Publications by authors named "Yongtao Duan"

Buspirone, a well-established anxiolytic agent, has gained attention for its potential role as an antidepressant, primarily due to its unique pharmacological profile and the ability to modulate serotonin receptors effectively. Late-stage functionalization is considered as a pivotal strategy in drug synthesis that enhances the therapeutic efficacy of existing molecules. This review summarizes various late-stage functionalization techniques applicable to Buspirone, including photocatalyzed, metal-catalyzed, and enzyme-catalyzed reactions.

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  • Aurora kinases A and B are vital for cell division, and their abnormal activity can lead to cancer; thus, inhibitors targeting these kinases are being researched as potential cancer treatments.
  • The study highlights a new compound, 6k, which showed strong cytotoxic effects against HeLa and HepG2 cancer cells, specifically inhibiting Aurora kinases A and B at very low concentrations.
  • 6k was found to induce cell cycle arrest at the G2/M phase, increase signs of apoptosis, and demonstrated promising drug-like properties, suggesting it may be a candidate for further testing in cancer therapy.
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The P2Y receptor (P2YR), as a crucial member of the purine family, is a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of intestinal inflammation, tracheal inflammation and diabetes. We first discovered the hit compound (5a, IC = 168.5 nM against P2YR) through our in-house library screening.

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Background: Diabetic Mellitus (DM) has progressively emerged as a worldwide health problem, leading to the widespread deployment of antidiabetic drugs as the primary therapy in the global population. The incidence of diabetes medications-related movement disorders (drMD) is noteworthy but underestimated by clinical practitioners.

Research Design And Methods: In order to address the incidence of drMD in DM patients and realize the serious outcomes associated with drMD, we conducted a real-world pharmacovigilance study of 612,043 DM patients using the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) database from January 2004 to September 2023.

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  • Macrophage-mediated programmed cell removal (PrCR) plays a key role in keeping tissues healthy by eliminating unnecessary cells, and its effectiveness relies on the balance of pro-"eat me" and anti-"don't eat me" signals.
  • Tumor development disrupts this balance, as tumors use "don't eat me" signals like CD47/SIRPα to evade immune detection, highlighting a potential strategy for cancer treatment by manipulating these signals.
  • The review covers important molecules involved in both promoting and inhibiting PrCR, their interactions, and the challenges and advancements in using these mechanisms for developing effective cancer therapies.
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Dual-target agents have more advantages than drug combinations for cancer treatment. Here, we designed and synthesized a series of novel VEGFR-2/tubulin dual-target inhibitors through a molecular hybridization strategy, and the activities of all the synthesized compounds were tested against tubulin and VEGFR-2. Among which, compound 19 exhibited strong potency against tubulin and VEGFR-2, with IC values of 0.

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P2Y receptor (P2YR) is activated by uridine 5'-diphosphate-glucose, which is involved in many human inflammatory diseases. Based on the molecular docking analysis of currently reported P2YR antagonists and the crystallographic overlap study between the reported P2YR antagonist compounds and , a series of N-substituted-acetamide derivatives were designed, synthesized, and identified as novel and potent P2YR antagonists. The most potent antagonist, compound (-(1-benzo[]imidazol-6-yl)-2-(4-bromophenoxy)acetamide, IC = 0.

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Phosphatidylinositide-3-kinase (PI3K) and the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) have recently been identified as potential cancer targets. In our work, a new family of quinoline analogues was designed, developed, and evaluated as dual inhibitors of PI3Kδ/mTOR. The preliminary biological activity analysis led to the discovery of the lead compounds 5h and 5e.

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Background: The P2X7 receptor (P2X7R) is known to play a significant role in regulating various pathological processes associated with immune regulation, neuroprotection, and inflammatory responses. It has emerged as a potential target for the treatment of diseases. In addition to chemically synthesized small molecule compounds, natural products have gained attention as an important source for discovering compounds that act on the P2X7R.

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Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with a range of abnormalities characterized by deficits in socialization, communication, repetitive behaviors, and restricted interests. We have recently shown that neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) expression was decreased in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) of mice after postnatal valproic acid exposure. Neuronal activity-regulated pentraxin (Narp) could contribute to the regulation of the GluA4 2-amino-3-(5-methyl-3-oxo-1,2-oxazol-4-yl) propanoic acid (AMPA) subunits which are predominantly expressed in interneurons.

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  • Overexpression of β3-tubulin in tumors contributes to resistance against microtubule-targeting drugs.
  • Researchers developed W13, the first PROTAC designed to target tubulin, by linking a CRBN ligand to the drug CA-4, maintaining CA-4’s effectiveness.
  • W13 effectively degrades α/β/β3-tubulin in cancer cell lines and shows promising antitumor activity against lung cancer in xenograft studies, indicating its potential as a treatment for NSCLC related to β3-tubulin overexpression.
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Oxidative stress, a condition involving an imbalance between reactive oxygen species (ROS) and antioxidants, is closely linked to epilepsy, contributing to abnormal neuronal excitability. This study introduces a novel fluorescent probe, the MDP probe, designed for the efficient detection of malondialdehyde (MDA), a critical biomarker associated with oxidative stress. The MDP probe offers several key advantages, including high sensitivity with a low detection limit of 0.

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Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a set of heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorders, characterized by social interaction deficit, stereotyped or repetitive behaviors. Apart from these core symptoms, a great number of individuals with ASD exhibit higher levels of anxiety and memory deficits. Previous studies demonstrate pronounced decrease of γ-aminobutyric acid B1 receptor (GABAR) protein level of frontal lobe in both ASD patients and animal models.

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KAT6A has been identified as a new target for leukemia treatment. The histone acetyltransferase activity of KAT6A is essential for normal hematopoietic stem cell self-renewal, and mutations or translocations are regarded as one of the major causes of leukemia development. In previous studies, CTX-0124143 has been shown to be a class of KAT6A inhibitors with a sulfonyl hydrazide backbone.

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  • The study explored anti-inflammatory compounds from Artemisia argyi seed extracts to identify potential new drugs.
  • It highlighted that sesquiterpenoids CA-2 and CA-4 exhibited low toxicity and strong activity in inhibiting nitric oxide (NO) release, with CA-4 being the primary focus for further research.
  • CA-4 was found to effectively reduce pro-inflammatory factors and inflammation in mice by modulating key signaling pathways, suggesting its potential as a treatment for acute inflammatory diseases.
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Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a widespread metabolic disorder with a yearly 6.7 million deaths worldwide. Several treatment options are available but with common side effects like weight gain, cardiovascular diseases, neurotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, and nephrotoxicity.

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Malignant blastomas develop relentlessly in all functional body organs inflicting severe health ailments in younger children. Malignant blastomas exhibit diverse clinical characteristics in compliance with their emergence in functional body organs. Surprisingly, neither of these preferred treatment types (surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy) showed promise or were effective in treating malignant blastomas among child patients.

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A library of new pyrimidine analogs was designed and synthesized of these, compound K10 bearing a 1,4‑benzodioxane moiety and 3,4,5‑trimethoxyphenyl group, exhibiting the most potent activity, with IC values of 0.07-0.80 μM against four cancer cell lines.

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Tubulin, a potential target for antitumor drug discovery, contains three main binding sites for clinical inhibitors: colchicine, vinblastine, and paclitaxel. CA-4 has been reported to be a classic tubulin inhibitor targeting the colchicine site. Herein, based on the structural modification of CA-4, 48 novel compounds were designed and synthesized by selecting structural fragments with various biological activities to replace the cis double bond of CA-4.

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Photodynamic therapy (PDT) under hypoxic conditions and drug resistance in chemotherapy are perplexing problems in anti-tumor treatment. In addition, central nervous system neoplasm-targeted nanoplatforms are urgently required. To address these issues, a new multi-functional protein hybrid nanoplatform is designed, consisting of transferrin (TFR) as the multicategory solid tumor recognizer and hemoglobin for oxygen supply (ODP-TH).

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The length of the telomeres is maintained with the help of the enzyme telomerase constituting of two components, namely, a core reverse transcriptase protein (hTERT) and RNA (hTR). It serves as a significant and universal cancer target. approaches play a crucial role in accelerating drug development processes, especially cancer drug repurposing is an attractive approach.

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In an attempt to find new targets for α-amylase and α-glucosidase for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus, the present study aims in determining the anti-diabetic potential of synthesized dihydropyrimidinone derivatives. The α-glucosidase and α-amylase inhibitory activity was performed and the molecular docking analysis of the ligand in the active binding site of target protein was determined. The results revealed significant percent inhibition of α-glucosidase by the compound (compound A).

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The gastrointestinal tract (GIT) and the liver constitute the major organs of the human body. Indeed, the very survival of the human body depends on their proper functioning. Because the GIT is a huge and complex organ system, the maintenance of proper GIT and liver health is an arduous task.

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