Synthesis, structure, antioxidant activity, and water solubility of trolox ion conjugates.

The interaction of trolox with ammonia, alkylamines of different classes, and amino derivatives of heterocyclic compounds, including nitroxyl radicals and alkaloids, led to the production of ammonium salts called ion conjugates (ICs). Five ICs were characterised by X-ray diffraction. This is the first time a wide range of ICs were made from trolox with amines, and ESI-MS data demonstrated they have the potential to generate pseudomolecular [(A-B+) + H]+ ions. For all obtained trolox ICs, a significant increase (1-3 orders of magnitude) in water solubility was achieved while retaining high antioxidant activity. ICs synthesised from two biologically active fragments may be used to create polyfunctional agents with varying solubility and bioavailability.

Antioxidant and antitumor activity of trolox, trolox succinate, and α-tocopheryl succinate conjugates with nitroxides.

A possible ability of twelve new derivatives of known antioxidants trolox (TroH), trolox succinate (TroS), α-tocopheryl succinate (α-TOS) containing nitroxyl radicals (1-12) to protect bacterial cells from spontaneous and peroxide-induced mutagenesis and their cytotoxicity against six different tumor cells as well as two normal cells were investigated and compared with that for TroH, TroS, α-TOH, and α-TOS for the first time. In contrast to TroH and TroS, all nitroxide derivatives 1-12 demonstrated not only antioxidant properties, but also suppress the growth of human tumor cells: myeloma, mammary adenocarcinoma, hepatocarcinoma, T cells leukemia, histiocytic lymphoma, and T-cellular leucosis. The IC50 values (24 - ≥ 300 µM) depend significantly on the compounds and type of tumor cells. Some compounds were capable to inhibit the growth of normal mouse (LMTK) and hamster (AG17) fibroblast cells and demonstrate very different ratios in inhibition of various tumor and normal cell lines. Some nitroxide conjugates showed pronounced selectivity in suppressing the growth of several cancer cells. Overall, several compounds may be promising in parallel as antioxidants and as specific inhibitors of some tumor cells growth. Among considered spin labeled conjugates the most perspective derivatives as antioxidants and as antitumor agents are the compounds containing pyrrolidine nitroxides. In contrast to spin labeled TroH, TroS and α-TOS conjugates 1-12 succinyl derivatives 13-15 were inactive in inhibiting the growth of any tumor cells. It means that for suppressing the cancer cells the compounds should contain in their structures fragments of TroH, TroS or α-TOS.

Asynchrony between Host Plant and Insects-Defoliator within a Tritrophic System: The Role of Herbivore Innate Immunity.

The effects of asynchrony in the phenology of spring-feeding insect-defoliators and their host plants on insects' fitness, as well as the importance of this effect for the population dynamics of outbreaking species of insects, is a widespread and well-documented phenomenon. However, the spreading of this phenomenon through the food chain, and especially those mechanisms operating this spreading, are still unclear. In this paper, we study the effect of seasonally declined leafquality (estimated in terms of phenolics and nitrogen content) on herbivore fitness, immune parameters and resistance against pathogen by using the silver birch Betula pendula--gypsy moth Lymantria dispar--nucleopolyhedrovirus as the tritrophic system. We show that a phenological mismatch induced by the delay in the emergence of gypsy moth larvae and following feeding on mature leaves has negative effects on the female pupal weight, on the rate of larval development and on the activity of phenoloxidase in the plasma of haemolymph. In addition, the larval susceptibility to exogenous nucleopolyhydrovirus infection as well as covert virus activation were both enhanced due to the phenological mismatch. The observed effects of phenological mismatch on insect-baculovirus interaction may partially explain the strong and fast fluctuations in the population dynamics of the gypsy moth that is often observed in the studied part of the defoliator area. This study also reveals some indirect mechanisms of effect related to host plant quality, which operate through the insect innate immune status and affect resistance to both exogenous and endogenous virus.

Leaf surface lipophilic compounds as one of the factors of silver birch chemical defense against larvae of gypsy moth.

Plant chemical defense against herbivores is a complex process which involves a number of secondary compounds. It is known that the concentration of leaf surface lipophilic compounds (SLCs), particularly those of flavonoid aglycones are increased with the defoliation treatment of silver birch Betula pendula. In this study we investigated how the alteration of SLCs concentration in the food affects the fitness and innate immunity of the gypsy moth Lymantria dispar. We found that a low SLCs concentrations in consumed leaves led to a rapid larval development and increased females' pupae weight (= fecundity) compared to larvae fed with leaves with high SLCs content. Inversely, increasing the compounds concentration in an artificial diet produced the reverse effects: decreases in both larval weight and larval survival. Low SLCs concentrations in tree leaves differently affected larval innate immunity parameters. For both sexes, total hemocytes count in the hemolymph increased, while the activity of plasma phenoloxidase decreased when larvae consume leaves with reduced content of SLCs. Our results clearly demonstrate that the concentration of SLCs in silver birch leaves affects not only gypsy moth fitness but also their innate immune status which might alter the potential resistance of insects against infections and/or parasitoids.