation action on the granulosa cells of the ovaries. However, the differential regulation of inhibin and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) on granulosa cell tumor growth in mice inhibin-deficient females is not yet well understood. The objective of this study was to evaluate the role of inhibin and FSH on the granulosa cells of ovarian follicles at the premature antral stage. This study stimulated immature wild-type (WT) and Inhibin-α knockout (Inha−/−) female mice with human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and examined hCG-induced gene expression changes in granulosa cells. Also, screening of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) was performed in the two groups under study. In addition, related modules to external traits and key gene drivers were determined through Weighted Gene Co-Expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) algorithm. The results identified a number of 1074 and 931 DEGs and 343 overlapping DEGs (ODEGs) were shared in the two groups. Some 341 ODEGs had high relevance and consistent expression direction, with a significant correlation coefficient (r² = 0.9145). Additionally, the gene co-expression network of selected 153 genes showed 122 nodes enriched to 21 GO biological processes (BP) and reproduction and 3 genes related to genomic pathways. By using principal component analysis (PCA), the 14 genes in the regulatory network were fixed and the cumulative proportion of fitted top three principal components was 94.64%. In conclusion, this study revealed the novelty of using ODEGs for investigating the inhibin and FSH hormone pathways that might open the way toward gene therapy for granulosa cell tumors. Also, these genes could be used as biomarkers for tracking the changes in inhibin and FSH hormone from the changes in the nutrition pattern.     

Macrophage-Targeted Punicalagin Nanoengineering to Alleviate Methotrexate-Induced Neutropenia: A Molecular Docking,DFT, and MD Simulation Analysis

Punicalagin is the most bioactive pomegranate polyphenol with high antioxidant and free-radical scavenging activity and can potentially cure different ailments related to the cardiovascular system. The current research work was envisioned to predict the targeting efficiency of punicalagin (PG) nanoparticles to the macrophages, more specifically to bone marrow macrophages. For this, we selected mannose-decorated PLGA-punicalagin nanoparticles (Mn-PLGA-PG), and before formulating this nanocarrier in laboratory settings, we predicted the targeting efficiency of this nanocarrier by in silico analysis. The analysis proceeded with macrophage mannose receptors to be acquainted with the binding affinity and punicalagin-based nanocarrier interactions with this receptor. In silico docking studies of macrophage mannose receptors and punicalagin showed binding interactions on its surface. PG interacted with hydrogen bonds to the charged residue ASP668 and GLY666 and polar residue GLN760 of the Mn receptor. Mannose with a docking score of −5.811 Kcal/mol interacted with four hydrogen bonds and the mannose receptor of macrophage, and in PLGA, it showed a −4.334 Kcal/mol docking score. Further, the analysis proceeded with density functional theory analysis (DFT) and HOMO–LUMO analysis, followed by an extensive 100 ns molecular dynamics simulation to analyse the trajectories showing the slightest deviation and fluctuation. While analysing the ligand and protein interaction, a wonderful interaction was found among the atoms of the ligand and protein residues. This computational study confirms that this nanocarrier could be a promising lead molecule to regulate the incidence of drug-induced neutropenia. Furthermore, experimental validation is required before this can be stated with complete confidence or before human use.