Enological potential of native yeasts isolated from grapes in Iasi wine district, Romania

Spontaneous alcoholic fermentation and the quality of a wines depends on the microbial communities present of the grapes and the external physical variables. Grapevine cultivar, viticultural practices, macro- and microclimatic conditions, and the vineyards geographic location all have an impact on the biological activities of fermenting microorganisms which prevail on the surface of grape berries. The taste and organoleptic features of wines are heavily influenced by the microbial communities present during grape must fermentation. The goal of this study was to isolate and select yeast strains with good enological traits for use as regional starter cultures and, as a result, to generate wines with specific sensory characteristics that can be connected to terroir of Iasi vineyards. After isolation and purification from different grape varieties, in order to determine their ecologically important properties, 9 indigenous yeasts strains were selected and have been tested in the laboratory for rate of fermentation, foam production, capacity to consume sugars from must and alcoholic capacity. After the testing procedures (micro-fermentations at 25°C), 4 yeasts strains (SCZ, SCH, CHC3 and GB3) were retained and could be used as future starters after further tests in large scale fermentations, in order to optimize the fermentation processes and to obtain quality wines from Iaşi viticultural area

Network analytics for drug repurposing in COVID-19

To better understand the potential of drug repurposing in COVID-19, we analyzed control strategies over essential host factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection. We constructed comprehensive directed protein–protein interaction (PPI) networks integrating the top-ranked host factors, the drug target proteins and directed PPI data. We analyzed the networks to identify drug targets and combinations thereof that offer efficient control over the host factors. We validated our findings against clinical studies data and bioinformatics studies. Our method offers a new insight into the molecular details of the disease and into potentially new therapy targets for it. Our approach for drug repurposing is significant beyond COVID-19 and may be applied also to other diseases.</p

Fifth European Dirofilaria and Angiostrongylus Days (FiEDAD) 2016

Peer reviewe

Graphene from Alginate Pyrolysis as a Metal-Free Catalyst for Hydrogenation of Nitro Compounds

[EN] Graphene obtained by pyrolysis of alginate at 900 degrees C under inert atmosphere and exfoliation is used as a metal-free catalyst for reduction of nitro to amino groups with hydrogen as a reagent. The process is general for aromatic and aliphatic, conjugated and isolated nitro groups, and occurs with low selectivity over hydrogenation of carbon-carbon double bonds.Financial support by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Severo Ochoa and CTQ2015-69153) and Generalidad Valenciana (Prometeo 2013-14) is gratefully acknowledged. V.I.P. is grateful to UEFISCDI for financial support through the PN-II-ID-PCE-2011 project 275/05/10/2011. A.P. thanks the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for a Ramon y Cajal Research Associate contract.Trandafir, M.; Florea, M.; Neatu, F.; Primo Arnau, AM.; García Gómez, H.; Parvulescu, VI. (2016). Graphene from Alginate Pyrolysis as a Metal-Free Catalyst for Hydrogenation of Nitro Compounds. ChemSusChem. 9(13):1565-1569. https://doi.org/10.1002/cssc.201600197S15651569913Zhang, N., Yang, M.-Q., Liu, S., Sun, Y., & Xu, Y.-J. (2015). Waltzing with the Versatile Platform of Graphene to Synthesize Composite Photocatalysts. Chemical Reviews, 115(18), 10307-10377. doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.5b00267Zhang, N., Zhang, Y., & Xu, Y.-J. (2012). Recent progress on graphene-based photocatalysts: current status and future perspectives. Nanoscale, 4(19), 5792. doi:10.1039/c2nr31480kNavalon, S., Dhakshinamoorthy, A., Alvaro, M., & Garcia, H. (2016). Metal nanoparticles supported on two-dimensional graphenes as heterogeneous catalysts. Coordination Chemistry Reviews, 312, 99-148. doi:10.1016/j.ccr.2015.12.005Dreyer, D. R., & Bielawski, C. W. (2011). Carbocatalysis: Heterogeneous carbons finding utility in synthetic chemistry. Chemical Science, 2(7), 1233. doi:10.1039/c1sc00035gMousseau, J. J., & Charette, A. B. (2012). Direct Functionalization Processes: A Journey from Palladium to Copper to Iron to Nickel to Metal-Free Coupling Reactions. Accounts of Chemical Research, 46(2), 412-424. doi:10.1021/ar300185zNavalon, S., Dhakshinamoorthy, A., Alvaro, M., & Garcia, H. (2014). Carbocatalysis by Graphene-Based Materials. Chemical Reviews, 114(12), 6179-6212. doi:10.1021/cr4007347Su, D. S., Perathoner, S., & Centi, G. (2013). Nanocarbons for the Development of Advanced Catalysts. Chemical Reviews, 113(8), 5782-5816. doi:10.1021/cr300367dSu, D. S., Zhang, J., Frank, B., Thomas, A., Wang, X., Paraknowitsch, J., & Schlögl, R. (2010). Metal-Free Heterogeneous Catalysis for Sustainable Chemistry. ChemSusChem, 3(2), 169-180. doi:10.1002/cssc.200900180Fujita, S., Watanabe, H., Katagiri, A., Yoshida, H., & Arai, M. (2014). Nitrogen and oxygen-doped metal-free carbon catalysts for chemoselective transfer hydrogenation of nitrobenzene, styrene, and 3-nitrostyrene with hydrazine. Journal of Molecular Catalysis A: Chemical, 393, 257-262. doi:10.1016/j.molcata.2014.06.021Primo, A., Neatu, F., Florea, M., Parvulescu, V., & Garcia, H. (2014). Graphenes in the absence of metals as carbocatalysts for selective acetylene hydrogenation and alkene hydrogenation. Nature Communications, 5(1). doi:10.1038/ncomms6291Boronat, M., Concepción, P., Corma, A., González, S., Illas, F., & Serna, P. (2007). A Molecular Mechanism for the Chemoselective Hydrogenation of Substituted Nitroaromatics with Nanoparticles of Gold on TiO2Catalysts:  A Cooperative Effect between Gold and the Support. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 129(51), 16230-16237. doi:10.1021/ja076721gCorma, A. (2006). Chemoselective Hydrogenation of Nitro Compounds with Supported Gold Catalysts. Science, 313(5785), 332-334. doi:10.1126/science.1128383Corma, A., Serna, P., Concepción, P., & Calvino, J. J. (2008). Transforming Nonselective into Chemoselective Metal Catalysts for the Hydrogenation of Substituted Nitroaromatics. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 130(27), 8748-8753. doi:10.1021/ja800959gLin, Y., Wu, S., Shi, W., Zhang, B., Wang, J., Kim, Y. A., … Su, D. S. (2015). Efficient and highly selective boron-doped carbon materials-catalyzed reduction of nitroarenes. Chemical Communications, 51(66), 13086-13089. doi:10.1039/c5cc01963jWang, H.-C., Li, B.-L., Zheng, Y.-J., & Wang, W.-Y. (2012). Mesoporous Carbon as a Metal-Free Catalyst for the Reduction of Nitroaromatics with Hydrazine Hydrate. Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society, 33(9), 2961-2965. doi:10.5012/bkcs.2012.33.9.2961Wu, S., Wen, G., Wang, J., Rong, J., Zong, B., Schlögl, R., & Su, D. S. (2014). Nitrobenzene reduction catalyzed by carbon: does the reaction really belong to carbocatalysis? Catal. Sci. Technol., 4(12), 4183-4187. doi:10.1039/c4cy00811aGao, Y., Ma, D., Wang, C., Guan, J., & Bao, X. (2011). Reduced graphene oxide as a catalyst for hydrogenation of nitrobenzene at room temperature. Chem. Commun., 47(8), 2432-2434. doi:10.1039/c0cc04420bHu, H., Xin, J. H., Hu, H., & Wang, X. (2015). Structural and mechanistic understanding of an active and durable graphene carbocatalyst for reduction of 4-nitrophenol at room temperature. Nano Research, 8(12), 3992-4006. doi:10.1007/s12274-015-0902-zFeng, C., Zhang, H.-Y., Shang, N.-Z., Gao, S.-T., & Wang, C. (2013). Magnetic graphene nanocomposite as an efficient catalyst for hydrogenation of nitroarenes. Chinese Chemical Letters, 24(6), 539-541. doi:10.1016/j.cclet.2013.03.036Kumbhar, P. S., Sanchez-Valente, J., Millet, J. M. M., & Figueras, F. (2000). Mg–Fe Hydrotalcite as a Catalyst for the Reduction of Aromatic Nitro Compounds with Hydrazine Hydrate. Journal of Catalysis, 191(2), 467-473. doi:10.1006/jcat.2000.2827Dhakshinamoorthy, A., Navalon, S., Sempere, D., Alvaro, M., & Garcia, H. (2013). Reduction of alkenes catalyzed by copper nanoparticles supported on diamond nanoparticles. Chemical Communications, 49(23), 2359. doi:10.1039/c3cc39011jDhakshinamoorthy, A., & Pitchumani, K. (2008). Clay entrapped nickel nanoparticles as efficient and recyclable catalysts for hydrogenation of olefins. Tetrahedron Letters, 49(11), 1818-1823. doi:10.1016/j.tetlet.2008.01.061Dhakshinamoorthy, A., Alvaro, M., & Garcia, H. (2009). Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) as Heterogeneous Catalysts for the Chemoselective Reduction of Carbon-Carbon Multiple Bonds with Hydrazine. Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis, 351(14-15), 2271-2276. doi:10.1002/adsc.200900362Primo, A., Atienzar, P., Sanchez, E., Delgado, J. M., & García, H. (2012). From biomass wastes to large-area, high-quality, N-doped graphene: catalyst-free carbonization of chitosan coatings on arbitrary substrates. Chemical Communications, 48(74), 9254. doi:10.1039/c2cc34978gGeier, S. J., & Stephan, D. W. (2009). Lutidine/B(C6F5)3: At the Boundary of Classical and Frustrated Lewis Pair Reactivity. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 131(10), 3476-3477. doi:10.1021/ja900572xRokob, T. A., Hamza, A., & Pápai, I. (2009). Rationalizing the Reactivity of Frustrated Lewis Pairs: Thermodynamics of H2Activation and the Role of Acid−Base Properties. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 131(30), 10701-10710. doi:10.1021/ja903878zStephan, D. W. (2009). Frustrated Lewis pairs: a new strategy to small molecule activation and hydrogenation catalysis. Dalton Transactions, (17), 3129. doi:10.1039/b819621dStirling, A., Hamza, A., Rokob, T. A., & Pápai, I. (2008). Concerted attack of frustrated Lewis acid–base pairs on olefinic double bonds: a theoretical study. Chemical Communications, (27), 3148. doi:10.1039/b804662jPrimo, A., Sánchez, E., Delgado, J. M., & García, H. (2014). High-yield production of N-doped graphitic platelets by aqueous exfoliation of pyrolyzed chitosan. 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One-step preparation of molecularly imprinted hollow beads for pseudohypericin separation from Hypericum perforatum L. extracts

International audienc

Detection of Bisphenol A in aqueous medium by screen printed carbon electrodes incorporating electrochemical molecularly imprinted polymers

International audienceElectrochemical molecularly imprinted polymers (e-MIPs) were for the first time introduced in screen-printed carbon electrodes (SPCE) as the sensing element for the detection of an organic pollutant. To play this sensing role, a redox tracer was incorporated inside the binding cavities of a cross-linked MIP, as a functional monomer during the synthesis step. Ferrocenylmethyl methacrylate was used for this purpose. It was associated with 4-vinylpyridine as a co-functional monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as cross-linker for the recognition of the endocrine disruptor, Bisphenol A (BPA), as a target. Microbeads of e-MIP and e-NIP (corresponding non-imprinted polymer) were obtained via precipitation polymerization in acetonitrile. The presence of ferrocene inside the polymers was assessed via FTIR and elemental analysis and the polymers microstructure was characterized by SEM and nitrogen adsorption/desorption experiments. Binding isotherms and batch selectivity experiments evidenced the presence of binding cavities inside the e-MIP and its high affinity for BPA compared to carbamazepine and ketoprofen. e-MIP (and e-NIP) microbeads were then incorporated in a graphite-hydroxyethylcellulose composite paste to prepare SPCE. Electrochemical properties of e-MIP-SPCE revealed a high sensitivity in the presence of BPA in aqueous medium compared to e-NIP-SPCE with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.06 nM. Selectivity towards carbamazepine and ketoprofen was also observed with the e-MIP-SPCE