Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of piperazine derivatives involved in the 5-HT_1AR/BDNF/PKA pathway

In this study, four series of piperazine derivatives were designed, synthesised and subjected to biological test, and compound 6a with potential antidepressant activity was obtained. An affinity assay of compound 6a with 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin, 5-HT)1A receptor (5-HT1AR) was undertaken, and the effects on the 5-HT level in the brains of mice were also tested. The results showed that compound 6a had the best affinity with 5-HT1AR (Ki = 1.28 nM) and significantly increased the 5-HT level. The expression levels of 5-HT1AR, BDNF, and PKA in the hippocampus were analysed by western blot and immunohistochemistry analyses. The results showed that the expression of 5-HT1AR, BDNF, and PKA in the model group was reduced compared to that of the control group, and compound 6a could reverse this phenomenon. Molecular docking was performed to investigate the interactions of the studied compound 6a with 5-HT1AR on the molecular level. </p

Copper Doped Hollow Structured Manganese Oxide Mesocrystals with Controlled Phase Structure and Morphology as Anode Materials for Lithium Ion Battery with Improved Electrochemical Performance

We develop a facile synthesis route to prepare Cu doped hollow structured manganese oxide mesocrystals with controlled phase structure and morphology using manganese carbonate as the reactant template. It is shown that Cu dopant is homogeneously distributed among the hollow manganese oxide microspherical samples, and it is embedded in the lattice of manganese oxide by substituting Mn³⁺ in the presence of Cu²⁺. The crystal structure of manganese oxide products can be modulated to bixbyite Mn₂O₃ and tetragonal Mn₃O₄ in the presence of annealing gas of air and nitrogen, respectively. The incorporation of Cu into Mn₂O₃ and Mn₃O₄ induces a great microstructure evolution from core–shell structure for pure Mn₂O₃ and Mn₃O₄ samples to hollow porous spherical Cu-doped Mn₂O₃ and Mn₃O₄ samples with a larger surface area, respectively. The Cu-doped hollow spherical Mn₂O₃ sample displays a higher specific capacity of 642 mAhg^–1 at a current density of 100 mA g^–1 after 100 cycles, which is about 1.78 times improvement compared to that of 361 mA h g^–1 for the pure Mn₂O₃ sample, displaying a Coulombic efficiency of up to 99.5%. The great enhancement of the electrochemical lithium storage performance can be attributed to the improvement of the electronic conductivity and lithium diffusivity of electrodes. The present results have verified the ability of Cu doping to improve electrochemical lithium storage performances of manganese oxides