Synergistic antibacterial and antibiotic effects of bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloids on clinical isolates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

The antibacterial activity of two bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloids, tetrandrine (Tet) and demethyltetrandrine (d-Tet), alone and in combination with the antibiotics ampicillin (AMP), azithromycin (AZM), cefazolin (CFZ) and levofloxacin (LEV) against 10 clinical isolates of staphylococcal chromosomal cassette mec (SCCmec) III type methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was studied. Susceptibility to each agent alone was tested using a broth microdilution method. The chequerboard and time-kill tests were used for the combined evaluations. The minimal inhibitory concentrations/minimal bactericidal concentrations (MICs/MBCs, μg/mL) ranges alone were 64-128/256-1,024 for both Tet and d-Tet. Significant synergies against 90% of the isolates were observed for the Tet/CFZ combination, with their MICs being reduced by 75-94% [fractional inhibitory concentration indices (FICIs) ranged from 0.188 to 0.625], respectively. An additive bactericidal result was also observed for the Tet (d-Tet)/CFZ combination in the time-kill experiments. These results demonstrated that Tet and d-Tet enhanced the in vitro inhibitory efficacy of CFZ. Their potential for combinatory therapy of patients infected with MRSA warrants further pharmacological investigation.     

Ultra-sensitive microfibre absorption detection in a microfluidic chip

We report a microfibre absorption sensor by using a 900 nm diameter silica microfibre embedded in a 125 μm wide microchannel with a detection length of 2.5 cm. Investigated by measuring the absorbance of methylene blue (MB), the sensor shows a detection limit down to 50 pM with excellent reversibility in a concentration range of 0-5 nM. The sensor has also been applied to bovine serum albumin (BSA) measurement, with a detection limit of 10 fg mL(-1). In addition, the sample volume requirement is merely 500 nL with a probing light power of about 150 nW, which is very promising for safe detection of single or a few molecules of biological specimens.     

A local average connectivity-based method for identifying essential proteins from the network level

Identifying essential proteins is very important for understanding the minimal requirements of cellular survival and development. Fast growth in the amount of available protein-protein interactions has produced unprecedented opportunities for detecting protein essentiality from the network level. Essential proteins have been found to be more abundant among those highly connected proteins. However, there exist a number of highly connected proteins which are not essential. By analyzing these proteins, we find that few of their neighbors interact with each other. Thus, we propose a new local method, named LAC, to determine a protein's essentiality by evaluating the relationship between a protein and its neighbors. The performance of LAC is validated based on the yeast protein interaction networks obtained from two different databases: DIP and BioGRID. The experimental results of the two networks show that the number of essential proteins predicted by LAC clearly exceeds that explored by Degree Centrality (DC). More over, LAC is also compared with other seven measures of protein centrality (Neighborhood Component (DMNC), Betweenness Centrality (BC), Closeness Centrality (CC), Bottle Neck (BN), Information Centrality (IC), Eigenvector Centrality (EC), and Subgraph Centrality (SC)) in identifying essential proteins. The comparison results based on the validations of sensitivity, specificity, F-measure, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy consistently show that LAC outweighs these seven previous methods.     

Ligand-free palladium-catalyzed intramolecular Heck reaction of secondary benzylic bromides

A facile ligand-free palladium-catalyzed intramolecular Heck reaction of β-hydrogen-containing secondary benzylic bromides was developed, which affords pyrroline derivatives with good regioselectivities.     

A facile process for the asymmetric synthesis of β-trifluoromethylated β-amino ketones via addition of ketone enolates to sulfinylimine

An efficient method for the asymmetric synthesis of β-trifluoromethylated β-amino ketones via addition of ketone-derivative enolates to trifluoromethylated sulfinylimine has been developed, with good chemical yields and excellent diastereoselectivities. This practical method was also proved to be suitable for large-scale preparation.     

Fabrication of doxorubicin functionalized gold nanorod probes for combined cancer imaging and drug delivery

A novel strategy was utilized to develop a stable probe based on thiolated poly(ethylene glycol) (SH-PEG) and polyacrylic acid (PAA) functionalized gold nanorods (GNRs), following the attachment of an anti-cancer drug, doxorubicin (DOX), to obtain PAA-PEG-GNRs@DOX assemblies. Importantly, the obtained probe as a novel drug-delivery and fluorescent imaging agent for simultaneous imaging of and drug delivery to prostate cancer cells has also been demonstrated. In addition to designing PAA-PEG-GNRs that passively target tumor cells for cancer-fighting drug therapy, GNRs are also regarded as hyperthermia agents for photokilling cancer cells, so that the tumor would be attacked on two fronts simultaneously.     

A new conformer of indium germanate InGe3O7.5(en): conformational polymorphism in germanate family

A new conformer of indium germanate InGe(3)O(7.5)(en) (denoted as δ-type), constructed with the flexible unit of In(2)Ge(6)O(15)N(2) was successfully prepared through a solvothermal method. The crystal data for the δ-type InGe(3)O(7.5)(en) are listed as follows: triclinic, space group P-1 (No.2), a = 7.826(4) ?, b = 8.287(3) ?, c = 9.224(4) ?, α = 71.887(17)°, β = 85.343(18)°, γ = 63.734(12)°, V = 508.64 ?(3), Z = 2. Four relevant conformers of indium germanate are compared with each other. The conformational polymorphism in the germanate family is reported for the first time.     

Through-space charge-transfer emitting biphenyls containing a boryl and an amino group at the o,o'-positions

A new class of organoboron compounds containing a boryl and an amino group at the o,o'-positions of biphenyls display bright through-space intramolecular charge transfer fluorescence owing to the close contact between the boryl and the amino groups. Binding of the fluoride ions results in the remarkable blue shift and color change of the fluorescence, enabling colorimetric and ratiometric fluoride ion sensing.     

Ir(I)-catalyzed enantioselective secondary sp3 C-H bond activation of 2-(alkylamino)pyridines with alkenes

A cationic Ir(I)-tolBINAP complex catalyzed an enantioselective C-C bond formation initiated by secondary sp(3) C-H bond cleavage adjacent to a nitrogen atom. The reaction of 2-(alkylamino)pyridines with various alkenes gave chiral amines in good yields with high enantiomeric excesses.     

Rubesanolides A and B: diterpenoids from Isodon rubescens

From the medicinal plant Isodon rubescens, we isolated two novel diterpenes, rubesanolides A (1) and B (2). The compounds contain a unique β-lactone subgroup. This is the first discovery for a natural diterpene having rings A, B, and C in chair, boat, and twist-chair conformations, respectively. The structures were elucidated by analysis of spectroscopic data, and the absolute configuration of 1 was determined by X-ray diffraction.