Gold nanoparticles covered by derivatives of 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl (TEMPO) with welldefined coverage and narrow size distribution were synthesized and self-assembled on the gold electrode.The TEMPO nanoparticle-coated electrode was characterized using STM and AFM. The kinetics of oxidation of the nitroxide radicals attached to the nanoparticles was evaluated based on cyclic voltammetry measurements. The TEMPO-nanoparticle modified electrode was found more efficient in electrocatalytic oxidation of benzyl alcohol than the electrode modified with a monolayer of TEMPO molecules directly bound to the gold surface.

Newly synthesized derivatives of β-cyclodextrin, mono(6-deoxy-6-(1-1,2,3-triazo-4-yl)-1-propane-3-O-(4-methoxyphenyl))β-cyclodextrin (1) and mono(6-deoxy-6thio(1-propane-3-O-(4-methoxyphenyl))) β-cyclodextrin (2) were designed to be receptors of the anticancer drug doxorubicin, which could potentially decrease the adverse effects of the drug during treatment. In both aqueous and aqueous dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) solutions, doxorubicin forms an inclusion complex with the new cyclodextrin derivatives with formation constants of K(s) = 2.3 × 10(4) and K(s) = 3.2 × 10(5) M(-1) for cyclodextrins 1 and 2, respectively. The stabilities of the complexes are 2-3 orders of magnitude greater than those with native β-cyclodextrin, and the flexibility of the linker of the side group of the cyclodextrins contributes to this stability. In a hydrogen-bond-accepting solvent, such as pure DMSO, an association that includes hydrogen bonding and chloride ions is favored over the binding of doxorubicin in the cavity of the cyclodextrin derivative. This contrasts with an aqueous medium in which a strong inclusion complex is formed. Cyclic voltammetry, UV-vis, (1)H NMR, and molecular modeling studies of solutions in DMSO and of solutions in water/DMSO demonstrated that the two different modes of intermolecular interaction between doxorubicin and the cyclodextrin derivative depended on the solvent system being utilized.

We describe the interaction of Au with >NO radicals-the basis of a new method of binding gold nanoparticles to gold substrates. In the sandwich-like system, the gold electrode is separated from the gold nanoparticle layer by thiolated TEMPO radicals. The formation of the NOÀAu bond was confirmed by FAR IR spectroscopy. The properties of the Au substrateÀAu nanoparticle assembly were studied by cyclic voltammetry and scanning tunneling microscopy. Binding of nanoparticles by means of nitroxyl radicals instead of linking them using an alkanedithiol leads to a higher population of nanoparticles at the electrode surface, as shown by scanning tunneling microscopy.

The influence of the pH of the multicomponent cell medium on the performance of doxorubicin (DOX), an anticancer drug, was studied on the examples of cervical (HeLa) and kidney (A498) cancer cell lines. The change of pH of the cell medium to more acidic led to a decrease of DOX toxicity on both cell lines due to the change of drug permeability across the cell membrane as a result of drug protonation. 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) studies and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release tests have shown low toxicity of the drug, especially in the case of A498 cells, which are characterized by an extremely high glycolytic metabolism. The behavior was ascribed primarily to the increased proton concentration in the peripheral blood follicle in the presence of products of the acidic glycolytic metabolism. It is not observed in the measurements performed in commercially available media since they usually have a neutral pH. In earlier reports on kidney cancer, several mechanisms were discussed, including the metabolism of DOX to its less toxic derivative, doxorubicinol, overexpression of ATP binding cassette subfamily B member 1 (ABCB1) transporters, that remove DOX from the inside of cells; however, there was no focus on the simple but very important contribution of drug protonation described in the present study. Drug pH-dependent equilibria in the cell medium should be considered since changes in the drug form may be an additional reason for multidrug resistance.

The modification of cyclodextrins (CDs) with side chains containing aromatic groups was found to lead to an increase of the stability of the complex with the anticancer drug doxorubicin (Dox). The formation constants evaluated by voltammetry were several orders of magnitude larger than that of the unmodified β-CD ligand. For the CDs with aromatic moieties connected by linkers containing a triazole group, the formation constants of the complexes at pH 5.5 and 7.4 were very different. At lower pH, binding was much weaker as a result of protonation of the triazole moiety in the linker. The drug was then released from the complex. Molecular modeling of the Dox-β-CD system revealed different possible interactions between Dox and β-CD. The observed pH dependence of the complex formation constant can be exploited for drug delivery to the targeted cells. The toxicities of the synthesized complexes and each of the complex components were tested by the MTT assay on two cell lines, the human lung carcinoma and human cervical cancer cell lines.