Synthesis and discovery of Baylis-Hillman adducts as potent and selective thioredoxin reductase inhibitors for cancer treatment.

The selenoprotein thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) is of paramount importance in maintaining cellular redox homeostasis, and aberrant upregulation of TrxR is frequently observed in various cancers due to their elevated oxidative stress in cells. Thus, it seems promising and feasible to target the ablation of intracellular TrxR for the treatment of cancers. We report herein the design and synthesis of a series of Baylis-Hillman adducts, and identified a typical adduct that possesses the superior cytotoxicity against HepG2 cells over other types of cancer cells. The biological investigation shows the selected typical adduct selectively targets TrxR in HepG2 cells, which thereafter results in the collapse of intracellular redox homeostasis. Further mechanistic studies reveal that the selected typical adduct arrests the cell cycle in G1/G0 phase. Importantly, the malignant metastasis of HepG2 cells is significantly restrained by the selected typical adduct. With well-defined molecular target and mechanism of action, the selected typical adduct, even other Baylis-Hillman skeleton-bearing compounds, merits further development as candidate or ancillary agent for the treatment of various cancers.

Synthesis and two-photon absorption property characterizations of small dendritic chromophores containing functionalized quinoxaliniod heterocycles.

A series of star-shaped multi-polar chromophores (compounds 1-3) containing functionalized quinoxaline and quinoxalinoid (indenoquinoxaline and pyridopyrazine) units has been synthesized and characterized for their two-photon absorption (2PA) properties both in the femtosecond and the nanosecond time domain. Under our experimental conditions, these model fluorophores are found to manifest strong and wide-dispersed two-photon absorption in the near-infrared region. It is demonstrated that molecular structures with multi-branched π frameworks incorporating properly functionalized quinoxalinoid units would possess large molecular nonlinear absorptivities within the studied spectral range. Effective optical-power attenuation and stabilization behaviors in the nanosecond time domain of a selected representative dye molecule (i.e., compound 2) from this model compound set were also investigated and the results indicate that such structural motif could be a useful approach for the molecular design toward strong two-photon-absorbing material systems for quick-responsive and broadband optical-suppressing-related applications, particularly to confront long laser pulses.

Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of pyrrolo[2,1-c][1,4]benzodiazepine and indole conjugates as anticancer agents.

A series of novel pyrrolo[2,1-c][1,4]benzodiazepine (PBD) hybrids linked with indole carboxylates is described. These compounds were prepared by linking C-8 of 3 (DC-81) with an indole 2-carbonyl moiety (9) through carbon chain linkers to afford PBD hybrid agents 17-21 in good yields. Preliminary in vivo tests show that these hybrid agents have potent antitumor activity. The cytotoxic studies of the hybrid agents on human melanoma A2058 cells indicate most of the hybrids induced higher cytotoxicity, better DNA-binding ability, an increase in the apoptotic sub-G1 population, and a significant reduction in deltapsi(mt) relative to compound 3. In addition, DNA flow cytometric analysis shows that hybrids actively induce a marked loss of cells from the G2/M phase of the cell cycle, which progresses to early apoptosis as detected by flow cytometry after double-staining with annexin V and propidium iodide (PI). Thus, we suggest that the hybrid agents are potent inducers of cell apoptosis in A2058 cells.

Two-step thermal annealing improves the morphology of spin-coated films for highly efficient perovskite hybrid photovoltaics.

In this paper, we describe relationships between the morphologies and the power conversion efficiencies (PCE) of perovskite photovoltaics having a conventional p-i-n heterojunction structure, indium tin oxide (ITO)/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrenesulfonate (PEDOT:PSS)/CH(3)NH(3)PbI(3-x)Cl(x)/PC(61)BM/Al. The PCE of such a device is highly dependent on the morphology of the perovskite film, which is governed by the concentrations of its precursors and the annealing conditions. A two-step annealing process allowed sufficient crystallization of the perovskite material, with a high coverage at a high precursor concentration. Relative to the device prepared using a one-step process (90 °C for 30 min), we observed a 60% increase in PCE for this optimized device. The corresponding devices exhibited extremely high stability after long-term storage (>1368 h) in the dark in a N2-filled glove box, with consistently high PCEs (AM 1.5 G, 100 mW cm(-2)) of up to 9.1%.

DC-81-Indole conjugate agent induces mitochondria mediated apoptosis in human melanoma A375 cells.

DC-81, an antitumor antibiotic produced by the Streptomyces species, belongs to pyrrolo[2,1-c] [1,4]benzodiazepine (PBD), which are potent inhibitors of nucleic acid synthesis. We previously reported an efficient synthesis of PBD hybrids linked with indole carboxylates. This is the first demonstration on the mechanism of the anticancer effect of PBD hybrid (IN6CPBD) agent on human melanoma A375 cells. IN6CPBD-treated cells exhibited higher cytotoxicity than DC-81 and displayed several features of apoptosis, including an increase in the sub-G1 population, a significantly increased annexin V binding, a degradation of caspase-3, and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) cleavage. Because degradative changes associated with apoptosis are often preceded by the disruption of mitochondrial function, the assessment of mitochondrial function in IN6CPBD-treated cells is worthy of investigation. Our data revealed that treatment of A375 cells with IN6CPBD resulted in the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (DeltaPsimt), a decrease in intracellular pH (pHi), a reduction of ATP synthesis, increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, and cytochrome c release. Collectively, our studies indicate that IN6CPBD induces apoptosis in A375 cells through a mitochondrial dysfunction pathway, leading to caspase-3 substrate PARP cleavage and subsequent apoptotic cell death.