The family of graphene has attracted increasing attention on account of their large specific surface area and good mechanical properties in the biomedical field. However, some characteristics like targeted delivery property and drug delivery capacity could not satisfy the need of a drug carrier. Herein, a graphene oxide (GO) nanocarrier was designed by modification of a folic acid (FA) derivative and a β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) derivative in order to improve two properties, respectively. In the first step, reactive or crosslinkable FA and aldehydic β-CD (β-CD-CHO) were designed and synthesized for further modification. In the second step, synthesized functional molecules were coupled onto GO sheets one by one to obtain the GO nanocarrier. IR spectra and XRD results were used to identify the chemical and structural information before and after modification for the GO nanocarrier. The final GO nanocarrier exhibited a typical thin wrinkled sheet morphology of the GO sheet without any influence by two functional molecules. Finally, in vitro evaluation was used to clarify the drug loading and controlling capacity of the nanocarrier as a drug delivery system. The results revealed that the GO nanocarrier had a better CPT loading capacity and showed better controllability for CPT release.

The X-chromosome linked inhibitor of apoptosis, XIAP, is mainly known as the inhibitor of caspases by direct interaction with caspases with its baculoviral IAP repeat (BIR) domains. XIAP has three BIR domains and each BIR domain contains a zinc binding site, normally known as zinc finger motif. Recent studies showed that XIAP is involved in copper homeostasis in cells and the BIR domains bind copper ion. However, structural details of the second and third BIR domain, BIR2 and BIR3, in XIAP, with copper as well as the binding modes are not known. In the present work we characterize the structural properties of BIR3 in solution by high resolution NMR and other biophysical techniques. The interaction of BIR3 with copper both in vitro and in cell lysates was analyzed. Our results show that BIR3 is able to form stable complexes both with Cu(II) and Cu(I), whereas zinc binding site is not affected and zinc retains tightly bound in the zinc finger during these interactions. Surprisingly, BIR3 has multiple binding sites for Cu(II) and Cu(I) but with varied binding affinities. In addition, the solvent exposed Cys351 is readily oxidized by Cu(II) resulting an intermolecular disulfide bond either between two BIR3 molecules or a mixed disulfide bond with glutathione in cell lysates.

Light-responsive materials have attracted increasing interest in recent years on account of their adjustable on-off properties upon specific light. In consideration of reversible isomerization transition for azobenzene (AZO), it was designed as a light-responsive domain for nanoparticles in this research. At the same time, the interaction between AZO domain and β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) domain was designed as a driving force to assemble nanoparticles, which was fabricated by two polymers containing AZO domain and β-CD domain, respectively. The formed nanoparticles were confirmed by Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) results and Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) images. An obvious two-phase structure was formed in which the outer layer of nanoparticles was composed of PCD polymer, as verified by 1HNMR spectroscopy. The efficient and effective light response of the nanoparticles, including quick responsive time, controllable and gradual recovered process and good fatigue resistance, was confirmed by UV-Vis spectroscopy. The size of the nanoparticle could be adjusted by polymer ratio and light irradiation, which was ascribed to its light-response property. Nanoparticles had irreversibly pH dependent characteristics. In order to explore its application as a nanocarrier, drug loading and in vitro release profile in different environment were investigated through control of stimuli including light or pH value. Folic acid (FA), as a kind of target fluorescent molecule with specific protein-binding property, was functionalized onto nanoparticles for precise delivery for anticancer drugs. Preliminary in vitro cell culture results confirmed efficient and effective curative effect for the nanocarrier on MCF-7 cells.

Herein, we report substituent‐controlled divergent cascade cycloaddition reactions of chalcones and arylalkynols in the presence of PtI2. Depending on the substituent on the chalcone, either spiroketals or oxa‐bridged fused heterocycles could be obtained in the ranges of 86–97% and 87–95% yields under identical reaction conditions. Control experiments were carried out to elucidate the origin of the high chemoselectivity. These provide a method for the synthesis of a diverse array of structurally complex oxygen‐containing heterocycles.