Removal of Organic Pollutants Benzene and Phenol Using Nanofiltration: A Molecular Dynamics Study

Population growth has resulted in an increased demand for clean water. It is known that chemical pollutants such as phenol and benzene often make water unfit for consumption, and can be responsible for the appearance of diseases such as cancer. In this sense, studies aimed at decontaminating water are still necessary. In this study, molecular dynamics simulations were performed to evaluate the abilities of activated charcoal structures to adsorb benzene and phenol; the results of which were evaluated on the basis of root mean square deviations for all systems. The data were collected from the molecular dynamics (MD) trajectories and edited with the grace plotting tool. Visual molecular dynamics software was used to visualize the MD paths, and images were created using the UCSF chimera software. The results show that activated charcoal are viable alternatives for water decontamination by nanofiltration.

Structure–activity relationship study of flavone compounds with anti-HIV-1 integrase activity: A density functional theory study

Human immunodeficiency virus type-1 integrase (HIV-1 IN) is an essential enzyme for effective viral replication. Flavone compounds have been very much studied due to their activity during the inhibition process of HIV-1 IN. In this study, we employed density functional theory (DFT) using the B3LYP hybrid functional to calculate a set of molecular properties for 32 flavonoid compounds with anti-HIV-1 IN activity. The stepwise discriminant analysis (SDA), principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) methods were employed to reduce dimensionality and investigate possible relationship between the calculated properties and the anti-HIV-1 IN activity. These analyses showed that the molecular hydrophobicity (ClogP), charge on atom 11 and electrophilic index (omega) are responsible for the separation between anti-HIV-1 IN active and inactive compounds.