En Route to European Journals of Inorganic and Organic Chemistry

In 1997 a new journal structure for the chemical literature in Europe will begin to evolve. Recueil des Travaux Chimiques des Pays-Bas will unite with Liebigs Annalen and Chemische Berichte; furthermore, Chemistry - A European Journal will become independent of Angewandte Chemie, its “carrier journal”. Recueil was founded in 1882 and is the journal of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society (KNCV); Chemische Berichte (1865) and Liebigs Annalen (1832) are German Chemical Society (GDCh) journals. With these heritages in mind, we will apply the image of a “European House”, often used by politicians, to scientific publishing in Europe

Lipoplexes formed from sugar-based gemini surfactants undergo a lamellar-to-micellar phase transition at acidic pH. Evidence for a non-inverted membrane-destabilizing hexagonal phase of lipoplexes

AbstractThe present study aims at a better understanding of the mechanism of transfection mediated by two sugar-based gemini surfactants GS1 and GS2. Previously, these gemini surfactants have been shown to be efficient gene vectors for transfection both in vitro and in vivo. Here, using Nile Red, a solvatochromic fluorescent probe, we investigated the phase behavior of these gemini surfactants in complexes with plasmid DNA, so-called lipoplexes. We found that these lipoplexes undergo a lamellar-to-non-inverted micellar phase transition upon decreasing the pH from neutral to mildly acidic. This normal (non-inverted) phase at acidic pH is confirmed by the colloidal stability of the lipoplexes as shown by turbidity measurements. We therefore propose a normal hexagonal phase, HI, for the gemini surfactant lipoplexes at acidic endosomal pH. Thus, we suggest that besides an inverted hexagonal (HII) phase as reported for several transfection-potent cationic lipid systems, another type of non-inverted non-bilayer structure, different from HII, may destabilize the endosomal membrane, necessary for cytosolic DNA delivery and ultimately, cellular transfection

What is going to become of Chemische Berichte/Recueil and Liebigs Annalen/Receuil?

Although these two chemistry journals have a long tradition behind them, they have not shied away from changes! Did you know, for example, that “Berichte” and “Annalen” have published in English - no longer in German - since 1995? The two journals have also been allocated specific interest areas, and another big move took place at the beginning of this year: the merger with the Dutch “Recueil des Travaux Chimiques des Pays-Bas”. To accommodate all these changes, widescale reorganization had to take place. However, not only did the daily work continue, but another major and exciting development took place in the background: the changeover to electronic manuscript processing. (For an update see http://www.wiley-vch.de). The results of these efforts are concrete and can be seen on the pages of the journals every month