Tuning the ultrasonic and photoacoustic response of polydopamine-stabilized perfluorocarbon contrast agents.

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) offers the exciting prospect of retaining the ease of ultrasound imaging while enhancing imaging clarity, diagnostic specificity, and theranostic capability. To advance the capabilities of CEUS, the synthesis and understanding of new ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs) is a necessity. Many UCAs are nano- or micro-scale materials composed of a perfluorocarbon (PFC) and stabilizer that synergistically induce an ultrasound response that is both information-rich and easily differentiated from natural tissue.

Daedal Facets of Splice Modulator Optimization.

The spliceosome has been shown to be a promising target for the development of new anticancer therapeutics. Synthetic and chemical biological efforts directed toward the development of natural product-based splice modulators (SPLMs) have shown that the potency of these compounds derives from their ability to selectively affect the alternate splicing of apoptotic genes in tumor cells. However, questions remain regarding the mechanistic understanding of splice modulation as well as the selectivity with which SPLMs impact certain genes.

Perfluorocarbon-loaded polydopamine nanoparticles as ultrasound contrast agents.

A versatile platform for the development of new ultrasound contrast agents is demonstrated through a one-pot synthesis and fluorination of submicron polydopamine (PDA-F) nanoparticles. The fluorophilicity of these particles allows loading with perfluoropentane (PFP) droplets that display strong and persistent ultrasound contrast in aqueous suspension and ex vivo tissue samples. Contrast under continuous imaging by color Doppler persists for 1 h in 135 nm PDA-F samples, even at maximum clinical imaging power (MI = 1.

A Challenging Pie to Splice: Drugging the Spliceosome.

Since its discovery in 1977, the study of alternative RNA splicing has revealed a plethora of mechanisms that had never before been documented in nature. Understanding these transitions and their outcome at the level of the cell and organism has become one of the great frontiers of modern chemical biology. Until 2007, this field remained in the hands of RNA biologists.