The development of vaccines against specific types of cancers will offer new modalities for therapeutic intervention. Here we describe the synthesis of a novel vaccine construction prepared from spherical gold nanoparticles of 3–5 nm core diameters. The particles were coated with both the tumor-associated glycopeptides antigens containing the cell-surface mucin MUC4 with Thomsen Friedenreich (TF) antigen attached at different sites and a 28-residue peptide from the complement derived protein C3d to act as a B-cell activating “molecular adjuvant”. The synthesis entailed solid phase glycopeptide synthesis, design of appropriate linkers and attachment chemistry of the various molecules to the particles. Attachment to the gold surface was mediated by a novel thiol-containing 33 atom linker which was further modified to be included as a third “spacer” component in the synthesis of several three-component vaccine platforms. Groups of mice were vaccinated either with one of the nanoplatform constructs or with control particles without antigen coating. Evaluation of sera from the immunized animals in enzyme immunoassays (EIA) against each glycopeptide antigen showed a small but statistically significant immune response with production of both IgM and IgG isotypes. Vaccines with one carbohydrate antigen (B, C and E) gave more robust responses than the one with two contiguous disaccharides (D), and vaccine E with a TF antigen attached to threonine at the 10th position of the peptide was selected for IgG over IgM suggesting isotype switching. The data suggested that this platform may be a viable delivery system for tumor-associated glycopeptide antigens.

The conjoint effort of the –CH2–CH2– linker backbone and coordinating sites in the tetradentate ligand stabilizes a variety of stannylenes.

Bis(chlorogermyliumylidene) 2 has been strategically obtained within redox-active bis(α-iminopyridine). Metal-free reduction of 2 followed by protonation led to elusive 2,3-di(pyridin-2-yl)piperazine with meso-stereoselectivity. Formation of persistent triplet diradicals upon reduction and isolation of piperazine stabilized Ge(ii) dication intermediates provide convincing evidence for the crucial role of [GeCl]+ units in reductive cyclization.

Syntheses of heavier Group 14 analogues of "Arduengo-type" N-heterocyclic carbene majorly involved the use of conventional alkali metal-based reducing agents under harsh reaction conditions. The accompanied reductant-derived metal salts and chances of over-reduced impurities often led to isolation difficulties in this multi-step process. In order to overcome these shortcomings, we have used 1,4-bis-(trimethylsilyl)-1,4-diaza-2,5-cyclohexadiene as a milder reducing agent for the preparation of N-heterocyclic germylenes (NHGe) and stannylenes (NHSn). The reaction occurs in a single step with moderate yields from the mixture of N-substituted 1,4-diaza-1,3-butadiene, E(II) (E(II) = GeCl 2 ·dioxane, SnCl 2 ) and the organosilicon reductant. The volatile byproducts trimethylsilyl chloride and pyrazine could be removed readily under vacuum. No significant over reduction was observed in this process. However, N-heterocyclic silylene (NHSi) could not be synthesized using an even stronger organosilicon reductant under thermal and photochemical conditions.

Bis(chlorogermyliumylidene)s stabilized within the PNNP frameworks show diverse reactivity with Lewis bases, depending on the coordinated ligand backbone.