Thermoresponsive degradable hydrogels with renewable surfaces for protein removal.

Most biological materials used in the body undergo protein adsorption, which alters their biological functions. Previously, we introduced surface-degradable hydrogels as adsorbed protein-removing surfaces. However, only a few surface renewals were possible because of the hydrophilic nature of the hydrogels, which accelerated their degradation.

Serial changes in liquid biopsy-derived variant allele frequency predict immune checkpoint inhibitor responsiveness in the pan-cancer setting.

Major immunotherapy challenges include a limited number of predictive biomarkers and the unusual imaging features post-therapy, such as pseudo-progression, which denote immune infiltrate-mediated tumor enlargement. Such phenomena confound clinical decision-making, since the cancer may eventually regress, and the patient should stay on treatment. We prospectively evaluated serial, blood-derived cell-free DNA (cfDNA) (baseline and 2-3 weeks post-immune checkpoint inhibitors [ICIs]) for variant allele frequency (VAF) and blood tumor mutation burden (bTMB) changes (next-generation sequencing) (N = 84 evaluable patients, diverse cancers).

Definitive evidence that a single N-glycan among three glycans on inducible costimulator is required for proper protein trafficking and ligand binding.

Glycosylation is a widespread post-translational modification found in glycoproteins. Glycans play key roles in protein folding, quality control in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and protein trafficking within cells. However, it remains unclear whether all positions of protein glycosylation are involved in glycan functions, or if specific positions have individual roles.

Synthesis of CMP-9''-modified-sialic acids as donor substrate analogues for mammalian and bacterial sialyltransferases.

Cytidine-5'-monophospho-sialic acid (CMP-Neu5Ac) derivatives bearing a phenyl group in which the tether length between the phenyl group and the 9-position of Neu5Ac varied were synthesized and evaluated as substrates for sialyltransferases. In the synthesis of the compounds, a coupling reaction between methyl 5-acetamido-4,7,8-tri-O-acetyl-9-azido-3,5,9-trideoxy-beta-D-glycero-D-galacto-2-nonulopyranosonate and 2-cyanoethyl 2',3'-O,N4, triacetylcytidine-5'-yl N,N-diisopropylphosphoramidite was carried out and the phosphite derivative thus obtained was oxidized and then deprotected to yield CMP-9''-azido-Neu5Ac. Modification of the 9-amino group prepared by reduction of the azido groups was performed by the use of several phenyl-substituted alkylcarboxylic acid derivatives.