The development of transition metal-based catalytic platforms that promote bioorthogonal reactions inside living cells remains a major challenge in chemical biology. This is particularly true for palladium-based catalysts, which are very powerful in organic synthesis but perform poorly in the cellular environment, mainly due to their rapid deactivation. We now demonstrate that grafting Pd(II) complexes into engineered β-sheets of a model WW domain results in cell-compatible palladominiproteins that effectively catalyze depropargylation reactions inside HeLa cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Previous studies by our group have shown that oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) is the main pathway by which pancreatic cancer stem cells (CSCs) meet their energetic requirements; therefore, OXPHOS represents an Achille's heel of these highly tumorigenic cells. Unfortunately, therapies that target OXPHOS in CSCs are lacking.
Methods: The safety and anti-CSC activity of a ruthenium complex featuring bipyridine and terpyridine ligands and one coordination labile position (Ru1) were evaluated across primary pancreatic cancer cultures and in vivo, using 8 patient-derived xenografts (PDXs).
This study describes two Gram-negative, flexirubin-producing, biofilm-forming, motile-by-gliding and rod-shaped bacteria, isolated from the marine sponges and collected off the coast of Algarve, Portugal. Both strains, designated Aq135 and Aq349, were classified into the genus by means of 16S rRNA gene sequencing. We then performed phylogenetic, phylogenomic and biochemical analyses to determine whether these strains represent novel species.
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