Total Synthesis of an Epothilone Analogue Based on the Amide-Triazole Bioisosterism.

Epothilones are 16-membered macrolides that act as microtubule-targeting agents to tackle cancer. Many synthetic analogues have been investigated for their activity, yet often based on macrolide structures. A notable exception is Ixabepilone, an azalide whose metabolic stability and pharmacokinetics are significantly improved.

Cannabidiol as Self-Assembly Inducer for Anticancer Drug-Based Nanoparticles.

Cannabidiol (CBD) is a biologically active compound present in the plants of the family, used as anticonvulsant, anti-inflammatory, anti-anxiety, and more recently, anticancer drug. In this work, its use as a new self-assembly inducer in the formation of nanoparticles is validated. The target conjugates are characterized by the presence of different anticancer drugs (namely -desacetyl thiocolchicine, podophyllotoxin, and paclitaxel) connected to CBD through a linker able to improve drug release.

Folic acid functionalization for targeting self-assembled paclitaxel-based nanoparticles.

Hetero-nanoparticles self-assembled from a conjugate bearing folic acid as the targeting agent, and another bearing paclitaxel as the active agent are reported. Hetero-nanoparticles containing varying percentages of folic acid conjugates are characterised, and their biological activity is determined.

Cannabidiol as the Substrate in Acid-Catalyzed Intramolecular Cyclization.

The chemical reactivity of cannabidiol is based on its ability to undergo intramolecular cyclization driven by the addition of a phenolic group to one of its two double bonds. The main products of this cyclization are Δ-THC (-Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) and Δ-THC (-Δ-8-tetrahydrocannabinol). These two cannabinoids are isomers, and the first one is a frequently investigated psychoactive compound and pharmaceutical agent.

A novel image processing procedure for thermographic image analysis.

The imaging procedure shown in this paper has been developed for processing thermographic images, measuring the ocular surface temperature (OST) and visualizing the ocular thermal maps in a fast, reliable, and reproducible way. The strength of this new method is that the measured OSTs do not depend on the ocular geometry; hence, it is possible to compare the ocular profiles belonging to the same subject (right and left eye) as well as to different populations. In this paper, the developed procedure is applied on two subjects' eyes: a healthy case and another affected by an ocular malignant lesion.

Fatal disseminated toxoplasmosis during primary HIV infection.

Toxoplasmosis is a well recognized manifestation of AIDS, but the disseminated disease is a rare condition and it has not been associated to HIV seroconversion to our knowledge. We describe a fatal episode of disseminated T. gondii acute infection with massive organ involvement during primary HIV infection.