Piperacillin/tazobactam‐induced neurotoxicity in a hemodialysis patient: A case report

Antibiotics are potentially a cause of neurotoxicity in dialysis patients, the most common are the beta‐lactams as ceftazidime and cefepime, and few cases have been reported after piperacillin/tazobactam use. This report presents a case of a hypertensive and diabetic 67‐year‐old woman in regular hemodialysis, which previously had a stroke. She was hospitalized presenting pneumonia, which was initially treated with cefepime. Two days after treatment, she presented dysarthria, left hemiparesis, ataxia, and IX and X cranial nerves paresis. Computed tomography showed no acute lesions and cefepime neurotoxicity was hypothesized, and the antibiotic was replaced by piperacillin/tazobactam. The neurologic signs disappeared; however, 4 days after with piperacillin/tazobactam treatment, the neurological manifestations returned. A new computed tomography showed no new lesions, and the second antibiotic regimen withdrawn. After two hemodialysis sessions, the patient completely recovered from neurological manifestations. The patient presented sequentially neurotoxicity caused by two beta‐lactams antibiotics. This report meant to alert clinicians that these antibiotics have dangerous neurological effects in chronic kidney disease patients.     

End‐Capping as a Method for Improving Carrier Injection in Electrophosphorescent Light‐Emitting Diodes

The electronic properties, carrier injection, and transport into poly(9,9‐dioctylfluorene) (PFO), PFO end‐capped with hole‐transporting moieties (HTM), PFO–HTM, and PFO end‐capped with electron‐transporting moieties (ETM), PFO–ETM, were investigated. The data demonstrate that charge injection and transport can be tuned by end‐capping with HTM and ETM, without significantly altering the electronic properties of the conjugated backbone. End‐capping with ETM resulted in more closely balanced charge injection and transport. Single‐layer electrophosphorescent light‐emitting diodes (LEDs), fabricated from PFO, PFO–HTM and PFO–ETM as hosts and tris[2,5‐bis‐2′‐(9′,9′‐dihexylfluorene)pyridine‐κ²NC_3′]iridium(III ), Ir(HFP)₃ as the guest, emitted red light with brightnesses of 2040 cd m^–2, 1940 cd m^–2 and 2490 cd m^–2 at 290 mA cm^–2 (16 V) and with luminance efficiencies of 1.4 cd A^–1, 1.4 cd A^–1 and 1.8 cd A^–1 at 4.5 mA cm^–2 for PFO, PFO–HTM, and PFO–ETM, respectively.     

Bichromophoric paracyclophanes: models for interchromophore delocalization

The electronic delocalization between chromophores in the solid is an important parameter to optimize when designing organic materials for optoelectronic applications. The [2.2]paracyclophane framework allows for the synthesis of well-defined, nonfluxional molecules that bring together two chromophores into close proximity. From the photophysical properties of these molecules we can examine how the chromophore conjugation length, their relative orientation, and the regiochemistry of contact affects the electronic delocalization between the two subunits.     

Cationic Conjugated Polyelectrolytes with Molecular Spacers for Efficient Fluorescence Energy Transfer to Dye‐Labeled DNA

Two water‐soluble conjugated polyelectrolytes, poly(9,9′‐bis(6‐N,N,N‐trimethylammoniumhexyl)fluorene‐alt‐1,4‐(2,5‐bis(6‐N,N,N‐trimethylammoniumhexyloxy))phenylene) tetrabromide ( P1i ) and poly((10,10′‐bis(6‐N,N,N‐trimethylammoniumhexyl)‐10H‐spiro(anthracene‐9,9′‐fluorene))‐alt‐1,4‐(2,5‐bis(6‐N,N,N‐trimethylammoniumhexyloxy))phenylene) tetrabromide ( P2i ) are synthesized, characterized, and used in fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) experiments with fluorescein‐labeled single‐stranded DNA (ssDNA‐Fl). P1i and P2i have nearly identical π‐conjugated backbones, as determined by cyclic voltammetry and UV‐vis spectroscopy. The main structural difference is the presence of an anthracenyl substituent, orthogonal to the main chain in each of the P2i repeat units, which increases the average interchain separation in aggregated phases. It is possible to observe emission from ssDNA‐Fl via FRET upon excitation of P2i . Fluorescein is not emissive within the ssDNA‐Fl/ P1i electrostatic complex, suggesting Fl emission quenching through photoinduced charge transfer (PCT). We propose that the presence of the anthracenyl “molecular bumper” in P2i increases the distance between optical partners, which decreases PCT more acutely relative to FRET.