Cyclic and linear amidine catalysts for the efficient synthesis of cyclic trithiocarbonates from carbon disulfide and episulfides under mild conditions

Cyclic and linear amidines effectively catalyzed the reaction of carbon disulfide and episulfides under mild conditions, such as ordinary pressure and ambient temperature, to give the corresponding cyclic trithiocarbonates in high yields.     

pH and reduction dual‐stimuli‐responsive PEGDA/PAMAM injectable network hydrogels via aza‐michael addition for anticancer drug delivery

A pH and reduction dual‐stimuli‐responsive PEGDA/PAMAM injectable network hydrogel containing “acetals” as pH‐sensitive groups and “disulfides” as reducible linkages was designed and synthesized via aza‐Michael addition reaction between PAMAM and PEGDA diacrylates. The pore size and swelling ratio of hydrogels was varied from 14 ± 3 to 19 ± 4 μm and 214 ± 13 to 300 ± 19 μm, respectively, with varying ethylene glycol repeating units in diacrylates. The swelling ratio of PEGDA/PAMAM network hydrogel increased with increase in the molecular weight of PEG and with decrease in pH. The presence of different cationizable amino‐functionalities in PEGDA/PAMAM network hydrogel helped to enhance the swelling ability of hydrogel under the acidic conditions. The continuous increase in metabolically active live HeLa cells with time in MTT assay implied biocompatibility/noncytotoxicity of the synthesized PEGDA/PAMAM injectable network hydrogel. Furthermore, the prepared PEGDA/PAMAM hydrogel showed higher degradation at lower pH and at higher concentration of DTT. The burst release of doxorubicin from PEGDA/PAMAM hydrogel under the environment of the lower pH and in presence of DTT compared to the release at normal physiological pH and in absence of DTT suggested the potential ability of this model hydrogel system for targeted and selective anticancer drug release at tumor tissues. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2018 , 56, 2080–2095     

Glycosylated Cell‐Penetrating Poly(disulfide)s: Multifunctional Cellular Uptake at High Solubility

The glycosylation of cell‐penetrating poly(disulfide)s (CPDs) is introduced to increase the solubility of classical CPDs and to achieve multifunctional cellular uptake. With the recently developed sidechain engineering, CPDs decorated with α‐d ‐glucose (Glu), β‐d ‐galactose (Gal), d ‐trehalose (Tre), and triethyleneglycol (TEG) were readily accessible. Confocal laser scanning microscopy images of HeLa Kyoto cells incubated with the new CPDs at 2.5 μm revealed efficient uptake into cytosol and nucleoli of all glycosylated CPDs, whereas the original CPDs and TEGylated CPDs showed much precipitation into fluorescent aggregates at these high concentrations. Flow cytometry analysis identified Glu‐CPDs as most active, closely followed by Gal‐CPDs and Tre‐CPDs, and all clearly more active than non‐glycosylated CPDs. In the MTT assay, all glyco‐CPDs were non‐toxic at concentrations as high as 2.5 μm . Consistent with thiol‐mediated uptake, glycosylated CPDs remained dependent on thiols on the cell surface for dynamic covalent exchange, their removal with Ellman's reagent DTNB efficiently inhibited uptake. Multifunctionality was demonstrated by inhibition of Glu‐CPDs with d ‐glucose (IC₅₀ ca. 20 mm ). Insensitivity toward l ‐glucose and d ‐galactose and insensitivity of conventional CPDs toward d ‐glucose supported that glucose‐mediated uptake of the multifunctional Glu‐CPDs involves selective recognition by glucose receptors at the cell surface. Weaker but significant sensitivity of Gal‐CPDs toward d ‐galactose but not d ‐glucose was noted (IC₅₀ ca. 110 mm ). Biotinylation of Glu‐CPDs resulted in the efficient delivery of streptavidin together with a fluorescent model substrate. Protein delivery with Glu‐CPDs was more efficient than with conventional CPDs and remained sensitive to DTNB and d ‐glucose, i.e., multifunctional.     

Metal-free S-methylation of diaryl disulfides with di-tert-butyl peroxide

An efficient approach for S-methylation of diaryl disulfides with di-tert-butyl peroxide under metal-free and neutral conditions was established. The present protocol shows good functional group tolerance to afford aryl methyl sulfides in moderate to good yields.     

表面暴露活性位点的MoS_2纳米催化剂催化硝基化合物的非均相氢转移反应（英文）

MoS_2具有独特的二维层状结构,被广泛用于加氢脱硫过程以及HER反应,而且可以通过减少MoS_2的颗粒尺寸以及层数来进一步改善其催化活性.通过剥离方法得到的MoS_2纳米片虽然表现出优良的加氢脱硫活性,但容易团聚使其循环使用性能很差.如果通过引入纳米碳将单层的MoS_2纳米片进行有效"隔离",则可明显降低团聚的可能性,从而改善其催化性能和稳定性.本文通过一步水热法制备出了碳嵌入的MoS_2纳米颗粒(MoS_2@C),将其应用于硝基苯类化合物的氢转移反应中表现出了非常好的催化性能.进一步通过粉末X射线衍射(XRD)、X射线光电子能谱(XPS)、透射电子显微镜(TEM)和在线质谱检测等手段研究了层间距增加的MoS_2催化剂在硝基苯类化合物的氢转移反应中催化性能提升的原因.XRD,SEM和TEM结果表明,通过引入碳材料可以明显增加MoS_2的层间距,同时减小其颗粒尺寸,而且使MoS_2表现出弯曲的(002)晶面.由于存在一定的曲率,这种(002)晶面也会表现出一定的催化能力.氮气物理吸附结果表明,这种MoS_2@C复合物具有较高的比表面积(89 m~2g~(-1))和明显的介孔结构(~20 nm),在催化反应中有利于底物扩散,进而改善催化性能.XPS结果显示,与体相的MoS_2相比,MoS_2@C表面暴露出更多的不饱和Mo原子(Mo/S=0.71(MoS_2@C)vs Mo/S=0.63(MoS_2)),形成了独特的S-Mo-O结构以及缺陷结构.在硝基苯类化合物的氢转移反应中,层间距增加的MoS_2@C由于暴露出更多的活性位和具有弯曲的(002)晶面,表现出了更高的催化活性–(TOF=3.66 s~(-1) vs 1.24 s~(-1)(MoS_2)).通过质谱对反应过程的追踪发现,在只有肼存在的条件下,MoS_2@C催化肼分解的主要气相产物是氨气.这说明MoS_2@C能够使肼发生N-N键的断裂.而当肼和硝基苯同时存在的条件下,质谱检测的气相产物主要是氮气,表明硝基苯的存在可以诱导肼逐步发生N-H键断裂,在催化剂表面形成活性的H物种,进而转移到硝基苯上使其还原得到苯胺.使用偶氮苯和氧化偶氮苯作为反应底物,发现MoS_2@C很难使其还原为苯胺,这说明在该催化体系中,硝基苯的还原过程主要是沿着直接路径(硝基苯-亚硝基苯-苯胺)进行的.     

Fabrication of Reduction‐Sensitive Amphiphilic Cyclic Brush Copolymer for Controlled Drug Release

The cyclic brush polymers, due to the unique topological structure, have shown in the previous studies higher delivery efficacy than the bottlebrush analogues as carriers for drug and gene transfer. However, to the best of knowledge, the preparation of reduction‐sensitive cyclic brush polymers for drug delivery applications remains unexplored. For this purpose, a reduction‐sensitive amphiphilic cyclic brush copolymer, poly(2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate‐g‐poly(ε‐caprolactone)‐disulfide link‐poly(oligoethyleneglycol methacrylate)) (P(HEMA‐g‐PCL‐SS‐POEGMA)) with reducible block junctions bridging the hydrophobic PCL middle layer and the hydrophilic POEGMA outer corona is designed and synthesized successfully in this study via a “grafting from” approach using sequential ring‐opening polymerization (ROP) and atom transfer free radical polymerization (ATRP) from a cyclic multimacroinitiator PHEMA. The resulting self‐assembled unimolecular core–shell–corona (CSC) micelles show sufficient salt stability and efficient destabilization in the intracellular reducing environment for a promoted drug release toward a greater therapeutic efficacy relative to the reduction‐insensitive analogues. The overall results demonstrate the reducible cyclic brush copolymers developed herein provides an elegant solution to the tradeoff between extracellular stability and intracellular high therapeutic efficacy toward efficient anticancer drug delivery.     

Morphology Regulation in Redox Destructible Amphiphilic Block Copolymers and Impact on Intracellular Drug Delivery

In two ABA type amphiphilic block copolymers (P1, P2), the hydrophobic B block consists of a bioreducible segmented poly(disulfide) (PDS), while poly‐N‐isopropylacrylamide (PNIPAM) or poly(triethyleneglycol)methylether‐methacrylate (PTEGMA) serve as the hydrophilic A blocks in P1 and P2, respectively, leading to the formation of polymersome and micelle, owing to the difference in the packing parameters. Both exhibit comparable doxorubicin (Dox) encapsulation efficiency, but glutathione (GSH) triggered release appears much faster from the polymersome than micelle owing to the complete degradation of the PDS segment in polymersome morphology unlike in micelle. Dox‐loaded polymers (P1‐Dox and P2‐Dox) exhibit minimum toxicity to normal cells like C2C12. By contrast, P1‐Dox shows excellent killing efficiency to the HeLa cells (cancer cell) (in which the GSH concentration is significantly higher). However, P2‐Dox reveals a rather poor activity even to HeLa cells. Fluorescence microscopy studies show comparable cellular uptake of P1‐Dox and P2‐Dox. But the polymersome entrapped dye escapes fast from the cargo and reach the nucleus, while the drug‐loaded micelle remains trapped in the perinuclear zone explaining the significant difference in the drug delivery performance of polymersome and micelle.     

Synthesis and electrochemical performanceof cobalt disulfide

The anode material cobalt disulfide for lithium-ion batteries was synthesized using the hydrothermal method at a lower temperature. The microstructure and surface morphology of the powders were characterized by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Electrochemical tests showed that this sample had superior electrochemical properties. The first discharge capacity is up to 1313.9 mAh/g in the voltage range of 3.00–0.02 V at a current density of 50 mA/g. Adjusting the voltage range to 3.00–0.50 V, the first discharge capacity decreases, but the 20th discharge capacity is 435.5 mAh/g, which is better than what has been reported in the literature.     

An efficient, one-pot synthesis of trithiocarbonates from the corresponding thiols using the Mitsunobu reagent

A novel Mitsunobu-based protocol has been developed for the synthesis of a variety of symmetrical and unsymmetrical trithiocarbonates from primary, secondary and tertiary thiols using carbon disulfide, in good to excellent yields. This protocol is mild and efficient compared to other reported methods.     

Efficient synthesis of N,N′-dialkyl-N″-dialkylaminocarbothioyl thioureas from cyclic secondary amines, CS2, and N,N′-dialkyl carbodiimides in water

A mild, convenient, and practical one-pot procedure for direct synthesis of N,N′-dialkyl-N″-dialkylaminocarbothioyl thioureas is described via three-component reaction of cyclic secondary amines, CS₂, and N,N′-dialkyl carbodiimides in water at room temperature.