A Transformable Specific-Responsive Peptide for One-Step Synergistic Therapy of Bladder Cancer.

Synergistic therapy has shown greater advantages compared with monotherapy. However, the complex multiple-administration plan and potential side effects limit its clinical application. A transformable specific-responsive peptide (TSRP) is utilized to one-step achieve synergistic therapy integrating anti-tumor, anti-angiogenesis and immune response. The TSRP is composed of: i) Recognition unit could specifically target and inhibit the biological function of FGFR-1; ii) Transformable unit could self-assembly and trigger nanofibers formation; iii) Reactive unit could specifically cleaved by MMP-2/9 in tumor micro-environment; iv) Immune unit, stimulate the release of immune cells when LTX-315 (Immune-associated oncolytic peptide) exposed. Once its binding to FGFR-1, the TSRP could cleaved by MMP-2/9 to form the nanofibers on the cell membrane, with a retention time of up to 12 h. Through suppressing the phosphorylation levels of ERK 1/2 and PI3K/AKT signaling pathways downstream of FGFR-1, the TSRP significant inhibit the growth of tumor cells and the formation of angioginesis. Furthermore, LTX-315 is exposed after TSRP cleavage, resulting in Calreticulin activation and CD8+ T cells infiltration. All above processes together contribute to the increasing survival rate of tumor-bearing mice by nearly 4-folds. This work presented a unique design for the biological application of one-step synergistic therapy of bladder cancer.

Photoinduced Dehydrogenative Amination of Quinoxalin-2(1H)-ones with Air as an Oxidant.

A facile and eco-friendly photoinduced dehydrogenative amination of quinoxalin-2(1H)-ones with aliphatic amines without any metal, strong oxidant, and photocatalyst has been established for the first time. This reaction proceeding efficiently with air as the sole oxidant at room temperature obtains a wide range of 3-aminoquinoxaline-2(1H)-ones in high yields with excellent functional group tolerance. The mechanistic studies show an interesting involvement of quinoxalin-2(1H)-ones as a photosensitizer, which eliminates the requirement for external photocatalysts.

A Self-Disguised Nanospy for Improving Drug Delivery Efficiency via Decreasing Drug Protonation.

Nanoscale drug carriers play a crucial role in reducing side effects of chemotherapy drugs. However, the mononuclear phagocyte system (MPS) and the drug protonation after nanoparticles (NPs) burst release still limit the drug delivery efficiency. In this work, a self-disguised Nanospy is designed to overcome this problem. The Nanospy is composed of: i) poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid)-polyethylene glycol (PLGA-PEG) loading doxorubicin is the core structure of the Nanospy. ii) CD47 mimic peptides (CD47p) is linked to NPs which conveyed the "don't eat me" signal. iii) 4-(2-aminoethyl) benzenesulfonamide (AEBS) as the inhibitor of Carbonic anhydrase IX (CAIX) linked to NPs. Briefly, when the Nanospy circulates in the bloodstream, CD47p binds to the regulatory protein α (SIRPα) on the surface of macrophages, which causes the Nanospy escapes from phagocytosis. Subsequently, the Nanospy enriches in tumor and the AEBS reverses the acidic microenvironment of tumor. Due to above characteristics, the Nanospy reduces liver macrophage phagocytosis by 25% and increases tumor in situ DOX concentration by 56% compared to PLGA@DOX treatment. In addition, the Nanospy effectively inhibits tumor growth with a 63% volume reduction. This work presents a unique design to evade the capture of MPS and overcomes the influence of acidic tumor microenvironment (TME) on weakly alkaline drugs.

Design, Synthesis and Various Bioactivity of Acylhydrazone-Containing Matrine Analogues.

Compounds with acylhydrazone fragments contain amide and imine groups that can act as electron donors and acceptors, so they are easier to bind to biological targets and thus generally exhibit significant biological activity. In this work, acylhydrazone fragments were introduced to the C-14 or C-11 position of matrine, a natural alkaloid, aiming to enhance their biological activities. The result of this bioassay showed that many synthesized compounds exhibited excellent anti-virus activity against the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). Seventeen out of 25 14-acylhydrazone matrine derivatives and 17 out of 20 11-butanehydrazone matrine derivatives had a higher inhibitory activity against TMV than the commercial antiviral agent Ribavirin (the in vitro activity, in vivo inactivation, curative and protection activities at 500 µg/mL were 40.9, 36.5 ± 0.9, 38.0 ± 1.6 and 35.1 ± 2.2%, respectively), and four 11-butanehydrazone matrine derivatives even had similar to or higher activity than the most efficient antiviral agent Ningnanmycin (55.4, 57.8 ± 1.4, 55.3 ± 0.5 and 60.3 ± 1.2% at 500 µg/mL for the above four test modes). Among them, the N-benzyl-11-butanehydrazone of matrine formed with 4-bromoindole-3-carboxaldehyde exhibited the best anti-TMV activity (65.8, 71.8 ± 2.8, 66.8 ± 1.3 and 69.5 ± 3.1% at 500 µg/mL; 29, 33.5 ± 0.7, 24.1 ± 0.2 and 30.3 ± 0.6% at 100 µg/mL for the above four test modes), deserving further investigation as an antiviral agent. Other than these, the two series of acylhydrazone-containing matrine derivatives were evaluated for their insecticidal and fungicidal activities. Several compounds were found to have good insecticidal activities against diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella) and mosquito larvae (Culex pipiens pallens), showing broad biological activities.

Achievements and perspectives of synthetic biology in botanical insecticides.

Botanical insecticides are the origin of all insecticidal compounds. They have been widely used to control pests in crops for a long time. Currently, the commercial production of botanical insecticides extracted from plants is limited because of insufficient raw material supply. Synthetic biology is a promising and effective approach for addressing the current problems of the production of botanical insecticides. It is an emerging biological research hotspot in the field of botanical insecticides. However, the biosynthetic pathways of many botanical insecticides are not completely elucidated. On the other hand, the cytotoxicity of botanical pesticides and low efficiency of these biosynthetic enzymes in new hosts make it still challenging for their heterologous production. In the present review, we summarized the recent developments in the heterologous production of botanical insecticides, analyzed the current challenges, and discussed the feasible production strategies, focusing on elucidating biosynthetic pathways, enzyme engineering, host engineering, and cytotoxicity engineering. Looking to the future, synthetic biology promises to further advance heterologous production of more botanical pesticides.

Synthesis and Evaluation of 11-Butyl Matrine Derivatives as Potential Anti-Virus Agents.

Matrine derivatives were reported to have various biological activities, especially the ester, amide or sulfonamide derivatives of matrine deriving from the hydroxyl or carboxyl group at the end of the branch chain after the D ring of matrine is opened. In this work, to investigate whether moving away all functional groups from the C-11 branch chain could have an impact on the bioactivities, such as anti-tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), insecticidal and fungicidal activities, a variety of N-substituted-11-butyl matrine derivatives were synthesized. The obtained bioassay result showed that most N-substituted-11-butyl matrine derivatives had obviously enhanced anti-TMV activity compared with matrine, especially many compounds had good inhibitory activity close to that of commercialized virucide Ningnanmycin (inhibition rate 55.4, 57.8 ± 1.4, 55.3 ± 0.5 and 60.3 ± 1.2% at 500 µg/mL; 26.1, 29.7 ± 0.2, 24.2 ± 1.0 and 27.0 ± 0.3% at 100 µg/mL, for the in vitro activity, in vivo inactivation, curative and protection activities, respectively). Notably, N-benzoyl (7), N-benzyl (16), and N-cyclohexylmethyl-11-butyl (19) matrine derivatives had higher anti-TMV activity than Ningnanmycin at both 500 and 100 µg/mL for the four test modes, showing high potential as anti-TMV agent. Furthermore, some compounds also showed good fungicidal activity or insecticidal activity.

Design, Synthesis, and Bioactivity Study of Novel Tryptophan Derivatives Containing Azepine and Acylhydrazone Moieties.

Based on the scaffolds widely used in drug design, a series of novel tryptophan derivatives containing azepine and acylhydrazone moieties have been designed, synthesized, characterized, and evaluated for their biological activities. The bioassay results showed that the target compounds possessed moderate to good antiviral activities against the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), among which compounds 5c, 6a, 6h, 6t, 6v, and 6y exhibited higher inactivation, curative, and protection activities in vivo than that of ribavirin (40 ± 1, 37 ± 1, 39 ± 2% at 500 mg/L). Especially, 6y showed comparable activities to that of ningnanmycin (57 ± 2, 55 ± 3, 58 ± 1% at 500 mg/L). Meanwhile, we were pleased to find that almost all these derivatives showed good larvicidal activities against Plutella xylostella. Meanwhile, these derivatives also showed a broad spectrum of fungicidal activities.

Promoting Efficacy and Environmental Safety of Pesticide Synergists via Non-Ionic Gemini Surfactants with Short Fluorocarbon Chains.

Improving the utilization rate of pesticides is key to achieve a reduction and synergism, and adding appropriate surfactant to pesticide preparation is an effective way to improve pesticide utilization. Fluorinated surfactants have excellent surface activity, thermal and chemical stability, but long-chain linear perfluoroalkyl derivatives are highly toxic, obvious persistence and high bioaccumulation in the environment. Therefore, new strategies for designing fluorinated surfactants which combine excellent surface activity and environmental safety would be useful. In this study, four non-ionic gemini surfactants with short fluorocarbon chains were synthesized. The surface activities of the resulting surfactants were assessed on the basis of equilibrium surface tension, dynamic surface tension, and contact angle. Compared with their monomeric counterparts, the gemini surfactants had markedly lower critical micelle concentrations and higher diffusivities, as well as better wetting abilities. We selected a single-chain surfactant and a gemini surfactant with good surface activities as synergists for the glyphosate water agent. Both surfactants clearly improved the efficacy of the herbicide, but the gemini surfactant had a significantly greater effect than the single-chain surfactant. An acute toxicity test indicated that the gemini surfactant showed slight toxicity to rats.

Design, Synthesis, and Bioactivities of Novel Tryptophan Derivatives Containing 2,5-Diketopiperazine and Acyl Hydrazine Moieties.

Based on the scaffolds widely used in drug design, a series of novel tryptophan derivatives containing 2,5-diketopiperazine and acyl hydrazine moieties have been designed, synthesized, characterized, and evaluated for their biological activities. The bioassay results showed that the target compounds possessed moderate to good antiviral activities against tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), among which compounds 4, 9, 14, 19, and 24 showed higher inactivation, curative, and protection activities in vivo than that of ribavirin (39 ± 1, 37 ± 1, 39 ± 1 at 500 mg/L) and comparable to that of ningnanmycin (58 ± 1, 55 ± 1, 57 ± 1% at 500 mg/L). Thus, these compounds are a promising candidate for anti-TMV development. Most of these compounds showed broad-spectrum fungicidal activities against 13 kinds of phytopathogenic fungi and selective fungicidal activities against Alternaria solani, Phytophthora capsica, and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. Additionally, some of these compounds exhibited larvicidal activities against Tetranychus cinnabarinus, Plutella xylostella, Culex pipiens pallens, Mythimna separata, Helicoverpa armigera, and Pyrausta nubilalis.

Visible-Light-Mediated [2+2+1] Carbocyclization Reactions of 1,7-Enynes with Bromofluoroacetate to Form Fused Monofluorinated Cyclopenta[c]quinolin-4-ones.

Herein, we describe a new protocol for photoinduced radical [2+2+1] carbocyclization reactions of 1,7-enynes with bromofluoroacetate. These reactions, which proceed via a cascade involving fluoroalkylation, 6-exo-dig and 5-endo-trig cyclizations, H-transfer step, and oxidative dehydrogenation, provide an efficient and general route to a variety of fused monofluorinated cyclopenta[c]quinolin-4-one derivatives.

Rhodium(III)-Catalyzed Direct Coupling of Quinoline-8-Carbaldehydes with (Het)Arylboronic Acids for the Synthesis of 8-Aryloylquinolines.

Herein, we describe a method for the synthesis of aryl-(het)aryl ketones by Rh(III)-catalyzed direct coupling between quinoline-8-carbaldehydes and (het)arylboronic acids. The method has a broad substrate scope, a high functional group tolerance, and uses commercially available starting materials. Scale-up of the reaction and subsequent synthesis of tubulin polymerization inhibitor demonstrated its utilities. A plausible mechanism was proposed on the basis of the fact that a stable cycloacylrhodium intermediate complex could be used as catalyst, and the complex reacted stoichiometrically with (het)arylboronic acids.

Visible-Light Photocatalysis of the Ketyl Radical Coupling Reaction.

Ketyl radical coupling reactions for the construction of diversely functionalized alcohols have been continuously developed for many decades. Based on the recently widespread application of photocatalysis, ketyl radical coupling reactions have also witnessed rapid development. This Minireview aims to briefly and concisely summarize the methods to construct ketyl radical intermediates through visible-light photocatalysis over the past 10 years. The ketyl-radical-generation activators are grouped as Lewis acids, Brønsted acids, in situ generated Brønsted acids, and others.

Trifluoromethylation and Monofluoroalkenylation of Alkenes through Radical-Radical Cross-Coupling.

The first visible-light-induced trifluoromethylation and monofluoroalkenylation of simple alkenes via a challenging radical-radical cross-coupling step was achieved. This method provided a mild, step-economical and redox-neutral route to privileged two different fluorinated difunctionalized allyl compounds. The utility of this method is illustrated by late-stage modification of medically important molecules.

Photoredox-Mediated Minisci C-H Alkylation Reactions between N-Heteroarenes and Alkyl Iodides with Peroxyacetate as a Radical Relay Initiator.

We developed a protocol for photoredox-mediated Minisci C-H alkylation reactions of N-heteroarenes in which readily available tert-butyl peroxyacetate acts as a radical relay precursor to generate alkyl radicals from alkyl iodides. This mild protocol tolerated a broad range of functional groups and could therefore be used for late-stage functionalization of complex nitrogen-containing natural products and drugs. Remarkably, by adopting a polarity-reversal strategy, we accomplished reactions that brought together an electron-deficient radical, a heteroarene to add alkene by means of a three-component radical relay process.

Metal-, Photocatalyst-, and Light-Free Minisci C-H Alkylation of N-Heteroarenes with Oxalates.

Herein, we report a mild protocol for metal-, photocatalyst-, and light-free Minisci C-H alkylation reactions of N-heteroarenes with alkyl oxalates derived from primary, secondary, and tertiary alcohols. The protocol uses environmentally benign persulfate as a stoichiometric oxidant and does not require high temperatures or large excesses of either of the substrates, making the procedure suitable for late-stage C-H alkylation of complex molecules. Notably, several pharmaceuticals and natural products could be functionalized or prepared with this protocol, thus demonstrating its utility.

Dehydrogenation of N-Heterocycles by Superoxide Ion Generated through Single-Electron Transfer.

Nitrogen-containing heteroarene motifs are found in numerous pharmaceuticals, natural products, and synthetic materials. Although several elegant methods for synthesis of these compounds through dehydrogenation of the corresponding saturated heterocycles have been reported, some of the methods are hampered by long reaction times, harsh conditions, and the need for catalysts that are not readily available. This work reports a novel method for dehydrogenation of N-heterocycles. Specifically, O2.- generated in situ acts as the oxidant for N-heterocycle substrates that are susceptible to oxidation through a hydrogen atom transfer mechanism. This method provides a general, green route to N-heteroarenes.

Synthesis of gem-Difluorinated Spiro-γ-lactam Oxindoles by Visible-Light-Induced Consecutive Difluoromethylative Dearomatization, Hydroxylation, and Oxidation.

Described herein is a protocol for visible-light-induced consecutive synthesis of gem-difluorinated spiro-γ-lactam oxindoles under mild conditions by means of a process involving sequential radical difluoromethylative dearomatization, hydroxylation, and oxidation. The protocol features high chemo- and regioselectivity, good functional group tolerance, and easy scalability. Several of the functionalized spirooxindole products showed good fungicidal activity, suggesting that they have potential agrochemical applications.

N-Arylamines Coupled with Aldehydes, Ketones, and Imines by Means of Photocatalytic Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer.

A photoredox-catalyzed umpolung strategy for coupling reactions between aldehydes, ketones, imines, and N-arylamines is reported. These reactions proceed by a Brønsted acid-activated proton-coupled electron transfer pathway, and the protocol was used to synthesize a broad scope of 1,2-amino alcohols and vicinal diamines, both of which are common motifs in biologically active natural products, pharmaceutically active molecules, and ligands.

C(sp3)-H Azidation Reaction: A Protocol for Preparation of Aminals.

We report a protocol for the synthesis of N, N- and N, O-aminals via direct azidation of sp3 C-H bonds of substrates with an α-nitrogen or α-oxygen atom. A broad range of tetrahydroisoquinolines, tetrahydro-ß-carbolines, and cyclic benzyl ethers gave high yields under mild conditions. The protocol could be carried out on a gram scale without a decrease in the yield, and the aminal products could be readily transformed into complex aminals.

Merging Photoredox with Brønsted Acid Catalysis: The Cross-Dehydrogenative C-O Coupling for sp3 C-H Bond Peroxidation.

A photoredox and Brønsted acid synergistically catalyzed cross-dehydrogenative C-O coupling reaction is developed in which isochroman peroxyacetals are formed through sp3 C-H bond peroxidation. The reported method is characterized by its extremely mild reaction conditions, excellent yields, and broad substrate scope. An oxocarbenium ion p-chlorobenzenesulfonate was speculated to be the reactive intermediate. The role of hemiacetals and oxygenated dimers on the effective stabilization of the oxocarbenium ion was investigated; the presence of acid appeared to establish equilibrium between hemiacetals and oxygenated dimers with the oxocarbenium ion pairs. The broad applicability of the method highlights the potential of the protocol for molecule synthesis.