Screening an In-House Isoquinoline Alkaloids Library for New Blockers of Voltage-Gated Na+ Channels Using Voltage Sensor Fluorescent Probes: Hits and Biases

Voltage-gated Na⁺ (Na_V) channels are significant therapeutic targets for the treatment of cardiac and neurological disorders, thus promoting the search for novel Na_V channel ligands. With the objective of discovering new blockers of Na_V channel ligands, we screened an In-House vegetal alkaloid library using fluorescence cell-based assays. We screened 62 isoquinoline alkaloids (IA) for their ability to decrease the FRET signal of voltage sensor probes (VSP), which were induced by the activation of Na_V channels with batrachotoxin (BTX) in GH3b6 cells. This led to the selection of five IA: liriodenine, oxostephanine, thalmiculine, protopine, and bebeerine, inhibiting the BTX-induced VSP signal with micromolar IC₅₀. These five alkaloids were then assayed using the Na⁺ fluorescent probe ANG-2 and the patch-clamp technique. Only oxostephanine and liriodenine were able to inhibit the BTX-induced ANG-2 signal in HEK293-hNa_V1.3 cells. Indeed, liriodenine and oxostephanine decreased the effects of BTX on Na⁺ currents elicited by the hNa_V1.3 channel, suggesting that conformation change induced by BTX binding could induce a bias in fluorescent assays. However, among the five IA selected in the VSP assay, only bebeerine exhibited strong inhibitory effects against Na⁺ currents elicited by the hNav1.2 and hNav1.6 channels, with IC₅₀ values below 10 µM. So far, bebeerine is the first BBIQ to have been reported to block Na_V channels, with promising therapeutical applications.     

Addition Reactions of Glycal Esters: Access to Glycosyl Donors of Kdo,d-glycero-d-talo- and d-glycero-d-galacto-2-Octulosonic Acid Residues

ABSTRACT

Addition reactions of O-acetylated glycal esters of Kdo mono-, α-(2→8)- and α-(2→4)- linked Kdo disaccharide derivatives 1a - c with NIS in acetic acid afforded good yields of trans-diaxial as well as minor amounts of trans-diequatorial and cis-configured 2-O-acetyl-3-deoxy-3-iodo derivatives, which were efficiently reduced with Bu₃SnH/AIBN to give the corresponding per-O-acetylated Kdo methyl ester derivatives. Similar reactions of 1a with NBS or NCS furnished the trans-diaxial 2-O-acetyl-3-bromo-3-deoxy- as well as 3-chloro-3-deoxy derivatives as the main products. Reaction of 1a with NBS in aqueous MeCN provided the 2,3-trans-bromohydrin derivative 11c, which upon treatment with DBU in MeCN gave the elimination product 11 and the α-2,3-anhydro derivative 12 as a suitable donor of glycosides with D-glycero-D-talo- or D-glycero-D-galacto configuration, respectively.     

The Pearcey Process

The extended Airy kernel describes the space-time correlation functions for the Airy process, which is the limiting process for a polynuclear growth model. The Airy functions themselves are given by integrals in which the exponents have a cubic singularity, arising from the coalescence of two saddle points in an asymptotic analysis. Pearcey functions are given by integrals in which the exponents have a quartic singularity, arising from the coalescence of three saddle points. A corresponding Pearcey kernel appears in a random matrix model and a Brownian motion model for a fixed time. This paper derives an extended Pearcey kernel by scaling the Brownian motion model at several times, and a system of partial differential equations whose solution determines associated distribution functions. We expect there to be a limiting nonstationary process consisting of infinitely many paths, which we call the Pearcey process, whose space-time correlation functions are expressible in terms of this extended kernel.     

Directional fractional kinetics

Kinetic equations used to describe systems with dynamical chaos may contain fractional derivatives of an order alpha in space and beta in time in order to represent processes of stickiness, intermittency, and so on. We demonstrate for a simple example that the kinetics is anisotropic not only in the angular dependence of the diffusion constant, but also in the angular dependence of the exponents alpha and beta. A theory of such kinetic processes has been developed on the basis of integral representation and asymptotic solutions for different cases have been obtained. The results show the existence of self-similar solutions as well as possible logarithmic deviations. (c) 2001 American Institute of Physics.     

Knudsen gas provides nanobubble stability

We provide a model for the remarkable stability of surface nanobubbles to bulk dissolution. The key to the solution is that the gas in a nanobubble is of Knudsen type. This leads to the generation of a bulk liquid flow which effectively forces the diffusive gas to remain local. Our model predicts the presence of a vertical water jet immediately above a nanobubble, with an estimated speed of ～3.3 m/s, in good agreement with our experimental atomic force microscopy measurement of ～2.7 m/s. In addition, our model also predicts an upper bound for the size of nanobubbles, which is consistent with the available experimental data.     

New cw far infrared molecular lasers from ClO2, HCCF,FCN, CH3NC,CH3F,and propynal

Many new laser lines between 100 μm and 1 mm have been detected by optically pumping several polyatomic molecules with C¹⁶O₂ and C¹⁸O₂ lasers. Tentative assignment of the lasing transitions has been possible in some cases.     

Infrared spectra of 1-phosphapropyne,CH3CP,and its perdeuteride,CD3CP

The infrared spectra of 1-phosphapropyne, CH₃CP, and its perdeuteride, CD₃CP, have been measured in the gaseous and solid states. The Q_K branches of perpendicular bands have been analyzed in terms of the usual quadratic expression in K. Fermi resonances were identified for the ν₁, ν₂ + ν₃, 2ν₃, 2ν₆⁰; and ν₅, 2ν₃ + ν₈ band systems of CH₃CP and the ν₁, 2ν₃, 2ν₆⁰; ν₆, ν₇ + ν₈; and ν₇, 3ν₈¹ band systems of CD₃CP. The xy Coriolis interaction was also identified between the ν₃ and ν₆ bands of the two species. All the fundamentals were assigned and the normal coordinate treatment was carried out along with the Coriolis constants, ζ^z.     

Finite barrier width effects on exciton states and optical properties in wurtzite InGaN/GaN quantum well

Exciton states and optical properties in wurtzite (WZ) InGaN/GaN quantum well (QW) are investigated theoretically, considering finite barrier width and built-in electric field effects. Numerical results show that when the barrier width increases, the ground-state exciton binding energy, the interband transition energy and the integrated absorption probability increase first and then they are insensitive to the variation of the barrier width. For any barrier width, the ground-state exciton binding energy and the integrated absorption probability have a maximum when the well width is 1 nm; moreover, the integrated absorption probability goes to zero when the well width is larger than 6 nm. In addition, the competition effects between the built-in electric field and quantum confinement are also investigated in the WZ InGaN/GaN QW.