Kinetically and thermodynamically controlled one-pot growth of gold nanoshells with NIR-II absorption for multimodal imaging-guided photothermal therapy.

Since the successful clinical trial of AuroShell for photothermal therapy, there is currently intense interest in developing gold-based core-shell structures with near-infrared (NIR) absorption ranging from NIR-I (650-900 nm) to NIR-II (900-1700 nm). Here, we propose a seed-mediated successive growth approach to produce gold nanoshells on the surface of the nanoscale metal-organic framework (NMOF) of UiO-66-NH2 (UiO = the University of Oslo) in one pot. The key to this strategy is to modulate the proportion of the formaldehyde (reductant) and its regulator / oxidative product of formic acid to harness the particle nucleation and growth rate within the same system. The gold nanoshells propagate through a well-oriented and controllable diffusion growth pattern (points → facets → octahedron), which has not been identified. Most strikingly, the gold nanoshells prepared hereby exhibit an exceedingly broad and strong absorption in NIR-II with a peak beyond 1300 nm and outstanding photothermal conversion efficiency of 74.0%. Owing to such superior performance, these gold nanoshells show promising outcomes in photoacoustic (PA), computed tomography (CT), and photothermal imaging-guided photothermal therapy (PTT) for breast cancer, as demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo.

Catecholic amides as potential selective phosphodiesterase 4D inhibitors: Design, synthesis, pharmacological evaluation and structure-activity relationships.

In this study, a series of catechol-based amides (8a-n) with different amide linkers linking the catecholic moiety to the terminal phenyl ring was designed and synthesized as potent phosphodiesterase (PDE) 4D inhibitors. The inhibitory activities of these compounds were evaluated against the core catalytic domains of human PDE4 (PDE4CAT), full-length PDE4B1 and PDE4D7 enzymes, and other PDE family members. The results indicated the majority of compounds 8a-n displayed moderate to good inhibitory activities against PDE4CAT. Among these compounds, compound 8 j with a short amide linker (-CONHCH2-) displayed comparable PDE4CAT inhibitory activity (IC50=410 nM) with rolipram. More interestingly, compound 8 g, a potent and selective PDE4D inhibitor (IC50=94 nM), exhibited a 10-fold selectivity over the PDE4B subtypes and an over 1000-fold selectivity against other PDE family members. Docking simulations suggested that 8 g forms three extra H-bonds with the N-H of residue Asn487 and two water molecules.

A controlled release system of superoxide dismutase by electrospun fiber and its antioxidant activity in vitro.

In this paper, a new controlled release system of superoxide dismutase was developed by electrospun composite fibers. Highly loading efficacy of sod from 85.6 to 98.0% was achieved. The superoxide dismutase can be released from the system for 234 h, and obvious initial burst release of superoxide dismutase in vitro was not observed. In vitro release rate of superoxide dismutase in the first 66 h basically is faster than the corresponding rate at a later stage. Antioxidant activity of the released superoxide dismutase was still high, and it remained stable during the preparation by electrospinning and release experiment. We hope this composite system be used as an implanted form, in the treatment for several disease involved with the superoxide radical in the future.

Discovery of 9H-purins as potential tubulin polymerization inhibitors: Synthesis, biological evaluation and structure-activity relationships.

Two series of N-(4-methoxyphenyl)-N-methyl-9H-purin-6-amines (9a-d and 10a-h) and 9-substituted benzyl-6-chloro-9H-purines (11a-h) were designed and synthesized. Their antiproliferative activities against human myelogenous leukemia (K562), human neuroblastoma (SH-SY5Y) and gastric cancer (AGS) cell lines were evaluated using the MTT assay. The preliminary results indicated that compounds 9d and 11e-h displayed low-micromole GI50 values against all tested cell lines. In addition, compounds 10b and 10d showed wonderful antiproliferative activities towards SH-SY5Y cells with selectivity of >230-fold over K562 and AGS cells. Among them, compounds 9d, 10b, 10d and 11g with good antitumor activities exhibited high selectivity for tumor cell lines over immortalized mouse hippocampal (HT22) cell line. Moreover, compound 9d with sub-micromole GI50 values toward AGS cells exhibited moderate tubulin polymerization inhibitory activity, and induced apoptosis at G2/M phase arrest with a dose-dependent manner in the human AGS cells.

Synthesis and anticancer activities of 3-arylflavone-8-acetic acid derivatives.

This paper describes the synthesis and the antiproliferative activities of compounds 9a-r, 3-aryl analogs of flavone-8-acetic acid that bear diverse substituents on the benzene rings at the 2- and 3-positions of the flavone nucleus. Their direct and indirect cytotoxicities were evaluated against HT-29 human colon adenocarcinoma cell lines, A549 lung adenocarcinoma cell lines and Human Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (HPBMCs). The results indicate that most of the compounds bearing electron-withdrawing substituents (9b-m) exhibited moderate direct cytotoxicities. And compounds 9e and 9i showed comparable indirect cytotoxicities with 5, 6-dimethylxanthenone-4-acetic acid (DMXAA), and low direct cytotoxicities toward HPBMCs. Interestingly, the compounds 9n-r bearing methoxy groups at the 2- or 3-position of the flavone nucleus exhibited higher indirect cytotoxicities against A549 cell lines than DMXAA, and lower cytotoxicities against HPBMCs. In addition, compounds 9p-r were found to be able to induce tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) production in HPBMCs.