Effect of nanoplastic intake on the dopamine system during the development of male mice.

Exposure to environmental microplastics has been demonstrated to impact health. However, its effect on development remains unclear. This study investigated whether consumption of nanoplastics (NPx) during development affects social and cognitive functions in rodents. In this study, we utilized male Institute of Cancer Research mice; they were divided into five subgroups based on the duration of NPx administration. NPx (100 nm) was orally administered via gavage for 6 days from gestational day (GTD) 7, representing the mid-gestation period, and for 5-6 days from GTD13 to birth, representing the late-gestation period; the male offspring were used for experiments. NPx was orally administered for 15 days starting at postnatal day (PND) 21 as the juvenile, PND38 as the adolescent, and PND56 as adulthood. On PND77, offspring were assessed for locomotion, social behavior, and nest-building tests. We observed that NPx administration altered dopamine system responses in GTD13 and PND56 groups. Social behavior was similarly affected by NPx treatment, with GTD13 and PND56 groups displaying decreased familiarity. Additionally, NPx treatment enhanced local field potentials in the prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, and amygdala of GTD7 group and in the striatum of GTD13 group, while amphetamine treatment induced changes of local field potentials compared to saline treatment in the prefrontal cortex and the ventral tegmental area of CTR, GTD7, PND21, and PND56 groups. Taken together, these results showed that NPx treatment induced changes in social behavior partly depending on developmental stage, and these changes are associated with neural circuits innervated by the dopamine system.

M(II) effect on encapsulation of guests into a series of M3L2 chiral cages: enantio-recognition.

Self-assembly of M(ClO4)2 (M2+ = Ni2+, Cu2+, and Zn2+) with (1S,1'S,1''S,2R,2'R,2''R)-(benzenetricarbonyltris(azanediyl))tris(2,3-dihydro-1H-indene-2,1-diyl) trinicotinate (s,r-L) and the corresponding enantiomer (r,s-L) as a pair of chiral tridentate donors gives rise to the chiral cage pairs [M3(s,r- and r,s-L)2](ClO4)6. For the two pairs of [(Me2CO)(H2O)@M3(r,-s and s,r-L)2](ClO4)6 (M2+ = Ni2+ and Zn2+), the inner cavity is occupied by both an acetone and a single water molecule, whereas for the copper(II) pair of [Me2CO@Cu3(r,s- and s,r-L)2](ClO4)6 under the same conditions, the cavity is filled by only one acetone molecule. Thus, the encapsulation of guest molecules into the cages during self-assembly shows significant metal(II) ion effects. These chiral cages are effective for the enantio-recognition of chiral (S)-2-butanol and (R)-2-butanol via the shifts of the electrochemical oxidation potentials obtained by the linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) technique, density functional theory (DFT) calculations, and the chiral 2-butanol adsorption in the single-crystal-to-single-crystal (SCSC) mode.

Self-assembly of Ni(II) with a chiral ligand pair vs. mixture of the chiral ligand pair: structural features and recognition ability of Ni2L4 cages.

The self-assembly of NiCl2 with a chiral bidentate ligand pair, (1R,2S)-(+)- and (1S,2R)-(-)-1-(nicotinamido)-2,3-dihydro-1H-inden-2-yl nicotinate (r,s-L and s,r-L) in a mixture of ethanol and dioxane, gives rise to stable crystals consisting of [2Cl@Ni2Cl2(s,r-L)4(H2O)2]·4C4H8O2·EtOH and [2Cl@Ni2Cl2(r,s-L)4(H2O)2]·4C4H8O2·EtOH chiral cages, respectively, with two encapsulated chloride anions in the cavities. The most interesting feature is that the self-assembly of NiCl2 with the mixture of r,s-L and s,r-L (1 : 1-1 : 4) produces crystals of thermodynamically stable achiral cages, [2Cl·2H2O@Ni2Cl2(s,r-L)2(r,s-L)2(H2O)2]·7C4H8O2, in the molar ratio range. Furthermore, the [2Cl@Ni2Cl2(s,r-L)4(H2O)2]·4C4H8O2·EtOH and [2Cl@Ni2Cl2(r,s-L)4(H2O)2]·4C4H8O2·EtOH chiral crystals can recognize the pairs of L-,D-tryptophan and L-,D-cysteine via cyclic voltammetry (CV) signals, in contrast to the [2Cl·2H2O@Ni2Cl2(s,r-L)2(r,s-L)2(H2O)2]·7C4H8O2 achiral crystal.