Ricerc@Sapienza

Doxorubicin represents a valuable choice for different cancers, although the severe side effects occurring at the high effective dose limits its clinical use. In the present study, potential strategies to potentiate low-dose doxorubicin efficacy, including a metronomic schedule, characterized by a short and repeated exposure to the anticancer drug, and the combination with the natural chemosensitizing sesquiterpenes β-caryophyllene and β-caryophyllene oxide, were assessed in human hepatoma HepG2 cells.

The gas-phase structure of protonated β-methylaminoalanine was investigated using infrared multiple photon dissociation spectroscopy in the C-H, N-H, O-H stretching region (2700-3800 cm-1) and the fingerprint region (1000-1900 cm-1). Calculations using density functional theory methods show that the lowest energy structures prefer protonation of the secondary amine. Formation of hydrogen bonds between the primary and secondary amine, and the secondary amine and carboxylic oxygen further stabilize the lowest energy structure.

In this work an experimental and theoretical study on the formation of HSO2 + ion from the SO2 ?++CH4 and SO2 ?++H2O ion–molecule reactions at different temperatures is reported. Tunable synchrotron radiation was used to produce the SO2 ?+ ion in excited ro-vibrational levels of the ionic ground state X2A1 and mass spectrometry was employed to identify the product ions. Calculations in the frame of the density functional theory and variational transition state theory were combined to explore the dynamics of the reactions.