Solubilização micelar do ibuprofeno: influência do grupo polar dos tensoativos no grau de solubilização

An important property of micelles with particular significance in pharmacy is their ability to increase the solubility of poorly soluble drugs in water, thus increasing their bioavailability. In this work, the solubilization of ibuprofen (IBU) was studied in micellar solutions of three surfactants possessing the same hydrocarbon tail but different hydrophilic head groups, namely sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS), dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (DTAB), and n-dodecyl octa(ethylene oxide) (C12EO8). The results showed that, irrespective of the surfactant type, the solubility of IBU increased linearly with increasing surfactant concentration, as a consequence of the association between the drug and the micelles. The 80 mM DTAB and the 80 mM C12EO8 micellar solutions resulted in a 16-fold increase in solubility of IBU when compared to the buffer solution, whereas the 80 mM SDS micellar solution resulted in a 5.5-fold increase in IBU solubility. The highest value of molar solubilization capacity (chi) was obtained with DTAB, chi = 0.97, followed by C12EO8 ,chi = 0.72, and finally SDS, chi = 0.23. However, due to the stronger tendency of the nonionic surfactant in forming micelles in solution, at the same surfactant concentration, we obtained the same solubility of IBU in both DTAB and C12EO8.Uma propriedade importante das micelas, do ponto de vista farmacêutico, refere-se ao potencial destas em solubilizar fármacos pouco solúveis em água, aumentando sua biodisponibilidade. No presente trabalho, estudou-se a solubilização de ibuprofeno (IBU) em soluções micelares constituídas de três tensoativos apresentando a mesma cauda apolar, porém diferentes grupos hidrofílicos. Os tensoativos estudados foram dodecil sulfato de sódio (SDS), brometo de dodeciltrimetilamônio (DTAB) e óxido de n-dodecil octaetileno (C12EO8). De acordo com os resultados obtidos, a solubilidade do IBU aumentou linearmente com o aumento da concentração de todos os tensoativos estudados, devido às interações entre as micelas e o fármaco. O fármaco IBU apresentou um aumento de 16 vezes em sua solubilidade na presença de DTAB 80 mM e de C12EO8 80 mM. Por outro lado, na presença de SDS 80 mM a solubilidade do IBU aumentou apenas 5,5 vezes. O maior valor para o parâmetro capacidade molar de solubilização (chi) foi observado com o tensoativo DTAB, chi = 0,97, seguido pelo C12EO8, chi = 0,72 e, finalmente, o SDS, chi = 0,23. Entretanto, devido à grande tendência do C12EO8 em formar micelas, o perfil de solubilidade do IBU foi semelhante em DTAB e C12EO8

Photoacoustic Spectroscopy For Depth-profile Analysis And Herbicide Monitoring In Leaves

Depth profiles of double-layer biological samples obtained by photoacoustic spectroscopy were studied using the two-signal phase-resolved method. The application of the method was demonstrated by singling out the spectra of the cuticle and the pigment layers of a leaf, and the pericarps and the endosperm layers of a corn kernel. The use of the method for monitoring temporal changes occurring in a leaf under the action of a herbicide was also investigated.112111487149

Neural processing of criticism and positive comments from relatives in individuals with schizotypal personality traits

Objectives. High negative expressed emotion by family members towards schizophrenia patients increases the risk of subsequent relapse. The study aimed to determine whether individuals with high schizotypy (HS) and low schizotypy (LS) would differ in activation of brain areas involved in cognitive control when listening to relative criticism

Effects of aversive odour presentation on inhibitory control in the Stroop colour-word interference task

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Due to the unique neural projections of the olfactory system, odours have the ability to directly influence affective processes. Furthermore, it has been shown that emotional states can influence various non-emotional cognitive tasks, such as memory and planning. However, the link between emotional and cognitive processes is still not fully understood. The present study used the olfactory pathway to induce a negative emotional state in humans to investigate its effect on inhibitory control performance in a standard, single-trial manual Stroop colour-word interference task. An unpleasant (H₂S) and an emotionally neutral (Eugenol) odorant were presented in two separate experimental runs, both in blocks alternating with ambient air, to 25 healthy volunteers, while they performed the cognitive task.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Presentation of the unpleasant odorant reduced Stroop interference by reducing the reaction times for incongruent stimuli, while the presentation of the neutral odorant had no effect on task performance.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The odour-induced negative emotional state appears to facilitate cognitive processing in the task used in the present study, possibly by increasing the amount of cognitive control that is being exerted. This stands in contrast to other findings that showed impaired cognitive performance under odour-induced negative emotional states, but is consistent with models of mood-congruent processing.</p

Decoherence, the measurement problem, and interpretations of quantum mechanics

Environment-induced decoherence and superselection have been a subject of intensive research over the past two decades, yet their implications for the foundational problems of quantum mechanics, most notably the quantum measurement problem, have remained a matter of great controversy. This paper is intended to clarify key features of the decoherence program, including its more recent results, and to investigate their application and consequences in the context of the main interpretive approaches of quantum mechanics.Comment: 41 pages. Final published versio

Explicit attention interferes with selective emotion processing in human extrastriate cortex

BACKGROUND: Brain imaging and event-related potential studies provide strong evidence that emotional stimuli guide selective attention in visual processing. A reflection of the emotional attention capture is the increased Early Posterior Negativity (EPN) for pleasant and unpleasant compared to neutral images (~150–300 ms poststimulus). The present study explored whether this early emotion discrimination reflects an automatic phenomenon or is subject to interference by competing processing demands. Thus, emotional processing was assessed while participants performed a concurrent feature-based attention task varying in processing demands. RESULTS: Participants successfully performed the primary visual attention task as revealed by behavioral performance and selected event-related potential components (Selection Negativity and P3b). Replicating previous results, emotional modulation of the EPN was observed in a task condition with low processing demands. In contrast, pleasant and unpleasant pictures failed to elicit increased EPN amplitudes compared to neutral images in more difficult explicit attention task conditions. Further analyses determined that even the processing of pleasant and unpleasant pictures high in emotional arousal is subject to interference in experimental conditions with high task demand. Taken together, performing demanding feature-based counting tasks interfered with differential emotion processing indexed by the EPN. CONCLUSION: The present findings demonstrate that taxing processing resources by a competing primary visual attention task markedly attenuated the early discrimination of emotional from neutral picture contents. Thus, these results provide further empirical support for an interference account of the emotion-attention interaction under conditions of competition. Previous studies revealed the interference of selective emotion processing when attentional resources were directed to locations of explicitly task-relevant stimuli. The present data suggest that interference of emotion processing by competing task demands is a more general phenomenon extending to the domain of feature-based attention. Furthermore, the results are inconsistent with the notion of effortlessness, i.e., early emotion discrimination despite concurrent task demands. These findings implicate to assess the presumed automatic nature of emotion processing at the level of specific aspects rather than considering automaticity as an all-or-none phenomenon

Genotype and phenotype landscape of MEN2 in 554 medullary thyroid cancer patients: the BrasMEN study

Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2 (MEN2) is an autosomal dominant genetic disease caused by RET gene germline mutations that is characterized by medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) associated with other endocrine tumors. Several reports have demonstrated that the RET mutation profile may vary according to the geographical area. In this study, we collected clinical and molecular data from 554 patients with surgically confirmed MTC from 176 families with MEN2 in 18 different Brazili an centers to compare the type and prevalence of RET mutations with those from other countries. The most frequent mutations, classified by the number of families affected, occur in codon 634, exon 11 (76 families), followed by codon 918, exon 16 (34 families: 26 with M918T and 8 with M918V) and codon 804, exon 14 (22 families: 15 with V804M and 7 with V804L). When compared with other major published series from Europe, there are several similarities and some differences. While the mutations in codons C618, C620, C630, E768 and S891 present a similar prevalence, some mutations have a lower prevalence in Brazil, and others are found mainly in Brazil (G533C and M918V). These results reflect the singular proportion of European, Amerindian and African ancestries in the Brazilian mosaic genome83289298CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPESFUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESPFUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL - FAPERGSSem informaçãoSem informação2006/60402-1; 2010/51547-1; 2013/01476-9; 2014/06570-6; 2009/50575-4; 2010/51546-5; 2012/21942-116/2551-0000482-

The Impact of Acute Psychosocial Stress on Magnetoencephalographic Correlates of Emotional Attention and Exogenous Visual Attention

Stress-induced acute activation of the cerebral catecholaminergic systems has often been found in rodents. However, little is known regarding the consequences of this activation on higher cognitive functions in humans. Theoretical inferences would suggest increased distractibility in the sense of increased exogenous attention and emotional attention. The present study investigated the influence of acute stress responses on magnetoencephalographic (MEG) correlates of visual attention. Healthy male subjects were presented emotional and neutral pictures in three subsequent MEG recording sessions after being exposed to a TSST-like social stressor, intended to trigger a HPA-response. The subjects anticipation of another follow-up stressor was designed to sustain the short-lived central catecholaminergic stress reactions throughout the ongoing MEG recordings. The heart rate indicates a stable level of anticipatory stress during this time span, subsequent cortisol concentrations and self-report measures of stress were increased. With regard to the MEG correlates of attentional functions, we found that the N1m amplitude remained constantly elevated during stressor anticipation. The magnetic early posterior negativity (EPNm) was present but, surprisingly, was not at all modulated during stressor anticipation. This suggests that a general increase of the influence of exogenous attention but no specific effect regarding emotional attention in this time interval. Regarding the time course of the effects, an influence of the HPA on these MEG correlates of attention seems less likely. An influence of cerebral catecholaminergic systems is plausible, but not definite