Publications by authors named "Wen-Zhen Kang"

A regiodivergent allylation of 1-indoles highly selectively at the C3 and N1 positions with β-acyl allylic sulfides through desulfurative C-C/C-N bond-forming reactions has been developed under mild conditions. Notably, the remarkable site-selective switch can be achieved by a delicate choice of solvents and bases. This cost-efficient method displays a broad substrate scope, good functional compatibility, and excellent site-selectivity, thus offering a divergent synthesis of indole substituted α-branched enones, which possess diverse potential opportunities for further applications and derivatization.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: In rare cases, people living with chronic human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection do not develop antibodies despite demonstrable infection. Delayed or missed diagnosis of HIV infection leads to a lack of timely therapy, resulting in rapid disease progression with opportunistic infections or malignancies.

Case Report: A 44-year-old Chinese man presented with sore throat, oral leukoplakia, fever, dyspnoea and diffuse ground glass-like lesions in both lungs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Recent evidence suggests that CD147 serves as a novel receptor for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Blocking CD147 via anti-CD147 antibody could suppress the in vitro SARS-CoV-2 replication. Meplazumab is a humanized anti-CD147 IgG monoclonal antibody, which may effectively prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Herein, we report a palladium-catalyzed dehydrogenative cross-coupling of indoles with cyclic enones to give β-indolyl cyclic enones under mild and neutral reaction conditions. The key to the success is to explore a mild condition, which ensures the indole C-H activation and subsequent β-hydride elimination through rapid enolization isomerization of Pd(II)-enolate while suppressing other undesired side reactions. Synthetic utility has also been demonstrated in the flexible transformation of the coupling products to -phenols and benzo[a]carbazoles.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • A new, eco-friendly palladium/ligand catalytic system is introduced for conducting reductive/oxidative Heck reactions with cyclic enones and thiophene or furan derivatives.
  • The method focuses on using thienyl-Pd(II)-enolate during enolization, allowing for better control of the reaction process.
  • This technique offers a cost-effective way to create valuable β-heteroarylated cyclic ketones/enones and could inspire further research on C-H activation in conjugate addition reactions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Dehydrogenative coupling of cyclic enones with heteroarenes has been a longstanding challenge because of the competitive ketone dehydrogenation and conjugated addition. Herein, a dehydrogenative coupling reaction of cyclic enones of different sizes with substituted thiophenes to construct β-thienyl cyclic enone compounds through palladium-catalyzed C-H functionalization under mild reaction conditions is reported. Simple substituted thiophenes with different functional groups can be directly introduced into cyclic enones with predominant regioselectivity at the α position of thiophene moieties and excellent functional group tolerance.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A new strategy to prepare β-acyl allylic methylsulfides and -sulfones through acid promoted direct cross-coupling of methyl ketones with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is reported. The reaction proceeded through the nucleophilic attack of enamine intermidiates derived from ketones to in situ generated thionium ion species, followed by elimination of methanthiol to give ketoallylic methylsulfides. With the prolonged reaction time, such products could be further reacted with a methyl sulfonyl radical, which might be generated from a methylthiosulfonate species, to afford ketoallylic methylsulfones in high yields.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Nogo-A has been identified as an inhibitor of neurite outgrowth specific to the central nervous system. However, little is known about the role of Nogo-A in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common primary malignant tumor with a high mortality rate. This study aimed to investigate the role of endogenous Nogo-A in human liver cancer cells.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare the effect of 2 y of antiretroviral therapy (ART) on the percentage of activated CD38⁺CD8⁺ T cells and human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR⁺CD8⁺ T cells, and the expression of the co-stimulatory molecule CD28 on CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells in the peripheral blood of HIV-infected adults, and to assess the use of immune activation markers to predict the virological response to ART in a cohort of HIV-1-infected patients in the north-western part of China.

Methods: We analyzed changes in the CD4⁺ T cell count, viral load, and the percentages of CD38⁺CD8⁺ T cells, HLA-DR⁺CD8⁺ T cells, CD28⁺CD4⁺ T cells, and CD28⁺CD8⁺ T cells in 48 patients with HIV diseases during 2 y of suppressive highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Good virological responders (n = 20) were defined as those who had suppressed and maintained a plasma viral load below the detection limit of the assay for at least 12 months.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

To investigate the antiviral efficacy of combination therapy with pegylated-interferon alpha (peg-IFNa)-2a and ribavirin (RBV) in hepatitis C patients with liver cirrhosis after splenectomy or partial splenic embolization. Forty-nine hepatitis C patients with liver cirrhosis who were unable to use antiviral therapy because of hypersplenism were recruited for study and treated with splenectomy or partial splenic embolization. Three months later, a regimen of antiviral combination therapy was initiated with peg-IFNa-2a (once-weekly subcutaneous injection: 135 μg or 180 μg) and RBV (daily oral: 800 to 1200 mg), and was maintained for 48 weeks.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aim: To investigate the features of HIV-1-Gag-, Tat-, Rev- and Nef- specific cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) responses in infected individuals in China.

Methods: The HIV-1-specific CTL responses were analyzed with an IFN-gamma ELISPOT assay by using 220 overlapping peptides spanning the entire HIV-1 Clade B (HIV-1B) and C (HIV-1C) Gag, Tat, Rev and Nef proteins consensus sequences.

Results: For either HIV-1B or HIV-1C, Gag and Nef were preferentially targeted by HIV-1 specific CTLs, Rev and Tat proteins were also recognized to different extent.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF