RSC Advances Blog

We are very pleased to introduce Junmin Li, corresponding author of the paper ‘Network pharmacology-based study of the mechanisms of action of anti-diabetic triterpenoids from Cyclocarya paliurus‘. Her article has been very well received and handpicked by our reviewers and handling editors as one of our October HOT articles. Junmin told us more about the work that went into this article and what she hopes to achieve in the future. You can find out more about the author and her article below and find more HOT articles in our online collection.

Meet the authors

Junmin Li was born in Linhai, Zhejiang Province, China in December, 1973. She mainly specialized in the study of evolutionary ecology, molecular ecology and the development of medicinal and edible plant resources. She is the director of Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation, the person in charge of Plant Evolutionary Ecology Innovation Team of High Level in Provincial Colleges and Universities. She also holds an additional post as Vice Director of Biological Invasions Ecology in Ecological Society of China, a committee member of the Population Ecology in Ecological Society of China, Vice President of Botanical Society of Zhejiang Province.

Could you briefly explain the focus of your article to the non-specialist (in one or two sentences only) and why it is of current interest?
In this study, we applied the network pharmacological approach to investigate the main target proteins of Cyclocarya paliurus triterpenoids with anti-diabetes activity by constructing a target interaction network, and used molecular docking methods to validate the key findings.

At present, diabetes is treated with drugs, such as sulfonylureas, DPP-4 inhibitors and oralantidiabetic agents but many drugs have side effects. Therefore, it is urgent to find new, safe and effective early intervention medicinal compounds for diabetes. Cyclocarya paliurus, a recently confirmed new food resource, shows significant hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effects in type II diabetes. By using network pharmacology, we can explore the mechanisms of action of Cyclocarya paliurus triterpenoids at the molecular level.

How big an impact could your results potentially have?
In our study, 7 triterpenoids, 15 target proteins, and 15 signaling pathways were found to play important roles in the therapeutic effects of Cyclocarya paliurus against diabetes. These results could provide the potential target compounds for researchers and predict the possible mechanisms.

Could you explain the motivation behind this study?
Diabetes is a complex illness requiring long-term therapy. Cyclocarya paliurus, a recently confirmed new food resource, shows significant hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effects in type II diabetes. Triterpenoid saponins are considered as the effective medicinal components of Cyclocarya paliurus and are useful for the treatment of diabetes mellitus. However, little is known regarding their specific mechanism of actions. By using network pharmacological approach, we can explore the mechanisms of action of anti-diabetic triterpenoids from Cyclocarya paliurus.

In your opinion, what are the key design considerations for your study?
Our study focused on the correlation between Cyclocary paliurus triterpenoids and anti-diabetes activity. The key design is the network pharmacology analysis of the main target proteins of Cyclocarya paliurus triterpenoids and biological process and pathway enrichment analysis of the target proteins of the active ingredients of Cyclocarya paliurus.

Which part of the work towards this paper proved to be most challenging?
The biggest challenge is to collect isolated triterpenoids from Cyclocarya paliurus in the literature and analyze the mechanism of action of core targets in the treatment of diabetes. Both of these tasks require a lot of time and effort to read a large amount of literature. And we also added the triterpenoids isolated in our lab.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?
Our results indicate that seven compounds show potential for the treatment of diabetes. These triterpene compounds were predicted to interact with PTGS2, VEGFA, CASP3, and other enzymes. These results provide valuable insights into the synergistic mechanism of action of natural medicines.

What is the next step? What work is planned?
The next work is doing in vivo or in vitro experiments to verify the effects of seven teriterpene compounds on target proteins and there effect of anti-diabetes. And we also want to dissect the biosynthetic pathway of the seven teriterpene compounds.

Network pharmacology-based study of the mechanisms of action of anti-diabetic triterpenoids from Cyclocarya paliurus
Zixin Lin, Yingpeng Tong, Na Li, Ziping Zhu and Junmin Li
RSC Adv., 2020,10, 37168-37181
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA06846B, Paper

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We are very pleased to introduce Karen Edler and Saffron Bryant, corresponding authors of the paper ‘Deep eutectic solvent in water pickering emulsions stabilised by cellulose nanofibrils‘. Their article has been very well received and handpicked by our reviewers and handling editors as one of our October HOT articles. Karen and Saffron told us more about the work that went into this article and what they hope to achieve in the future. You can find out more about the authors and their article below and find more HOT articles in our online collection.

Meet the authors

Prof Karen Edler is Professor of Soft Matter at the University of Bath and has a long standing interest in understanding how self-assembly and molecular scale interactions in solutions affect the properties of emulsions, gels, nano/microparticles and mesoporous materials.

Dr Saffron Bryant is currently a research fellow at RMIT University with a keen interest in using ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents for practical-based applications.

Professor Karen Edler (left) and Dr Saffron Bryant (right)

Could you briefly explain the focus of your article to the non-specialist (in one or two sentences only) and why it is of current interest?
Deep eutectic solvents (DES) are relatively novel liquids which are made up of (normally) two molecules that are usually solid, but when they interact together become liquids, which can have tuneable properties depending on the two molecules you choose. This means they can be selected to dissolve a wide range of species (drugs, dyes, nutrients, metal species, polymers etc) without water, or toxic organic solvents and are currently finding applications in many fields from drug delivery to functional materials synthesis. Some researchers suggest DES could even form naturally inside plant cells to help them avoid freezing or drying out. Making use of them in Pickering emulsions is interesting as a potential component in cosmetics, therapeutics or foods, where they could help deliver poorly water soluble species and also, for instance, enhance penetration through the skin for topical anaesthetics. We have been working on functionalised cellulose nanofibrils in emulsions and gels as part of the consortium Gelenz, funded by the EPSRC alongside our partners in the Universities of Bristol, Manchester and UEA and colleagues in industry.

How big an impact could your results potentially have?
Pickering emulsions are interesting as they can be highly stable and do not require use of surfactants which can be irritants or toxic to aquatic life. Demonstrating the formation of Pickering emulsions using sustainable cellulose particles as a stabiliser for an emulsion, where the “oil” components are also bio-derived molecules, shows the potential of these systems in more sustainable, less environmentally harmful formulations which could be replacements for products people use in large quantities every day such as creams and lotions. This would have obvious benefits in reducing harm to our water systems and the environment.

Could you explain the motivation behind this study?
We are interested in finding more sustainable replacements for personal care formulations, and in making them more useful for a wider range of applications, so we wanted to scope the potential for using DES in cellulose nanofibril stabilised emulsions.

In your opinion, what are the key design considerations for your study?
The key parameters here are the aspect ratio of the cellulose particles, and their surface functionalisation, as well as choice of a suitable DES for encapsulation.

Which part of the work towards this paper proved to be most challenging?
The most challenging aspect of this work was identifying a suitable deep eutectic solvent that didn’t interact with the cellulose and disrupt the emulsion.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?
We are most excited about the opportunity for extensive variations on this work using sustainably sourced components. For example, by using different hydrophobic deep eutectic solvents for different properties, or altering the properties of the cellulose stabiliser to give more functionality to the emulsion. The potential applications of these systems are endless.

What is the next step? What work is planned?
We are continuing to investigate environmentally friendly rheology modifiers and emulsifiers in a range of systems, and we are working to understand self-assembly and colloidal organisation in these novel deep eutectic solvents, to be able to predict how to choose components of these interesting liquids to achieve particular tasks eg dissolve a particular molecule, or mix (or not mix) in a complex solution with other species.

Deep eutectic solvent in water pickering emulsions stabilised by cellulose nanofibrils
Saffron J. Bryant, Marcelo A. da Silva, Kazi M. Zakir Hossain, Vincenzo Calabrese, Janet L. Scott and Karen J. Edler
RSC Adv., 2020,10, 37023-37027
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA07575B, Paper

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We are very pleased to introduce Jamie Antonio Portilla Salinas, corresponding author of the paper ‘Pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines-based fluorophores: a comprehensive theoretical-experimental study‘. His article has been very well received and handpicked by our reviewers and handling editors as one of our October HOT articles. Jamie told us more about the work that went into this article and what he hopes to achieve in the future. You can find out more about the author and his article below and find more HOT articles in our online collection.

Meet the authors

Jaime Portilla studied for a degree and PhD at The Universidad del Valle located in Cali-Colombia, his birthplace. He carried out a PhD supervised by Jairo Quiroga on synthesis of 5-aminopyrazoles and their reaction with 1,3-bis-electrophilic compounds under eco-compatible strategies. After the award of his PhD in November 2007, he moved to Bogotá (January 2008) and was appointed as a lecturer in organic chemistry at The Universidad de los Andes. He was promoted to Associate Lecturer in 2011 and since August 2018 Jaime Portilla is ‘Associate Professor III’.

The Prof. Jaime Portilla group’s research (Bioorganic Compounds Research Group) focuses on eco-compatible organic synthesis strategies, with a particular interest in aza-heterocyclic compounds synthesis of biological and photophysical potential. (Source: ORCID.)

Could you briefly explain the focus of your article to the non-specialist (in one or two sentences only) and why it is of current interest?
Here we developed a new family of fluorescent molecules with interesting features such as easy to synthesize (and easily functionalizable) with excellent green chemistry performance, starting from low-cost raw materials and with outstanding photophysical properties in both solution and solid-state.

How big an impact could your results potentially have?
These results could be the beginning of the inclusion of sustainable parameters in the design of fluorescent probes for materials, chemosensors and/or biological applications.

Could you explain the motivation behind this study?
Recently, fluorescent compounds with biological activity have received attention due to the possibility of monitoring those compounds in biological media such as cells and biofluids. Our research group is working on designing new pharmacophores for cancer treatment based on pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines and we do believe that the incorporation of remarkable photophysical properties will be important for the study of key parameters such as the distribution of the biologically active compound inside the body and even at subcellular levels.

In your opinion, what are the key design considerations for your study?
From the optical properties for pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines described in our previous works, we decided to incorporate green chemistry principles due to needing sustainable research according to the United Nations Agenda 2030. Thus, these fluorophores well-known for their synthetic versatility and important biological properties were designed and obtained via a eco-friendly approach. In addition, the effect of a modulable donor groups at position 7 on the heterocyclic core was corroborated by computational calculations, which would contribute towards an intelligent design of ‘highly functional fluorophores’.

Which part of the work towards this paper proved to be most challenging?
The work most challenging was to find a good correlation of the experimental results with the theoretical calculations, since the optical phenomena are strongly governed by the microenvironment of the analyzed molecule.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?
Here we identify compounds with excellent optical properties (QYSS up to 63%) emitting in the blue region, a color highly interesting in OLED’s research field. These results are remarkable and further research is ongoing in this direction.

What is the next step? What work is planned?
The results show us the possibility to functionalized the ring at position 4 (nitrogen atom) to generated pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine salts. At this moment we had found outstanding results in the field of anion detection using this approach. Once position 7 showed excellent results, we would like to explore the other positions on the core such as 2, 3 and 5. Also, the introduction of highly polar groups will improve the water solubility and exciting applications are expected from it. Some of these probes and related compounds will be tested in antitumor assays. And of course, to continue the study of some derivatives published here specifically in their device performance construction (OLED).

Pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines-based fluorophores: a comprehensive theoretical-experimental study
Alexis Tigreros, Sandra-L. Aranzazu, Nestor-F. Bravo, Jhon Zapata-Rivera and Jaime Portilla
RSC Adv., 2020,10, 39542-39552
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA07716J, Paper

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We are very pleased to introduce Dr Takuya Kitaoka, corresponding author of the paper ‘Nanocellulose enriches enantiomers in asymmetric aldol reactions‘. His article has been very well received and handpicked by our reviewers and handling editors as one of our October HOT articles. Takuya told us more about the work that went into this article and what he hopes to achieve in the future. You can find out more about the author and his article below and find more HOT articles in our online collection.

Meet the authors

Dr Takuya Kitaoka is a professor at Kyushu University, Japan, who is in charge of Nanomaterials Chemistry and Sustainable Bioresources Science. He graduated from the University of Tokyo, Japan in 1993, and received his M.Sc. (Forest Products Science) in 1995 and his Ph.D. (Agricultural Science) in 2000, both from the University of Tokyo, Japan. Dr. Kitaoka is an expert in cellulose & paper chemistry. He has expanded his research into bioadaptive materials and interfacial organocatalysis inspired by inherent nanoarchitectures of nanocellulose. He was awarded “The Young Scientists’ Prize” from the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan in 2007, “JSPS PRIZE” from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science in 2011, “The Cellulose Society of Japan Award” from the Cellulose Society of Japan in 2013, and “Fiber Science and Technology Award” from the Society of Fiber Science and Technology, Japan in 2014.

Could you briefly explain the focus of your article to the non-specialist (in one or two sentences only) and why it is of current interest?
Wood-derived nanofibers play a crucial role in regulating asymmetric catalysis to produce chiral products, which will expand the practical possibility of natural woody materials in state-of-the-art chemistry.

How big an impact could your results potentially have?
Inexpensive woody nanomaterials might gain equal performance to highly active rare metal catalysts.

Could you explain the motivation behind this study?
I believe that nano-organized natural polysaccharides have great potential for their nanostructure-triggered novel functions.

In your opinion, what are the key design considerations for your study?
The structural regularity of chiral sources on the surface of nanocellulose is the key to unlock the secret of nanocellulose in advanced materials applications.

Which part of the work towards this paper proved to be most challenging?
The combination of woody nanocellulose and proline, one of many natural amino acids, was a completely new challenge in asymmetric catalysis.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?
Up until now, catalysts determine the product structures, but now wood does.

What is the next step? What work is planned?
I will expand the research and development opportunities of this novel metal-free organocatalytic system into other natural nano-polysaccharides, such as chitin and chitosan nanofibers, which will be applicable for a variety of valuable reactions in chemical industries.

Nanocellulose enriches enantiomers in asymmetric aldol reactions
Naliharifetra Jessica Ranaivoarimanana, Xin Habaki, Takuya Uto, Kyohei Kanomata, Toshifumi Yui and Takuya Kitaoka
RSC Adv., 2020,10, 37064-37071
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA07412H, Paper

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We are very pleased to introduce Professor Zoran Marković (University of Kragujevac), corresponding author of the paper ‘Several coumarin derivatives and their Pd(ii) complexes as potential inhibitors of the main protease of SARS-CoV-2, an in silico approach‘. His article has been very well received and handpicked by our reviewers and handling editors as one of our September HOT articles. Zoran told us more about the work that went into this article and what he hopes to achieve in the future.

His article is also part of the coronavirus collection – all Royal Society of Chemistry articles on coronavirus research can be found here and are freely available until 1st January 2021. You can find more HOT articles in our online collection.

Could you briefly explain the focus of your article to the non-specialist (in one or two sentences only) and why it is of current interest?
In these challenging times of COVID-19 pandemics, it is of utmost interest to understand better the effects of various drugs on the virus and continue investigating new drugs. In our contribution, three molecules synthesized in our laboratory along with their Pd(II) complexes were theoretically analyzed as potential therapeutics and their effect compared to two already approved drugs, cinanserin, and chloroquine. This paper is of current interest because it allows scientists to obtain valuable data on structural parameters of molecules that could bind to the proteins of the virus and inhibit their action.

How big an impact could your results potentially have?
The theoretical predictions of the action of new therapeutics are an important step in any drug discovery as they save a significant amount of time and money. The impact of our research lies in the fact that coumarin derivatives, as naturally occurring compounds, and their palladium complexes were investigated for the first time as possible therapeutics and it was shown that they bind more tightly to the important protein of the virus than approved drugs. Special emphasis is put on the structural parameters governing stability which could lead to the prediction of structural features of new reactive drugs.

Could you explain the motivation behind this study?
The motivation for the research came from our current results on the synthesis of various coumarin derivatives and their transition metal complexes. The structures of obtained derivatives show similarities to those of approved drugs: the presence of chlorine atom, delocalized structure, two aromatic rings, etc. Therefore, we decided to perform a theoretical study using the novel docking and dynamics techniques on the recently solved structure of the SARS-CoV-2 M^pro protein and compare results to the approved drugs.

In your opinion, what are the key design considerations for your study?
The key considerations were the structural similarities between drugs and molecules obtained in our lab. After the results were obtained the special emphasis was put on the determination of intermolecular interactions that responsible for the binding of the molecules to the active position of the protein.

Which part of the work towards this paper proved to be most challenging?
The most challenging part was the analysis of the molecular interactions responsible for the difference in reactivity of approved drugs and our coumarin derivatives, as this required special attention to details and all of the amino acids of the active pocket.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?
We are very excited that the molecules obtained in our laboratory show higher reactivity towards SARS-CoV-2 proteins, especially their metal complexes with Pd(II) which proved to be less toxic than other transition metals.

What is the next step? What work is planned?
The next step includes the development of the new synthetic routes for the coumarin derivatives that possess other structural moieties similar to the approved drugs and transition metal complexes with other non-toxic metals. This would be beneficial as structure-activity analysis would allow the extraction of new data for the structural features important for reactivity. Also, if the situation allows, the experimental research will commence to verify the results of theoretical studies.

Several coumarin derivatives and their Pd(ii) complexes as potential inhibitors of the main protease of SARS-CoV-2, an in silico approach
Dejan A. Milenković, Dušan S. Dimić, Edina H. Avdović and Zoran S. Marković
RSC Adv., 2020,10, 35099-35108
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA07062A, Paper

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We are very pleased to introduce Walter Rosas Arbelaez, first author of the paper ‘Hierarchical micro-/mesoporous zeolite microspheres prepared by colloidal assembly of zeolite nanoparticles‘. His article has been very well received and handpicked by our reviewers and handling editors as one of our October HOT articles. Walter told us more about the work that went into this article and what he hopes to achieve in the future. You can find out more about the author and his article below and find more HOT articles in our online collection.

Meet the authors

Walter Rosas Arbelaez (1987) received his BSc degrees (2011) in Chemistry and Chemical Enginering from Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia. He completed his MSc degrees in Chemical Engineering (2013) at Universidad de Los Andes and in Polymer Science (2016 ) at Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. In 2016, he joined Prof. Palmqvist´s research group at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden to continue his PhD studies in Materials Science focusing on synthesis and characterization of zeolitic materials and mesoporous carbons and the evaluation in different applications. He will be defending his PhD thesis in December 2020.

Walter Rosas Arbelaez and Professor Anders Palmqvist (Chalmers University of Technology)

Could you briefly explain the focus of your article to the non-specialist (in one or two sentences only) and why it is of current interest?
The focus of the article was to develop a zeolite material with two different porosities (micro and meso) using silicalite-1 nanoparticles (ca. 100 nm) and aggregate them by a controlled evaporation process into well-defined micron-sized spheres. In addition, the process does not use any template to form mesopores but only by the interspace generated between the particles after their aggregation. We find this topic of high interest, since many similar materials have been prepared using mesopore templates and/or need long preparation times and high temperature, parameters that have a big impact in the production economics at large scale.

How big an impact could your results potentially have?
As mentioned above, the material prepared in this article does not need a mesoporogen (mesopore template) to generate the mesopores which has a big impact at the production cost. The properties of the materials can be tailored by varying certain synthesis and preparation conditions, offering the possibility to tailor materials based on the desired application. All of these can be prepared by having a method that has few hours of preparation at mild temperatures. Certainly, this will have an impact at the mass-production level .

Could you explain the motivation behind this study?
There are several mesoporous zeolites procedures out there with and without template. However, many of them do not show well interconnectivity of the porosities and have low surface areas, pore volumes and the product does not have a defined morphology and the costs for their production are considerably high.

In your opinion, what are the key design considerations for your study?
First of all, a stable water-in-oil emulsion is crucial, since it is in the water droplets where the assembly of the particles takes place. Further, the nanoparticle size and shape are critical parameters to prepare the material, since nanopartilces with well-defined morphologies are more sutibale for a controlled aggregation. The evaporation conditions such temperature and vacuum also tailor the final properties of the material. Some of this information was learned from a previous work in mesoporous silica microparticles done by our co-authors Andreas Fijneman and Dr Heiner Friedrich.

Which part of the work towards this paper proved to be most challenging?
The preparation of the colloidal zeolite sol was challenging, not from the synthesis perspective but from the post-treatment, since the pH of the colloidal sol seems to have an impact on the formation of the microspheres.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?
We feel that our work has shown a new method that cannot be classified among the usual categories to prepare hierarchical zeolites and that through our method we can prepare mesoporous zeolite with well-defined morphology and good pore interconnectivity. Additionly it has one the highest pore volumes and surface areas reported for mesoporous zeolites made of similar zeolite structures. The method also enables the use of different zeolite particles both in size and nature and this can potentially generate multifunctional materials for applications in catalysis and separation. Last but not least, we see that our method is energy and cost efficient and can be implemented at the industrial level.

What is the next step? What work is planned?
The next step is to prepare mesoporous zeolites from different colloidal zeolites such as beta, TS-1 or ZSM-5 and measure their catalytic activity towards different reactive systems. Unfortunately, I will not take part on this, as in December, I will be defending my PhD thesis and in January I will join new projects, but hopefully some other members of my group will follow up.

Hierarchical micro-/mesoporous zeolite microspheres prepared by colloidal assembly of zeolite nanoparticles
Walter Rosas-Arbelaez, Andreas J. Fijneman, Heiner Friedrich and Anders E. C. Palmqvist
RSC Adv., 2020,10, 36459-36466
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA07394F, Paper

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