A Novel Surfactant with Short Hydrophobic Head and Long Hydrophilic Tail Generates Vesicles with Unique Structural Feature

Surfactant molecules typically have a long hydrophobic tail and a short hydrophilic head group. It remains unexplored if surfactants can have a short hydrophobic head group and a long hydrophilic tail. Designing such surfactants is a challenge as a lengthy hydrophilic tail would completely solubilize the molecules. In this context, herein, the Fmoc-functionalized Gly-Pro-Hyp (GPO) tripeptide repeat-based molecule (Fm-GPO) with fluorenyl moiety as a short hydrophobic head and peptide as a long hydrophilic tail is demonstrated as a reverse surfactant at physiological pH, for the first time. π–π stacking of the fluorenyl moieties and intermolecular hydrogen bonding between the peptide chains with extended polyproline-II structure promoted the self-assembly into spherical vesicles with a unique feature of a large hydrophilic area in the interior and exterior of the bilayer. The current Fm-GPO system offers a new class of surfactants with unique features that can aid in the design of drug-loaded vehicles, which can be target-specific as the peptide chain can be manipulated with different functional ultra-short peptide sequences.     

Bioactive Nanogels Mimicking the Antithrombogenic Nitric Oxide-Release Function of the Endothelium

Nitric oxide (NO) plays a significant role in controlling the physiology and pathophysiology of the body, including the endothelial antiplatelet function and therefore, antithrombogenic property of the blood vessels. This property of NO can be exploited to prevent thrombus formation on artificial surfaces like extracorporeal membrane oxygenators, which when come into contact with blood lead to protein adsorption and thereby platelet activation causing thrombus formation. However, NO is extremely reactive and has a very short biological half-life in blood, so only endogenous generation of NO from the blood contacting material can result into a stable and kinetically controllable local delivery of NO. In this regards, highly hydrophilic bioactive nanogels are presented which can endogenously generate NO in blood plasma from endogenous NO-donors thereby maintaining a physiological NO flux. It is shown that NO releasing nanogels could initiate cGMP-dependent protein kinase signaling followed by phosphorylation of vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein in platelets. This prevents platelet activation and aggregation even in presence of highly potent platelet activators like thrombin, adenosine 5′-diphosphate, and U46619 (thromboxane A2 mimetic).     

Impact & Analysis of Inverted-T shaped Fin on the Performance parameters of 14-nm heterojunction FinFET

Silicon - A new high-performance inverted-T shaped 14 nm heterojunction FinFETs has been proposed that originate from the rectangular fin structures. The rationale for proposing this...     

A mini review on cathode materials for sodium-ion batteries

Sodium-ion batteries are becoming potential solutions for replacement of batteries due to the abundance of sodium reserves and high recycling costs of lithium-based batteries. Sodium-based layered oxides are being widely explored as positive electrode material for sodium-ion battery due to their high capacities and high energy densities. However, oxide-based systems do suffer from thermal stability issues and exhibit low power density. On the other hand, polyanionic-based compounds and Prussian blue analogues demonstrate appreciable thermal stabilities and are useful in high power density applications. This article reviews recent trends of these cathode materials.