Reducing the Toxicity of Designer Aminoglycosides as Nonsense Mutation Readthrough Agents for Therapeutic Targets.

A significant proportion of genetic disease cases arise from truncation of proteins caused by premature termination codons. In eukaryotic cells some aminoglycosides cause readthrough of premature termination codons during protein translation. Inducing readthrough of these codons can potentially be of therapeutic value in the treatment of numerous genetic diseases.

Hypoxic-stabilized EPAS1 proteins transactivate DNMT1 and cause promoter hypermethylation and transcription inhibition of EPAS1 in non-small cell lung cancer.

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the leading cause of cancer mortality globally. Although cigarette smoking is by far the most important risk factor for lung cancer, the aberrant expression of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes contributes a great deal to tumorigenesis. Here, we reveal that aberrant expression of endothelial PAS domain-containing protein 1 ( EPAS1) gene, which encodes hypoxia inducible factor 2α, has a critical role in NSCLC.

Microwave-assisted syntheses of BODIPY-sugar conjugates through click chemistry and conjugate assembly into liposomes.

BODIPY fluorophores bearing azide or terminal alkyne functions were conjugated with glycans modified with terminal alkyne or azido through the Cu(I)-catalyzed 1,3-dipolar azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) chemistry under microwave heating while these reactions did not proceed when heated in an oil-bath. The BODIPY-glycan conjugate product 8a undergoes self-assembly into liposomes when hydrated. Formation of liposomes was confirmed by both bright field and confocal microscopy.

Fluorescently labelled glycans and their applications.

This review summarises the literature on the synthesis and applications of fluorescently labelled carbohydrates. Due to the sensitivity of fluorescent detection, this approach provides a useful tool to study processes involving glycans. A few general categories of labelling are presented, in situ labelling of carbohydrates with fluorophores, fluorescently labelled glycolipids, fluorogenic glycans, pre-formed fluorescent glycans for intracellular applications, glycan-decorated fluorescent polymers, fluorescent glyconanoparticles, and other functional fluorescent glycans.

Identification and validation of the methylation biomarkers of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Background: DNA methylation was suggested as the promising biomarker for lung cancer diagnosis. However, it is a great challenge to search for the optimal combination of methylation biomarkers to obtain maximum diagnostic performance.

Results: In this study, we developed a panel of DNA methylation biomarkers and validated their diagnostic efficiency for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in a large Chinese Han NSCLC retrospective cohort.

Hypermethylation reduces expression of tumor-suppressor PLZF and regulates proliferation and apoptosis in non-small-cell lung cancers.

Deregulation of promyelocytic leukemia zinc finger protein (PLZF), a tumor suppressor gene, was reported in different types of solid tumors. This study for the first time explored the reduced expression of PLZF and its effects in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) carcinogenesis. PLZF was found to be down-regulated by 62.

Simplifying oligosaccharide synthesis: efficient synthesis of lactosamine and siaylated lactosamine oligosaccharide donors.

A practical sequence is described for converting d-glucosamine into peracetylated Gal(beta-1,4)GlcNTroc(beta1-S)Ph and Neu5Ac(alpha-2,3)Gal(beta-1,4)GlcNTroc(beta1-S)Ph building blocks using a synthetic strategy based on chemoenzymatic oligosaccharide synthesis. The known trichloroethoxycarbonyl, N-Troc, protecting group was selected as a suitable protecting group for both enzymatic and chemical reaction conditions. These oligosaccharide building blocks proved effective donors for the beta-selective glycosylation of the unreactive OH-3 of a polymeric PEG-bound acceptor and for the axial OH-2 of a mannose acceptor in good yields.