Spectroscopic investigations of the molecular interaction of anticancer drug mitoxantrone with non-ionic surfactant micelles

Understanding the metabolism of cytotoxic compounds of quinone family is importance in cancer therapy because they have been successfully explored for their anti-tumor activity. Quinone which form radical semiquinone (by reductase enzymes) to generate Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) is associated to be anticancer drug candidate. However, molecular mechanism of those compounds to reductase enzymes has not yet clearly understood.This study aimed to understand molecular interaction of quinones to oxidoreductase enzymes such as cytochrome P450 reductase or ubiquinone reductase (NQO1), or apoptosis inducing factor (AIF) which is recently reported as NADH:quinone reductase. In silico approach was applied to find the best affinity of each compound to enzymes. Optimize ligands were employed using Marvin sketch program. Molecular interaction using autodockvina software was built to measure important residues for quinone reduction. Docking analysis showed that generally quinones prefer bound to cytochrome P450 reductase rather than NQO1 or AIF. The number of ring seems affect to the affinity, but not for its functional groups. Residues analysis confirmed that reduction of quinone is NAD(P)H: dependent. The result revealedthat all ligands have high possibility to compete with their redox coupleswhich is needed in its capacity as an anti-cancer drug.

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Dodecagonal quasicrystals of oil-swollen ionic surfactant micelles

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.2101598118 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 118 (31) ◽

pp. e2101598118

Author(s):

Ashish Jayaraman ◽

Carlos M. Baez-Cotto ◽

Tyler J. Mann ◽

Mahesh K. Mahanthappa

Keyword(s):

Self Assembly ◽

Noncovalent Interactions ◽

Rotational Symmetry ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Ionic Surfactant ◽

Surfactant Micelles ◽

Σ Phase ◽

Periodic Arrays ◽

Spherical Micelles ◽

Block Complexity

A delicate balance of noncovalent interactions directs the hierarchical self-assembly of molecular amphiphiles into spherical micelles that pack into three-dimensional periodic arrays, which mimic intermetallic crystals. Herein, we report the discovery that adding water to a mixture of an ionic surfactant and n-decane induces aperiodic ordering of oil-swollen spherical micelles into previously unrecognized, aqueous lyotropic dodecagonal quasicrystals (DDQCs), which exhibit local 12-fold rotational symmetry and no long-range translational order. The emergence of these DDQCs at the nexus of dynamically arrested micellar glasses and a periodic Frank–Kasper (FK) σ phase approximant sensitively depends on the mixing order of molecular constituents in the assembly process and on sample thermal history. Addition of n-decane to mixtures of surfactant and water instead leads only to periodic FK A15 and σ approximants with no evidence for aperiodic order, while extended ambient temperature annealing of the DDQC also reveals its transformation into a σ phase. Thus, these lyotropic DDQCs are long-lived metastable morphologies, which nucleate and grow from a stochastic distribution of micelle sizes formed by abrupt segregation of varied amounts of oil into surfactant micelles on hydration. These findings indicate that molecular building block complexity is not a prerequisite for the formation of aperiodic supramolecular order, while also establishing the generic nature of quasicrystalline states across metal alloys and self-assembled micellar materials.

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