Themed collection Most popular 2018-2019 chemical biology articles

Metabolic Oligosaccharide Engineering (MOE) is a groundbreaking strategy which has been largely used in the last decades, as a powerful strategy for glycans understanding. The present review aims to highlight recent studies that are pushing the boundaries of MOE applications.

We review pharmacological chaperones used in lysosomal storage diseases, emphasizing medicinal chemistry approaches and mechanisms of action.

Copper-free click chemistry has resulted in a change of paradigm, showing that artificial chemical reactions can occur on cell surfaces, in cell cytosol, or within the body. It has emerged as a valuable tool in biomedical fields.

This critical review discusses the thermal and photocatalytic mechanisms of one-, two-, four-, six- and eight-electron reduction of CO₂ with metal complex catalysts.

The folate receptor (FR) is an important biomarker for many cancers, and its overexpression on tumours can be exploited for targeted therapy, diagnosis and imaging.

A novel upconversion nanoarchitecture is designed, whose 980 nm light photosensitized activity could be activated by 808 nm light.

Accumulated Cu in amyloid-β plaques can effectively catalyze the azide–alkyne cycloaddition reaction for fluorophore activation and drug synthesis. Our work may provide new insight into in situ drug synthesis for neurodegenerative diseases.

Isomeric triazines can be tuned to exhibit unique reaction profiles with biocompatible strained alkenes and alkynes.

We present a new cell membrane modification methodology where the inherent heart tissue homing properties of the infectious bacteria Streptococcus gordonii are transferred to human stem cells.

The tumour switches on the NIR-AZA emission for fluorescence guided surgery.

A novel NIR-II theranostic nanoprobe, PSY (∼110 nm), was concisely developed, which demonstrated excellent photostability, high tumor uptake, superior S/N ratios and more efficient cancer treatment with minimal side effects than cisplatin.

Drug-like, donor–acceptor diphenylacetylenes cause efficient cell death upon photoactivation and hence have potential phototherapeutic applications.

We describe the fabrication of hollow microspheres consisting of mesoporous silica nanoshells decorated with an inner layer of palladium nanoparticles and their use as Pd-nanoreactors in aqueous media.

NIM-7 is demonstrated to be a multicomponent fluorescent probe that accumulates in both lipid droplets and lysosomes after entering cells, giving rise to yellow and red fluorescence emission, respectively. This allows the two organelles to be visualized concurrently.

Dual-biomarker-triggered fluorescent probes were developed for simultaneous detection of the two biomarkers H₂S and hNQO1 in cancer cells.

Hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) is an important cellular signaling molecule that exhibits promising protective effects.

Synthetic non-heme iron-oxo and iron-halide complexes promote selective halogenation of the sp³-C–H bonds via hydrogen atom abstraction and halide rebound phenomenon.

Aptamer conjugated porphyrinic metal–organic framework (MOF) achieved target-induced bioimaging and photodynamic therapy.

A 1,8-naphthalimide-based two-photon fluorescent probe was designed to visualize MGO levels in living cells and a diabetic mice model.

Mining the genome to harvest from the metabolome: a well-directed search for bioactive natural products unearths the pyxidicyclines from Pyxidicoccus.

A series of triple action Pt(IV) prodrugs was designed to test the hypothesis that multi-action compounds, where each bioactive moiety intervenes in several cellular processes, might be more effective than a single agent at killing cancer cells.

We describe the development of a bifunctional linker that simultaneously allows site-specific protein modification and palladium-mediated bioorthogonal decaging.

We report three synthetic methods to prepare biocompatible Yb³⁺ complexes, which displayed high NIR luminescence with quantum yields up to 13% in aqueous media. This renders β-fluorinated Yb³⁺ porphyrinoids a new class of NIR probes for living cell imaging including time-resolved fluorescence lifetime imaging.

Nanoscopy compatible fluorescent tubulin probes can be used to stain microtubules and chitin-rich taenidia in the insect tracheoles.

We developed a novel strategy for enhanced radiation therapy based on a mitochondria targeted titanium dioxide-gold nanoradiosensitizer.

Two AIEgens are designed for tracking mitochondria and lysosomes with different emission colors using single wavelength excitation to visualize the mitophagy process.

Peroxynitrite is a damaging agent of oxidative stress that has been difficult to monitor in living cells. Here, an isatin-based chemiluminescent probe for peroxynitrite is reported.

A PNA-templated peptide ligation reaction has been developed between selenocystine and selenoesters. The methodology was used for the sequence specific detection of miRNA at low concentrations.

Newly described NMR experimental approaches can provide valuable structural details and a complementary means of structure verification.

Enabling oriented installation of non-engineered antibody fragments on nanoparticle surfaces to create next-generation antibody–nanoparticle conjugates.