Decomposition Pathways for Aqueous Hydroxylammonium Nitrate Solutions: a DFT Study

Hydroxylammmonium nitrate (hydroxylamine nitrate, HAN) is one of the most promising candidates as a replacement for commonly used liquid mono-propellants such as hydrazine. The reaction pathways involved in the initial and the catalytic decomposition of HAN in aqueous solution were determined using quantum chemistry calculations incorporating solvent effects. Optimized structures were obtained for the reactants, products and transition states at the ωB97XD/6-311++G(d,p)/SCRF = (solvent = water) level of theory and the total electron energies of these structures were calculated at the CBS-QB3 level of theory. In the initial decomposition, the ion-neutral NH3OH+-HNO3 reaction, the neutral-neutral NH3O-HNO3 reaction and the HNO3 self-decomposition pathways were all found to have reasonable energy barriers, with values of 91.7 kJ/mol, 88.7 kJ/mol and 89.8 kJ/mol, respectively. The overall reaction resulting from any of these pathways can be written as: HAN → HONO + HNO + H2O. The ionic reaction is dominant during the initial decomposition of HAN in aqueous solution because NH3OH+ and NO3– are the major species in such solutions. We also developed six catalytic mechanisms and each of these schemes provided the same global reaction: NH2OH + HONO → N2O + 2H2O. The t-ONONO2 oxidizing scheme is the most plausible based on the energy barrier results

Initial Decomposition Pathways of Aqueous Hydroxylamine Solutions

This work examined the reaction pathways involved in the initial decomposition of aqueous hydroxylamine solutions via the overall reaction, 2NH₂OH → NH₃ + HNO + H₂O, using quantum chemistry calculations incorporating solvent effects. Several possible decomposition mechanisms were identified and investigated: three neutral–neutral bimolecular, two water-catalyzed, one neutral trimolecular, two ion-neutral bimolecular, and one cation-catalyzed. Optimized structures for the reactants, products, and transition states were obtained at the ωB97XD/6-311++G­(d,p)/SCRF = (solvent = water) level of theory, and the total electron energies of such structures were calculated at the CBS-QB3 level of theory. The cation-catalyzed reaction 2NH₂OH + NH₃OH⁺ → NH₄⁺ + HNO + H₂O + NH₂OH (maximum energy barrier (Δ<i>E</i>₀^‡) = 53.6 kJ/mol) and the anion–neutral bimolecular reaction NH₂OH + NH₂O^– → NH₃ + ¹NO^– + H₂O (Δ<i>E</i>₀^‡ = 79.0 kJ/mol) were both found to be plausible candidates for the dominant step in the initial decomposition. The results of this study indicate that both acidic and basic conditions can affect the thermal stability of hydroxylamine in water

Epigenetic Modification of Death Receptor Genes for TRAIL and TRAIL Resistance in Childhood B-Cell Precursor Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Immunotherapies specific for B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (BCP-ALL), such as anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells and blinatumomab, have dramatically improved the therapeutic outcome in refractory cases. In the anti-leukemic activity of those immunotherapies, TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) on cytotoxic T-cells plays an essential role by inducing apoptosis of the target leukemia cells through its death receptors (DR4 and DR5). Since there are CpG islands in the promoter regions, hypermethylation of the DR4 and DR5 genes may be involved in resistance of leukemia cells to immunotherapies due to TRAIL-resistance. We analyzed the DR4 and DR5 methylation status in 32 BCP-ALL cell lines by sequencing their bisulfite PCR products with a next-generation sequencer. The DR4 and DR5 methylation status was significantly associated with the gene and cell-surface expression levels and the TRAIL-sensitivities. In the clinical samples at diagnosis (459 cases in the NOPHO study), both DR4 and DR5 genes were unmethylated in the majority of cases, whereas methylated in several cases with dic(9;20), MLL-rearrangement, and hypodiploidy, suggesting that evaluation of methylation status of the DR4 and DR5 genes might be clinically informative to predict efficacy of immunotherapy in certain cases with such unfavorable karyotypes. These observations provide an epigenetic rational for clinical efficacy of immunotherapy in the vast majority of BCP-ALL cases