Protein-based biopharmaceuticals are generally produced as aqueous solutions and stored refrigerated to obtain sufficient shelf life. Alternatively, proteins may be freeze-dried in the presence of sugars to allow storage stability at ambient conditions for prolonged periods. However, to act as a stabilizer, these sugars should remain in the glassy state during storage. This requires a sufficiently high glass transition temperature (Tg). Furthermore, the sugars should be able to replace the hydrogen bonds between the protein and water during drying. Frequently used disaccharides are characterized by a relatively low Tg, rendering them sensitive to plasticizing effects of residual water, which strongly reduces the Tg values of the formulation. Larger sugars generally have higher Tgs, but it is assumed that these sugars are limited in their ability to interact with the protein due to steric hindrance. In this paper, the size and molecular flexibility of sugars was related to their ability to stabilize proteins. Four diverse proteins varying in size from 6 kDa to 540 kDa were freeze-dried in the presence of different sugars varying in size and molecular flexibility. Subsequently, the different samples were subjected to an accelerated stability test. Using protein specific assays and intrinsic fluorescence, stability of the proteins was monitored. It was found that the smallest sugar (disaccharide trehalose) best preserved the proteins, but also that the Tg of the formulations was only just high enough to maintain sufficient vitrification. When trehalose-based formulations are exposed to high relative humidities, water uptake by the product reduces the Tgs too much. In that respect, sugars with higher Tgs are desired. Addition of polysaccharide dextran 70 kDa to trehalose greatly increased the Tg of the formulation. Moreover, this combination also improved the stability of the proteins compared to dextran only formulations. The molecularly flexible oligosaccharide inulin 4 kDa provided better stabilization than the similarly sized but molecularly rigid oligosaccharide dextran 6 kDa. In conclusion, the results of this study indicate that size and molecular flexibility of sugars affect their ability to stabilize proteins. As long as they maintain vitrified, smaller and molecularly more flexible sugars are less affected by steric hindrance and thus better capable at stabilizing proteins.

The chromene derivative 4 reacts with acetic anhydride, phenylisothiocyanate and ethyl orthoformate to afford the N-acetyl derivative 6, the chromenopyrimidine 8 and the formimidate 9, respectively. 2-(1H-Indol-3-ylmethylene)-malononitrile 10b reacts with 1,3-cyclohexanedione and dimedone 11a, b to afford the 4(3-indolyl)-chromene derivatives 12a, b respectively, and with the pyrazolone derivatives 13a-d to afford the arylidene exchange derivatives 14a-c and the pyranopyrazole derivative 15, respectively. The arylidene derivatives 10a, b react also with indane-1,3-dione 16 to afford the arylidene exchange derivatives 18a, b. The molluscicidal activity of the synthesized compounds towards Biomphalaria alexandrina snails, the intermediate host of Schistosoma mansoni, was investigated and most of them showed weak to moderate activity.

Using a convergent palladium-catalyzed construction of the carbazole framework as the key step we have achieved a short synthesis of the 7-oxygenated carbazole alkaloids clauszoline-K, 3-formyl-7-hydroxycarbazole, clausine C (clauszoline-L), clausine M, clausine N and the anti-HIV active siamenol.

Stopping myo: The total syntheses of the title compounds have been achieved using a highly efficient silver(I)‐catalyzed cyclization of N‐tosyl‐homopropargylamines. The pseudilin derivatives represent a novel class of myosin inhibitors. A new allosteric binding pocket of the Dictyostelium myosin‐2 motor domain has been identified for pentabromopseudilin (1) by using an X‐ray crystal structure determination of the inhibitor–protein complex.

Iron-mediated oxidative cyclisation provides an efficient approach to pyrano[3,2-a]carbazole alkaloids. Thus, improved routes to girinimbine and murrayacine as well as the first total syntheses of O-methylmurrayamine A and 7-methoxymurrayacine are reported. Asymmetric epoxidation of girinimbine led to (-)-trans-dihydroxygirinimbine and the assignment of its absolute configuration.