Can glycoprofiling be helpful in detecting prostate cancer?

Glycans are chains of carbohydrates attached to proteins (glycoproteins and proteoglycans) or lipids (glycolipids). Glycosylation is a post-translational modification and glycans have a wide range of functions in the human body including involvement in oncological diseases. Change in a glycan structure can not only indicate the presence of a pathological process but, more importantly, in some cases also its stage. Thus, a glycan analysis has the potential to be an effective and reliable tool in cancer diagnostics. Lectins are proteins responsible for natural biorecognition of glycans; even carbohydrate moieties still attached to proteins or whole cells can be recognised by lectins, which makes them an ideal candidate for designing label-free biosensors for glycan analysis. This review seeks to summarise evidence that the glycoprofiling of biomarkers by lectin-based biosensors can be of significant help in detecting prostate cancer.     

Unusual Ultra‐Hydrophilic,Porous Carbon Cuboids for Atmospheric‐Water Capture

There is significant interest in high‐performance materials that can directly and efficiently capture water vapor, particularly from air. Herein, we report a class of novel porous carbon cuboids with unusual ultra‐hydrophilic properties, over which the synergistic effects between surface heterogeneity and micropore architecture is maximized, leading to the best atmospheric water‐capture performance among porous carbons to date, with a water capacity of up to 9.82 mmol g^?1 at P/P₀=0.2 and 25 °C (20 % relative humidity or 6000 ppm). Benefiting from properties, such as defined morphology, narrow pore size distribution, and high heterogeneity, this series of functional carbons may serve as model materials for fundamental research on carbon chemistry and the advance of new types of materials for water‐vapor capture as well as other applications requiring combined highly hydrophilic surface chemistry, developed hierarchical porosity, and excellent stability.     

Total Synthesis of Albicidin: A Lead Structure from Xanthomonas albilineans for Potent Antibacterial Gyrase Inhibitors

The peptide antibiotic albicidin, which is synthesized by the plant pathogenic bacterium Xanthomonas albilineans, displays remarkable antibacterial activity against various Gram‐positive and Gram‐negative microorganisms. The low amounts of albicidin obtainable from the producing organism or through heterologous expression are limiting factors in providing sufficient material for bioactivity profiling and structure–activity studies. Therefore, we developed a convergent total synthesis route toward albicidin. The unexpectedly difficult formation of amide bonds between the aromatic amino acids was achieved through a triphosgene‐mediated coupling strategy. The herein presented synthesis of albicidin confirms the previously determined chemical structure and underlines the extraordinary antibacterial activity of this compound. The synthetic protocol will provide multigram amounts of albicidin for further profiling of its drug properties.     

Peptoid‐Ligated Pentadecanuclear Yttrium and Dysprosium Hydroxy Clusters

A new family of pentadecanuclear coordination cluster compounds (from now on simply referred to as clusters) [{Ln₁₅(OH)₂₀(PepCO₂)₁₀(DBM)₁₀Cl}Cl₄] (PepCO₂=2‐[{3‐(((tert‐butoxycarbonyl)amino)methyl)benzyl}amino]acetate, DBM=dibenzoylmethanide) with Ln=Y and Dy was obtained by using the cell‐penetrating peptoid (CPPo) monomer PepCO₂H and dibenzoylmethane (DBMH) as supporting ligands. The combination of an inorganic cluster core with an organic cell‐penetrating peptoid in the coordination sphere resulted in a core component {Ln₁₅(μ₃‐OH)₂₀Cl}²⁴⁺ (Ln=Y, Dy), which consists of five vertex‐sharing heterocubane {Ln₄(μ₃‐OH)₄}⁸⁺ units that assemble to give a pentagonal cyclic structure with one Cl atom located in the middle of the pentagon. The solid‐state structures of both clusters were established by single‐crystal X‐ray crystallography. MS (ESI) experiments suggest that the cluster core is robust and maintained in solution. Pulsed gradient spin echo (PGSE) NMR diffusion measurements were carried out on the diamagnetic yttrium compound and confirmed the stability of the cluster in its dicationic form [{Y₁₅(μ₃‐OH)₂₀(PepCO₂)₁₀(DBM)₁₀Cl}Cl₂]²⁺. The investigation of both static (dc) and dynamic (ac) magnetic properties in the dysprosium cluster revealed a slow relaxation of magnetization, indicative of single‐molecule magnet (SMM) behavior below 8 K. Furthermore, the χT product as a function of temperature for the dysprosium cluster gave evidence that this is a ferromagnetically coupled compound below 11 K.     

Reductive Insertion of Elemental Chalcogens into Boron–Boron Multiple Bonds

The syntheses of sulfur‐ and selenium‐bridged cyclic compounds containing boron stabilized by N‐heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) have been achieved by the reductive insertion of elemental chalcogens into boron–boron multiple bonds. The three pairs of bonding electrons between the boron atoms in the triply bonded diboryne enabled six‐electron reduction reactions, resulting in the formation of [2.2.1]‐bicyclic systems wherein bridgehead boron atoms are spanned by three chalcogen bridges. A similar reaction using a diborene (boron–boron double bond) resulted in the reductive transfer of both pairs of bonding electrons to three sulfur atoms, yielding a NHC‐stabilized trisulfidodiborolane. The demonstration of these six‐ and four‐electron reductions lends support to the presence of three and two pairs of bonding electrons between the boron atoms of the diboryne and diborene, respectively, a fact that may be useful in future discussions on bond order.     

Dendronized Hyperbranched Macromolecules: Soft Matter with a Novel Type of Segmental Distribution

Dendronization of a hyperbranched polyester with different generation dendrons leads to pseudo‐dendritic structures. The hyperbranched core is modified by the divergent coupling of protected monomer units to the functional groups. Compared to dendrimers, the synthetic effort is significantly less, but the properties are very close to those of high‐generation dendrimers. The number of functional groups, molar mass, and rheology behavior even in the early generation (G1–G4) pseudo‐dendrimers strongly resembles the behavior of dendrimers in higher generations (G5–G8). Comparison of the segmental and internal structure with perfect dendrimers is performed using SANS, dynamic light scattering and viscosity analysis, microscopy and molecular dynamics simulation. The interpretation of the results reveals unique structural characteristics arising from lower segmental density of the core, which turns into a soft nano‐sphere with a smooth surface even in the first generation.     

Structure Elucidation and Activity of Kolossin A,the D‐/L‐Pentadecapeptide Product of a Giant Nonribosomal Peptide Synthetase

The largest continuous bacterial nonribosomal peptide synthetase discovered so far is described. It consists of 15 consecutive modules arising from an uninterrupted, fully functional gene in the entomopathogenic bacterium Photorhabdus luminescens. The identification of its cryptic biosynthesis product was achieved by using a combination of genome analysis, promoter exchange, isotopic labeling experiments, and total synthesis of a focused collection of peptide candidates. Although it belongs to the growing class of D ‐/ L ‐peptide natural products, the encoded metabolite kolossin A was found to be largely devoid of antibiotic activity and is likely involved in interspecies communication. A stereoisomer of this peculiar natural product displayed high activity against Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense, a recalcitrant parasite that causes the deadly disease African sleeping sickness.