Colorimetric signaling of Hg ions by a nitrobenzoxadiazole-appended cyclen-triester

A novel Hg²⁺-selective colorimetric sensor based on a cyclen–nitrobenzoxadiazole (NBD) conjugate was investigated. A cyclen derivative with three ester ligands was used as the binding site and the NBD moiety acted as the reporting chromogenic subunit. Interaction of 1 with Hg²⁺ ions resulted in a pronounced color change from pink to yellow, and fluorescence signaling was also possible. Selective colorimetric signaling of Hg²⁺ ions by NBD-functionalized cyclen with a detection limit of 1.5 × 10⁻⁶ M in aqueous environments was successfully achieved.     

A 3D Nanostructured Hydrogel‐Framework‐Derived High‐Performance Composite Polymer Lithium‐Ion Electrolyte

Solid‐state electrolytes have emerged as a promising alternative to existing liquid electrolytes for next generation Li‐ion batteries for better safety and stability. Of various types of solid electrolytes, composite polymer electrolytes exhibit acceptable Li‐ion conductivity due to the interaction between nanofillers and polymer. Nevertheless, the agglomeration of nanofillers at high concentration has been a major obstacle for improving Li‐ion conductivity. In this study, we designed a three‐dimensional (3D) nanostructured hydrogel‐derived Li_0.35La_0.55TiO₃ (LLTO) framework, which was used as a 3D nanofiller for high‐performance composite polymer Li‐ion electrolyte. The systematic percolation study revealed that the pre‐percolating structure of LLTO framework improved Li‐ion conductivity to 8.8×10^?5 S cm^?1 at room temperature.     

Bicontinuous Nanoporous Frameworks: Caged Longevity for Enzymes

The preparation of bicontinuous nanoporous covalent frameworks, which are promising for caging active enzymes, is demonstrated. The frameworks have three‐ dimensionally continuous, hydrophilic pores with widths varying between 5 and 30 nm. Enzymes were infiltrated into the bicontinuous pore by applying a pressured enzyme solution. The new materials and methods allowed the amount of caged proteins to be controlled precisely. The resulting enzyme‐loaded framework films could be recycled many times with nearly no loss of catalytic activity. Entropic trapping of proteins by a bicontinuous pore with the right size distribution is an unprecedented strategy toward facile in vitro utilization of biocatalysts.     

Cancer cells undergoing epigenetic transition show short-term resistance and are transformed into cells with medium-term resistance by drug treatment

To elucidate the epigenetic mechanisms of drug resistance, epigenetically reprogrammed H460 cancer cells (R-H460) were established by the transient introduction of reprogramming factors. Then, the R-H460 cells were induced to differentiate by the withdrawal of stem cell media for various durations, which resulted in differentiated R-H460 cells (dR-H460). Notably, dR-H460 cells differentiated for 13 days (13dR-H460 cells) formed a significantly greater number of colonies showing drug resistance to both cisplatin and paclitaxel, whereas the dR-H460 cells differentiated for 40 days (40dR-H460 cells) lost drug resistance; this suggests that 13dR-cancer cells present short-term resistance (less than a month). Similarly, increased drug resistance to both cisplatin and paclitaxel was observed in another R-cancer cell model prepared from N87 cells. The resistant phenotype of the cisplatin-resistant (CR) colonies obtained through cisplatin treatment was maintained for 2–3 months after drug treatment, suggesting that drug treatment transforms cells with short-term resistance into cells with medium-term resistance. In single-cell analyses, heterogeneity was not found to increase in 13dR-H460 cells, suggesting that cancer cells with short-term resistance, rather than heterogeneous cells, may confer epigenetically driven drug resistance in our reprogrammed cancer model. The epigenetically driven short-term and medium-term drug resistance mechanisms could provide new cancer-fighting strategies involving the control of cancer cells during epigenetic transition.Subject terms: Tumour heterogeneity, Epigenetics     

Determination of PF‐04620110, a novel inhibitor of diacylglycerol acyltransferase‐1, in rat plasma using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry and its application in pharmacokinetic studies

In this study, we developed a method for the determination of PF‐04620110 (2‐{(1r,4r)‐4‐[4‐(4‐amino‐5‐oxo‐7,8‐dihydropyrimido[5,4‐f][1,4]oxazepin‐6(5H)‐yl)phenyl]cyclohexyl}acetic acid), a novel diacylglycerol acyltransferase 1 (DGAT‐1) inhibitor, in rat plasma and validated it using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC‐MS/MS). Rat plasma samples were processed following a protein precipitation method by using acetonitrile and were then injected into an LC‐MS/MS system for quantification. PF‐04620110 and imipramine (internal standard) were separated using a Hypersil Gold C₁₈ column, with a mixture of acetonitrile and 10 mm ammonium formate (90:10, v/v) as the mobile phase. The ion transitions monitored in positive‐ion mode [M + H]⁺ of multiple‐reaction monitoring were m/z 397.0 → 260.2 for PF‐04620110 and m/z 280.8 → 86.0 for imipramine. The detector response was specific and linear for PF‐04620110 at concentrations within the range 0.05–50 µg/mL and the signal‐to‐noise ratios for the samples were ≥10. The intra‐ and inter‐day precision and accuracy of the method matched the acceptance criteria for assay validation. PF‐04620110 was stable under various processing and/or handling conditions. PF‐04620110 concentrations in the rat plasma samples could be measured up to 24 h after intravenous or oral administration of PF‐04620110, suggesting that the assay is useful for pharmacokinetic studies in rats. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Synthesis of pyrene and benzo[a]pyrene adducts at the exocyclic amino groups of 2'-deoxyadenosine and 2'-deoxyguanosine by a palladium-mediated C-N bond-formation strategy

Single-electron oxidation of the carcinogenic hydrocarbon benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) is thought to result in a radical cation intermediate and this species has been proposed to cause alkylation at the nitrogens of the purine nucleobases. Although several different nucleoside adducts have been isolated as arising from this mode of metabolic activation, there are no selective, total syntheses of the stable exocyclic amino group adducts formed by the single-electron oxidation of any hydrocarbon with the purine 2'-deoxynucleosides to date. In this paper we disclose the synthesis of the model adducts N(6)-(1-pyrenyl)-2'-deoxyadenosine and N(2)-(1-pyrenyl)-2'-deoxyguanosine as well as the first synthesis of the carcinogen-linked nucleoside derivatives N(6)-(6-benzo[a]pyrenyl)-2'-deoxyadenosine and N(2)-(6-benzo[a]pyrenyl)-2'-deoxyguanosine via a palladium-mediated C-N bond formation. Two different coupling strategies were attempted: coupling of an aryl bromide with a suitably protected nucleoside and the coupling of an arylamine with a suitable halonucleoside. The former had somewhat limited applicability in that only N(6)-(1-pyrenyl)-2'-deoxyadenosine was prepared by this method; on the other hand, the latter was more general. However, there are noteworthy differences in the amination reactions at the C-6 and C-2 positions. Reactions at the C-6 resulted in the competing formation of a 1:2 amine-nucleoside adduct in addition to the desired monoaryl nucleoside. Such a dimer formation was not observed at the C-2. The C-2 adducts, however, displayed an interesting conformational behavior.     

Watching macromolecules diffuse at surfaces and under confinement

At the single-molecule level, this laboratory has been making direct measurements of polymer diffusion at and near surfaces. Parameters of special interest have been to understand (a) the role of molecular weight, N; (b) the role of surface coverage, which may range from dilute to saturated, and (c) the role of the surface, which may range from hard (a silicon wafer) to soft (a supported lipid bilayer), and (d) the use of external fields to direct the transport of small molecules through narrow surface channels that are one macromolecule thick.     

An integrated microfluidic device for the high-throughput screening of microalgal cell culture conditions that induce high growth rate and lipid content

This study describes the development of a microfluidic device for the high-throughput screening of culture conditions, such as the optimum sodium acetate concentration for promoting rapid growth and high lipid accumulation of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. An analysis of the microalgal growth on the microfluidic device revealed an optimum sodium acetate concentration of 5.72 g L^?1. The lipid content, determined by the 4,4-Difluoro-1,3,5,7-tetramethyl-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene (BODIPY® 505/515) staining method, increased with the sodium acetate concentration. The results were found to be statistically reproducible with respect to cell growth and lipid production. Other nutrient conditions, including the nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations, can also be optimized on the same microfluidic platform. The microfluidic device performance results agreed well with the results obtained from the flask-scale experiments, validating that the culture conditions were scalable. Finally, we, for the first time, established a method for the absolute quantification of the microalgal lipid content in the picoliter culture volumes by comparing the on-chip and off-chip data. In conclusion, we successfully demonstrated the high-throughput screening of sodium acetate concentrations that induced high growth rates and high lipid contents in C. reinhardtii cells on the microfluidic device.

Closed-packed lattice model for polymer solution systems considering the chain length dependence effect: Correlating LLE,VLE, and gel swelling behaviors using identical interaction energy parameters

We propose a new Helmholtz energy of mixing equation following the original Flory–Huggins (F–H) closed-packed lattice model. Also, to overcome F–H mean-field approximation, we introduce new universal constants to consider chain length dependence of polymer in solvent and consider specific interactions to describe strongly interacting polymer systems. Our proposed model successfully describes liquid–liquid equilibria (LLE) for binary polymer–solvent systems using identical interaction parameters which do not depend on the polymer molecular weight. We also describe vapor–liquid equilibria (VLE) for polymer/solvent systems and swelling equilibria of thermosensitive hydrogel systems using the same energy parameters obtained from LLE calculations.