Search results for "rational design"

Rational Design of Thermoresponsive Microgel Templates with Polydopamine Surface Coating for Microtissue Applications.

2021

Functional microgels provide a versatile basis for synthetic in vitro platforms as alternatives to animal experiments. The tuning of the physical, chemical, and biological properties of synthetic microgels can be achieved by blending suitable polymers and formulating them such to reflect the heterogenous and complex nature of biological tissues. Based on this premise, this paper introduces the development of volume-switchable core-shell microgels as 3D templates to enable cell growth for microtissue applications, using a systematic approach to tune the microgel properties based on a deep conceptual and practical understanding. Microscopic microgel design, such as the tailoring of the microg…

Toward a Rational Design of Polyamine-Based Zinc-Chelating Agents for Cancer Therapies.

2020

In vitro viability assays against a representative panel of human cancer cell lines revealed that polyamines L1a and L5a displayed remarkable activity with IC50 values in the micromolar range. Preliminary research indicated that both compounds promoted G1 cell cycle arrest followed by cellular senescence and apoptosis. The induction of apoptotic cell death involved loss of mitochondrial outer membrane permeability and activation of caspases 3/7. Interestingly, L1a and L5a failed to activate cellular DNA damage response. The high intracellular zinc-chelating capacity of both compounds, deduced from the metal-specific Zinquin assay and ZnL2+ stability constant values in solution, strongly sup…

Delivering Inorganic and Organic Reagents and Enzymes from Zein and Developing Optical Sensors.

2018

Nowadays, interest in using environmentally friendly materials is increasing in many fields. However, the rational design of sensors with biodegradable materials is a challenge. The main aim of this work is to show the possibility of using zein, a protein from corn, as a biodegradable and low-cost material for immobilizing, stabilizing, and delivering different kind of reagents for developing optical sensors. Enzymes, metallic salts, and aromatic and small organic compounds were tested. In addition, different techniques of immobilization, entrapment and adsorption, were used, and different formats, such as solid devices and also multiwell platforms, were proposed. The capacity of zein for i…

A multifuctional nanoplatform for drug targeted delivery based on radiation-engineered nanogels

2020

Abstract Under a rational design, combining biologically active molecules, ligands to specific cell receptors and fluorescent, radioactive or paramagnetic labels into a single nano-object can bridge the unique properties of the individual components and improve conventional sensing, imaging and therapeutic efficacies. The validation of these functional nano-objects requires careful testing both in terms of physico-chemical properties and biological behaviour in vitro and in vivo, prior to translation into the clinic. Ionising radiation of aqueous polymer solutions is a viable strategy to produce multifunctional nanogels from aqueous solutions of hydrophilic polymers. By proper selection of …

Rational design of covalently bridged [FeIII2MIIO] clusters

2010

We are reporting the first supramolecular dimeric units of basic carboxylates. The neutral [FeIII 2MIIO] motif for different 3d M metals is covalently bound through 2,2′-bipyrimidine. We have structurally characterized the hexanuclear clusters and the related trinuclear building blocks. Their magnetic properties have been fully analyzed and DFT calculations have been performed as a supplementary tool. All results evidence a weak antiferromagnetic interaction through the bpym bridge between isolated spin ground states (in some examples) arising from intra-Fe 2MO core exchange couplings. Fil: Alborés, Pablo. Johannes Gutenberg Universitat Mainz; Alemania. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones C…

Role of Seroalbumin in the Cytotoxicity of cis-Dichloro Pt(II) Complexes with (N^N)-Donor Ligands Bearing Functionalized Tails

2018

Given the potent anticancer properties of cisdiamminedichloroplatinum( II) and knowing its mode of action, we synthesized four new cis-[PtCl2(N^N)] organoplatinum complexes, two with N-substituted pbi ligands (pbiR = 1-R-2-(2-pyridyl)benzimidazole) (namely, 1 and 2) and two more with 4,4′-disubstituted bpy ligands (bpy = 2,2′-bipyridine) (namely, 3 and 4). We explored their cytotoxicity and ability to bind to deoxyguanosine monophosphate (dGMP), DNA, and albumin models. By 1H NMR and UV−vis spectroscopies, circular dichroism, agarose gel electrophoresis, differential scanning calorimetry measurements, and density functional theory calculations, we verified that only 3 can form aquacomplex s…

Novel atrazine-binding biomimetics inspired to the D1 protein from the photosystem II of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

2020

Biomimetic design represents an emerging field for improving knowledge of natural molecules, as well as to project novel artificial tools with specific functions for biosensing. Effective strategies have been exploited to design artificial bioreceptors, taking inspiration from complex supramolecular assemblies. Among them, size-minimization strategy sounds promising to provide bioreceptors with tuned sensitivity, stability, and selectivity, through the ad hoc manipulation of chemical species at the molecular scale. Herein, a novel biomimetic peptide enabling herbicide binding was designed bioinspired to the D1 protein of the Photosystem II of the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. The D1…

Towards a Rational Design of Antibody Catalysts through Computational Chemistry

2004

Protocol for rational design of covalently interacting inhibitors.

2014

The inhibition potencies of covalent inhibitors mainly result from the formation of a covalent bond to the enzyme during the inhibition mechanism. This class of inhibitors has essentially been ignored in previous target-directed drug discovery projects because of concerns about possible side effects. However, their advantages, such as higher binding energies and longer drug-target residence times moved them into the focus of recent investigations. While the rational design of non-covalent inhibitors became standard the corresponding design of covalent inhibitors is still in its early stages. Potent covalent inhibitors can be retrieved from large compound libraries by covalent docking approa…

Near-infrared emissive bacteriochlorin-diketopyrrolopyrrole triads: Synthesis and photophysical properties

2019

International audience; The synthesis of unprecedented energy transfer triads containing a near-infrared (NIR) emissive bacteriochlorin subunit and two diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) moieties linked to each other via ethynyl or zero-carbon spacers is presented. Their optical and fluorescence properties were determined in CHCl3 and toluene. These photophysical measurements highlight the ability of DPP scaffold to act as an effective energy donor, which once excited in the range 450-550 nm resulting nearly exclusively NIR emission of hydroporphyrin (ETE > 96%). Since DPP dyes are valuable structurally tunable fluorophores that may be used in the construction of high-performance multicomponent pho…