Cocrystal formation, crystal structure, solubility and permeability studies for novel 1,2,4-thiadiazole derivative as a potent neuroprotector.

The cocrystallization approach has been applied to modify the poor solubility profile of the biologically active 1,2,4-thiadiazole derivative (TDZ). Extensive cocrystal screening with a library of coformers resulted in formation of a new solid form of TDZ with vanillic acid in a 1:1 molar ratio. The cocrystalline phase was identified and characterized by thermal and diffraction analyses including single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The energies of intermolecular interactions in the crystal were calculated by solid-state DFT and PIXEL methods. Both calculation schemes show good consistency in terms of total energy of the intermolecular interactions and suggest that the cocrystal is mainly stabilized via hydrogen bonds, which provide ca. 44% of the lattice energy. Since the cocrystal contained the hydroxybenzoic acid derivative as a coformer, the solubility profile of the cocrystal was investigated at different pHs using eutectic concentrations of the components. Furthermore, the influence of the cocrystallization on the permeability performance of the 1,2,4-thiadiazole through an artificial regenerated cellulose membrane was also evaluated. In addition, the thermodynamic functions of the cocrystal formation were estimated from the solubility of the cocrystal and the corresponding solubility of the pure compounds at various temperatures. The cocrystal formation process was found to have a relatively small value of the driving force (-5.3kJ·mol-1). The most significant contribution to the Gibbs energy was provided by the exothermic enthalpy of formation.

Thermostability of photosystem I trimers and monomers from the cyanobacterium Thermosynechococcus elongatus.

The performance of solar energy conversion into alternative energy sources in artificial systems highly depends on the thermostability of photosystem I (PSI) complexes Terasaki et al. (2007), Iwuchukwu et al. (2010), Kothe et al. (2013) . To assess the thermostability of PSI complexes from the thermophilic cyanobacterium Thermosynechococcus elongatus heating induced perturbations on the level of secondary structure of the proteins were studied. Changes were monitored by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra in the mid-IR region upon slow heating (1°C per minute) of samples in D2O phosphate buffer (pD 7.4) from 20°C to 100°C. These spectra showed distinct changes in the Amide I region of PSI complexes as a function of the rising temperature. Absorbance at the Amide I maximum of PSI monomers (centered around 1653cm-1), gradually dropped in two temperature intervals, i.e. 60-75 and 80-90°C. In contrast, absorbance at the Amide I maximum of PSI trimers (around 1656cm-1) dropped only in one temperature interval 80-95°C. The thermal profile of the spectral shift of α-helices bands in the region 1656-1642cm-1 confirms the same two temperature intervals for PSI monomers and only one interval for trimers. Apparently, the observed absorbance changes at the Amide I maximum during heating of PSI monomers and trimers are caused by deformation and unfolding of α-helices. The absence of absorbance changes in the interval of 20-65°C in PSI trimers is probably caused by a greater stability of protein secondary structure as compared to that in monomers. Upon heating above 80°C a large part of α-helices both in trimers and monomers converts to unordered and aggregated structures. Spectral changes of PSI trimers and monomers heated up to 100°C are irreversible due to protein denaturation and non-specific aggregation of complexes leading to new absorption bands at 1618-1620cm-1. We propose that monomers shield the denaturation sensitive sides at the monomer/monomer interface within a trimer, making the oligomeric structure more stable against thermal stress.

Selective Na(+)/K(+) effects on the formation of α-cyclodextrin complexes with aromatic carboxylic acids: competition for the guest.

We investigated the effects of K(+) and Na(+) ions on the formation of α-cyclodextrin complexes with ionized aromatic carboxylic acids. Using solution calorimetry and (1)H NMR, we performed the thermodynamic and structural investigation of α-cyclodextrin complex formation with benzoic and nicotinic acids in different aqueous solutions containing K(+) and Na(+) ions as well as in pure water. The experiments show that the addition of sodium ions to solution leads to a decrease in the binding constants of the carboxylic acids with α-cyclodextrin as compared to pure water and solutions containing potassium ions. From another side, the effect of potassium ions on the binding constants is insignificant as compared to pure water solution. We suggest that the selectivity of cation pairing with carboxylates is the origin of the difference between the effects of sodium and potassium ions on complex formation. The strong counterion pairing between the sodium cation and the carboxylate group shifts the equilibrium toward dissociation of the binding complexes. In turn, the weak counterion pairing between the potassium cation and the carboxylate group has no effect on the complex formation. We complemented the experiments with molecular modeling, which shows the molecular scale details of the formation of cation pairs with the carboxylate groups of the carboxylic acids. The fully atomistic molecular simulations show that sodium ions mainly form direct contact pairs with the carboxylate group. At the same time, potassium ions practically do not form direct contact pairs with the carboxylate groups and usually stay in the second solvation shell of carboxylate groups. That confirms our hypotheses that the selective formation of ion pairs is the main cause of the difference in the observed effects of sodium and potassium salts on the guest-host complex formation of α-cyclodextrin with aromatic carboxylic acids. We propose a molecular mechanism explaining the effects of salts, based on competition between the cations and α-cyclodextrin for binding with the ionized carboxylic acids.

Investigation of the pH-dependent complex formation between beta-cyclodextrin and dipeptide enantiomers by capillary electrophoresis and calorimetry.

The effect of pH on complex formation between beta-CD and the enantiomers of the dipeptides Ala-Phe, Ala-Tyr and Asp-PheOMe was investigated at 298.15 K by CE and calorimetry. Beta-CD displayed a higher enantioselectivity toward the protonated peptides compared to their zwitterionic forms. While stronger binding of the DD-enantiomers than the LL-stereoisomers were found by calorimetry regardless of the ionization state of the peptides, essentially equal complexation constants of the enantiomers were determined by CE for the zwitterionic species of the peptides. The reversal of the enantiomer migration order observed in CE was attributed primarily to a stereoselective complexation-induced pK(a) shift. In calorimetry, complexation of the protonated DD-enantiomers by beta-CD was accompanied by higher enthalpy and entropy changes resulting in more stable complexes compared to the LL-peptides. The enthalpy and entropy of complexation was affected by pH and peptide structure.

Interactions of beta- and hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin with some purine alkaloids: thermodynamic study.

The effect of native and hydroxypropylated beta-cyclodextrin on the solubility and activity of some purine alkaloids was examined. For this purpose, the solubility of purine alkaloids in pure water and in aqueous solutions of mentioned beta-cyclodextrins was determined at 298.15 K. Stability constants of inclusion complexes and their stoichiometry were obtained from solubility diagrams. Enthalpic characteristics of interactions occurring between beta-cyclodextrins and purine alkaloids in aqueous solution were calculated from the direct calorimetric measurements. It was found, that beta-cyclodextrin forms with purine alkaloids weak complexes which are stabilized only by the entropy term. Due to very low complexing affinity of both beta-cyclodextrins to studied purine alkaloids their solubilizing effect is insignificant. The influence of structure of purine alkaloids and beta-cyclodextrin on the thermodynamic parameters of interaction was discussed.

Study on complex formation of biologically active pyridine derivatives with cyclodextrins by capillary electrophoresis.

The capillary electrophoretic separation of the pyridine derivatives pyridoxine, pyridoxal, nicotinamide, nicotinic acid and isonicotinic acid in phosphate buffer using cyclodextrins as buffer additives was studied at pH 2.0 and 3.5. Superior separation was achieved at pH 2.0. Addition of alpha- and beta-cyclodextrin and the respective 2-hydroxypropyl derivatives as well as carboxymethyl-alpha-cyclodextrin to the running buffer did not significantly improve the resolution of the compounds. The interactions of alpha- and beta-cyclodextrin as well as their hydroxypropyl derivatives with the pyridine derivatives were investigated by capillary electrophoresis at pH 2.0. No complex formation was observed between the cyclodextrins and pyridoxine, pyridoxal and nicotinamide. alpha-Cyclodextrin and 2-hydroxypropyl-alpha-cyclodextrin form weak 1:1 complexes with nicotinic and isonicotinic acids in aqueous media at 298.15K, while beta-cyclodextrin and its hydroxypropyl derivative did not form complexes. The apparent stability constants (K) of the complexes calculated from the electrophoretic mobility data ranged between 3 and 33 kg/mol. The negative values of enthalpy and entropy of complex formation obtained from the graphical plot of the van't Hoff equation indicate an important role of van der Waals and electrostatic interactions in the binding of nicotinic acid with alpha-cyclodextrin.

P700+- and 3P700-induced quenching of the fluorescence at 760 nm in trimeric Photosystem I complexes from the cyanobacterium Arthrospira platensis.

The 5 K absorption spectrum of Photosystem I (PS I) trimers from Arthrospira platensis (old name: Spirulina platensis) exhibits long-wavelength antenna (exciton) states absorbing at 707 nm (called C707) and at 740 nm (called C740). The lowest energy state (C740) fluoresces around 760 nm (F760) at low temperature. The analysis of the spectral properties (peak position and line width) of the lowest energy transition (C740) as a function of temperature within the linear electron-phonon approximation indicates a large optical reorganization energy of approximately 110 cm(-1) and a broad inhomogeneous site distribution characterized by a line width of approximately 115 cm(-1). Linear dichroism (LD) measurements indicate that the transition dipole moment of the red-most state is virtually parallel to the membrane plane. The relative fluorescence yield at 760 nm of PS I with P700 oxidized increases only slightly when the temperature is lowered to 77 K, whereas in the presence of reduced P700 the fluorescence yield increases nearly 40-fold at 77 K as compared to that at room temperature (RT). A fluorescence induction effect could not be resolved at RT. At 77 K the fluorescence yield of PS I trimers frozen in the dark in the presence of sodium ascorbate decreases during illumination by about a factor of 5 due to the irreversible formation of (P700+)F(A/B-) in about 60% of the centers and the reversible accumulation of the longer-lived state (P700+)FX-. The quenching efficiency of different functionally relevant intermediate states of the photochemistry in PS I has been studied. The redox state of the acceptors beyond A(0) does not affect F760. Direct kinetic evidence is presented that the fluorescence at 760 nm is strongly quenched not only by P700+ but also by 3P700. Similar kinetics were observed for flash-induced absorbance changes attributed to the decay of 3P700 or P700+, respectively, and flash-induced fluorescence changes at 760 nm measured under identical conditions. A nonlinear relationship between the variable fluorescence around 760 nm and the [P700red]/[P700total] ratio was derived from titration curves of the absorbance change at 826 nm and the variable fluorescence at 760 nm as a function of the redox potential imposed on the sample solution at room temperature before freezing. The result indicates that the energy exchange between the antennae of different monomers within a PS I trimer stimulates quenching of F760 by P700+.