Self-Healing Oxalamide Organogelators of Vegetable Oil.

The aim of this study was to assess the gelling potential of chiral oxalamide derivatives in vegetable oils. Special emphasis was given to the potential applications of the examined oil gels as sustained delivery systems and as fat substitutes in food products. The applicability of oil gelators is envisaged in food, cosmetics, and the pharmaceutical industry. The regulations requiring the elimination of saturated fats and rising concerns among consumers health motivated us to investigate small organic molecules capable of efficiently transforming from liquid oil to a gel state. The oxalamide organogelators showed remarkable gelation efficiency in vegetable oils, thermal and mechanical stability, self-healing properties, and a long period of stability. The physical properties of the gels were analysed by TEM microscopy, DSC calorimetry, and oscillatory rheology. The controlled release properties of acetylsalicylic acid, ibuprofen, and hydrocortisone were analysed by the LC-MS method. The influence of the oil type (sunflower, soybean, and olive oil) on gelation efficiency of diverse oxalamide derivatives was examined by oscillatory rheology. The oxalamide gelators showed thermoreversible and thixotropic properties in vegetable oils with a minimum gelation concentration of just 0.025 wt%. The substitution of palm fats with gelled sunflower oil applied in cocoa and milk spreads at gelator concentrations lower than 0.2 wt% have shown promising viscoelastic properties compared to that of the original food products.

Synthesis of 14-membered enediyne-embedded macrocycles.

A concise and practical strategy towards a novel class of 14-membered macrocycles containing an enediyne (Z-3-ene-1,5-diyne) structural unit is described. A highly modular assembly of various precursors via sequential Ugi/Sonogashira reactions allowed the preparation of hybrid enediyne-peptide macrocycles in most cases as single diastereoisomers. Selected macrocyclic compounds showed moderate antiproliferative activity, and can be considered as templates suitable for further diversification in terms of ring size, shape, and stereochemistry.

Knock-down of AHCY and depletion of adenosine induces DNA damage and cell cycle arrest.

Recently, functional connections between S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase (AHCY) activity and cancer have been reported. As the properties of AHCY include the hydrolysis of S-adenosylhomocysteine and maintenance of the cellular methylation potential, the connection between AHCY and cancer is not obvious. The mechanisms by which AHCY influences the cell cycle or cell proliferation have not yet been confirmed. To elucidate AHCY-driven cancer-specific mechanisms, we pursued a multi-omics approach to investigate the effect of AHCY-knockdown on hepatocellular carcinoma cells. Here, we show that reduced AHCY activity causes adenosine depletion with activation of the DNA damage response (DDR), leading to cell cycle arrest, a decreased proliferation rate and DNA damage. The underlying mechanism behind these effects might be applicable to cancer types that have either significant levels of endogenous AHCY and/or are dependent on high concentrations of adenosine in their microenvironments. Thus, adenosine monitoring might be used as a preventive measure in liver disease, whereas induced adenosine depletion might be the desired approach for provoking the DDR in diagnosed cancer, thus opening new avenues for targeted therapy. Additionally, including AHCY in mutational screens as a potential risk factor may be a beneficial preventive measure.

Predicting antitumor activity of peptides by consensus of regression models trained on a small data sample.

Predicting antitumor activity of compounds using regression models trained on a small number of compounds with measured biological activity is an ill-posed inverse problem. Yet, it occurs very often within the academic community. To counteract, up to some extent, overfitting problems caused by a small training data, we propose to use consensus of six regression models for prediction of biological activity of virtual library of compounds. The QSAR descriptors of 22 compounds related to the opioid growth factor (OGF, Tyr-Gly-Gly-Phe-Met) with known antitumor activity were used to train regression models: the feed-forward artificial neural network, the k-nearest neighbor, sparseness constrained linear regression, the linear and nonlinear (with polynomial and Gaussian kernel) support vector machine. Regression models were applied on a virtual library of 429 compounds that resulted in six lists with candidate compounds ranked by predicted antitumor activity. The highly ranked candidate compounds were synthesized, characterized and tested for an antiproliferative activity. Some of prepared peptides showed more pronounced activity compared with the native OGF; however, they were less active than highly ranked compounds selected previously by the radial basis function support vector machine (RBF SVM) regression model. The ill-posedness of the related inverse problem causes unstable behavior of trained regression models on test data. These results point to high complexity of prediction based on the regression models trained on a small data sample.

Screening for glucose-triggered modifications of glutathione.

Nonenzymatic protein glycation is caused by a Schiff's base reaction between the aldehyde groups of reducing sugars and the primary amines of proteins. These structures may undergo further Amadori rearrangement and free radical-mediated oxidation to finally generate irreversible advanced glycation end products (AGEs). One of the factors known to modulate the glycation of proteins is glutathione, the most abundant nonprotein thiol tripeptide with the gamma-linkage, H-Glu(Cys-Gly-OH)-OH (GSH). Screening for products formed by GSH with D-glucose is an essential step in understanding the participation of GSH in glycation (the Maillard) reaction. Under the conditions used in these studies we observed N-(1-deoxy-D-fructos-1-yl)-pyroglutamic acid as the major glycation product formed in the mixtures of GSH and glucose in vitro. A RP HPLC/MS and tandem MS analyses of the GSH/glucose mixtures revealed that cleavage of the N-terminal glutamic acid and the formation of pyroglutamic acid-related Amadori product were accompanied by generation of Cys-Gly-derived Amadori and thiazolidine compounds.

Novel side-chain glucosylated and adamantylated [Asp(2)/Glu(2)]enkephalin analogs: synthesis and in vitro growth inhibition of human tumor cells.

A series of new backbone-modified Leu- and Met-enkephalin analogs (13-20 a and b) were synthesized. Backbone manipulations involved the replacement of the Gly(2) residue in Tyr-Gly-Gly-Phe-Leu/Met with side-chain glucosylated or adamantylated D/L-aspartic or -glutamic acids. The in vitro antiproliferative activity of these compounds was evaluated for several cell lines and the results were compared with the effect of Met-enkephalin, the native opioid growth factor. The tested compounds modestly inhibited the growth of the tumor cells (20-50% inhibition at millimolar concentrations). Among the tested compounds, Tyr-D-Glu(AdNH)-Gly-Phe-Met (20b) showed significant antiproliferative activity, somewhat more pronounced on MCF-7 (breast carcinoma) and MOLT-4 (lymphoblastic leukemia) cells.

Enediyne compounds - new promises in anticancer therapy.

Scientists of all kinds have long been intrigued by the nature, action and potential of natural toxins that possess exceptional antibacterial and anticancer activities. These compounds, named enediynes, are among the most effective chemotherapeutic agents known. Often compared with intelligent weapons, due to the unique structure and sophisticated mechanism by which they destroy double-helical DNA, enediyne antibiotics are nowadays the most promising leaders in the anticancer therapy. Apart from their diversity, enediyne compounds share some structural and functional similarities. One fragment of a structure is responsible for the recognition and transport, another part acts as molecular trigger while the third, reactive enediyne unit, undergoes Bergman cycloaromatization and causes DNA breakage. Members of the enediyne family are already in clinical use to treat various cancers, but more general use is limited by their complex structure, which makes them formidable targets for synthetic chemists. There are three main approaches in the design of new enediyne-related compounds: improvement of enediyne >>warheads<<, increasing the selectivity and control of chemical or photo-induced activation. This paper gives an overview of naturally occurring enediynes, their mode of action and efforts undertaken to design artificial enediyne-related DNA cleaving agents.

Tracing glycoprotein structures: electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometric analysis of sugar-peptide adducts.

Owing to the diversity of carbohydrate structures and their significance for the function of many biopolymers, structural analysis of various carbohydrate-related compounds is of great importance. Electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS) was used to establish the fragmentation behaviour of a range of sugar-peptide adducts as model compounds of widespread glycoprotein structures. The compounds used in this study were chosen to provide correlation of distinct fragment ions with specific structural differences, namely position and type of carbohydrate-peptide bond and structure of the sugar moiety. All compounds show N- and C-terminal sequence ions along with losses of up to three water molecules. Fructose-related Amadori compounds exhibit M + 78 modified N-terminal peptide fragment ions. Fragmentation of glucose-peptide esters is characterized by the sugar ring fragmentation. Additionally, under the ESI-MS conditions applied, the esters studied undergo intramolecular reaction giving cyclic sugar-peptide structures that can be traced by the presence of N-terminal peptide M + 42 adducts. Detailed analysis of cyclic fructose-related compound comprising structural features of both studied groups revealed a rich fragmentation pattern derived from amino acid residues and water molecules losses from [M - 2H(2)O + H](+) ion. Also, some interesting differences were found with respect to the nature of carbohydrate moieties.