As a carrier of many biologically active compounds, blood is exposed to oxidants to a greater extent than the intracellular environment. Serum albumin plays a key role in antioxidant defence under both normal and oxidative stress conditions. This review evaluates data published in the literature and from our own research on the mechanisms of the enzymatic and non-enzymatic activities of albumin that determine its participation in redox modulation of plasma and intercellular fluid. For the first time, the results of numerous clinical, biochemical, spectroscopic and computational experiments devoted to the study of allosteric modulation of the functional properties of the protein associated with its participation in antioxidant defence are analysed. It has been concluded that it is fundamentally possible to regulate the antioxidant properties of albumin with various ligands, and the binding and/or enzymatic features of the protein by changing its redox status. The perspectives for using the antioxidant properties of albumin in practice are discussed.

Hypervalent iodine(III)-derivatives display higher catalytic activity than other aliphatic and aromatic iodine(I)– or bromine(I)-containing substrates for a Knorr-type reaction of N-acetyl hydrazides with acetyl acetone to give N-acyl pyrazoles. The highest activity was observed for dibenziodolium triflate, for which 10 mol% resulted in the generation of N-acyl pyrazole from acyl hydrazide and acetyl acetone typically at 50 °C for 3.5–6 h with up to 99% isolated yields. ¹H NMR titration data and DFT calculations indicate that the catalytic activity of the iodine(III) is caused by the binding with a ketone.

A brief overview is given of the papers published over the last two decades on the subject of solid-state ¹³C NMR spectra of such carbon nanostructures as milled graphite and its oxide, graphene, graphene oxide, carbon nanotubes, nanodiamonds, fullerenes and their derivatives. The main focus is put on the characteristic values of experimental isotropic ¹³C NMR chemical shifts and their interpretation in terms of local chemical environments of carbon nuclei.