Latest ArticlesHerein we presented a general strategy for in situ assembly of intramolecular charge-transfer (ICT)-based light-up fluorophores via bioorthogonal Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction. By introducing iodo group at the appropriate position, five fluorophores with different scaffolds including naphthalimide, coumarin, naphthalene sulfonate, nitrobenzoxadiazole, and acetonaphthone, were designed as bioorthogonal multicolor fluorogenic probes, which could produce significant fluorescence enhancement and high fluorescence quantum yield after Suzuki-Miyaura reaction with aryl boronic acid or boronate. Manipulating the substituents and π scaffold in the fluorophores allows fine-tuning of their photophysical properties. With this strategy, we succeeded in peptide conjugation, no-wash fluorogenic protein labeling, and mitochondria-selective bioorthogonal imaging in live cells.
Available online The abnormal carboxylesterase (CES) expression is closely related to many diseases such as hyperlipidemia, atherosclerosis, obesity, liver cancer, type 2 diabetes mellitus and gastrointestinal stromal tumors. The detection of a single enzyme in practical samples is often constrained by the structural diversity of CESs. Thus, the development of broad-carboxylesterase responsive fluorescent probe, which can detect the presence of wide variety of CESs, may provide overall or category information from another point of view, supplementing the deficiency of single detection for CES subspecies. Organelle lysosome is involved in various cell processes, such as cell signaling, apoptosis, secretion, and energy metabolism. Up to date, lysosome-targeted fluorescent probes, especially those with red emission (over 550 nm, with relatively low biological harmfulness), for CES detection are still rare. A lysosomes-targeted red fluorescent probe CES-Lyso was designed to monitor intracellular a variety of carboxylesterases alteration with wonderful selectivity and sensitivity, which was further applied to distinguish different derived breast cancer cells and monitor carboxylesterase activity in the anticancer drug treatment.
A series of near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent substrates (NDRO-1~8) derived from fluorophore NDRH with different volumes of ester bond as the recognition group were designed and synthesized for the detection of acetylcholinesterase (AChE), among which NDRO-1 with the smallest acetate group displayed the highest activity toward AChE. The detection limit of NDRO-1 for sensing AChE was 0.32 µg/mL, and Km was 6.40 µmol/L, indicating ultra-sensitivity and good affinity of NDRO-1 toward AChE. NDRO-1 was used to detect the inhibitory of four kinds of pesticides including methamidophos, dichlorvos, and the detection limit was lower than 50 µg/L, which was further used in pesticide residues detection.
Room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) films have recently attracted increasing attention due to their excellent luminescent properties for information encryption, optoelectronic devices, and sensors. However, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) films with abundant hydrogen bonds to suppress triplet energy dissipation suffered from the humidity induced phosphorescence quenching under storage in the air for a long time. In this work, poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) was selected to crosslink PVA matrix through esterification reactions for preparing water resistant RTP films. The blue, cyan, and orange emissive RTP films were successfully obtained by incorporating three different organic compounds into PVA-PAA crosslinking films. Crosslinking strategy significantly improved the phosphorescence emissions of the doped films, and effectively blocked the absorption of water molecular, leading to the excellent photostability of the developed films. As a proof of concept, the white light phosphorescence film and anti-counterfeiting applications were successfully demonstrated.
In the recent decade, GO has emerged as an amazing 2D nanomaterial for developing DNA-based biosensors due to its fluorescence quenching properties, whereas similar research based on rGO was reported rarely. Herein, a novel multi-pyrene functionalized G-rich DNA probe based on the screened rGO showed much higher fluorescence quenching efficiency and excimer emission than that of universal GO. Different from the universal thrombin detection of the G4-forming aptamer-TBA(GGTTGGTGTGGTTGG), the original telomeric sequence is used in this study. The excimer emission "ON-OFF" switch amplified the response of thrombin detection is as low as 50 units. Furthermore, for four pyrene moieties that are sited in a crowded steric circumstance, the melting temperature (Tm) values and molecular dynamics simulations showed a positive effect on duplex G-quadruplex or GDNA·cDNA stability, without disturbing its helix structure.
Two unprecedented polycyclic spirooliganones C and D (1 and 2) with a novel spiro[bicyclo[2.2.2]octane-2, 2′-bicyclo[3.1.0]hexane] carbon skeleton, one known dimeric prenylated C6C3 compound (3), and a pair of new enantiomeric prenylated C6C3 compounds (+)-5 and (−)-5 together with their direct precursors (+)-4 and (−)-4 were isolated from the roots of Illicium oligandrum. Their structures and absolute configurations were elucidated by spectroscopic analysis, single crystal X-ray diffraction data, and electronic circular dichroism calculations. A possible biosynthetic pathway for compounds 1 and 2 involving the Diels-Alder reaction between (−)-sabinene and cyclic prenylated tetrahydropyrano-type C6C3 compounds was proposed. The characteristic prenylated C6C3 compounds (+)-4 and (−)-4 were separated on a chiral stationary phase and their absolute configurations were determined by calculated ECD for the first time. In the antiviral bioassays, compounds 1 and (+)-5 exhibited significant inhibitory activity against CVB3 with IC50 values of 11.11 µmol/L and 1.11 µmol/L, respectively. Compounds 1 and 2 also showed moderate inhibition against influenza A (H1N1) virus.
Two pairs of fluorescent natural products, talarolactones (+)/(−)-A and (+)/(−)-C [(+)/(−)-1 and (+)/(−)-2], were discovered and characterized as a new family of circularly polarized luminescence-active small organic molecules (CPL-SOMs) with high fluorescence efficiency and fascinating CPL properties. The CPL (|glum|) levels of enantiomerically pure (+)/(−)-1 and (+)/(−)-2 in solution falls into the usual range (10−5−10−3) considering their pure organic nature, but the sign of CPL were found to be closely related to the absolute configuration of C-8. The high agreement of the measured CPL spectra of (+)/(−)-1 and (+)/(−)-2 with the time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) calculated ones demonstrated the usefulness of CPL-calculation as a unique method for stereochemical assignment. This study may open up a new perspective for the stereochemical studies and the future development of CPL materials.
Guided by MS/MS molecular networks strategy, chlospicenes A and B (1 and 2), the first example of cyclopropane moiety cracked lindenane sesquiterpene Michael addition dimers, along with their biogenetic analogues (3 and 4), were targetedly discovered from the roots of Chloranthus henryi. Their structures including absolute configurations were characterized by NMR, ECD and X-ray diffraction analysis. The plausible biogenic pathway speculation indicated that cyclopropylcarbinyl rearrangement may dominate the key crack of cyclopropane moiety. In addition, compounds 1 and 2 showed significant anti-nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) activity in free fatty acid (FFA)-induced HepG2 cells by decreasing intracellular lipid accumulation.
A novel Diels-Alder adduct possesses a 6/6/6/5/6/6/6/6 octacyclic skeleton featured with bicyclo[2.2.2]octane moiety, biseupyiheoid A (1), along with another decacyclic 6/6/6/3/5/6/5/6/6/6 fused diterpenoid dimer, bisfischoid C (2), were isolated from Euphorbia fischeriana. Their structures were determined by spectroscopic, X-ray crystallographic approaches, and quantum mechanical calculations. The structural features of 1 and 2 were hypothesized to involve intramolecular Diels-Alder reactions with different coupling patterns. Dimer 1 showed antiproliferative activity through apoptosis activation in LoVo cells.
Forrestiacids C (1) and D (2), a pair of C-25 epimeric triterpene–diterpene adducts were isolated from the needles and twigs of the vulnerable conifer Pseudotsuga forrestii. This unprecedented class of compounds might be generated via an intermolecular Michael addition reaction of a rearranged 6/6/5/5-fused spiro-lanostene with an abietene. Their structures were established by spectroscopic data and X-ray crystallography. The adducts showed inhibitory activities against the ATP-citrate lyase (ACL) and acetyl-CoA carboxylase 1 (ACC1), two rate-limiting enzymes in the de novo lipogenesis pathway.
No. 86 Xueyuan South Road, Haidian District, Beijing
010-62662699(Operation and Technical Support)
qkjq@cast.org.cn
Copyright © 2025 China Association for Science and Technology. All rights reserved. For all open access content, the relevant licensing terms apply.
Sponsored by the Office of the Leading Group for Cybersecurity and Informatization of CAST, and supported by Science and Technology Review Publishing House
