Nested Phosphorothioated Hybrid Primer-Mediated Isothermal Amplification for Specific and Dye-Based Subattomolar Nucleic Acid Detection at Low Temperatures.

Developing dye-based isothermal nucleic acid amplification (INAA) at low temperatures such as 37 °C remains a technical challenge. Here, we describe a nested phosphorothioated (PS) hybrid primer-mediated isothermal amplification (NPSA) assay which only utilizes EvaGreen (a DNA-binding dye) to achieve specific and dye-based subattomolar nucleic acid detection at 37 °C. The success of low-temperature NPSA essentially depends on employing Bacillus smithii DNA polymerase, a strand-displacing DNA polymerase with wide range of activation temperature. However, the NPSA's high efficiency entails nested PS-modified hybrid primers and the additives of urea and T4 Gene 32 Protein. To address the inhibition of urea on reverse transcription (RT), one-tube two-stage recombinase-aided RT-NPSA (rRT-NPSA) is established. By targeting human Kirsten rat sarcoma viral (KRAS) oncogene, NPSA (rRT-NPSA) stably detects 0.2 aM of KRAS gene (mRNA) within 90 (60) min. In addition, rRT-NPSA possesses subattomolar sensitivity to detect human ribosomal protein L13 mRNA. The NPSA/rRT-NPSA assays are also validated to obtain consistent results with PCR/RT-PCR methods on qualitatively detecting DNA/mRNA targets extracted from cultured cells and clinical samples. As a dye-based, low-temperature INAA method, NPSA inherently facilitates the development of miniaturized diagnostic biosensors.

Design, synthesis and bioactivity of novel phthalimide derivatives as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors.

A series of novel phthalimide derivatives related to benzylpiperazine were synthesized and evaluated as cholinesterase inhibitors. The results showed that all compounds were able to inhibit acetylcholinesterase (AChE), with two of them dramatically inhibiting butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE). Most compounds exhibited potent anti-AChE activity in the range of nM concentrations. In particular, compounds 7aIII and 10a showed the most potent activity with the IC50 values of 18.44 nM and 13.58 nM, respectively. To understand the excellent activity of these compounds, the structure-activity relationship was further examined. The protein-ligand docking study demonstrated that the target compounds have special binding modes and these results are in agreement with the kinetic study.