Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Ghofrane Lahmadi, Mabrouk Horchani, Amal Dbeibia, Abdelkarim Mahdhi, Anis Romdhane, Ata Martin Lawson, Adam Daich, Abdel Halim Harrath, Hichem Ben Jannet, Mohamed Othman
Summary: In this study, a series of structurally novel triazole ester compounds were synthesized from the β-hydroxyolean-12-en-28-oic acid (OA-1) derived from agricultural waste. The antibacterial activity of these compounds was evaluated, and some of them showed high activity against Listeria monocytogenes, with compounds 18d, 18g, and 18h exhibiting the highest efficacy.
Article
Chemistry, Applied
E. F. Khusnutdinova, A. V. Petrova, A. N. Lobov, O. S. Kukovinets, D. S. Baev, O. B. Kazakova
Summary: The study synthesized a series of unexpected compounds through the interaction of acid chlorides with propargylamine hydrochloride, showing high activity in cytotoxicity evaluation. It was also demonstrated that these compounds have an advantage as cytotoxic agents.
NATURAL PRODUCT RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Erwin Doe, Hannah L. L. Hayth, Ross Brumett, Emil F. F. Khisamutdinov
Summary: Nucleic acid-based therapeutics involve conjugating small molecule drugs to nucleic acid oligomers to overcome solubility challenges and the inefficient delivery into cells. Click chemistry has emerged as a popular approach due to its simplicity and high conjugation efficiency. However, the purification of oligonucleotide conjugates is a major drawback. This study introduces a simple and rapid purification method using MWCO centrifugation to separate excess unconjugated molecules and toxic catalysts for nucleic acid nanotechnology applications.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2023)
Review
Chemistry, Applied
Farid Ahmed, Hai Xiong
Summary: This review summarizes the latest developments in chemosensors based on click generated triazoles for a range of metal cations, anions, and neutral analytes, highlighting the need for continuous research accumulation in this rapidly growing field to meet demand.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Ciara Buckley, Therese R. Montgomery, Tomasz Szank, Brian A. Murray, Cormac Quigley, Ian Major
Summary: This research presents a method for modifying hyaluronic acid to generate a new photo-crosslinkable polymer with improved physicochemical properties and biocompatibility. The addition of thiol to HA increases the crosslinking and biocompatibility, and enhances the degradability of methacrylated HA. The novel hydrogel system could have numerous bioengineering applications due to its enhanced properties.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL MACROMOLECULES
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Xiao-Jing Zhang, Zhuo Zhao, Xia Wang, Min-Hui Su, Lili Ai, Yingying Li, Quan Yuan, Xue-Qiang Wang, Weihong Tan
Summary: A new chemical tailoring strategy was developed to efficiently produce circular bivalent aptamers and cyclized DNA sequences. These modified molecules exhibited high nuclease resistance and significantly improved binding, targeting, and tumor tissue enrichment abilities, thus showing great potential for biomedical applications.
NATIONAL SCIENCE REVIEW
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Leona L. Rodrigues, Aaron S. Micallef, Michael C. Pfrunder, Vinh X. Truong, John C. McMurtrie, Tim R. Dargaville, Anja S. Goldmann, Florian Feist, Christopher Barner-Kowollik
Summary: A highly efficient ligation system based on visible light-induced rearrangement was introduced, generating a thiophenol for rapid thiol-Michael additions without the need for additives. The self-catalyzed ligation through pyridine mediated deprotonation of the photochemically generated thiophenol was described, leading to additive-free thiol-Michael reactions. The study explored various reaction conditions, solvents, and substrates, showcasing excellent end group fidelity in polymer modification.
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Aditya S. Vaidya, Francis C. Peterson, James Eckhardt, Zenan Xing, Sang-Youl Park, Wim Dejonghe, Jun Takeuchi, Oded Pri-Tal, Julianna Faria, Dezi Elzinga, Brian F. Volkman, Yasushi Todoroki, Assaf Mosquna, Masanori Okamoto, Sean R. Cutler
Summary: The study designed a pan receptor antagonist, ANT, by modifying the agonist structure, and demonstrated that ANT effectively blocks ABA signaling and accelerates seed germination in multiple species, showing great potential for application.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Mario Saletti, Marco Paolino, Lavinia Ballerini, Germano Giuliani, Gemma Leone, Stefania Lamponi, Marco Andreassi, Claudia Bonechi, Alessandro Donati, Daniele Piovani, Alberto Giacometti Schieroni, Agnese Magnani, Andrea Cappelli
Summary: An easy and viable crosslinking procedure using click-chemistry was developed for hyaluronic acid. The resulting crosslinked materials showed no cytotoxic effects, tunable water affinity, and rheological properties, suggesting potential applications in different biomedical fields.
Article
Chemistry, Organic
Jiying Liang, Han Jia, Lan Li, Xiang Li, Ying Li
Summary: A novel beta-difluoroalkylamine was designed for capturing RNAs and proteins with high tempospatial resolution via proximity labeling mediated by photoinduced singlet oxygen. The appended azide group enables RNA biotinylation and downstream analysis through both SPAAC and CuAAC, with the beta-difluoroalkylazide motif exhibiting an enhanced CuAAC reaction rate for preserving good RNA integrity.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Sagun Jonchhe, Shankar Pandey, Christian Beneze, Tomoko Emura, Hiroshi Sugiyama, Masayuki Endo, Hanbin Mao
Summary: Researchers found that a DNA nanobowl significantly increased the stability of a human telomeric G-quadruplex and its binding with a ligand. By minimizing the proximity effect and attributing the increased affinity to the nanoconfinement effect, they provided insights into the mechanisms of binding events in nanocavities.
NUCLEIC ACIDS RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Emiel W. A. Visser, Jovana Miladinovic, Joshua N. Milstein
Summary: An ultrastable and highly dense single-molecule assay has been developed for observing protein-DNA interactions, which is stable at high temperatures, compatible with Mg2+, and enables the study of sequence and temperature-dependent effects on DNA binding. This improved assay can be applied to accelerate existing single-molecule biosensing applications.
Article
Chemistry, Organic
Montassar Khalil, Dany Jeanne Dit Fouque, Mathieu Berchel, Aurore Fraix, Aurelien Dupont, Salvatore Sortino, Antony Memboeuf, Paul-Alain Jaffres
Summary: The PAC reaction in phospholipid formulations is a fast and versatile strategy for functionalizing liposomes, with a second order rate constant of approximately 8 x 10(2) M-1 s(-1).
ORGANIC & BIOMOLECULAR CHEMISTRY
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Qiaochu Jiang, Wenjun Zhan, Xiaoyang Liu, Lin Bai, Manli Wang, Ying Xu, Gaolin Liang
Summary: The authors present an assembly-driven, regioselective metal-free azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction with potential applications in biomedical contexts. In the absence of metal ions, supramolecular self-assembly in an aqueous solution is used to achieve excellent regioselectivity in the reaction, paving the way for more metal-free reactions in chemical biology.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Shanmugam Revathi, Aditya L. Shinde, Mulimani K. Rajashekhar, Debasish Mandal, Amit Ranjan Maity, Somenath Garai, Tapas Ghatak
Summary: A novel synthetic approach using innovative metal-free N-heterocyclic imino catalysts has been developed to efficiently synthesize regioselective 1,4-disubstituted 1,2,3-triazoles. Experimental observations have been supported by TD-DFT computational studies. This state-of-the-art metal-free approach serves as an alternative to CuAAC and shows promising potential in the field of synthesizing regioselective 1,4-triazoles.
CHEMICAL COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Baoyan Zhang, Xia Yu, Jiawei Li, Kailun Wei, Liang Gao, Jun Hu
Summary: In this work, a four-armed biobased AIE fluorescent gelator (TPE-4GL) was designed and synthesized by linking four glycyrrhizic acids to a tetraphenylethene (TPE) core. TPE-4GL exhibited stable gels in DMSO/water and 1,2-propanediol/water, with flower-like microstructures and regular nanospheres. The gelator demonstrated the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) behavior, although the specific process differed in DMSO/water and 1,2-propanediol/water.
JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR STRUCTURE
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Hao Zhang, Ning Tang, Xia Yu, Min-Hui Li, Jun Hu
Summary: This paper presents a strategy to prepare strong and tough physical eutectogels using a solvent-replacement approach. By replacing water with deep eutectic solvents, the interactions between polymer chains can be restrengthened, resulting in eutectogels with high strength, toughness, and tear resistance, as well as excellent stretchability, repairability, and adhesive performance.
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Polymer Science
Feng Yin, Jinguo Liu, Jun Hu, Yong Ju
Summary: This article introduces a new type of color changeable shape memory hydrogel, which is achieved by simply incorporating polyvinyl alcohol and copper acetate into a polyacrylamide network. Copper ions serve as reversible crosslinks after heating, showing excellent shape memory effect, color shifting, and self-healing ability, and have potential applications in various fields.
MACROMOLECULAR RAPID COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Jinguo Liu, Feng Yin, Jun Hu, Yong Ju
Summary: This study elucidates the mechanism of chirality control in supramolecular self-assembly by synthesizing three isomeric amphiphiles and regulating their supramolecular chirality through the conformation and strength of intramolecular H-bonds. Additionally, the helical topologic transformation and chiroptical activity transitions modulated by metal ions were reported. These findings provide insights into the chiral self-assembly processes and advance the applications of triterpenoid-based assemblies in chiral nanomaterials.
ACS APPLIED NANO MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Kailun Wei, Kefei Zhao, Yuxia Gao, Hao Zhang, Xia Yu, Min-Hui Li, Jun Hu
Summary: In this study, a near-infrared responsive poly-sulfide carrier (SOCT) was prepared using industrial waste sulfur, bio-based soybean oil, and agricultural waste biochar. The carrier exhibited good photothermal property and stable release behavior, allowing for controlled release of the pesticide. It also showed excellent fungicidal activities and high biosafety for plants and fish. The carrier material can be completely degraded in specific conditions, making it sustainable and multi-functional. This research provides an effective approach for developing pesticide formulations with improved performance.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL
(2023)
Review
Polymer Science
Hao Zhang, Jianqiao Wu, Junbo Guo, Jun Hu
Summary: With the concept of sustainable development becoming increasingly prominent, the world is shifting from a fossil fuel-driven energy economy to one that relies more on renewable and sustainable materials. Terpenoids, a category of natural products found in plants, microorganisms, and marine animals, have numerous modification sites and diverse functions. They can be used to create sustainable materials with simplified synthesis processes, distinctive stereoscopic configurations, superior bioactivity, and biocompatibility, enabling greater applications in various fields. This review focuses on the recent advances in the preparation, properties, and development directions of sustainable and multifunctional materials derived from terpenoids, including terpenoid-derived thermoplastics, cross-linked polymers, and supramolecular materials. It aims to raise awareness of natural terpenoids, promote their exploitation and utilization, and provide more alternatives for the advancement of sustainable functional materials.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Huangjie Lu, Hailong Huang, Junpu Yang, Zhaofa Zheng, Xue Dong, Lianjie Zhao, Chao Xu, Jun Hu, Hongtao Liu, Yuan Qian, Jian-Qiang Wang, Jian Lin
Summary: Developing UV radiation sensors with high sensitivity, easy operation, and rapid readout is desired in various fields. Enhancing the sensitivity of UV detection, particularly for photochromic materials, has been a challenge. In this study, a viologen derivative incorporated with a hydrogel-based UV sensor was formulated, which exhibited a reversible photoelectrochromic response and improved UV sensitivity by two orders of magnitude. The proposed strategy of constructing photoelectrochromic hybrids could potentially enhance the UV sensitivity of other photochromic materials as well.
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Lianjie Zhao, Hao Zhang, Ning Tang, Min-Hui Li, Jun Hu
Summary: Phytic acid-assisted PANi/PVA hydrogel with self-reinforcing features is developed, showing enhanced mechanical performance. Phytic acid plays a crucial role in salinizing aniline and forming hydrogen bonds with PVA, resulting in conductive PANi and structure orientation. The hydrogel exhibits improved fracture strength, Young’s modulus, and toughness after repetitive stretching, attributed to the anisotropic structures fixed by hydrogen bonds. The PVA/PA/PANi hydrogel shows good mechanical durability and reusability, making it a reliable strain sensor.
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Zhiran Zheng, Jiawei Li, Kailun Wei, Ning Tang, Min-Hui Li, Jun Hu
Summary: This study develops an integrated auxetic elastomer (IAE) that can exhibit transverse expansion while being axially stretched. By using high-modulus cross-linked poly(urethane-urea) as a skeleton and low-modulus non-cross-linked poly(urethane-urea) as a complementary-shape matrix, along with the dual dynamic interfacial healing promoted by disulfide bonds and hydrogen bonds, the resulting IAE possesses flat, void-free, and sharp soft-to-hard interface-free characteristics. Moreover, the fracture strength and elongation at the break of the IAE are significantly improved compared to those of the corrugated re-entrant skeleton alone, while maintaining the negative Poisson's ratio (NPR) within a certain strain range. Finite element analysis further confirms the advantageous mechanical and auxetic properties of this elastomer.
ADVANCED MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Baoyan Zhang, Tiantian Cui, Xuewei Jiao, Yaning Ma, Liang Gao, Jun Hu
Summary: A catalyst-free covalent adaptable network with high mechanical and thermal properties is developed for carbon fiber-reinforced composites. The material possesses rapid transesterification reactions, allowing for reprocessing, repairing, and degradation. Moreover, the composite exhibits good welding ability and can be efficiently and non-destructively recycled.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Junbo Guo, Hao Zhang, Tiantian Cui, Jiawei Li, Min-Hui Li, Jun Hu
Summary: In this study, a viewable in situ programmed humidity-driven monolayer actuator was reported, which consisted of hydrophilic poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), polyacrylamide (PAAm), and tannic acid (TA). The inclusion of TA as a physical cross-linker allowed for precise control of modulus distribution, while also providing fluorescence in the solid state. The resulting film exhibited high optical transparency, good mechanical properties, bright fluorescence, and reversible fast humidity-response. This viewable and programmable approach will greatly aid in the design of humidity-driven actuators for various applications.
ADVANCED MATERIALS TECHNOLOGIES
(2023)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Xia Yu, Jiawei Li, Hao Zhang, Min-Hui Li, Jun Hu
Summary: Using natural glycyrrhetinic acid (GA) with good self-assembly ability and hydrophilic polyethylene glycol (PEG) with thermoresponsive capacity, we synthesized amphiphilic trans-/cis-TPE-GA-PEG isomers with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics. The trans isomers formed nanospheres with typical AIE features, while the cis isomers displayed a fluorescence-enhanced property and generated nanovesicles. Both isomers underwent reversible phase transitions in tetrahydrofuran/water solution, with the cis isomers having a lower phase transition temperature compared to the trans-TPE-GA-PEG. The morphologies of the isomers transformed into helical fibers and irregular aggregates, respectively, due to the disruption of interactions between PEG chains and water molecules.
ACS APPLIED POLYMER MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Zhongkai Guo, Xuewei Jiao, Kailun Wei, Jianqiao Wu, Jun Hu
Summary: In this study, a series of itaconic acid-based vitrimers with dual-dynamic networks were prepared by one-pot inverse vulcanization, which resolved the challenges of competitive raw materials and tedious preparation process for application of sustainable polymers. These vitrimers exhibited good solvent resistance and thermal stability, and could be physically recycled, repaired, welded, and chemically degraded at a mild temperature.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Ning Tang, Yujia Jiang, Kailun Wei, Zhiran Zheng, Hao Zhang, Jun Hu
Summary: A stepwise-enhanced strategy is presented to fabricate ultrarobust eutectogels. The strategy involves complementary annealing and solvent exchange processes to optimize polymer networks and enhance mechanical properties. The resultant eutectogel exhibits exceptional mechanical performance and can be programmed through photolithography.
ADVANCED MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Hao Zhang, Junbo Guo, Jun Hu, Ming Zhou
Summary: With the advancement of supramolecular chemistry, the focus is shifting towards the development of multifunctional supramolecular materials. Natural small molecules are preferred over synthetic molecules due to their lower toxicity, better biocompatibility, biodegradability, and bioactivity. Terpenoids, with their wide range of supply sources, numerous modification sites, and abundant functions, have become a promising platform for constructing supramolecular materials. Many terpenoid-based supramolecular materials have been successfully developed, playing important roles in various fields such as tissue engineering, biomedicine, food science, and flexible electronics.
SUPRAMOLECULAR CHEMISTRY
(2023)
