Themed collection Chemical Biology

A water soluble octacationic Zn^II porhyrazine macrocycle drives the conformational equilibrium of the G-quadruplex of a human telomeric sequence exclusively towards a parallel conformation upon complexation.

The design, synthesis and assessment of a novel biaryl-linked (BArL) molecular probe for the exploration of low-abundant target proteins for bioactive metabolites is reported

The design and synthesis of small molecules with low micromolar inhibition of Mycobacterium tuberculosis protein tyrosine phosphatase PtpB is described.

Chemical incorporation of a hexadiene moiety on an enzyme molecule permitted protein immobilization and site-specific labeling with NBD fluorophore by Diels–Alder reaction.

A phenanthridine-based small molecule library was rapidly assembled using Heck methodology; library evaluation identified a novel inhibitor of early-stage zebrafish embryo development.

Dye-protein complexes that emit intense blue fluorescence have been created from fluorogenic cyanine dyes and single chain antibody fragments.

Amphiphilic PAMAM-G2 derivatives engineered with peripheral alkyl chains are nonviral gene delivery vectors that exhibit high transfection efficiencies and low toxicity, particularly in the case of functionalization with C18 tails.

A synthetic cell permeable ITAM construct can enhance mast cell degranulation up to 140%.

The marine algae-derived fungus Coniothyrium cereale produces phenalenone derivatives with a variety of significant biological activities.

The investigation of benzo[kl]xanthene as DNA ligands suggests they are suitable lead compounds for the design of new binders with potential antitumour properties.

Appropriate characteristics for FGF binding and activity are provided by various HS structures and non-GAG analogues

A 3D microarray platform was used to discover the biologically active chloro-pyridine pharmacophore, which was found to be able to inhibit N acyl-homoserine-lactone (AHL) mediated quorum sensing phenotypes in Serratia and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

The screening of yeast deletants strains with a pool of morpholine-derived compounds towards cell growth rate identified two small molecules able to produce phenotypic effects on yeast cells.

The DNA binding of asymmetric guanidinium/2-aminoimidazolinium has been explored using different biophysical techniques such as SPR, UV-titrations, CD, LD and ITC.

Of various dibenz[c,e]oxepines prepared as colchinol analogues, 5,7-dihydro-3,9,10,11-tetramethoxydibenz[c,e]oxepin-4-ol is a potent inhibitor of microtubule assembly and cytotoxic agent.

Structure-based design, microwave-assisted synthesis and biochemical evaluation of 3-substituted pyridine dicarboxylates as JMJD2 histone demethylase inhibitors with selectivity over the PHD2 prolyl hydroxylase.

Compounds 3 and 4 are specific spectroscopic probes for ds-polynucleotides interacting strongly with ds-DNAs (but only weakly with ds-RNA) being able to distinguish different forms of DNA minor grooves due to different positioning of the pyrene probe in the groove.

2′-Amino-LNA-derived monomers with positive charges improve thermal stability of duplexes.

Five novel uridine-based cationic nucleolipids, synthesized by introducing basic amino acid residues at the 5′ position of uridine, through 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition, and hydrophobic alkyl moieties at the 2′ and 3′ positions, through carbamate linkages, delivered siRNAs efficiently to cells without any severe toxicity.

The synthesis and evaluation of a series of sulf(on)ate and phosph(on)ate amino acid phosphoramidate analogues of deoxynucleotides as potential substrates for HIV-1 reverse transcriptase are described.

Conformational analysis of cyclic ADP-ribose analogues reveals a correlation between a C2′ endo/syn “southern” ribose conformation and activity in sea urchin egg homogenates.

Simultaneous templated Diels–Alder chemical ligation of multiple furan and maleimide oligonucleotides proceeds within 1 min at room temperature.

The crystal structure of the neuropeptide proctolin (Arg-Tyr-Leu-Pro-Thr) is reported revealing the solid-state conformation of its molecules and their association in the crystal.

Phosphoproteins and glycoproteins can be assembled through Native Chemical Ligation using thioesters prepared by N→S acyl transfer.

We describe economical routes for the preparation of rhodamine maleimide and non-emitting quencher probes to enable a high throughput screening campaign that seeks to identify inhibitors of phosphopantetheinyl transferase.

Biotransformations of nitriles and amides provide a highly efficient and enantioselective approach to enantioenriched β-lactam compounds, which are useful intermediates in the synthesis of fused heterocycles

Quantum chemical methods are used to reveal details of the conversion of farnesyl diphosphate to bornyl diphosphate and several monoterpenes.

We report the synthesis and development of N-terminal peptidic boronic acids as novel protease inhibitors. These boronic acids harvest the unique selectivity inherent on the P′-site of peptide substrates. Our effort provides the first selective inhibitor of hClpXP over hLon; both are ATP-dependent serine proteases present in mitochondrial matrix.