The role of sulfoglucuronosyl glycosphingolipids in the pathogenesis of monoclonal IgM paraproteinemia and peripheral neuropathy

In IgM paraproteinemia and peripheral neuropathy, IgM M-protein secretion by B cells leads to a T helper cell response, suggesting that it is antibody-mediated autoimmune disease involving carbohydrate epitopes in myelin sheaths. An immune response against sulfoglucuronosyl glycosphingolipids (SGGLs) is presumed to participate in demyelination or axonal degeneration in the peripheral nervous system (PNS). SGGLs contain a 3-sulfoglucuronic acid residue that interacts with anti-myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG) and the monoclonal antibody anti-HNK-1. Immunization of animals with sulfoglucuronosyl paragloboside (SGPG) induced anti-SGPG antibodies and sensory neuropathy, which closely resembles the human disease. These animal models might help to understand the disease mechanism and lead to more specific therapeutic strategies. In an in vitro study, destruction or malfunction of the blood-nerve barrier (BNB) was found, resulting in the leakage of circulating antibodies into the PNS parenchyma, which may be considered as the initial key step for development of disease

A convenient synthetic approach to bis-functionalised quaterfluorenes

Ni(COD)2 promoted coupling of bromofluorenes functionalised with boronic esters or trimethylsilyl groups proves to be an efficient method for the prepn. of reactive bifluorenes, which are key intermediates for the synthesis of bis-substituted oligofluorenes. The synthetic method has been exploited as a key step for the synthesis of a chiral 2,7'''-diiodo-quaterfluorene and a 2,7'''-bis-amino quaterfluoren

RANDOM POLY(2,7-FLUORENYLENEVINYLENE) COPOLYMERS OBTAINED BY A SUZUKI-HECK REACTION: SYNTHESIS AND PROPERTIES

The study reports on the synthesis of poly arylene vinylenes by use of a cascade Suzuki-Heck reaction polymerization. The reaction between suitable aryldibromides with potassium vinyltrifluoroborate in the presence of a Pd(0) catalyst permits the access to a series of poly(fluorenylenevinylene)s. The protocol is characterized by a great versatility, deriving from the use of easily attainable substrates, and yields polymers with low percentages of structural 1,1-diarylenevinylene defects. Exploiting this procedure, a series of random poly(9,9-dioctyl-2,7-fluorenylenevinylene-co-N-octyl-3,6-carbazolylenevinylene) copolymers at 20-^80% mol/mol of carbazole (PFV2-6) was achieved. Their properties have been investigated by ^H-NMR, IR, TGA, DSC, cyclic voltammetry, UV-Vis and photoluminescence, and compared to those of poly(9,9-dioctyl-2,7-fluorenylenevinylene) (PFV1) obtained by the same method. The electroluminescence properties of the materials were tested by constructing OLED devices of ITO/PEDOTPSS/ PFV1-6/Ca/AI configuration

OLIGOTHIOPHENES BEARING POLAR GROUPS FOR ORGANIC THIN FILM TRANSISTORS: SYNTHESIS, CHARACTERIZATION AND PRELIMINARY GAS SENSING RESULTS

The properties of a series of sexithiophenes bearing amide or ester functionalities in the alpha,omega-positions are reported. Isolation of the ester functionalities from the sexithiophene core by an ethylene spacer led to a device with moderate hole mobilities (1.2-10 -2 cm 2 V -1 s -1 ) and on/off ratios (10 3 ). A bottom contact device based on this sexithiophene showed a good response to a 5 ppm NO atmosphere, encouraging future studies on gas sensing OTFT based on these polar-functionalised OTFT

First-Passage-Time for Gauss-Diffusion Processes via Integrated Analytical, Simulation and Numerical Methods

In the present paper attention will be focus on a special class of one-dimensio-nal Markov processes sharing the features of being both Gauss and diffusion. Contributions in such direction have recently made significant progress as proved for instance in Lo C.F. and Hui C.H. (2006) and Taillefumier T. and Magnasco M. O. (2010). Our contribution towards the solution of such problems rests on the following circumstances: the proved existence of an integral equation for the FPT pdf, the possibility of evaluating FPT density and distribution function at any given time without need to start afresh the computation as time is changed and the implementation of numerical methods, all this working jointly in an integrated fashion, with consequent significantly increased efficiency and reliability