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Gallium-based liquid metals (LMs) have emerged as novel materials for biomedical applications. Gallium (Ga) is considered significantly less toxic than other LMs, such as mercury. However, Ga droplets have not been thoroughly assessed for their cytotoxicity. Here, we report the concentration-dependent cytotoxic effects of Ga nano- and microdroplets on HaCaT cells, a human keratinocyte cell line. We found that Ga droplets demonstrated substantial cytotoxic effects at 1000 μg/mL after 24 h exposure, while lower concentrations such as 500 μg/mL indicated only a slight reduction in cell viability at longer exposure times. At higher concentrations, it was observed that the cells were unable to form confluent layers and the cytoplasmic membrane became damaged. The formation of a protein corona on the Ga droplets in cell media is also described, which will be an important consideration for future research on Ga droplets for bio-applications. Importantly, this work provides an indication of the concentration at which Ga droplets become damaging to human cells, which will be useful information for a wide range of researchers and regulatory bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reduction kinetics of hydrogen peroxide by ebselen, ebselen diselenide, ebselen selenol and their sulfur analogues is quantitatively studied. Results show that the reaction is exothermic due to the oxygen obtained from the peroxide.

The three model reactions representing reduction of hydrogen peroxide by ebselen, ebselen selenol, and ebselen diselenide were used to perform theoretical calculations. Results reveal that of the three plausible oxidation pathways for ebselen and its derivatives, that of the diselenide is favored.

Theoretical study on thermolysis of a group of beta-hydroxyl aldehydes is reported, with emphasis on activation energies and rate constants obtained using conventional transition state theory. The results showed that thermolysis of beta-hydroxyl aldehydes are slower than the thermolysis of similar beta-hydroxyl ketones.

A systematic comparison of the optimized geometries of five organotin compounds with the available gas-phase electron diffraction results is reported. It is concluded that the combination of SDB-aug-cc-pVTZ basis set and the Los Alamos National Laboratory 2 have effective core potential for tin, together with 6-31G(d,p) basis set for other atoms.

A report is presented on several weak interactions in nucleic acids, which collectively can make a noneligible contribution to the structure and stability of these molecules. A study characterizes the pi-stacking interaction between the nearest neighbor stacked bases, the interactions that a given nuclease has with the backbone and the interactions within the backbone itself.

A systematic theoretical study on a series of eleven organoselenium compounds that were chosen as models of biologically relevant compound is conducted. It is observed that the bond dissociation energies of organoselenium molecules have similar behavior and both DFT functionals with a reasonably large basis set produce good results, and the B3PW91 method produces the best agreement with experiment and/or high-level reference values.

High field (super 1)H NMR techniques are used to analyze the reaction of the bioactive compound with amines. The results show that a double nucleophilic substitution reaction involving 2 equiv of the amine is preferred to an intramolecular cyclization pathway.

The ubiquity of the fluorine-fluorine bonding interaction for a systematic examination is reported. Teh bond path is shown to persist for a range of internuclear distances (2.3-2.8 angstrom) and a range of relative orientations of the two C-F internuclear axes.

The equilibrium geometries at 54 small molecules containing linear or near-linear N-H..N bonds (sample M) are optimized at the MP2/6-31G(d,p) level and the values of p' and p' of the parameters p(sub c) at the bond-critical points(p' in the N-H, p' in the H..N bond) are compounded from the results of the optimizations.

This work presents a comprehensive analytical survey of the antibacterial and antibiofouling properties of sub-100-nanometer scale nanopatterned polymers fabricated using scalable industrial processes that are directly applicable for commercial use. Regular nanopillar arrays of 60 nm height and 60 nm pitch were fabricated on polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene (PP), acrylic, and nylon polymer films using nanoimprint lithography. Analyses of the influence of material type on antibacterial performance revealed that the nanoscale patterns produced using acrylic and nylon polymers were most suitable as anti-infective nanostructured materials. Further assessment of the influence of the nanopattern geometric parameters on the antibacterial efficacy of acrylic and nylon materials revealed the superlative pattern for inactivating and repelling both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Acrylic nanostructured films consisting of nanopillars with a height of 60 nm and pitch of 30 nm, respectively, demonstrated distinctly superior antimicrobial and antibiofouling behavior toward both Gram-negative Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus bacterial species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has been conducted on tricyclic pyridones with a fused seven-membered ring. The synthesis of these compounds is described, and the results demonstrate that they exhibit atropisomerism and exist in enantiomeric forms.

Research has been conducted on kinesin molecular motor proteins' cargo binding domain. The study of the possible cargo proteins which may bind to the kinesin domain has been carried out via the use of yeast two-hybrid assay and the results are reported.

A study of the proline-catalyzed direct aldol reaction between acetone and acetaldehyde using density functional theory is presented. The results show that the aldol reaction between acetone and acetaldehyde, in which proline acts as an enzyme mimic illustrates the potential of small organic molecules to act as chiral catalysts in asymmetric synthesis and the complementary nature of theoretical calculations.