A method capable of determining 11 PAHs (acenaphthene, anthracene, benz[a]anthracene, benzo[a]pyrene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, benzo[k]fluoranthene, chrysene, phenanthrene, fluoranthene, indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene and perylene) in a mixture of 18 by second-derivative synchronous spectrofluorimetry in the constant wavelength mode was developed. It has not been possible to determine the following PAHs i...

AIMS Resuscitated cardiac arrest (CA), leading to harmful cardiovascular dysfunction and multiple organ failure, includes a whole-body hypoxia-reoxygenation phenomenon. Opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) appears to be a pivotal event in ischaemia-reperfusion injury. We hypothesized that pharmacological inhibition of mPTP opening may prevent the post-CA syndrome. ...

The acquisition of resistance to anticancer agents used in chemotherapy is the main cause of treatment failure in malignant disorders, provoking tumours to become resistant during treatment, although they initially respond to it. The main multidrug resistance (MDR) mechanism in tumour cells is the expression of P-gly-coprotein (P-gly), that acts as an ATP-dependent active efflux pump of chemoth...

The asexual erythrocytic stage of the malarial parasite ingests and degrades the hemoglobin of its host red cell. To study this process, we labeled the cytoplasm of uninfected red cells with fluorescein-dextran, infected those cells with trophozoite- and schizont-rich cultures of Plasmodium falciparum, and harvested them 110-120 h later in the trophozoite stage. After lysis of the red cell cyto...

INTRODUCTION This study relates to use of zerovalent iron to generate hydroxyl free radicals and undergo subsequent oxidation to destroy 4-nonylphenol (NP) by mild process in aqueous solution and activation of oxygen gas (O2) at room temperature. This technology is based on a novel oxidative mechanism mediated by zerovalent iron rather than commonly used reduction mechanism. MATERIALS AND MET...

A wealth of evidence indicates that lipid rafts are involved in the fusion of the viral lipid envelope with the target cell membrane. However, the interplay between these sterol- and sphingolipid-enriched ordered domains and viral fusion glycoproteins has not yet been clarified. In this work we investigate the molecular mechanism by which a membranotropic fragment of the glycoprotein gH of the ...

Phycocyanobilin (PCB) binds with high affinity (2.2 x 106 M-1 at 25°C) to human serum albumin (HSA) at sites located in IB and IIA subdomains. The aim of this study was to examine effects of PCB binding on protein conformation and stability. Using 300 ns molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, UV-VIS spectrophotometry, CD, FT-IR, spectrofluorimetry, thermal denaturation and susceptibility to tryps...

Both excimers and exciplexes have attracted the attention of molecular physicists and photochemists over the last decade. Owing to the use of laser photolysis, measurements of short-lived photocurrents, and pulse spectrofluorimetry, it became possible to satisfactorily explain photophysical processes occurring in molecular systems [1]. Excimers and exciplexes provide important steps of many pho...

Catharanthus roseus is one of the most studied medicinal plants due to the interest in their dimeric terpenoid indole alkaloids (TIAs) vinblastine and vincristine, which are used in cancer chemotherapy. These TIAs are produced in very low levels in the leaves of the plant from the monomeric precursors vindoline and catharanthine and, although TIA biosynthesis is reasonably well understood, much...