Occurrence of Pharmaceutical Micropollutants in Lake Nahuel Huapi, Argentine Patagonia.

Tourism is one of the most important activities for the economy of Nor Patagonia Argentina. In Bariloche City, located on the shores of Lake Nahuel Huapi, both the permanent and the temporary populations have increased significantly in recent decades, and this has not necessarily been accompanied by an improvement in sewage networks. Emerging micropollutants such as pharmaceutical compounds reach aquatic systems directly, in the absence of a domestic sewage network, or through effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WWTP), which do not efficiently remove these substances and represent a major threat to the environment.

Electronic paramagnetic resonance (EPR) for the study of ascorbyl radical and lipid radicals in marine organisms.

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy detects the presence of radicals of biological interest, such as ascorbyl radical (A(•)) and lipid radicals. A(•) is easily detectable by EPR even in aqueous solution at room-temperature. Under oxidative conditions leading to changes in total ascorbate (AH(-)) content, the A(•)/AH(-) ratio could be used to estimate early oxidative stress in the hydrophilic milieu.

New insights on dimethylaminoethanol (DMAE) features as a free radical scavenger.

Recently, a number of synthetic drugs used in a variety of therapeutic indications have been reported to have antiaging effects. Among them, Dimethylaminoethanol (DMAE), an anologue of dietylaminoethanol, is a precursor of choline, which in turn allows the brain to optimize the production of acetylcholine that is a primary neurotransmitter involved in learning and memory. The data presented here includes new information on the ability of the compound to scavenge specific free radicals, assessed by Electron Spectroscopic Resonance (EPR), to further analyze the role of DMAE as an antioxidant.