Effect of Particle Wettability and Particle Concentration on the Enzymatic Dehydration of n-Octanaloxime in Pickering Emulsions

© 2020 The Authors. Angewandte Chemie International Edition published by Wiley-VCH GmbH Pickering emulsion systems have emerged as platforms for the synthesis of organic molecules in biphasic biocatalysis. Herein, the catalytic performance was evaluated for biotransformation using whole cells exemplified for the dehydration of n-octanaloxime to n-octanenitrile catalysed by an aldoxime dehydratase (OxdB) overexpressed in E. coli. This study was carried out in Pickering emulsions stabilised solely with silica particles of different hydrophobicity. We correlate, for the first time, the properties of the emulsions with the conversion of the reaction, thus gaining an insight into the impact of the particle wettability and particle concentration. When comparing two emulsions of different type with similar stability and droplet diameter, the oil-in-water (o/w) system displayed a higher conversion than the water-in-oil (w/o) system, despite the conversion in both cases being higher than that in a “classic” two-phase system. Furthermore, an increase in particle concentration prior to emulsification resulted in an increase of the interfacial area and hence a higher conversion

Hochschulische Strategieoptionen im Feld englischsprachiger wissenschaftlicher Weiterbildung: Eine Bewertung auf Basis einer Alumni- und Studierendenbefragung

In dem Beitrag werden zunächst allgemeine Prozesse der Globalisierung und Digitalisierung im Feld der Hochschulbildung beschrieben, sowie anhand statistischer Daten aufgezeigt, wie groß der globale, online-basierte Weiterbildungsmarkt derzeit ist und welches Wachstumspotenzial in ihm steckt. In der Folge wird ein Konzept vorgestellt, anhand dessen die im Zeitalter von Globalisierung und Digitalisierung bestehenden Strategieoptionen von Hochschulen eingeordnet werden können. In diesem Kontext werden die Strategie der „Internationalisierung“ sowie drei verschiedene „Transnationalisierungsstrategien“ unterschieden. Der Beitrag enthält mit der Bewertung verschiedener Strategieoptionen für die School of Advanced Professional Studies (SAPS) der Universität Ulm einen konkreten Anwendungsfall. Dabei geht es um die Frage, welche Markteintrittsstrategien im Bereich englischsprachiger Weiterbildungsmodule vor dem Hintergrund des vorgestellten Konzepts konkret gewählt werden sollten. Um für eine derartige Bewertung Anhaltspunkte zu gewinnen, wurde eine empirische Befragung durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse zur Befragung internationaler Alumni sowie die allgemeine Akzeptanz von englischsprachigen Modulen werden vorgestellt. Dann werden die konkreten Strategieoptionen der SAPS in das zuvor definierte Konzept eingeordnet und einer Bewertung unterzogen. Schließlich wird der Nutzen des Konzepts für Hochschulen im Allgemeinen gewürdigt

Porcine blood cell and brain tissue energy metabolism: Effects of “early life stress”

Background: Early Life Stress (ELS) may exert long-lasting biological effects, e.g., on PBMC energy metabolism and mitochondrial respiration. Data on its effect on brain tissue mitochondrial respiration is scarce, and it is unclear whether blood cell mitochondrial activity mirrors that of brain tissue. This study investigated blood immune cell and brain tissue mitochondrial respiratory activity in a porcine ELS model.Methods: This prospective randomized, controlled, animal investigation comprised 12 German Large White swine of either sex, which were weaned at PND (postnatal day) 28–35 (control) or PND21 (ELS). At 20–24 weeks, animals were anesthetized, mechanically ventilated and surgically instrumented. We determined serum hormone, cytokine, and “brain injury marker” levels, superoxide anion (O2•¯) formation and mitochondrial respiration in isolated immune cells and immediate post mortem frontal cortex brain tissue.Results: ELS animals presented with higher glucose levels, lower mean arterial pressure. Most determined serum factors did not differ. In male controls, TNFα and IL-10 levels were both higher than in female controls as well as, no matter the gender in ELS animals. MAP-2, GFAP, and NSE were also higher in male controls than in the other three groups. Neither PBMC routine respiration and brain tissue oxidative phosphorylation nor maximal electron transfer capacity in the uncoupled state (ETC) showed any difference between ELS and controls. There was no significant relation between brain tissue and PBMC, ETC, or brain tissue, ETC, and PBMC bioenergetic health index. Whole blood O2•¯ concentrations and PBMC O2•¯ production were comparable between groups. However, granulocyte O2•¯ production after stimulation with E. coli was lower in the ELS group, and this effect was sex-specific: increased O2•¯ production increased upon stimulation in all control animals, which was abolished in the female ELS swine.Conclusion: This study provides evidence that ELS i) may, gender-specifically, affect the immune response to general anesthesia as well as O2•¯ radical production at sexual maturity, ii) has limited effects on brain and peripheral blood immune cell mitochondrial respiratory activity, and iii) mitochondrial respiratory activity of peripheral blood immune cells and brain tissue do not correlate

An exploratory study investigating the effect of targeted hyperoxemia in a randomized controlled trial in a long-term resuscitated model of combined acute subdural hematoma and hemorrhagic shock in cardiovascular healthy pigs

Severe physical injuries and associated traumatic brain injury and/or hemorrhagic shock (HS) remain leading causes of death worldwide, aggravated by accompanying extensive inflammation. Retrospective clinical data indicated an association between mild hyperoxemia and improved survival and outcome. However, corresponding prospective clinical data, including long-term resuscutation, are scarce. Therefore, the present study explored the effect of mild hyperoxemia for 24 hours in a prospective randomized controlled trial in a long-term resuscitated model of combined acute subdural hematoma (ASDH) and HS. ASDH was induced by injecting 0.1 ml × kg−1 autologous blood into the subdural space and HS was triggered by passive removal of blood. After 2 hours, the animals received full resuscitation, including retransfusion of the shed blood and vasopressor support. During the first 24 hours, the animals underwent targeted hyperoxemia (PaO2 = 200 – 250 mmHg) or normoxemia (PaO2 = 80 – 120 mmHg) with a total observation period of 55 hours after the initiation of ASDH and HS. Survival, cardiocirculatory stability, and demand for vasopressor support were comparable between both groups. Likewise, humoral markers of brain injury and systemic inflammation were similar. Multimodal brain monitoring, including microdialysis and partial pressure of O2 in brain tissue, did not show significant differences either, despite a significantly better outcome regarding the modified Glasgow Coma Scale 24 hours after shock that favors hyperoxemia. In summary, the present study reports no deleterious and few beneficial effects of mild targeted hyperoxemia in a clinically relevant model of ASDH and HS with long-term resuscitation in otherwise healthy pigs. Further beneficial effects on neurological function were probably missed due to the high mortality in both experimental groups. The present study remains exploratory due to the unavailability of an a priori power calculation resulting from the lack of necessary data

The effect of sodium thiosulfate on immune cell metabolism during porcine hemorrhage and resuscitation

Introduction Sodium thiosulfate (Na2S2O3), an H2S releasing agent, was shown to be organ-protective in experimental hemorrhage. Systemic inflammation activates immune cells, which in turn show cell type-specific metabolic plasticity with modifications of mitochondrial respiratory activity. Since H2S can dose-dependently stimulate or inhibit mitochondrial respiration, we investigated the effect of Na2S2O3 on immune cell metabolism in a blinded, randomized, controlled, long-term, porcine model of hemorrhage and resuscitation. For this purpose, we developed a Bayesian sampling-based model for 13C isotope metabolic flux analysis (MFA) utilizing 1,2-13C2-labeled glucose, 13C6-labeled glucose, and 13C5-labeled glutamine tracers. Methods After 3 h of hemorrhage, anesthetized and surgically instrumented swine underwent resuscitation up to a maximum of 68 h. At 2 h of shock, animals randomly received vehicle or Na2S2O3 (25 mg/kg/h for 2 h, thereafter 100 mg/kg/h until 24 h after shock). At three time points (prior to shock, 24 h post shock and 64 h post shock) peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and granulocytes were isolated from whole blood, and cells were investigated regarding mitochondrial oxygen consumption (high resolution respirometry), reactive oxygen species production (electron spin resonance) and fluxes within the metabolic network (stable isotope-based MFA). Results PBMCs showed significantly higher mitochondrial O2 uptake and lower O 2 • − production in comparison to granulocytes. We found that in response to Na2S2O3 administration, PBMCs but not granulocytes had an increased mitochondrial oxygen consumption combined with a transient reduction of the citrate synthase flux and an increase of acetyl-CoA channeled into other compartments, e.g., for lipid biogenesis. Conclusion In a porcine model of hemorrhage and resuscitation, Na2S2O3 administration led to increased mitochondrial oxygen consumption combined with stimulation of lipid biogenesis in PBMCs. In contrast, granulocytes remained unaffected. Granulocytes, on the other hand, remained unaffected. O 2 • − concentration in whole blood remained constant during shock and resuscitation, indicating a sufficient anti-oxidative capacity. Overall, our MFA model seems to be is a promising approach for investigating immunometabolism; especially when combined with complementary methods

The effect of targeted hyperoxemia in a randomized controlled trial employing a long-term resuscitated, model of combined acute subdural hematoma and hemorrhagic shock in swine with coronary artery disease: An exploratory, hypothesis-generating study

Controversial evidence is available regarding suitable targets for the arterial O2 tension (PaO2) after traumatic brain injury and/or hemorrhagic shock (HS). We previously demonstrated that hyperoxia during resuscitation from hemorrhagic shock attenuated cardiac injury and renal dysfunction in swine with coronary artery disease. Therefore, this study investigated the impact of targeted hyperoxemia in a long-term, resuscitated model of combined acute subdural hematoma (ASDH)-induced brain injury and HS. The prospective randomized, controlled, resuscitated animal investigation consisted of 15 adult pigs. Combined ASDH plus HS was induced by injection of 0.1 ml/kg autologous blood into the subdural space followed by controlled passive removal of blood. Two hours later, resuscitation was initiated comprising re-transfusion of shed blood, fluids, continuous i.v. noradrenaline, and either hyperoxemia (target PaO2 200 – 250 mmHg) or normoxemia (target PaO2 80 – 120 mmHg) during the first 24 h of the total of 54 h of intensive care. Systemic hemodynamics, intracranial and cerebral perfusion pressures, parameters of brain microdialysis and blood biomarkers of brain injury did not significantly differ between the two groups. According to the experimental protocol, PaO2 was significantly higher in the hyperoxemia group at the end of the intervention period, i.e., at 24 h of resuscitation, which coincided with a higher brain tissue PO2. The latter persisted until the end of observation period. While neurological function as assessed using the veterinary Modified Glasgow Coma Score progressively deteriorated in the control group, it remained unaffected in the hyperoxemia animals, however, without significant intergroup difference. Survival times did not significantly differ in the hyperoxemia and control groups either. Despite being associated with higher brain tissue PO2 levels, which were sustained beyond the intervention period, targeted hyperoxemia exerted neither significantly beneficial nor deleterious effects after combined ASDH and HS in swine with pre-existing coronary artery disease. The unavailability of a power calculation and, thus, the limited number of animals included, are the limitations of the study

Power estimation for non-standardized multisite studies

AbstractA concern for researchers planning multisite studies is that scanner and T1-weighted sequence-related biases on regional volumes could overshadow true effects, especially for studies with a heterogeneous set of scanners and sequences. Current approaches attempt to harmonize data by standardizing hardware, pulse sequences, and protocols, or by calibrating across sites using phantom-based corrections to ensure the same raw image intensities. We propose to avoid harmonization and phantom-based correction entirely. We hypothesized that the bias of estimated regional volumes is scaled between sites due to the contrast and gradient distortion differences between scanners and sequences. Given this assumption, we provide a new statistical framework and derive a power equation to define inclusion criteria for a set of sites based on the variability of their scaling factors. We estimated the scaling factors of 20 scanners with heterogeneous hardware and sequence parameters by scanning a single set of 12 subjects at sites across the United States and Europe. Regional volumes and their scaling factors were estimated for each site using Freesurfer's segmentation algorithm and ordinary least squares, respectively. The scaling factors were validated by comparing the theoretical and simulated power curves, performing a leave-one-out calibration of regional volumes, and evaluating the absolute agreement of all regional volumes between sites before and after calibration. Using our derived power equation, we were able to define the conditions under which harmonization is not necessary to achieve 80% power. This approach can inform choice of processing pipelines and outcome metrics for multisite studies based on scaling factor variability across sites, enabling collaboration between clinical and research institutions

Overcoming a Conceptual Limitation of Industrial epsilon-Caprolactone Production via Chemoenzymatic Synthesis in Organic Medium

Bernhard LM, Gröger H. Overcoming a Conceptual Limitation of Industrial epsilon-Caprolactone Production via Chemoenzymatic Synthesis in Organic Medium. ChemSusChem . 2024.The multi-10.000 tons scale manufactured chemical epsilon-caprolactone attracts high industrial interest due to its favorable biodegradability properties. However, besides being of petrochemical origin yet, its industrial production has a conceptual limitation that is the difficult extraction of this highly water-soluble monomer from the water phase resulting from the aqueous solution of H2O2 applied as reagent. In this contribution, we report a chemoenzymatic cascade starting from bio-based phenol, which makes use of O2 instead of H2O2 and runs in pure organic medium, thus requiring only simply decantation and distillation as work-up. In a first step, phenol is hydrogenated quantitatively to cyclohexanol under solvent-free conditions with a Ru-catalyst. After simple removal of the heterogenous catalyst, cyclohexanol is converted to epsilon-caprolactone in a biocatalytic double oxidation with very high yields just requiring O2 as reagent. This biocatalytic process proceeds in pure organic medium, thus avoiding tedious extraction to isolate the highly water-soluble epsilon-caprolactone and enabling a dramatically simplified work-up by only centrifugal separation of lyophilized whole cells and solvent removal. This oxidation is accomplished using a tailor-made recombinant whole-cell catalyst containing an alcohol dehydrogenase and a cyclohexanone monooxygenase mutant. © 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH

Enzymatic resolution of racemates with a 'remote' stereogenic center as an efficient tool in drug, flavor and vitamin synthesis

Alfaro Blasco M, Gröger H. Enzymatic resolution of racemates with a 'remote' stereogenic center as an efficient tool in drug, flavor and vitamin synthesis. Bioorganic & medicinal chemistry. 2014;22(20):5539-5546.The enantioselective recognition of 'remote' stereogenic centers represents a scientific task in organic chemistry being also of current interest in the pharmaceutical industry. This is due to a range of pharmaceutically relevant molecules or intermediates thereof bearing a stereogenic center, which is separated from the functional group by a larger non-chiral moiety such as, for example, a longer sequence of bonds of at least three carbon or hetero-atoms or by a planar aromatic moiety. Notably, biocatalysis turned out to provide an excellent solution for a range of challenging syntheses in this field. For example, efficient enzymatic resolution processes of racemates with such a 'remote' stereogenic center were developed for the synthesis of pelitrexol, lasofoxifene and (S)-monastrol. In general, good yields accompanied by high enantioselectivities were obtained, thus underlining the tremendous potential of enzymes to recognize and enantioselectively transform enantiomers of racemates with 'remote' stereogenic centers. Such or similar types of stereoselective recognitions of 'remote' stereogenic centers by means of enzymes have been also reported in the field of flavor and vitamin synthesis. Thus, biocatalysis represents a promising solution for the efficient approach to enantiomerically pure complex chiral molecules with stereogenic centers being located apart from the functional group, and it can be expected that enzymatic resolution will be increasingly applied when searching for an efficient and also technically feasible process for also novel complex chiral molecules bearing a 'remote' stereogenic center