A detailed study of the electronic behavior of a series of even nonalternant polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons derived from fluoranthene is presented. Compounds were synthesized that contained substantial barriers to rotation of substituents into conjugation with the parent hydrocarbon. The heavy atom bromine was incorporated into several compounds to probe its ability to quench fluorescence by spin-orbital coupling. External heavy atom solvent effects on the quenching of fluorescence were also investigated. Fluorescence spectra are presented that clearly indicate that intramolecular heavy atom effects (HAEs) can be transmitted through phenyl substituents conjugated with a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon. The magnitude of the transmitted HAE is shown to vary as a function of the ability of the substituent to rotate into planarity with the polycyclic core. The steric strain present in the various fluoranthene derivatives is modeled using molecular mechanics and semiempirical molecular orbital calculations. Semiempirical molecular orbital calculations of the HOMO and LUMO energies are compared with data obtained experimentally by cyclic voltammetry.
Despite the success of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in lowering circulating HIV-1 to undetectable levels in most infected individuals, several studies have documented the presence of a small reservoir of latently infected cells in HAART patients, the majority of which are CD45RO؉ memory T cells. We previously have demonstrated that latently infected, replication-competent cells can be generated in vitro after eliminating CD25؉ cells with an immunotoxin (IT). The present study was designed to determine whether these latent cells could be eliminated by an anti-CD45RO IT. Our results indicate that the anti-CD45RO IT eliminates >99%, of either M-tropic or T-tropic virus produced by the latently infected cells after mitogen stimulation. This IT also appears to be as effective as the anti-CD25 IT in eliminating the activated, HIV-1-producing cells. In contrast, the anti-CD45RO IT does not kill CD45RA ؉ naive cells. Further studies using cells from HIV-1-infected individuals on HAART will be necessary to determine the potential clinical utility of this IT.
It has been shown that the combined use of two pharmacologic agents can inhibit human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) production by peripheral blood mononuclear cells in vitro. One, an anti-CD25 immunotoxin (IT), kills activated T cells that produce virus; the other, the immunosuppressive drug cyclosporine, prevents the quiescent cells, which harbor HIV, from becoming activated. The present study compares the antiviral activities of two agents, SDZ NIM811 and FK506, to that of cyclosporine. In combination with the anti-CD25 IT, these drugs significantly suppressed virus production. In the absence of prior addition of the IT, the ability of the drugs to inhibit virus production was much lower, suggesting that they work effectively in latently infected cells. In the case of SDZ NIM811, the inhibition of virus production was accompanied by a modest inhibition of cell proliferation. In contrast, FK506 exerted strong antiproliferative activity. Cyclosporine was both moderately antiproliferative and a potent antiviral agent.
The present studies were designed to further determine whether the CD25 marker could distinguish between cells productively and latently infected with HIV. This was accomplished by combining immunotoxin (IT)-mediated killing of CD25+ cells, highly sensitive indirect immunofluorescence to detect remaining CD25+ cells, and PCR-mediated amplification of proviral DNA in immunotoxin-treated vs untreated HIV-infected cells. Our results demonstrate that: 1) By direct immunofluorescence 3 to 8% of PBMCs are CD25+, whereas by indirect immunofluorescence 30% are CD25+. The increased number of CD25+ cells is due to their detection by the highly sensitive indirect immunofluorescence assay. Up to 60% of the CD25+ cells are CD4+ and 12% are CD8+. 2) Treatment of HIV-infected PBMCs with an anti-CD25 IT for 6 days eliminated both CD25high and CD25low cells and decreased the production of p24 by 99%. 3) Differences in the HIV proviral genome were detected in the unfractionated PBMCs vs PBMCs from which CD25+ cells had been eliminated by IT treatment. Hence, PBMCs containing both CD25+ and CD25- cells express all intermediate proviral species and full-length double-stranded proviral DNA. In contrast, CD25- quiescent cells contain predominantly intermediate species. These results confirm and extend our previous observations that expression of CD25 can distinguish latently infected cells from cells producing virus.
The oxidation and reduction potentials of a series of related even non-alternant derivatives of 7,14-disubstituted acenaphth[1,2-k] fluoranthenes, and also fluoranthene, 7,10-diphenylfluoranthene and 8,9-dihydrodiindeno[1,2-j;2Ј,1Ј-] fluoranthene, were determined in organic solvents by cyclic voltammetry. The effects of steric hindrance on conjugation of the substituents with the central polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon nucleus were evaluated. The semi-empirical molecular orbital calculation programs OMEGAMO, Extended Hückel, AM1 and PM3 were used to obtain optimal geometries and calculated HOMO and LUMO energies. As a further refinement, COSMO solvation was included in the AM1 calculations. The redox properties were correlated with data derived from the various semi-empirical calculations and the quality of these correlations is discussed. Inclusion of solvation energies in the computed molecular orbital energies results in a significant improvement in the correlation between observed and calculated oxidation potentials.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.