Target Design of Novel Histone Deacetylase 6 Selective Inhibitors with 2-Mercaptoquinazolinone as the Cap Moiety

Epigenetic alterations found in all human cancers are promising targets for anticancer therapy. In this sense, histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACIs) are interesting anticancer agents that play an important role in the epigenetic regulation of cancer cells. Here, we report 15 novel hydroxamic acid-based histone deacetylase inhibitors with quinazolinone core structures. Five compounds exhibited antiproliferative activity with IC₅₀ values of 3.4–37.8 µM. Compound 8 with a 2-mercaptoquinazolinone cap moiety displayed the highest antiproliferative efficacy against MCF-7 cells. For the HDAC6 target selectivity study, compound 8 displayed an IC₅₀ value of 2.3 µM, which is 29.3 times higher than those of HDAC3, HDAC4, HDAC8, and HDAC11. Western blot assay proved that compound 8 strongly inhibited tubulin acetylation, a substrate of HDAC6. Compound 8 also displayed stronger inhibition activity against HDAC11 than the control drug Belinostat. The inhibitory mechanism of action of compound 8 on HDAC enzymes was then explored using molecular docking study. The data revealed a high binding affinity (−7.92 kcal/mol) of compound 8 toward HDAC6. In addition, dock pose analysis also proved that compound 8 might serve as a potent inhibitor of HDAC11.     

Self‐Assembly of Uranyl–Peroxide Nanocapsules in Basic Peroxidic Environments

A wide range of uranyl–peroxide nanocapsules have been synthesized using very simple reactants in basic media; however, little is known about the process to form these species. We have performed a density functional theory study of the speciation of the uranyl ions under different experimental conditions and explored the formation of dimeric species via a ligand exchange mechanism. We shed some light onto the importance of the excess of peroxide and alkali counterions as a thermodynamic driving force towards the formation of larger uranyl–peroxide species.     

Rapid initiation of reactions in Al/Ni multilayers with nanoscale layering

Research into nanoenergetic materials is enabling new capabilities for controlling exothermic reaction rates and energy output, as well as new methods for integrating these materials with conventional electronics fabrication techniques. Many reactions produce primarily heat, and in some cases it is desirable to increase the rate of heat release beyond what is typically observed. Here we investigate the Al-Ni intermetallic reaction, which normally propagates across films or foils at rates lower than 10 m/s. However, models and experiments indicate that local heating rates can be very high (10⁷ K/s), and uniform heating of such a multilayer film can lead to a rapid, thermally explosive type of reaction. With the hopes of using a device to transduce electrical energy to kinetic energy of a flyer plate in the timescale of 100's of nanoseconds, we have incorporated a Ni/Al nanolayer film that locally heats upon application of a large electrical current. We observed flyer plate velocities in the 2-6 km/s range, corresponding to 4-36 kJ/g in terms of specific kinetic energy. Several samples containing Ni/Al films with different bilayer thicknesses were tested, and many produced additional kinetic energy in the 1.1-2.3 kJ/g range, as would be expected from the Ni-Al intermetallic reaction. These results provide evidence that nanoscale Ni/Al layers reacted in the timescale necessary to contribute to device output.     

The Key Role of U28 in the Aqueous Self‐Assembly of Uranyl Peroxide Nanocages

For 11 years now, the structural diversity and aesthetic beauty of uranyl–peroxide capsules have fascinated researchers from the diverse fields of mineralogy, polyoxometalate chemistry, and nuclear fuel technologies. There is still much to be learned about the mechanisms of the self‐assembly process, and the role of solution parameters including pH, alkali template, temperature, time, and others. Here we have exploited the high solubility of the UO₂²⁺/H₂O₂/LiOH aqueous system to address the effect of the hydroxide concentration. Important techniques of this study are single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction, small‐angle X‐ray scattering, and Raman spectroscopy. Three key phases dominate the solution speciation as a function of time and the LiOH/UO₂²⁺ ratio: the uranyl–triperoxide monomer [UO₂(O₂)₃]^4?and the two capsules [(UO₂)(O₂)(OH)]₂₄^24?(U₂₄) and [(UO₂)(O₂)_1.5]₂₈^28?(U₂₈). When the LiOH/U ratio is around three, U₂₈ forms rapidly and this cluster can be isolated in high yield and purity. This result was most surprising and challenges the hypothesis that alkali templating is the most important determinant in the cluster geometry. Moreover, analogous experiments with KOH, NH₄OH, and TEAOH (TEA=tetraethylammonium) also rapidly yield U₂₈, which suggests that U₂₈ is the kinetically favored species. Complete mapping of the pH–time phase space reveals only a narrow window of the U₂₈ dominance, which is why it was previously overlooked as an important kinetic species in this chemical system, as well as others with different counterions.     

On the cohomology of generalized homogeneous spaces

We observe that work of Gugenheim and May on the cohomology of classical homogeneous spaces of Lie groups applies verbatim to the calculation of the cohomology of generalized homogeneous spaces , where is a finite loop space or a -compact group and is a ``subgroup' in the homotopical sense.

     

Influence of the non linear refraction index on the phase conjugation efficiency in stimulated scattering effects

The efficiency of the phase conjugated wave produced by stimulated backward scatterings has been calculated with the non linear propagation equation formalism. In the absence of optical Kerr effect, the phase conjugated efficiency remains smaller than 1. However, the calculations show that this efficiency may become much higher than 1 if the Kerr effect is taken into account.     

Correlation of speckle patterns generated by laser point source — Illuminated diffusers

In this paper it is shown that, when a ground-glass transilluminated by a diverging or converging beam is axially translated, there exists a particular plane in which the corresponding speckle pattern remains correlated. Consequently, under some experimental conditions on this incident beam and the geometry of the optical setup, a speckle pattern generated by a set of two parallel ground-glasses suffers no decorrelation when one of them is axially or laterally translated.     

Search for the ρρ enhancement near 1700 MeV/c in the reaction at 8.3 GeV/c

Results are presented from a search for a ρ⁰ρ⁰ enhancement in antiproton annihilations. A ρ⁰ρ⁰ resonance was recently observed in radiative ψ decays, and its existence has been supported by the results of an antiproton experiment at 5.7 GeV/c. No indication of this ρ⁰ρ⁰ enhancement is seen is our data, in direct contradiction with the earlier, lower statistics experiment.     

Synthesis and evaluation of a new non-fluorescent quencher in fluorogenic oligonucleotide probes for real-time PCR

A non-fluorescent quencher, based on the diaminoanthraquinone Disperse Blue 3, has been incorporated into oligonucleotides at the 5'-end, the 3'-end and internally as a thymidine derivative. Fluorimetry and fluorogenic real-time PCR experiments demonstrate that the quencher is effective with a wide range of fluorescent dyes. The anthraquinone moiety increases the melting temperature of DNA duplexes, thus allowing shorter, more discriminatory probes to be used. The quencher has been used in Scorpion primers and TaqMan probes for human DNA sequence recognition and mutation detection.