Juan M. Ruso

Surface properties of some amphiphilic antidepressant drugs

Critical micelle concentrations and surface properties of the amphiphilic antidepressant drugs amitriptyline, nortriptyline and desipramine hydrochlorides in aqueous solution at 298 K were determined by surface tension measurements. Combining the surface parameters with the standard Gibbs energy of aggregation DG m calculated in a previous paper, the standard Gibbs energy of adsorption, DG ads , was obtained.

Computational tool for risk assessment of nanomaterials: novel QSTR-perturbation model for simultaneous prediction of ecotoxicity and cytotoxicity of uncoated and coated nanoparticles under multiple experimental conditions.

Nanomaterials have revolutionized modern science and technology due to their multiple applications in engineering, physics, chemistry, and biomedicine. Nevertheless, the use and manipulation of nanoparticles (NPs) can bring serious damages to living organisms and their ecosystems. For this reason, ecotoxicity and cytotoxicity assays are of special interest in order to determine the potential harmful effects of NPs. Processes based on ecotoxicity and cytotoxicity tests can significantly consume time and financial resources. In this sense, alternative approaches such as quantitative structure-activity/toxicity relationships (QSAR/QSTR) modeling have provided important insights for the better understanding of the biological behavior of NPs that may be responsible for causing toxicity. Until now, QSAR/QSTR models have predicted ecotoxicity or cytotoxicity separately against only one organism (bioindicator species or cell line) and have not reported information regarding the quantitative influence of characteristics other than composition or size. In this work, we developed a unified QSTR-perturbation model to simultaneously probe ecotoxicity and cytotoxicity of NPs under different experimental conditions, including diverse measures of toxicities, multiple biological targets, compositions, sizes and conditions to measure those sizes, shapes, times during which the biological targets were exposed to NPs, and coating agents. The model was created from 36488 cases (NP-NP pairs) and exhibited accuracies higher than 98% in both training and prediction sets. The model was used to predict toxicities of several NPs that were not included in the original data set. The results of the predictions suggest that the present QSTR-perturbation model can be employed as a highly promising tool for the fast and efficient assessment of ecotoxicity and cytotoxicity of NPs.

Static and dynamic light scattering study on the association of some antidepressants in aqueous electrolyte solutions

The self-association of the antidepressant drugs amitriptyline, nortriptyline, doxepin and desipramine hydrochlorides in aqueous solution has been studied by static and dynamic light scattering at 298.15 K in the presence of added electrolyte (0.0–0.4 mol kg−1 NaCl). Self-assembly was by a closed association process, commencing at a well-defined critical concentration for all systems. Micelle properties determined from static and dynamic light scattering techniques as a function of electrolyte concentration were related to differences in the structure of the hydrophobe. The pair interaction potential between aggregates has been discussed in terms of the DLVO theory of colloidal stability.

Computational ecotoxicology: simultaneous prediction of ecotoxic effects of nanoparticles under different experimental conditions.

Nanotechnology has brought great advances to many fields of modern science. A manifold of applications of nanoparticles have been found due to their interesting optical, electrical, and biological/chemical properties. However, the potential toxic effects of nanoparticles to different ecosystems are of special concern nowadays. Despite the efforts of the scientific community, the mechanisms of toxicity of nanoparticles are still poorly understood. Quantitative-structure activity/toxicity relationships (QSAR/QSTR) models have just started being useful computational tools for the assessment of toxic effects of nanomaterials. But most QSAR/QSTR models have been applied so far to predict ecotoxicity against only one organism/bio-indicator such as Daphnia magna. This prevents having a deeper knowledge about the real ecotoxic effects of nanoparticles, and consequently, there is no possibility to establish an efficient risk assessment of nanomaterials in the environment. In this work, a perturbation model for nano-QSAR problems is introduced with the aim of simultaneously predicting the ecotoxicity of different nanoparticles against several assay organisms (bio-indicators), by considering also multiple measures of ecotoxicity, as well as the chemical compositions, sizes, conditions under which the sizes were measured, shapes, and the time during which the diverse assay organisms were exposed to nanoparticles. The QSAR-perturbation model was derived from a database containing 5520 cases (nanoparticle-nanoparticle pairs), and it was shown to exhibit accuracies of ca. 99% in both training and prediction sets. In order to demonstrate the practical applicability of our model, three different nickel-based nanoparticles (Ni) with experimental values reported in the literature were predicted. The predictions were found to be in very good agreement with the experimental evidences, confirming that Ni-nanoparticles are not ecotoxic when compared with other nanoparticles. The results of this study thus provide a single valuable tool toward an efficient prediction of the ecotoxicity of nanoparticles under multiple experimental conditions.

Study of the interactions between lysozyme and a fully-fluorinated surfactant in aqueous solution at different surfactant-protein ratios.

The interactions of a fluorinated surfactant, sodium perfluorooctanoate, with lysozyme, have been investigated by a combination of UV absorbance, electrical conductivity and dynamic light scattering to detect and to characterize the conformational transitions of lysozyme. By using difference spectroscopy, the transition was followed as a function of surfactant concentration, and the data were analyzed to obtain the Gibbs energy of the transition in water (DeltaGw(o)) and in a hydrophobic environment (DeltaGh(o)) for saturated protein-surfactant complexes. Electrical conductivity was used to determine the critical micelle concentration of the surfactant in the presence of different lysozyme concentration. From these results, the average number of surfactant monomer per protein molecule was calculated. Finally, dynamic light scattering show that only changes in the secondary structure of the protein can be observed.

Aggregation energies of some amphiphilic antidepressant drugs

Abstract The critical micelle concentrations (cmc) of the amphiphilic antidepressant drugs doxepin and butriptyline hydrochlorides in aqueous solution were determined over the temperature range 288.15–313.15 K by conductivity data and using a method based on deconvolution into Gaussians of the second derivative of the measured specific conductivity data. For fully characterization of the thermodynamics of aggregation process, the variation of the standard Gibbs energy, Δ G m 0 , the standard enthalpy, Δ H m 0 , and the standard entropy, Δ S m 0 , of micellization were obtained from the application of the mass action model and Phillips definition of the cmc.

Screening of wild Helianthus species and derived lines for resistance to several populations of Orobanche cernua

Twenty-six different perennial species of Helianthus, 18 wild annual species of the same genus, and 29 lines tracing to wild species were evaluated for resistance to three highly virulent populations of broomrape (Orobanche cernua). Evaluations were carried out in pots containing soil mixture infested with broomrape seeds. Most of the perennial Helianthus species were immune to the populations of broomrape used in the tests. Some wild annual species and wild derived lines were resistant. The resistance found in the wild species, introgressed to cultivated sunflower, could provide unique resistance to the parasite.

Interactions between DMPC liposomes and the serum blood proteins HSA and IgG.

The interaction between two serum blood proteins, namely human serum albumin (HSA) and human immunoglobulin G (IgG), with 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine (DMPC) liposomes has been studied in detail using dynamic light scattering, flow cytometry, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), electrophoretic mobility, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and surface tension measurements. HSA and IgG interact with liposomes forming molecular aggregates that remain stable at protein concentrations beyond those of total liposome coverage. Both HSA and IgG penetrate into the liposome bilayer. An ELISA assay indicates that the Fc region of IgG is the one that is immersed in the DMPC membrane. The liposome-protein interaction is mainly of electrostatic nature, but an important hydrophobic contribution is also present.

Interspecific hybridization between sunflower and wild perennial Helianthus species via embryo rescue

Interspecific crosses were made between the cultivated sunflower inbred line HA89 and accessions of five wild perennial Helianthus species (H. giganteus L., H. laevigatus T. & G., H. resinosus Small, H. pauciflorus Nutt. and H. decapetalus L.) resistant to broomrape ( Orobanche cernua Loefl.). Using the genetic male-sterile isogenic version of that line as female, successful reciprocal crosses were also obtained with all these wild species except with H. decapetalus. Five-day-old hybrid embryos were excised and cultured in vitro. In all cases, few mature plants were obtained from embryos in early developmental stages (early heart and globular) but up to 28% mature plants were obtained from embryos in later stages of development. Very immature embryos were difficult to excise without damage. Hybrid embryos and mature plants were obtained from all five wild species. Interspecific hybrid embryos from different wild species showed distinct developmental potentials, the proportion of hybrid embryos in different developmental stages varying among species. Differences in the proportion of hybrid embryos at the several developmental stages were also obtained for the reciprocal crosses (cultivated × wild), which showed higher proportion of fully developed embryos. Hybrids involving H. giganteus and cultivated sunflower were difficult to obtain without the use of embryo culture. Embryo culture proved to be an useful tool to overcome post-zygotic hybrid incompatibility in different Helianthus spp., and facilitated interspecific transfer of resistance to O. cernua.

Adsorption of an amphiphilic penicillin onto human serum albumin: characterisation of the complex

The complex formed by the interaction of the amphiphilic penicillin drug nafcillin and human serum albumin (HSA) in water at 25 degrees C has been characterised using a range of physicochemical techniques. Measurements of the solution conductivity and the electrophoretic mobility of the complexes have shown an ionic adsorption of the drug on the protein surface leading to a surface saturation at a nafcillin concentration of 0.012 mmol kg(-1) and subsequent formation of drug micelles in solutions of higher nafcillin concentration. Measurements of the size of the complex and the thickness of the adsorbed layer by static and dynamic light scattering have shown a gradual change in hydrodynamic radius of the complex with increasing drug concentration typical of a saturation rather than a denaturation process, the magnitude of the change being insufficient to account for any appreciable extension or unfolding of the HSA molecule. The interaction potential between the HSA/nafcillin complexes, and the stability of the complexes were determined from the dependence of diffusion coefficients on protein concentration by application of the DLVO colloidal stability theory. The results indicate decreasing stability of the colloidal dispersion of the drug/protein complexes with an increase in the concentration of added drug.