Chemical Probes to Interrogate the Extreme Environment of Mosquito Larval Guts.

Mosquito control methods are vital to curtail the spread of life-threatening illnesses, such as dengue fever, malaria, and yellow fever. Vector control technologies must be selective to minimize deleterious effects on our ecosystem. Successful methods that control mosquito larva populations utilize the uniquely high alkaline nature of the midgut.

Bioorthogonal Metabolic Labeling of the Virulence Factor Phenolic Glycolipid in Mycobacteria.

Surface lipids on pathogenic mycobacteria modulate infection outcomes by regulating host immune responses. Phenolic glycolipid (PGL) is a host-modulating surface lipid that varies among clinical strains. PGL is also found in , where it promotes infection of zebrafish through effects on the innate immune system.

Chemical probes to interrogate the extreme environment of mosquito larval guts.

Mosquito control methods are vital for the spread of life-threatening illnesses such as dengue fever, malaria, and yellow fever. Vector control technologies must be selective to minimize deleterious effects to our ecosystem. Successful methods that control mosquito larva populations utilize the uniquely high alkaline nature of the midgut.

Discriminating changes in protein structure using tyrosine conjugation.

Chemical modification of proteins has been crucial in engineering protein-based therapies, targeted biopharmaceutics, molecular probes, and biomaterials. Here, we explore the use of a conjugation-based approach to sense alternative conformational states in proteins. Tyrosine has both hydrophobic and hydrophilic qualities, thus allowing it to be positioned at protein surfaces, or binding interfaces, or to be buried within a protein.

Protecting Triazabutadienes To Afford Acid Resistance.

Recent work on triazabutadienes has shown that they have the ability to release aryl diazonium ions under exceptionally mild acidic conditions. There are instances that require that this release be prevented or minimized. Accordingly, a base-labile protection strategy for the triazabutadiene is presented.

An alkyne-appended, click-ready Pt(II) complex with an unusual arrangement in the solid state.

To better understand the range of cellular interactions of Pt(II) -based chemotherapeutics, robust and efficient methods to track and analyze Pt targets are needed. A powerful approach is to functionalize Pt(II) compounds with alkyne or azide moieties for post-treatment conjugation through the azide-alkyne cycloaddition (click) reaction. Herein, we report an alkyne-appended cis-diamine Pt(II) compound, cis-[Pt(2-(5-hexynyl)amido-1,3-propanediamine)Cl2] (1), the X-ray crystal structure of which exhibits a combination of unusual radially distributed CH/π(C≡C) interactions, Pt-Pt bonding, and NH:O/NH:Cl hydrogen bonds.

Picazoplatin, an azide-containing platinum(II) derivative for target analysis by click chemistry.

Despite the broad use of platinum-based chemotherapeutics, identification of their full range of cellular targets remains a significant challenge. In order to identify, visualize, and isolate cellular targets of Pt(II) complexes, we have modified the chemotherapeutic drug picoplatin with an azide moiety for subsequent click reactivity. The new compound picazoplatin readily binds DNA and RNA oligonucleotides and undergoes facile post-labeling click reactions to alkyne-fluorophore conjugates.