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Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is characterized by hyperglycemia due to impaired insulin utilization, and current therapies face notable limitations. This study investigated the chemical composition and biological activities of Teucrium polium essential oils and extracts, with a focus on their antidiabetic, antimicrobial, and antioxidant properties. Essential oil from aerial parts (yield 1.65%) was obtained by hydrodistillation; extracts were prepared by aqueous decoction (E0) and Soxhlet (aqueous, E1; hydroethanolic, E2). HPLC-UV-Vis-ESI-MS and GC-MS identified bioactives. The oil was dominated by carvacrol (28.10%), thymol (26.28%), γ-terpinene (12.11%), and o-cymene (15.59%). E0 was rich in poliumoside (36.45%); E1 contained verbascoside (9.42%) and isorhamnetin-3-O-rutinoside (9.68%); E2 was dominated by apigenin-7-rutinoside (21.18%). Antioxidant assays showed 85% DPPH inhibition at 100 µgmL^{- 1}, FRAP EC₅₀ of 25.4 µgmL^-1, and 75% TAC inhibition at 100 µg mL^-1. Antimicrobial activity yielded MICs of 0.5 mg mL^-1 for Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli and 0.3 mg mL^-1 for Candida albicans. Antidiabetic assays demonstrated 65% inhibition of α-amylase and 72% inhibition of α-glucosidase at 100 g mL^-1. In vivo, glucose tolerance testing showed a 30% reduction in postprandial glycemia at 70 mg kg^-1 and near-normal glycemia after 7 days. These findings support T. polium's traditional use for T2D and warrant further toxicological and clinical evaluation.

Natural bioactive compounds derived from plants, microbes, and marine organisms represent a rich and diverse reservoir of structurally complex molecules with a broad spectrum of biological activities. This review comprehensively explores the chemical diversity of these compounds, spanning major classes such as alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, phenolics, and glycosides, and elucidates the molecular mechanisms underlying antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anticancer, neuroprotective, and cardiovascular effects. A novel contribution of this review is its emphasis on the integration of advanced technologies that are reshaping natural product research. Biotechnological approaches, including plant cell culture, microbial fermentation, and metabolic engineering, support more sustainable and scalable production. Nanotechnology-based delivery systems enhance bioavailability and therapeutic performance by addressing pharmacokinetic challenges. Artificial intelligence enables faster screening, structural analysis, and activity prediction, significantly accelerating discovery and development. These interdisciplinary strategies also help overcome challenges such as low yield, toxicity, chemical variability, and environmental concerns. The review further discusses diverse industrial applications in pharmaceuticals, agriculture, food, cosmetics, and nutraceuticals. By highlighting the combined use of biotechnology, nanotechnology, and AI-driven tools, this review underscores a new paradigm in the sustainable and efficient utilization of natural bioactive compounds for both health and industry.

In Morocco, water resources are increasingly under threat due to population growth, economic expansion, and climate change. Among the proposed solutions, brackish water desalination using membrane technologies such as nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) with low-pressure membranes presents a promising alternative. This study evaluated the impact of salinity on the performance of two nanofiltration membranes (NF270 and NF90) and one reverse osmosis membrane (TM710) using three semisynthetic brackish water samples with salinities of 2, 4, and 6 g L⁻¹. Ion transfer mechanisms, particularly for sodium (Na⁺) and chloride (Cl⁻), were analyzed using the Spiegler–Kedem (SK) and Kedem–Katchalsky (KK) mathematical models. Additionally, the effects of salinity on diffusion flux (Jdiff), convection-induced concentration (Cconv), reflection coefficient (σ), and solute permeability (Ps) were examined. Results indicate that the NF270 membrane exhibits the highest permeate flux, while NF90 and TM710 perform similarly. For all three membranes, permeate flux decreases almost linearly as feed water salinity increases. Regarding total dissolved solids (TDS) rejection, the TM710 membrane achieves the highest removal efficiency, followed by NF90 and then NF270. The NF270 membrane shows greater convective transport than NF90, with both diffusive and convective fluxes increasing with salinity. In contrast, the TM710 membrane operates primarily through diffusion, with TDS having little effect on its diffusion flux. NF90 and TM710 exhibit similar σ and Ps values for sodium and chloride ions, independent of TDS, highlighting the NF90's similarity to a reverse osmosis membrane. In contrast, for NF270, the sodium reflection coefficient (σ) increases with TDS, while solute permeability (Ps) rises for both ions due to a decline in retention efficiency.

Cardiovascular diseases remain a leading cause of global mortality. While statins are pivotal in managing risk, most research focuses on their derivatives. This study provides a novel computational evaluation of statin analogs, addressing a significant literature gap. Our comprehensive in silico approach, integrating ADMET profiling, molecular docking, and extensive 200-ns molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, investigated the pharmacokinetic behavior, binding affinities, and structural stability of five statin analogs against HMG-CoA reductase. ADMET analysis showed that analogs of simvastatin, lovastatin, and pravastatin have favorable pharmacological profiles and low toxicity. While docking showed that simvastatin and lovastatin analogs had the strongest affinities, MD offered critical mechanistic insights. The unbound enzyme exhibited significant conformational flexibility. In contrast, binding induced a superior stabilizing effect, confining the protein to a single, compact, low-energy state, as confirmed by free energy landscape analysis. This ligand-induced rigidity is a powerful indicator of enhanced inhibitory efficacy and stability. Our findings highlight that statin analogs are a promising class whose unique binding dynamics offer a new, rational pathway for designing more effective HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors.

This review reports the progress on the utilizationof polymers of intrinsic microporosity (PIMs) for the adsorption of pharmaceuticals (PCs) and organic dyes. PIMs are exceptional porous organic polymers that possess copious contortion sites and rigid fused-ring structures induced by spirocentric molecules (two cyclic rings sharing one tetrahedral carbon). The availability of these contortion sites inhibits bond flexibility, bond rotation, and structural relaxation of PIMs in their solid state. This has led to the intrinsic microporosity, high Brunauer-Emmett-Teller and Barrett-Joyner-Halenda surface areas, pore radii, pore volumes, high permeability, high diffusivity, high selectivity, and high thermal stability. PIMs comprise a cascade of girthy ladder-like building blocks connected to the spirocentre as a result of inflexible backbone stereochemistry. Research progress has shown from a thorough literature survey that the adsorptive properties of PIMs and their functionalized analogs have not been extensively explored for the removal of PCs and organic dyes in contaminated water. To date, there exists scanty literature on the adsorption of PCs in contaminated water. In prospect, research efforts have to be intensified so as to establish vast applications of PIMs for the treatment of water contaminated with PCs and organic dyes.

The 12 principles of green chemistry guide the scientific community toward the development of chemical processes that are more respectful of the environment and safer for human health. In organic synthesis, this mainly involves the use of sustainable alternatives to conventional organic solvents, energy-efficient processes, and waste minimization. In this context, this review focuses on the use of deep eutectic solvents (DES) in microwave-assisted organic synthesis. Indeed, DES, due to their nonvolatility, nonflammability, and low toxicity compared to conventional organic solvents, are considered desirable "green solvents" for the development of environmentally friendly processes. Moreover, their physicochemical properties make them ideal media for microwave heating. Thus, all organic syntheses using DES as solvent and microwave heating documented in the literature are reported, including heterocycle synthesis, nitrogen quaternization reactions, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural production, Knoevenagel reactions, and miscellaneous transformations. The recyclability of DES-based systems and their scalability, where applicable, are reported. Mechanistical considerations when DES are involved are also described. Compared with conventional heating methods, microwave heating of DES media generally results in good yields and a significant reduction in reaction times. This DES-MW combination appears promising for more sustainable organic syntheses.

Bromination of phenyl methanesulfonate, C₆H₅OSO₂CH₃, with KOBr followed by hydrolytic cleavage of the phenyl ester leads to the tribromomethanesulfonate (“tribrate”) K[Br₃CSO₃] ⋅ H₂O, which crystallizes in a hitherto unknown triclinic modification (P$$, a = 662.87(4) pm, b = 1090.98(7) pm, c = 1273.98(8) pm, α = 106.079(2)°, β = 93.438(2)°, γ = 90.121(2)°). In contrast to the synthesis of the tribrate, in which an aromatic ring must be present at the SO₃ group for a successful bromination, the synthesis of K₂[Br₂C(SO₃)₂] ⋅ H₂O (monoclinic, P2₁/c, Z = 4, a = 717.17(3) pm, b = 710.78(3) pm, c = 2092.50(9) pm, β = 94.732(2)°) and K₃[BrC(SO₃)₃] ⋅ H₂O (tetragonal, P4₃, Z = 4, a = 713.6(1) pm, c = 2324.50(7) pm) using KOBr do not need the phenylesters as starting materials. Comparing the CS bond lengths of the different anions with each other, a trend emerges in which the CS bond length increases with increasing number of SO₃ groups (decreasing number of Br atoms). Furthermore, an increase in thermal stability by ≈50 °C per additional SO₃ group can be observed. The compounds are characterized by X-ray diffraction, vibrational spectroscopy, and thermal analyses.

Quinones are privileged scaffolds in biological redox chemistry and drug discovery, but methods to install versatile click handles onto their cores remain scarce. This work presents a comprehensive computational study of the Ru(II)-catalyzed CH alkenylation of menadione with ethenesulfonyl fluoride, a transformation that introduces sulfonyl-fluoride groups for subsequent SuFEx chemistry. Nine density functionals-from GGAs to double hybrids-are first benchmarked against DLPNO-CCSD(T) reference energies for all key on-cycle intermediates and transition states along the cationic [Ru(OAc)(p-cymene)]⁺ pathway. Among them, ωB2PLYP best matches the coupled-cluster reference and is the only method to achieve root-mean-square deviations of ≈1 kcal mol^-1. Given that the computed on-cycle barriers are modest, the results indirectly support that the overall rate is dictated by off-cycle formation of the active cationic species via ligand exchange/speciation. Within the catalytic cycle, CH activation presents the highest global barrier, although migratory insertion can display a higher local barrier (relative to its immediate precursor) for specific ring substitutions. Finally, it is shown that the r²SCAN-3c composite method offers a computationally efficient route for probing analogous catalytic cycles. These results deliver a robust protocol for designing naphthoquinone derivatives as next-generation therapeutic agents against Trypanosoma cruzi and related parasites.

Although histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors have demonstrated significant advantages in the field of targeted cancer therapy, numerous adverse events have been observed due to the high doses required to achieve therapeutic effects. Additionally, acquired drug resistance to HDAC inhibitors has also been observed in clinical usage. Given these findings, the development of HDAC degraders may represent a more promising strategy to overcome these limitations due to their specific mechanism of action. In this study, 14 HDAC degraders featuring a polyamine linker are designed and synthesized by conjugating HDAC inhibitors (HDACi, Vorinostat) with Cereblon (CRBN, an E3 ubiquitin ligase ligand). Significantly, compound I exhibited a degradation efficiency of ≈62% at 5 μM in MDA-MB-231 cells. Additionally, compound N exhibited the highest cellular uptake efficiency in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The findings presented in our manuscript provided valuable insights for the development of a proteolysis targeting chimera with high cellular uptake efficiency.

Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is an important half-cell reaction in water electrolysis; however, its sluggish kinetics and high overpotential limits efficiency, require highly active and stable catalysts. This study explores the effect of electrolyte temperature on the OER activity of NiO/Ni catalyst synthesized via solution combustion synthesis. Results reveal a remarkable reduction in overpotential from 550 to 356 mV, along with a significant increase in current density, demonstrating the impact of electrolyte temperature on OER kinetics. The Tafel slope decrease progressively, reaching 75.8 mV dec^-1 at 30 °C, indicating improved reaction kinetics and charge transfer efficiency. Additionally, the increase in double-layer capacitance (C_dl) with temperature confirms greater exposure of electrochemical surface area, providing more active sites for the reaction. Stability tests over 1000 CV cycles confirmed excellent durability, making NiO/Ni a highly efficient catalyst for alkaline OER. These findings highlight the electrolyte temperature optimization as an effective approach to improving catalytic performance of NiO/Ni to act as a promising material for cost effective sustainable energy applications.