Publications by authors named "Haroldo C Da Silva"

Conformational analyses of organic compounds in solution still represent a challenge to be overcome. The traditional methodology uses the relative energies of the conformations to decide which one is most likely to exist in the experimental sample. The goal of this work was to deepen the approach of conformational analysis of flavonoid rutin (a well-known antioxidant agent) in DMSO solution.

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Thalidomide (TLD) was used worldwide as a sedative, but it was revealed to cause teratogenicity when taken during early pregnancy. It has been stated that the (R) enantiomer of TLD has therapeutic effects, while the (S) form is teratogenic. Clinical studies, however, demonstrated the therapeutic efficacy of thalidomide in several intractable diseases, so TLD and its derivatives have played an important role in the development and therapy of anticancer drugs.

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Azithromycin (AZM) is a macrolide-type antibiotic used to prevent and treat serious infections (mycobacteria or MAC) that significantly inhibit bacterial growth. Knowledge of the predominant conformation in solution is of fundamental importance for advancing our understanding of the intermolecular interactions of AZM with biological targets. We report an extensive density functional theory (DFT) study of plausible AZM structures in solution considering implicit and explicit solvent effects.

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Two different products were obtained by the regiodivergent reaction of benzoquinone derivatives with phenolates and anilines: 3-aryloxybenzoquinone and 2-phenylamino-3-bromobenzoquinone. Calculated density functional theory free energies of reaction values corroborate the experimental observation of the formation of the substitution product in the reaction with phenolates in acetonitrile and the product of addition/oxidation for the reaction with aniline in water. Calculated charges and Fukui functions are similar for C2 and C3 atoms, indicating an equal possibility to suffer a nucleophilic attack.

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Azithromycin (AZM) is a well-known macrolide-type antibiotic that has been used in the treatment of infections and inflammations. Knowledge of the predominant molecular structure in solution is a prerequisite for an understanding of the interactions of the drug in biological media. Experimental structural determination can be carried out for samples in solid-state (X-ray diffraction technique) and gas phase (electron diffraction experiment).

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Chloroquine (CQ) and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) have been standard antimalarial drugs since the early 1950s, and very recently, the possibility of their use for the treatment of COVID-19 patients has been considered. To understand the drug mode of action at the submicroscopic level (atoms and molecules), molecular modeling studies with the aid of computational chemistry methods have been of great help. A fundamental step in such theoretical investigations is the knowledge of the predominant drug molecular structure in solution, which is the real environment for the interaction with biological targets.

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Among 20 compounds isolated from the extracts of the 5,4'-dihydroxy-7,5',3'-trimethoxyisoflavone () showed the best inhibitory effect on glutathione -transferase (GST) and so deserves our attention. In this work we investigated the preferred molecular structure of in chloroform solution using the density functional theory (DFT) and molecular dynamics simulation. Comparison between experimental H NMR data in CDCl solution and calculated chemical shifts enabled us to precisely determine the conformation adopted by in solution, which can be used in further theoretical studies involving interaction with biological targets.

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Coordination compounds formed by flavonoid ligands are recognized as promising candidates as novel drugs with enhanced antioxidant and anticancer activity. Zn(II)-Rutin complexes have been described in the literature and distinct coordination modes proposed based on H NMR/MS and IR/UV-VIS experimental spectroscopic data: 1:1/1:2 (Zn(II) binding to A-C rings) and 2:1 (Zn(II) binding to A-C-B rings) stoichiometry. Aiming to clarify these experimental findings and provide some physical insights into the process of complex formation in solution, we carried out density functional theory calculations of NMR and UV-VIS spectra for 25 plausible Zn(II)-Rutin molecular structures including solvent effect using the polarizable continuum model approach.

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As the knowledge of the predominant molecular structure of antioxidant and anticancer flavonoid rutin in solution is very important for understanding the mechanism of action, a quantum chemical investigation of plausible rutin structures including solvent effects is of relevance. In this work, DFT calculations were performed to find possible minimum energy structures for the rutin molecule. H NMR chemical shift DFT calculations were carried out in DMSO solution using the polarizable continuum model (PCM) to simulate the solvent effect.

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Monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) against human recombinant interferon beta (hrIFNbeta) were generated by genetic immunization (GI). In order to test two viral promoters frequently used in mammalian expression plasmid vectors, mice were inoculated four times by intramuscular injection, without adjuvant, with 100 microg of either pcDNA 3.1hrIFNbeta or pZeoSV2IFNbeta containing the entire human interferon beta gene and under the control of, respectively, human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) immediate-early promoter or early SV-40 enhancer/promoter.

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