Approaches to Improve Therapeutic Efficacy of Biodegradable PLA/PLGA Microspheres: A Review

This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview about various innovative strategies that have been employed by recent researchers to overcome with the shortcomings associated with traditional microspheres. Essentially, optimization strategies from structural aspects have been widely investigated to improve the properties (e.g., enhanced hydrophilicity, reduced initial burst release, etc.) of the pristine microspheres. These include bulk alteration, surface modification as well as the formation of sophisticated microsphere design such as core-shell structures. Other than that, various microencapsulation techniques and novel technologies such as spray drying, supercritical fluid technique, membrane, and microfluidics emulsification also have been explored in this review. Additionally, the impact of formulation-related aspects on the drug encapsulation efficiency, particles size and particles size distribution during double emulsification method will also be discussed and reviewed extensively based on the recent literatures reported.     

Site‐Selective Cysteine–Cyclooctyne Conjugation

We report a site‐selective cysteine–cyclooctyne conjugation reaction between a seven‐residue peptide tag (DBCO‐tag, Leu‐Cys‐Tyr‐Pro‐Trp‐Val‐Tyr) at the N or C terminus of a peptide or protein and various aza‐dibenzocyclooctyne (DBCO) reagents. Compared to a cysteine peptide control, the DBCO‐tag increases the rate of the thiol–yne reaction 220‐fold, thereby enabling selective conjugation of DBCO‐tag to DBCO‐linked fluorescent probes, affinity tags, and cytotoxic drug molecules. Fusion of DBCO‐tag with the protein of interest enables regioselective cysteine modification on proteins that contain multiple endogenous cysteines; these examples include green fluorescent protein and the antibody trastuzumab. This study demonstrates that short peptide tags can aid in accelerating bond‐forming reactions that are often slow to non‐existent in water.     

N‐Heterocyclic‐Carbene‐Treated Gold Surfaces in Pentacene Organic Field‐Effect Transistors: Improved Stability and Contact at the Interface

N‐Heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs), which react with the surface of Au electrodes, have been successfully applied in pentacene transistors. With the application of NHCs, the charge‐carrier mobility of pentacene transistors increased by five times, while the contact resistance at the pentacene–Au interface was reduced by 85 %. Even after annealing the NHC–Au electrodes at 200 °C for 2 h before pentacene deposition, the charge‐carrier mobility of the pentacene transistors did not decrease. The distinguished performance makes NHCs as excellent alternatives to thiols as metal modifiers for the application in organic field‐effect transistors (OFETs).     

A Ligand System for the Flexible Functionalization of Quantum Dots via Click Chemistry

We present a novel ligand, 5‐norbornene‐2‐nonanoic acid, which can be directly added during established quantum dot (QD) syntheses in organic solvents to generate “clickable” QDs at a few hundred nmol scale. This ligand has a carboxyl group at one terminus to bind to the surface of QDs and a norbornene group at the opposite end that enables straightforward phase transfer of QDs into aqueous solutions via efficient norbornene/tetrazine click chemistry. Our ligand system removes the traditional ligand‐exchange step and can produce water‐soluble QDs with a high quantum yield and a small hydrodynamic diameter of approximately 12 nm at an order of magnitude higher scale than previous methods. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by incubating azido‐functionalized CdSe/CdS QDs with 4T1 cancer cells that are metabolically labeled with a dibenzocyclooctyne‐bearing unnatural sugar. The QDs exhibit high targeting efficiency and minimal nonspecific binding.     

Polypeptides with High Zwitterion Density for Safe and Effective Therapeutics

The commonly used “stealth material” poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) effectively promotes the pharmacokinetics of therapeutic cargos while reducing their immune response. However, recent studies have suggested that PEG could induce adverse reactions, including the emergence of anti‐PEG antibodies and tissue histologic changes. An alternative stealth material with no or less immunogenicity and organ toxicity is thus urgently needed. We designed a polypeptide with high zwitterion density (PepCB) as a stealth material for therapeutics. Neither tissue histological changes in liver, kidney, or spleen, nor abnormal behavior, sickness or death was induced by the synthesized polymer after high‐dosage administration for three months in rats. When conjugated to a therapeutic protein uricase, the uricase–PepCB bioconjugate showed significantly improved pharmacokinetics and immunological properties compared with uricase–PEG conjugates.     

Noncanonical RNA Nucleosides as Molecular Fossils of an Early Earth—Generation by Prebiotic Methylations and Carbamoylations

The RNA‐world hypothesis assumes that life on Earth started with small RNA molecules that catalyzed their own formation. Vital to this hypothesis is the need for prebiotic routes towards RNA. Contemporary RNA, however, is not only constructed from the four canonical nucleobases (A, C, G, and U), it also contains many chemically modified (noncanonical) bases. A still open question is whether these noncanonical bases were formed in parallel to the canonical bases (chemical origin) or later, when life demanded higher functional diversity (biological origin). Here we show that isocyanates in combination with sodium nitrite establish methylating and carbamoylating reactivity compatible with early Earth conditions. These reactions lead to the formation of methylated and amino acid modified nucleosides that are still extant. Our data provide a plausible scenario for the chemical origin of certain noncanonical bases, which suggests that they are fossils of an early Earth.     

Combining Fullerenes and Zwitterions in Non‐Conjugated Polymer Interlayers to Raise Solar Cell Efficiency

Polymer zwitterions were synthesized by nucleophilic ring‐opening of 3,3′‐(but‐2‐ene‐1,4‐diyl)bis(1,2‐oxathiolane 2,2‐dioxide) (a bis‐sultone) with functional perylene diimide (PDI) or fullerene monomers. Integration of these polymers into solar cell devices as cathode interlayers boosted efficiencies of fullerene‐based organic photovoltaics (OPVs) from 2.75 % to 10.74 %, and of non‐fullerene‐based OPVs from 4.25 % to 10.10 %, demonstrating the versatility of these interlayer materials in OPVs. The fullerene‐containing polymer zwitterion ( C₆₀‐PZ ) showed a higher interfacial dipole (Δ) value and electron mobility than its PDI counterpart ( PDI‐PZ ), affording solar cells with high efficiency. The power of PDI‐PZ and C₆₀‐PZ to improve electron injection and extraction processes when positioned between metal electrodes and organic semiconductors highlights their promise to overcome energy barriers at the hard‐soft materials interface of organic electronics.     

Synthesis of a fluoro-diol and preparation of fluorinated waterborne polyurethanes with high elongation at break

In this study, a fluoro-diol, trifluoroethyl-2-methylpropanoate-β-dihydroxy ethylamine (TFMDA), was successfully synthesized by Michael Addition reaction between trifluoroethyl-2-methacrylate (TFEMA) and diethanolamine (DEA). The chemical structures were characterized by FT-IR and ¹H NMR methods. And then by the reaction of dicyclohexylmethylmethane-4,4′- diisocyanate (HMDI), poly(propylene glycol) (PPG), 2,2-dimethylolbutanoic acid (DMBA), diethylene glycol (DEG) and trifluoroethyl-2-methylpropanoate-β-dihydroxyethylamine (TFMDA), fluorinated waterborne polyurethane emulsions with different content of COOH and TFMDA were successfully prepared. It was demonstrated that all the polyurethane emulsions exhibited enhanced storage stability and all the polyurethane films possessed high elongation at break and exceeded 1000%. Addition of organic fluorine obviously improved the water-resistance property of the waterborne polyurethane films.     

Pyrrole‐Modified Subporphyrins Bearing a Sulfur‐Containing Heterocyclic Unit

As new pyrrole‐modified subporphyrins (PMSubPs) bearing a sulfur‐containing heterocyclic unit, dithiazolosubporphyrin 5 , dithiazinosubchlorin 6 , and oxodithiazinosubchlorin 7 were synthesized from α‐fluorosubchlorophin 2 via α’‐selective nitration with Cu(NO₃)₂ followed by double S_N2 reaction with methyl 3‐mercaptopropionate as a key step. Oxidation of 5 with H₂O₂ in the presence of a tungsten catalyst afforded S,S‐dioxodithiazolosubporphyrin 8 and nitration of 5 with Cu(NO₃)₂·3H₂O gave β‐nitrodithiazolosubporphyrin 9 or β,β‐dinitrodithiazolosubporphyrins 10a and 10b depending on reaction conditions. In the solid‐states, the dithiazole units in 8 and 9 are almost planar but the dithiazine unit in 6 and the 2‐oxodithiazine unit in 7 are non‐planar. Compared to subchlorophin 1 , dithiazolosubporphyrin 5 possesses a significantly reduced diatropic ring current and a greatly perturbed absorption spectrum showing largely split Q‐like bands at 501 and 660 nm. These perturbed electronic and optical properties of 5 are considerably attenuated in 6 and 7 and completely vanished in 8 , suggesting the importance of disulfide bond for the large perturbation.