Synthesis and Cellular Labeling of Caged Phosphatidylinositol Derivatives

Phosphatidylinositol (PI) is the biosynthetic precursor for seven phosphoinositides, important signaling lipids in cells. A membrane-permeant caged PI derivative featuring a photo-removable coumarinyl group masking the negative charge of the phosphate, as well as two enzymatically removable butyrate esters for increased lipophilicity and for preventing phosphate migration, were synthesized. Rapid cell entry and cellular labeling in fixed cells was demonstrated by a photo-cross-linkable diazirine followed by attachment of a fluorophore through click chemistry. Using this technique, we found that the multifunctional caged PI derivative resided predominantly at internal membranes but rapidly changed to the plasma membrane after uncaging. Accordingly, a preliminary proteomic analysis of the lipid–protein conjugates revealed that the two major PI transport proteins PITPα and β were prime targets of the photo-cross-linked PI derivative.     

Enhancing the Water Stability of Al‐MIL‐101‐NH2 via Postsynthetic Modification

The resistance of metal–organic frameworks towards water is a very critical issue concerning their practical use. Recently, it was shown for microporous MOFs that the water stability could be increased by introducing hydrophobic pendant groups. Here, we demonstrate a remarkable stabilisation of the mesoporous MOF Al‐MIL‐101‐NH₂ by postsynthetic modification with phenyl isocyanate. In this process 86 % of the amino groups were converted into phenylurea units. As a consequence, the long‐term stability of Al‐MIL‐101‐URPh in liquid water could be extended beyond a week. In water saturated atmospheres Al‐MIL‐101‐URPh decomposed at least 12‐times slower than the unfunctionalised analogue. To study the underlying processes both materials were characterised by Ar, N₂ and H₂O sorption measurements, powder X‐ray diffraction, thermogravimetric and chemical analysis as well as solid‐state NMR and IR spectroscopy. Postsynthetic modification decreased the BET equivalent surface area from 3363 to 1555 m² g^?1 for Al‐MIL‐101‐URPh and reduced the mean diameters of the mesopores by 0.6 nm without degrading the structure significantly and reducing thermal stability. In spite of similar water uptake capacities, the relative humidity‐dependent uptake of Al‐MIL‐101‐URPh is slowed and occurs at higher relative humidity values. In combination with ¹H‐²⁷Al D ‐HMQC NMR spectroscopy experiments this favours a shielding mechanism of the Al clusters by the pendant phenyl groups and rules out pore blocking.     

Comprehensive Profiling by Non-targeted Stable Isotope Tracing Capillary Electrophoresis-Mass Spectrometry: A New Tool Complementing Metabolomic Analyses of Polar Metabolites

Mass spectrometry (MS) driven metabolomics is a frequently used tool in various areas of life sciences; however, the analysis of polar metabolites is less commonly included. In general, metabolomic analyses lead to the detection of the total amount of all covered metabolites. This is currently a major limitation with respect to metabolites showing high turnover rates, but no changes in their concentration. Such metabolites and pathways could be crucial metabolic nodes (e.g., potential drug targets in cancer metabolism). A stable-isotope tracing capillary electrophoresis–mass spectrometry (CE-MS) metabolomic approach was developed to cover both polar metabolites and isotopologues in a non-targeted way. An in-house developed software enables high throughput processing of complex multidimensional data. The practicability is demonstrated analyzing [U-¹³C]-glucose exposed prostate cancer and non-cancer cells. This CE-MS-driven analytical strategy complements polar metabolite profiles through isotopologue labeling patterns, thereby improving not only the metabolomic coverage, but also the understanding of metabolism.     

Reactions with a Metalloid Tin Cluster {Sn10[Si(SiMe3)3]4}2−: Ligand Elimination versus Coordination Chemistry

Chemistry that uses metalloid tin clusters as a starting material is of fundamental interest towards understanding the reactivity of such compounds. Since we identified {Sn₁₀[Si(SiMe₃)₃]₄}^2? 7 as an ideal candidate for such reactions, we present a further step in the understanding of metalloid tin cluster chemistry. In contrast to germanium chemistry, ligand elimination seems to be a major reaction channel, which leads to the more open metalloid cluster {Sn₁₀[Si(SiMe₃)₃]₃}^? 9 , in which the Sn core is only shielded by three Si(SiMe₃)₃ ligands. Compound 9 is obtained through different routes and is crystallised together with two different countercations. Besides the structural characterisation of this novel metalloid tin cluster, the electronic structure is analysed by ¹¹⁹Sn Mössbauer spectroscopy. Additionally, possible reaction pathways are discussed. The presented first step into the chemistry of metalloid tin clusters thus indicates that, with respect to metalloid germanium clusters, more reaction channels are accessible, thereby leading to a more complex reaction system.     

Stereochemistry-Controlled Supramolecular Architectures of New Tetrahydroxy-Functionalised Amphiphilic Carbocyanine Dyes

The syntheses of novel amphiphilic 5,5′,6,6′-tetrachlorobenzimidacarbocyanine (TBC) dye derivatives with aminopropanediol head groups, which only differ in stereochemistry (chiral enantiomers, meso form and conformer), are reported. For the achiral meso form, a new synthetic route towards asymmetric cyanine dyes was established. All compounds form J aggregates in water, the optical properties of which were characterised by means of spectroscopic methods. The supramolecular structure of the aggregates is investigated by means of cryo-transmission electron microscopy, cryo-electron tomography and AFM, revealing extended sheet-like aggregates for chiral enantiomers and nanotubes for the mesomer, respectively, whereas the conformer forms predominately needle-like crystals. The experiments demonstrate that the aggregation behaviour of compounds can be controlled solely by head group stereochemistry, which in the case of enantiomers enables the formation of extended hydrogen-bond chains by the hydroxyl functionalities. In case of the achiral meso form, however, such chains turned out to be sterically excluded.     

Minimal kernels of Dirac operators along maps

Let M be a closed spin manifold and let N be a closed manifold. For maps and Riemannian metrics g on M and h on N, we consider the Dirac operator of the twisted Dirac bundle . To this Dirac operator one can associate an index in . If M is 2‐dimensional, one gets a lower bound for the dimension of the kernel of out of this index. We investigate the question whether this lower bound is obtained for generic tupels .