Theoretical insights, degradation, and sub-lethal toxicity of thiamethoxam to the planarian Girardia tigrina.

Advanced oxidative processes, such as Photo-Fenton, transform organic contaminants due to the attack by radicals. In this context, the lethal and sub-lethal effects of the Cruiser® 350FS (CRZ) with the active ingredient thiamethoxam (TMX) were investigated using the planarian Girardia tigrina. Degradation of thiamethoxam by the Fenton process was also assessed by using theoretical studies and the efficiency of Solar-Fenton versus Fenton. The 48 h LC50 value of CRZ for planarians was 478.6 mg L-1. The regeneration of planarians was significantly affected for concentrations ≥ 17 mg·L-1 of TMX (24 h). The Solar-Fenton showed a high degradation percentage reaching ~70%. The theoretical model showed the atoms of the TMX molecule that will suffer attacks from the formed radicals. Current results open new perspectives concerning the treatment of TMX in the aquatic environment because the 70% degradation seems to be sufficient to reach concentrations that do not induce sub-lethal effects in planarians. Further studies should determine if the by-products generated might be toxic for planaria or other organisms.

Intramolecular hydrogen bonds interactions in the isomers of the bilirubin molecule: DFT and QTAIM analysis.

CONTEXT: Bilirubin is an important molecule, used as a marker of some liver diseases, and it can also be toxic and cause jaundice, especially in newborns. The main treatment for neonatal jaundice is phototherapy with blue light, which is still widely studied because the photophysical processes involved are not fully understood. METHODS: Calculations based on the density functional theory (DFT) at M062X/6-31G(d,p) level were performed in order to evaluate the structural, electronic, and topological properties of bilirubin isomers. It was found that the ZZ conformation can form a greater number of hydrogen bonds, which gives the isomer greater energy stabilization compared to the other ZE, EZ, and EE isomers, and that the EE isomer is the conformer with the lowest energy of stabilization. The hydrogen bonds were characterized by the quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) and for the ZZ isomer four hydrogen bonds (HBs) were found classified as intermediate, ∇2ρ(r) > 0, H(r) > 0. The ZE, EZ, and EE isomers show weak HBs, ∇2ρ(r) > 0, H(r) > 0.

Theoretical and experimental study of the diastereoisomers (2S) and (2R)-naringenin-6-C-ß-D-glucopyranoside obtained from Clitoria guianensis.

In this work the diastereoisomers (2S) and (2R)-naringenin-6-C-ß-D-glucopyroside, isolated for the first time from Clitoria guianensis, were studied using the density functional theory. The frontier molecular orbitals and structural properties showed that the diastereoisomers exhibit the same energy gap 166.61 kcal mol-1 and structural properties different, where in the S diastereoisomer, the bond length between the chiral carbon and the phenolic group is greater (difference of 0.0126 Å). The HPLC data showed that the retention time of the S-diastereoisomer (16.7 min) is shorter than that of R, suggesting that the S compound is more polar than R. The HPLC results corroborates with the molecular electrostatic potential which showed that in the S configuration, the electronegative density was more intense overall, particularly in the glucose molecule. The reactivity indices showed that the diastereoisomers are good electrophiles and reactive species. Finally, the absolute configuration of the diastereoisomers were determined using electronic circular dichroism (ECD) spectroscopy and the theoretical spectra were similar to the experimental. METHODS : All calculations of Density Functional Theory (DFT) and Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory (TDDFT) were performed using the program Gaussian 09 and the structures of the diastereoisomers were generated and analyzed using the GaussView program. The optimization and vibrational frequency calculations were performed using the functional CAM-B3LYP and 6-311 + + G(2d,2p) basis set. Conformational searches were performed for R configuration, by molecular mechanics using the MM + , MMFF, and OPLS05 force fields; the entire molecular mechanics simulation was performed using the Maestro/MacroModel software. The calculations for the simulations of the ECD spectra were performed for the eight lowest energy conformers obtained in the geometric optimization step, and the TDDFT at the CAM-B3LYP/6-311 + + G(2d,2p) theory level used. The effects of methanol and chloroform were calculated using the SMD implicit solvent model.

Brueckner Doubles variation of W1 theory (W1BD) adapted to pseudopotential: W1BDCEP theory.

Composite methods are the combination of ab initio calculations used to achieve high precision in the face of a computational reduction. Weizmann-n theories (n = 1, 2, 3, and 4) stand out for presenting a high precision, and a version of the W1 theory is the W1BD theory that uses ab initio Brueckner Doubles (BD) methods. One way to reduce the computational cost of composite methods and maintain accuracy is to use pseudopotentials in the calculation steps; in this context, W1BDCEP composite method was developed from the respective W1BD all-electron version by considering the implementation of compact effective pseudopotential (CEP). The test set used to evaluate the theory were 8 proton affinities (PA0), 46 electron affinities (EA0), 54 ionization energies (IE0), 80 enthalpies of formation (ΔfH0), and 10 bond dissociation energies (BDE). The mean absolute deviation values (MADs) for W1BD and for the version adapted to the pseudopotential, W1BDCEP, were similar, with values of 0.97 kcal mol-1 and 1.03 kcal mol-1, respectively, when the properties PA0, EA0, IE0, and ΔfH0 were evaluated together. Comparing the versions of the theories that employ ab initio Brueckner Doubles calculations with the W1 and W1CEP theories, it is possible to observe that the W1BD and W1BDCEP theories are more accurate than the W1 theory (MADW1 = 1.25 kcal mol-1) and W1CEP (MADW1CEP = 1.44 kcal mol-1), proving the accuracy of using the BD method. Pseudopotential reduces computational time by up to 30% and thus enables more accurate calculations with less computational time.

Chemical constituents and in vivo preliminary evaluation of the toxicological activity of Ouratea spectabilis (OCHNACEAE) and Clitoria guianensis (Fabaceae) leaves

Clitoria guianensis and Ouratea spectabilis, found in the Brazilian Cerrado, are used in folk medicine, despite the few chemical and biological studies reported in the literature. The present study aims to investigate the toxicity and effect of extracts from both species on the microcrustacean Artemia salina, and to determine the chemical composition of the hexane extract of O. spectabilis leaves and the EtOAc fraction of C. guianensis leaves. Kaempferitrin, a flavonoid isolated from of the EtOAc fraction of C. guianensis leaves, was identified by chemical analysis. Analysis of the hexane extract of O. spectabilis leaves using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) suggested the presence of twenty-five known substances. The Hex, EtOAc, and EtOH crude extracts of C. guianensis leaves exhibited high and moderate toxicity against Artemia salina, with median lethal dose values (LD50) of 43.7, 25.4, and 233.4 mg.L−1, respectively. The acetone extract of O. spectabilis leaves showed moderate toxicity against Artemia salina with an LD50 value of 115.13 mg.L−1.