New triterpene sulfates from Vietnamese red alga Tricleocarpa fragilis and their α-glucosidase inhibitory activity.

Three new compounds (methyl-3ß,25-dihydroxycycloart-23-en-29-oate 3-sulfate (1), methyl-3ß-hydroxy-25-methoxycycloart-23-en-29-oate 3-sulfate (2) and 3ß-hydroxy-25-methoxycycloart-23-ene 3-sulfate (3)) and a known one (3ß-hydroxycycloart-24-en-23-one 3-sulfate (4)) were isolated from Vietnamese red alga Tricleocarpa fragilis. All isolated compounds 1-4 showed potent inhibitory activity against yeast α-glucosidase with IC50 values of 16.62 ± 2.80, 36.34 ± 4.04, 30.19 ± 5.01 and 6.52 ± 0.17 µM, respectively. The docking data showed that the substitutions at C-3 and the differences in the side chain of cycloartane-skeleton could influence the interaction of molecule with enzyme, which was consistent with the experimental findings.[Formula: see text].

Recent progress with functional biosupramolecular systems.

The objective of this account is to summarize our recent progress with functional biosupramolecular systems concisely. The functions covered are artificial photosynthesis, anion transport, and sensing in lipid bilayer membranes. With artificial photosynthesis, the current emphasis is on the construction of ordered and oriented architectures on solid surfaces. Recent examples include the zipper assembly of photosystems with supramolecular n/p-heterojunctions and oriented antiparallel redox gradients. Current transport systems in lipid bilayers reveal new interactions at work. Examples include anion-macrodipole or anion-π interactions. Current attention with membrane-based sensing systems shifts from biosensor approaches with enzymatic signal generation to aptamers (i.e., the DNA version of immunosensing) and differential sensing with dynamic polyion-counterion transporters. The functional diversity accessible with biosupramolecular systems is highlighted, as is the critical importance of cross-fertilization at intertopical convergence zones.

Interface engineering of synthetic pores: towards hypersensitive biosensors.

Hydrophilic anchoring is introduced as a promising strategy to constructively control the various interactions of synthetic pore sensors with the surrounding biphasic environment. Artificial rigid-rod beta barrels are selected as classical synthetic multifunctional pores and random-coil tetralysines are attached as hydrophilic anchors. The synthesis of this advanced pore is accomplished in 32 steps from commercially available starting materials. With regard to pore activity as such, the key impact of hydrophilic anchoring is a change from a Hill coefficient n<1 to n=4. This change confirms successful suppression of the competing self-assembly with precipitation from the aqueous phase as the origin of the accomplished increase in pore activity. The hydrophilic anchors do not interfere with the blockage of the synthetic pore sensors by anionic analytes. In the case of stoichiometric binding of blockers (K(D)=EC(50) of the pore; EC(50)=concentration needed to observe 50 % pore activity), however, the increase in pore activity achieved by hydrophilic anchoring results in improved pore blockage under high dilution conditions. Controls confirm that this increase does not occur with analytes that do not exhibit stoichiometric binding (K(D)>EC(50)). These results not only reveal stoichiometric binding as the expected origin of the sensitivity limit of synthetic pore sensors, they also provide promising solutions for this problem. The combination of hydrophilic anchoring with targeted pore formation emerges as a particularly promising strategy to further reduce effective pore concentrations. The scope and limitations of this approach are exemplified with pertinent analyte pairs that are essential for the sensing of sucrose, lactose, acetate, and glutamate with synthetic pores in samples from the supermarket.

Synthetic pores with sticky pi-clamps.

In this report, we describe design, synthesis, evaluation and molecular dynamics simulations of synthetic multifunctional pores with pi-acidic naphthalenediimide clamps. Experimental evidence is provided for the formation of unstable but inert, heterogeneous and acid-insensitive dynamic tetrameric pores that are sensitive to base and ionic strength. Blockage experiments reveal that the introduction of aromatic electron donor-acceptor interactions provides access to the selective recognition of pi-basic intercalators within the pore. This breakthrough is important for the application of synthetic pores as multianalyte sensors.

Adhesive pi-clamping within synthetic multifunctional pores.

We report the design, synthesis, and evaluation of synthetic multifunctional pores with adhesive, that is, electron-deficient naphthalenediimide (NDI) pi-clamps at their inner surface. We find that, in lipid bilayer membranes, comparable synthetic pores with and without pi-clamps have similar, nanomolar activity. Functional relevance of adhesive pi-clamping within synthetic pores is demonstrated by means of an innovative in situ blocker screening method. The obtained line of experimental evidence includes (a) different blockage efficiency with and without pi-clamps (quantified as clamping factors), (b) increasing clamping factors with increasing blocker charge (supportive ion pairing), and, most importantly, (c) increasing clamping factors with increasing aromatic electron donor-acceptor interactions. The availability of advanced synthetic multifunctional pores with refined active sites is important for practical applications in domains such as drug discovery (enzyme inhibitor screening) and diagnostics (multianalyte sensing).

Synthetic multifunctional pores that open and close in response to chemical stimulation.

Studies on synthetic multifunctional pores with external and internal active sites for ligand gating and noncompetitive blockage are presented, with emphasis on the contribution of external ligands to the characteristics of pore. A comparison between different synthetic multifunctional pores reveals that the location of functional groups in rigid-rod beta-barrel pores is precisely reflected in the function: molecular recognition at the outer barrel surface results in pore opening, while molecular recognition at the inner barrel surface results in pore closing. Negligible nonspecific leakage, disappearance of pH gating, inhibition of intervesicular pore transfer, and maybe also the flickering of currents of single open pores characterize external ligands as adhesive cushions that liberate the pore from lateral pressure exerted by the surrounding membrane. Refined molecular models show good agreement with pore design and experimental facts with regard to function.

Synthetic multifunctional pores with external and internal active sites for ligand gating and noncompetitive blockage.

Design, synthesis, and multifunctionality of p-octiphenyl beta-barrel pores with external LRL triads and internal HH dyads are described. Molecular recognition of anionic fullerenes > calixarenes > pyrenes by guanidinium arrays at the outer pore surface is shown to result in pore opening, whereas alpha-helix recognition within the topologically matching internal space is shown to result in noncompetitive pore blockage. This experimental evidence for multifunctionality is supported by comparison with pertinent control pores and blockers, by structural studies using FRET from p-octiphenyl donors in the pore to BODIPY acceptors in the bilayer, and by molecular mechanics simulations. Practical usefulness of ligand-gated synthetic multifunctional pores is exemplified with the continuous detection of chemical processes.