Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) can be categorized as either primary (familial, generally occurring in infants) or secondary (sHLH, occurring at any age in association with a variety of conditions) and is mainly triggered by infections, autoimmune diseases, and malignant conditions. Our understanding of the pathophysiology of sHLH is still evolving, and among the causes and associations with the syndrome, those putatively associated with iatrogenic causes remain among the most poorly understood due to the rarity of these entities and the multiple confounders so often present in the patients in whom they are reported. Herein, we present a review of the literature to describe the diagnostic and therapeutic challenges of sHLH associated with iatrogenic causes and discuss some of the challenges and future directions in our efforts to better understand these complex conditions for the advancement of patient outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMembrane proteins play essential roles in a number of biological processes, and their structures are important in elucidating such processes at the molecular level and also for rational drug design and development. Membrane protein structure determination is notoriously challenging compared to that of soluble proteins, due largely to the inherent instability of their structures in non-lipid environments. Micelles formed by conventional detergents have been widely used for membrane protein manipulation, but they are suboptimal for long-term stability of membrane proteins, making downstream characterization difficult.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNatural antioxidant polyphenolic compounds obtained from different plants are considered antioxidants for curing various chronic pathological diseases such as cardiovascular disorders and cancer. Quercetin (a polyphenolic flavonol) has attracted much attention from dietitians and medicinal chemists due to its wide variety of pharmacological activities, including anti-diabetic, anti-hypertensive, anti-carcinogenic, anti-asthmatic, anti-viral, and antioxidant activities. Furthermore, structurally, it is well suited to stabilize emulsions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHigh-resolution membrane protein structures are essential for a fundamental understanding of the molecular basis of diverse cellular processes and for drug discovery. Detergents are widely used to extract membrane-spanning proteins from membranes and maintain them in a functional state for downstream characterization. Due to limited long-term stability of membrane proteins encapsulated in conventional detergents, development of novel agents is required to facilitate membrane protein structural study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDetergents have been major contributors to membrane-protein structural study for decades. However, membrane proteins solubilized in conventional detergents tend to aggregate or denature over time. Stability of large eukaryotic membrane proteins with complex structures tends to be particularly poor, necessitating development of novel detergents with improved properties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMembrane proteins are of biological and pharmaceutical significance. However, their structural study is extremely challenging mainly due to the fact that only a small number of chemical tools are suitable for stabilizing membrane proteins in solution. Detergents are widely used in membrane protein study, but conventional detergents are generally poor at stabilizing challenging membrane proteins such as G protein-coupled receptors and protein complexes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe non-fullerene acceptors A1-A5 with diflourobenzene or quinoline core (bridge) unit, donor cyclopenta[1,2-b:3,4-b']dithiophene unit and 2-(2-methylene-3-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-inden-1-ylidene)malononitrile as acceptor unit with additional phenyl, fulvene or thieno[3,2-d]pyrimidinyl 5-oxide groups have been designed through DFT calculations. The optimization of molecular geometries were performed with density functional theory (DFT) at B3LYP 6-31G (d,p) level of theory. The frontier molecular orbital (FMO) energies, band gap energies and dipole moments (ground and excited state) have been calculated to probe the photovoltaic properties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMembrane protein structures provide a fundamental understanding of their molecular actions and are of importance for drug development. Detergents are widely used to solubilize, stabilize, and crystallize membrane proteins, but membrane proteins solubilized in conventional detergents are prone to denaturation and aggregation. Thus, developing novel detergents with enhanced efficacy for protein stabilization remains important.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAmphiphilic agents, called detergents, are invaluable tools for studying membrane proteins. However, membrane proteins encapsulated by conventional head-to-tail detergents tend to denature or aggregate, necessitating the development of structurally distinct molecules with improved efficacy. Here, a novel class of diastereomeric detergents with a cyclopentane core unit, designated cyclopentane-based maltosides (CPMs), were prepared and evaluated for their ability to solubilize and stabilize several model membrane proteins.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFlavonoids are phytochemical compounds present in many plants, fruits, vegetables, and leaves, with potential applications in medicinal chemistry. Flavonoids possess a number of medicinal benefits, including anticancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral properties. They also have neuroprotective and cardio-protective effects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMembrane proteins are widely studied in detergent micelles, a membrane-mimetic system formed by amphiphilic compounds. However, classical detergents have serious limitations in their utility, particularly for unstable proteins such as eukaryotic membrane proteins and membrane protein complexes, and thus, there is an unmet need for novel amphiphiles with enhanced ability to stabilize membrane proteins. Here, we developed a new class of malonate-derived detergents with four glucosides, designated malonate-derived tetra-glucosides (MTGs), and compared these new detergents with previously reported octyl glucose neopentyl glycol (OGNG) and -dodecyl-β-d-maltoside (DDM).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite their major biological and pharmacological significance, the structural and functional study of membrane proteins remains a significant challenge. A main issue is the isolation of these proteins in a stable and functional state from native lipid membranes. Detergents are amphiphilic compounds widely used to extract membrane proteins from the native membranes and maintain them in a stable form during downstream analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAmphipathic agents are widely used in various fields including biomedical sciences. Micelle-forming detergents are particularly useful for in vitro membrane-protein characterization. As many conventional detergents are limited in their ability to stabilize membrane proteins, it is necessary to develop novel detergents to facilitate membrane-protein research.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCorrection for 'Trehalose-cored amphiphiles for membrane protein stabilization: importance of the detergent micelle size in GPCR stability' by Manabendra Das et al., Org. Biomol.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite their importance in biology and medicinal chemistry, structural and functional studies of membrane proteins present major challenges. To study diverse membrane proteins, it is crucial to have the correct detergent to efficiently extract and stabilize the proteins from the native membranes for biochemical/biophysical downstream analyses. But many membrane proteins, particularly eukaryotic ones, are recalcitrant to stabilization and/or crystallization with currently available detergents and thus there are major efforts to develop novel detergents with enhanced properties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMembrane proteins play critical roles in a variety of cellular processes. For a detailed molecular level understanding of their biological functions and roles in disease, it is necessary to extract them from the native membranes. While the amphipathic nature of these bio-macromolecules presents technical challenges, amphiphilic assistants such as detergents serve as useful tools for membrane protein structural and functional studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntegral membrane proteins either alone or as complexes carry out a range of key cellular functions. Detergents are indispensable tools in the isolation of membrane proteins from biological membranes for downstream studies. Although a large number of techniques and tools, including a wide variety of detergents, are available, purification and structural characterization of many membrane proteins remain challenging.
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