An AIEE-active Triphenylethylene Derivative with Photoresponsive Character for Latent Fingerprints Detection via a Simple Soaking Method.

Latent fingerprints (LFPs) is one of the most important physical evidence in the criminal scene, playing an important role in forensic investigations. Therefore, developing highly sensitive and convenient materials for the visualization of LFPs is of great significance. We designed and synthesized an organic fluorescent molecule TP-PH with aggregation-induced enhanced emission (AIEE) activity. By simply soaking, blue fluorescent images with high contrast and resolution are readily developed on various surfaces including tinfoil, steel, glass and plastic. Remarkably, LFPs can be visualized within 5 min including the first-, second- and tertiary-level details. In addition, TP-PH exhibits interesting photoactivated fluorescence enhancement properties. Under irradiation of 365 nm UV light with a power density of 382 mW/cm2, the fluorescence quantum yield displays approximately 21.5-fold enhancement. Mechanism studies reveals that the photoactivated fluorescence is attributed to the irreversible cyclodehydrogenation reactions under UV irradiation. This work provides a guideline for the design of multifunctional AIEE fluorescent materials.

Synthesis of novel flexible tamoxifen analogues to overcome CYP2D6 polymorphism and their biological evaluation on MCF-7 cell line.

Tamoxifen (TAM) is currently the endocrine treatment of choice for all stages of breast cancer; it has proven success in ER positive and ER negative patients. TAM is activated by endogenous CYP450 enzymes to the more biologically active metabolites 4-hydroxytamoxifen and endoxifen mainly via CYP2D6 and CYP3A4/5. CYP2D6 has been investigated for polymorphism; there is a large interindividual variation in the enzyme activity, this drastically effects clinical outcomes of tamoxifen treatment. Here in we report the design and synthesis of 10 novel compounds bearing a modified tamoxifen skeleton, ring C is substituted with different ester groups to bypass the CYP2D6 enzyme metabolism and employ esterase enzymes for activation. All compounds endorse flexibility on ring A. Compounds (II-X) showed MCF-7% growth inhibition >50% at a screening dose of 10 µM. These results were validated by yeast estrogen screen (YES) and E-Screen assay combined with XTT assay. Compound II (E/Z 4-[1-4-(3-Dimethylamino-propoxy)-phenyl)-3-(4-methoxy-phenyl)-2-methyl-propenyl]-phenol) showed nanomolar antiestrogenic activity (IC50 = 510 nM in YES assay) and was five times more potent in inhibiting the growth of MCF-7 BUS (IC50 = 96 nM) compared to TAM (IC50 = 503 nM). Esterified analogues VI, VII were three times more active than TAM on MCF-7 BUS (IC50 = 167 nM). Novel analogues are prodrugs that can ensure equal clinical outcomes to all breast cancer patients.

Identification of a new tamoxifen-xanthene hybrid as pro-apoptotic anticancer agent.

Breast cancer is the most diagnosed type of cancer among women for which an exhaustive cure has not been discovered yet. Nowadays, tamoxifen still represents the gold standard for breast cancer therapy; it acts on both estrogen receptor-positive and estrogen receptor-negative breast cancers. Unfortunately, its toxicity and the related chemoresistance undermine its antitumor potential. In this paper, new tamoxifen-based derivatives with a rigid structural motif in their structure were designed, synthesized, and evaluated to assess their antitumor behavior. All the tested compounds affected estrogen receptor-positive tumor (MCF-7) cell growth, even with different extents, among which, the most active ones proved also to induce mitochondria-mediated apoptosis through activation of PARP cleavage, decrease in Bax/Bcl-2 ratio and increase in Bim gene expression levels. Here we found that the compound 1, carrying a rigid xanthene core, turned out to be the most promising of the set showing an activity profile comparable to that of tamoxifen. Furthermore, a more favorable genotoxic profile than tamoxifen made compound 1 a promising candidate for further studies.

Cytotoxicity and DNA binding property of the dimers of triphenylethylene-coumarin hybrid with one amino side chain.

Novel dimers of triphenylethylene-coumarin hybrid containing one amino side chain were designed and synthesized by the condensation of four dicarboxylic acids with the amino monomeric hybrids catalyzed by HATU and DIPEA at room temperature. The adding order of the reactants had a significant effect on the condensation reaction when the malonic acid was used. The dimeric compounds 7a and 7b linked by the malonic acid, showed a broad-spectrum and good anti-proliferative activity against four tumor cells and low cytotoxicity in osteoblast. UV-vis, fluorescence, and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopies and thermal denaturation exhibited that compounds 7b, 8b, 9b, and 10b had significant interactions with Ct-DNA by the intercalative mode of binding. Both the DNA binding properties and the anti-proliferative activities would be enhanced by dimerization of the monomeric hybrid with one amino side chain, and were significantly affected by the length of the linker (dicarboxylic acids).

Cytotoxicity and DNA binding property of triphenylethylene-coumarin hybrids with two amino side chains.

Novel triphenylethylene-coumarin hybrids containing two amino side chains were designed and synthesized. Some of these 3,4-diphenyl coumarins, 7b-c (the double chains at 4-position on 3-,4-phenyl, respectively), and 13b-f (the double chains at 4-position on 3-phenyl and 7-position, respectively), showed a broad-spectrum and good anti-proliferative activity against five tumor cells and low cytotoxicity in osteoblast. UV-vis, fluorescence, and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopies and thermal denaturation exhibited that compounds 7b (R=piperidinyl), 7e (R=NEt2), and 7f (R=4-methylpiperazinyl) had significant interactions with Ct-DNA by the intercalative mode of binding. Structure activity relationships (SARs) analysis suggested that the location of the two amino alkyl chains would play an important role both in the compounds against tumor cells proliferation and their interactions with DNA.

Asymmetric Triphenylethylene-Based Hole Transporting Materials for Highly Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells.

Molecular hole-transporting materials (HTMs) having triphenylethylene central core were designed, synthesized, and employed in perovskite solar cell (PSC) devices. The synthesized HTM derivatives were obtained in a two- or three-step synthetic procedure, and their characteristics were analyzed by various thermoanalytical, optical, photophysical, and photovoltaic techniques. The most efficient PSC device recorded a 23.43% power conversion efficiency. Furthermore, the longevity of the device employing V1509 HTM surpassed that of PSC with state-of-art spiro-OMeTAD as the reference HTM.

Targeting aromatase to restrain oestrogen production and developing efficacious interventions against ER-positive cancer.

Being the most frequently diagnosed disease, breast cancer is mainly classified as ER+ cancers due to the detection of estrogen receptor (ER) expression. Irrespetive of the successes achieved in the treatment of ER+ cancers by the use of selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) drugs like tamoxifen, resistance to the drug is a major clinical obstacle. Working on alternative treatment approaches, here, on the basis of mode of action of aromatase for the conversion of androstenedione to oestrogen, a series of compounds was developed. Results of all the experiments performed with these compounds led to the identification of three highly potent compounds 5d, 5e and 7d with their IC50 61.0, 83.0 and 54.0 nM for aromatase. Indicating their effectiveness in the treatment of ER+ cancers, appreciable tumor growth inhibitory activities of these compounds were observed against breast cancer cell lines. Further, the physico-chemical experiments including plasma protein binding, HSA binding, kinetic studies, solubility, ADME properties and molecular modelling studies supported the drug like features of the compounds.

Design, synthesis, and anti-tumor activities of novel triphenylethylene-coumarin hybrids, and their interactions with Ct-DNA.

Novel triphenylethylene-coumarin hybrid derivatives containing different amounts of amino side chains were designed and synthesized in good yields under microwave radiation. The derivatives 5b-d which possessed two amino side chains (except morpholinyl) showed a broad-spectrum and good anti-proliferative activity against five tumor cells and low cytotoxicity in osteoblast. UV-vis, fluorescence, and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopies and thermal denaturation exhibited that compounds 10 c, 5c, and 13c bearing amino side chain (except morpholinyl) on 4-phenyl had significant interactions with Ct-DNA by the intercalative mode of binding. Structure-activity relationships (SARs) analysis suggested that the amino alkyl chain would play an important role both in the compounds against tumor cells proliferation and their interactions with DNA.

Synthesis of Triphenylethylene-Naphthalimide Conjugates as topoisomerase-IIα inhibitor and HSA binder.

A series of triphenylethylene-naphthalimide (TPE-naph) conjugates was synthesized by a molecular hybridization technique, and their anticancer activity was evaluated in vitro on 60 human cancer cell lines through their cytotoxicity. The ratios of E and Z isomers were determined on the basis of HPLC methodology and NMR spectroscopy. The structure-activity relationship for anticancer activity was deduced on the basis of the nature and bulkiness of the amine attached to the C-4 position of the naphthalene ring. Experimental and molecular modeling studies of the most active TPE-naph conjugate bearing a morpholinyl group showed that it was able to inhibit topoisomerase-II (TOPO-II) as a possible intracellular target. Moreover, the transportation behavior of TPE-naph conjugate towards human serum albumin (HSA) indicated efficient binding affinity. The steady-state and time-dependent fluorescent results suggested that this conjugate quenched HSA significantly through static as well as dynamic quenching. Thus, this report discloses the scope of triphenylethylene-naphthalimide (TPE-naph) conjugates as efficient anticancer agents.

Efficient Non-doped Blue Fluorescent Organic Light-Emitting Diodes Based on Anthracene-Triphenylethylene Derivatives.

The development of efficient blue materials has been a continuous research topic in the field of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). In this paper, three aggregation-induced emission enhancement active blue emitters, PIAnTPE, TPAAnTPE and CzAnTPE, are successfully synthesized by attaching a triphenylethylene unit and phenanthroimidazole/triphenylamine/carbazole moieties to the 9,10-positions of anthracene, respectively. The three compounds exhibit good thermal stabilities, appropriate for the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy levels and display high photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQYs) of 65, 70 and 46 % in the solid state. Non-doped blue devices using PIAnTPE, TPAAnTPE and CzAnTPE as the emitting layers show good electroluminescent performances, with the maximum external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) of 4.46, 4.13 and 4.04 %, respectively. More importantly, EQEs of all the three devices can be still retained when the luminescence reaches 1000 cd m-2 , exhibiting quite small efficiency roll-offs in the non-doped OLEDs.

Design, Synthesis, and Electrofluorochromism of New Triphenylamine Derivatives with AIE-Active Pendent Groups.

Triphenylamine (TPA) and 4,4'-dimethoxy-triphenylamine (TPAOMe) derivatives were successfully linked with two high-performance AIEgens, triphenylethylene (TPE) and benzo[ b]thiophene-1,1-dioxide (BTO), to obtain four aggregation-induced emission and electro-active materials, TPETPA, BTOTPA, TPETPAOMe, and BTOTPAOMe. The effects on photoluminescence characteristics and electrochromic (EC) and electrofluorochromic (EFC) behaviors in cross-linking gel-type devices derived from the prepared materials were systematically investigated. Furthermore, heptyl viologen was introduced into the EFC devices to enhance EC performance including lower working potential, faster switching time, and superior stability.