Metal ion-assisted carboxyl-containing covalent organic frameworks for the efficient removal of Congo red.

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have been utilized as molecular sieves to adsorb or remove or separate a wide range of substances. Herein, a new carboxyl-containing COF (COF-COOH) is fabricated from the polymerization of 1,3,5-triformylphloroglucinol (TP) and 4,4'-diamino-[1,1'-biphenyl]-3,3'-dicarboxylic acid (DBA). COF-COOH displays good adsorption performance on Congo red (CR) through hydrogen bonds and π-π stacking interactions. Through post-modification with Ca2+/Ni2+ ions, the adsorption capacity of COF-COOCa/COF-COONi to CR is improved, which is due to the coordinated metal cations having a positive contribution to the electrostatic interactions. At 25 °C, the maximum adsorption amount of COF-COOCa and COF-COONi to CR is 704.23 mg g-1 and 781.25 mg g-1, respectively. The removal efficiency of COF-COOCa to CR is 95% and that of COF-COONi is 96%. This demonstrates that the new metal ion-assisted COFs are viable adsorbents to remove dye pollutants, which are harmful to the environment and to human health, from wastewater.

Inhibition of human enterovirus 71 replication by pentacyclic triterpenes and their novel synthetic derivatives.

A large number of bioactive pentacyclic triterpenoids have been shown to have multiple biological activities. This study was conducted to evaluate the inhibitory activities of 6 newly synthesized and novel pentacyclic triterpenoids against enterovirus 71 (EV71). The parent compound, ursolic acid (UA), showed the greatest inhibitory activity against EV71, while oleanolic acid (OA), asiatic acid (AA), and synthetic derivatives of 18-ß-glycyrrhetinic acid (GA) and OA also exhibited inhibitory effects, although to lesser extents. The results suggest these compounds show potential for further optimization as antiviral candidates for treatment of EV71 infections.

[Methyl 3, 4-dihydroxyphenylacetate prevents enterovirus 71 proliferation in rhabdomyosarcoma cells].

This article presented the inhibitory activity of methyl 3, 4-dihydroxyphenylacetate on the enterovirus 71 (EV71) infection. The EV71 VP1 capsid protein expression levels were analyzed with Western blotting. Results revealed that the compound is able to inhibit EV71 replication in rhabdomyosarcoma (RD) cells. After being incubated with the compound at a concentration of 0.01 microg x microL(-1) for 48 h, the level of EV71 vp1 mRNA in RD cells decreased by (76.83 +/- 2.47)%. The cytotoxic activity of the compound was evaluated against RD cells by a MTT assay. The results showed that the compound had low toxicity with a CC50 of 0.072 6 microg x microL(-1). These findings suggest that methyl 3, 4-dihydroxyphenylacetate is a novel compound for antiviral therapies against EV71, which merited further investigation.