Edible seaweed, Eisenia bicyclis, protects retinal ganglion cells death caused by oxidative stress.

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether edible seaweed, Eisenia bicyclis, is effective in blunting the negative influence of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) on rat retinas and of oxidative stress-induced transformed retinal ganglion cell (RGC-5 cell line) death. The ethanol extract of E. bicyclis (EEEB) significantly attenuated the negative insult of L: -buthionine-(S,R)-sulfoximine plus glutamate on RGC-5 cells. Treatment of the RGC-5 cells with EEEB reduced the reactive oxygen species and recovered the reduced glutathione level caused by various radical species such as H(2)O(2), OH·, or O(2)·(-). Moreover, EEEB inhibited lipid peroxidation on rat brain homogenates caused by sodium nitroprusside. Applying NMDA to the retina affected the thickness of the inner plexiform layer (IPL) and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) produced a positive effect on ganglion cells. Importantly, EEEB protected the thinning of IPL and increased TUNEL positive cells in the ganglion cell layer (GCL). Five phlorotannin derivatives were isolated using chromatographic methods and liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy analysis which has been known as an antioxidant. In conclusion, EEEB has a neuroprotective effect in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, the major constituents of this extract, phlorotannins, could possibly be active compounds due to their antioxidative potency.

A facile one-pot preparation of potassium hydroxyaryl- and (hydroxyalkyl)aryltrifluoroborates.

Potassium hydroxyaryl- and (hydroxyalkyl)aryltrifluoroborates have been prepared in a simple one-pot process from the corresponding hydroxy-substituted aryl halides in 51-98% yields through an in situ protection of the free hydroxyl group with t-BuLi. Also, we successfully performed a microwave-promoted Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction of these substrates with aryl- and alkenyl bromides in the presence of 0.5 mol % of Pd(OAc)2 catalyst without ligands.

Bis(isothiocyanato)bis(phosphine) complexes of group 10 metals: reactivity toward organic isocyanides.

Treatment of Ni(NCS)2(PMe2Ph)2 with organic isocyanides CN-R gave five-coordinate isocyanide Ni(II) complexes, Ni(CN-R)(NCS)2(PMe2Ph)2 (R = C6H3-2,6-Me2 (1), t-Bu (2)). Interestingly, the corresponding reaction of Ni(NCS)2(P(n-Pr)3)2 with 2 equiv. of CN-t-Bu gave an unusual compound, which exists as an ion pair of the trigonal bipyramidal cation [Ni(P(n-Pr)3)2(CN-t-Bu)3]2+ (3) and the dinuclear NCS-bridged anion [Ni(1,3-micro-NCS)(NCS)3]2(2-) (4). In contrast, Pd(NCS)2(P(n-Pr)3)2 underwent substitution with 2 equiv. of CN-t-Bu to give the four-coordinate mono(isocyanide) Pd(II) complex Pd(NCS)(SCN)(CN-t-Bu)(P(n-Pr)3) (5) via phosphine dissociation. Reactions of M(NCS)2L2 (M = Pd, Pt; L = PMe3, PEt3, PMePh2, P(n-Pr)3) with two equiv. of CN-R (R = t-Bu, i-Pr, C6H3-2,6-Me2) gave the corresponding bis(isocyanide) complexes [M(CN-R)2(PR3)2](SCN)2 (7-13), except for Pd(NCS)2(PEt3)2 that reacted with CN-R' (R' = i-Pr, C6H3-2,6-Me2) and produced the mono(isocyanide) Pd(II) complexes [Pd(CN-R')(SCN)(PEt3)2](SCN) (14 and 15). Finally, treatment of M(NCS)2(PMe3)2 (M = Ni, Pd, Pt) with sterically bulky isocyanide CN-C6H3-2,6-i-Pr2 gave various products, (16-18) depending on the identity of the metal.

Modeling of homogeneous cloned enzyme donor immunoassay.

One of the most widely used analytical techniques for sensitive detection of biologically and clinically significant analytes is the immunoassay. In recent years direct immunoprobes allowing label-free detection of the interaction between the antibody and the target analyte have proved their capabilities as fast, simple, and nevertheless highly sensitive methods. Cloned enzyme donor immunoassay (CEDIA) homogeneous assay is based on the bacterial enzyme beta-galactosidase, which has been genetically engineered into two inactive fragments, enzyme donor and enzyme acceptor. Reassociation of the fragments in the assay forms active enzyme, which acts on substrate to generate a colored product. A comprehensive kinetic model of CEDIA is developed to aid in understanding this method and to facilitate development of a truly homogeneous version, potentially applicable to a dipstick-type multianalyte point of care analytical device (ChemChip). Although the standard assay involves a two-step process, we also chose to model a single-combined process, which would be simpler to apply in a ChemChip device. From the modeling simulation, we obtain the time courses of the amounts of product and active enzyme, from which the dynamic ranges can be obtained as 10(-6)-10(-7) and 10(-5)-10(-7)M analyte concentration for two-step and single-combined processes under the conditions of the assumed parameters, respectively. A simple one-step immunoassay has the merit of reducing time and cost and has an improved dynamic range.