Investigating the Interaction of an Anticancer Nucleolipidic Ru(III) Complex with Human Serum Proteins: A Spectroscopic Study.

Ruthenium(III) complexes are very promising candidates as metal-based anticancer drugs, and several studies have supported the likely role of human serum proteins in the transport and selective delivery of Ru(III)-based compounds to tumor cells. Herein, the anticancer nanosystem composed of an amphiphilic nucleolipid incorporating a Ru(III) complex, which we named DoHuRu, embedded into the biocompatible cationic lipid DOTAP, was investigated as to its interaction with two human serum proteins thought to be involved in the mechanism of action of Ru(III)-based anticancer drugs, i.e.

Self-Healing in Supramolecular Polymers.

Adaption and self-healing are two major principles in material science, often coupled with the placement of supramolecular moieties within a material. Proper molecular design can enable self-healing within such materials, displaying enormous potential in technology and application. Here, basic physicochemical aspects as well as new material developments in the field are described, published after a recent review in Macromolecular Rapid Communications in 2013.

Novel protocol for the chemical synthesis of crustacean hyperglycemic hormone analogues--an efficient experimental tool for studying their functions.

The crustacean Hyperglycemic Hormone (cHH) is present in many decapods in different isoforms, whose specific biological functions are still poorly understood. Here we report on the first chemical synthesis of three distinct isoforms of the cHH of Astacus leptodactylus carried out by solid phase peptide synthesis coupled to native chemical ligation. The synthetic 72 amino acid long peptide amides, containing L- or D-Phe³ and (Glp¹, D-Phe³) were tested for their biological activity by means of homologous in vivo bioassays.