Hydrosilylation of Olefins Activated on Highly Lewis-Acidic Calcium Cation.

The report introduces simple yet highly reactive calcium salt, Ca[Al(ORF)4]2 (RF=C(CF3)3), 1, which effectively catalyses olefin hydrosilylation through an unusual mechanism involving the activation of the alkene molecule. Upon dissolution in o-difluorobenzene (oDFB), 1 forms a highly Lewis acidic [Ca(oDFB)6]2+ complex. Our DFT calculations reveal that fluoride ion affinity is comparable to SbF5. Reactivity tests show that it effectively catalyses the hydrosilylation of olefins with high regioselectivity, also in reactions involving sterically demanding substrates like (iPr)3SiH or tetrasubstituted olefins. Experimental and computational results point to the mechanism where the olefin molecule forms a complex with Ca2+, which significantly facilitates the attack of H-SiR3 on the C=C double bond.

Chemometric analysis of retention data from salting-out thin-layer chromatography in relation to structural parameters and biological activity of chosen sulphonamides.

Salting-out thin-layer chromatography of several chosen sulphonamides on silica gel has been examined with aqueous solutions of salts: sulphates, chlorides, nitrates, phosphates, acetates, thiocyanates. It was established that applied salts have different effects on retention of sulphonamides accordingly to Hofmeister's clasification (e.g. kosmotropes, chaotropes and neutral). The parameters of the linear regression analysis of dependences between the R(M) values and concentration of the salt in the eluent system were correlated with QSAR ones. It appeared that chromatographic parameters obtained by SOTLC method reflect not only physico-chemical properties of examined compounds but also they include information about their activity. 3D graph revealing pharmacological properties of analytes was constructed. Universal character of this method for predicting and classification of drug containing sulphonamide group was confirmed by localisation of additional compounds structurally similar but acting antagonistically towards sulphonamides.

Identification of putative adhesin genes in shigatoxigenic Escherichia coli isolated from different sources.

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is an important pathogen responsible for severe human intestinal and systemic infections. The bacterial factors required for colonization of the hosts are still not well defined. In this study, the prevalence of seven putative adhesive genes that are not encoded in the locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE) in 74 STEC strains isolated from humans (n=39), food (n=6), cattle (n=11), and pigs (n=18) was investigated by PCR. In addition, Shiga toxin (stx) and intimin (eaeA including alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta variants) genes were tested. The most prevalent adhesin was that encoded by toxB gene (52 of 74 isolates; 70.3%). This marker was found in all 12 strains of O157:H7 serotype and in 23 of 32 (71.9%) isolates of the O157:NM serogroup. Moreover, this gene was also present in other 17 STEC of the non-O157 serogroup. The second most prevalent adhesin was that encoded by the lpfAO157/OI-154 gene (43 isolates; 58.1%). This marker was detected in LEE-positive strains of the O157 serogroup but also in 9 LEE-negative isolates of porcine origin. Several STEC isolates tested (42 strains; 56.7%) had the efa1 gene of the Efa1 putative adhesive marker. This adhesin was almost exclusively found among eaeA-positive strains recovered from humans, food and cattle. On the other hand, iha marker was detected either in LEE-positive (29 isolates) or LEE-negative (12 strains) STEC. Only two eaeA-negative strains had the saa putative adhesive gene. These results show that STEC strains may be able to express several putative adhesins. However, further studies are needed to evaluate the role of the genes identified in the present study in the pathogenesis of human infections.