Enantioselective Recognition of Functional Organic Molecules in Water by Biomimetic Macrocyclic Hosts.

Enantioselective recognition of functional organic molecules in water is routine in nature but remains a formidable challenge for synthetic hosts. Here, we reported two pairs of chiral naphthotubes with chiral centers located in the neighborhood of the inward-directing amide groups. These naphthotubes, with a chiral twisted cavity, show highly enantioselective recognition in water to a wide scope of organic molecules (90 chiral guests). The highest enantioselectivity of 34 was achieved with neotame. Small differences between all of the noncovalent interactions shielded in the hydrophobic cavity were revealed to be responsible for the enantioselective recognition in water, which is different from the traditional views. Moreover, these hosts can differentiate the analogues of aspartame using fluorescence spectroscopy. These chiral naphthotubes have made unprecedented achievements in enantioselective recognition, providing the basis for their applications in chiral analysis and separations.

Highly Efficient Separation of BTEX via Amide Naphthotube Cavity-Confined Tandem C/N-H···π Interactions.

The separation of BTEX [benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene (EB), and xylene isomers] poses a huge challenge in the industry, attributed to their similar structures and physical properties. Supramolecular compounds show great promise for hydrocarbon separation. Herein, we designed two pairs of endo-functionalized amide naphthotubes with methyl and benzyl side chains, which were first employed as chromatographic separation materials and exhibited high shape-selectivity for BTEX. In particular, the amide naphthotubes with methyl side chains provided complete separation toward BTEX and anti-3a showed high selectivity for the p-xylene over other isomers with αPX/OX = 9.34, αPX/MX = 5.50, and αPX/EB = 4.30. The mechanism of BTEX separation originates from the synergistic effect of specially confined tandem N-H···π and C-H···π interactions toward aromatic compounds. The findings of this research show promise for practical applications in efficiently separating crucial aromatic isomers.

Single-cell analysis with childhood and adult systemic lupus erythematosus.

Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a heterogeneous and chronic autoimmune disease, exhibit unique changes in the complex composition and transcriptional signatures of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). While the mechanism of pathogenesis for both childhood-onset SLE (cSLE) and adult-onset SLE (aSLE) remains unclear, cSLE patients are considered more unpredictable and dangerous than aSLE patients. In this study, we analysed single-cell RNA sequencing data (scRNA-seq) to profile the PBMC clusters of cSLE/aSLE patients and matched healthy donors and compared the PBMC composition and transcriptional variations between the two groups. Our analysis revealed that the PBMC composition and transcriptional variations in cSLE patients were similar to those in aSLE patients. Comparative single-cell transcriptome analysis between healthy donors and SLE patients revealed IFITM3, ISG15, IFI16 and LY6E as potential therapeutic targets for both aSLE and cSLE patients. Additionally, we observed that the percentage of pre-B cells (CD34-) was increased in cSLE patients, while the percentage of neutrophil cells was upregulated in aSLE patients. Notably, we found decreased expression of TPM2 in cSLE patients, and similarly, TMEM150B, IQSEC2, CHN2, LRP8 and USP46 were significantly downregulated in neutrophil cells from aSLE patients. Overall, our study highlights the differences in complex PBMC composition and transcriptional profiles between cSLE and aSLE patients, providing potential biomarkers that could aid in diagnosing SLE.