Various aza-analogues of 1,4-naphthoquinone and menadione were prepared and tested as inhibitors and substrates of the plasmodial thioredoxin and glutathione reductases as well as the human glutathione reductase. The replacement of one to two carbons at the phenyl ring of the 1,4-naphthoquinone core by one to two nitrogen atoms led to an increased oxidant character of the molecules in accordance with both the redox potential values and the substrate efficiencies. Compared to the 1,4-naphthoquinone and menadione, the quinoline-5,8-dione 1 and both quinoxaline-5,8-diones 5 and 6 behaved as the most efficient subversive substrates of the three NADPH-dependent disulfide reductases tested. Modulation of these parameters was observed by alkylation of the aza-naphthoquinone core.

The oxidative electropolymerization of the (3-pyrrol-1-ylpropyl)malonic acid monomer 1 is a simple and reproducible one-step procedure for the synthesis of complexing polymer film modified electrodes, which have been applied to the electroanalysis of Cu(II), Pb(II), Cd(II) and Hg(II) ions by preconcentration upon complexation, followed by anodic stripping analysis. The detection limits were determined from square-wave voltammetry at 0.5 nM, 5 nM, 50 nM and 0.2 mM for Pb(II), Cu(II), Hg(II) and Cd(II), respectively, after 10 min preconcentration. The modified electrodes showed a better selectivity toward copper(II) ions. Analysis of copper in a tap water sample agreed well with ICPMS analysis results.