Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Piperlongumine (Piplartine) And Analogues: Antiproliferative Microtubule-Destabilising Agents, Mary J. Meegan, Seema M. Nathwani, Brendan Twamley, Daniela M. Zisterer, Niamh O'Boyle

Articles

Piperlongumine (piplartine, 1) is a small molecule alkaloid that is receiving intense interest due to its antiproliferative and anticancer activities. We investigated the effects of 1 on tubulin and microtubules. Using both an isolated tubulin assay, and a combination of sedimentation and Western blotting, we demonstrated that 1 is a tubulin-destabilising agent. This result was confirmed by immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy, which showed that microtubules in MCF-7 breast cancer cells were depolymerised when treated with 1. We synthesised a number of analogues of 1 to explore structure-activity relationships. Compound 13 had the best cytotoxic profile of this series, …

Anode Catalysts For The Direct Ethanol Fuel Cell, Daryl Fox

Doctoral

The anodic reaction of the Direct Ethanol Fuel Cell has been studied with various catalysts such as electrodeposited platinum, palladium, nickel and gold electrodes. The mechanism of bimetallic catalysts was used to reduce the platinum content needed for ethanol oxidation. The effects of increased temperature, ethanol concentration, electrolyte pH and scan rate have been examined. The impact of different carbon surfaces such as carbon ink, carbon paper and commonly used Vulcan XC72 have also been analysed in order to determine the optimum conditions for the EOR in a fuel cell.

Electrochemical methods were used to analyse catalyst performance such as …

The Synthesis And Applications Of [2.2]Paracyclophane Derivatives, Craig Hicks

Doctoral

This work concerns the preparation of novel [2.2]paracyclophane derivatives intended for use as asymmetric ligands and investigations into surface coatings prepared from [2.2]paracylophanes. This begins with a general introduction to enantioselective synthesis, followed by a review of relevant reported ligands based on the [2.2]paracyclophane framework and their applications. Next is described the preparation of novel ligands based on the [2.2]paracyclophane structure. Starting with the preparation of a range of mono and disubstituted [2.2]paracyclophanes, including several novel analogues, this moves on to investigating resolution procedures where a novel method for the preparation of enantiopure 4-bromo[2.2]paracyclophane is described. The coupling of prepared …