Cyclodextrine als Wirkstoffe zur Behandlung akuter Organophosph(on)atvergiftungen

Organophosph(on)ate sind die Ester der Phosphor- und Phosphonsäure und sind z.B. als Bausteine der DNA und Zellmembranen aufzufinden. Für einige künstlich hergestellte Organophosph(on)ate sind jedoch sehr hohe Toxizitäten beschrieben. Diese in der Klasse der neurotoxischen Organophosph(on)ate (NOP) zusammengefassten Verbindungen beinhalten Insektizide und chemische Kampfstoffe. Obwohl NOPs inzwischen in den meisten Ländern verboten sind, kommt es jedes Jahr zu zahlreichen Todesfällen. Die Toxizität, die auf die irreversible Inhibierung der Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) zurückzuführen ist, wird in der aktuellen Therapie durch die Gabe von Reaktivatoren aufgehoben. Mit dieser Therapie sind jedoch einige Nachteile verbunden. Meine Dissertation hatte das Ziel, neue, auf Cyclodextrinen basierte Scavenger zu entwickeln, die in der Lage sind, ein NOP zu entgiften, bevor es mit der AChE reagieren kann. In diesem Rahmen wurde ein breit angelegtes Screening durchgeführt und 69 potentielle Scavenger synthetisiert und bezüglich ihrer Wirkung auf den NOP-Abbau untersucht. Während die untersuchten N- und O-Nucleophile keine Aktivität auf den Abbau von drei repräsentativen NOPs, Cyclosarin (GF), Tabun (GA) und VX, zeigten, wurden für α-Effekt-Nucleophile z.T. hohe Aktivitäten beobachtet. β-Cyclodextrin, das mit Pyridiniumoximatgruppen modifiziert ist, war besonders effizient gegenüber GF. In weitergehenden quantitativen Untersuchungen konnte zudem festgestellt werden, dass der Abbau von GF in Gegenwart dieser Verbindung enantioselektiv verläuft. Dies ist ein klarer Hinweis darauf, dass das Cyclodextrin, vermutlich durch Einlagerung des Cyclohexylrests von GF für die Wirkungsweise des Scavengers von Bedeutung ist. Solche Pyridiniumoximate beschleunigten auch den Abbau von GA. Eine chirale Induktion des Cyclodextrinrings konnte in diesem Fall aber nicht festgestellt werden, was sehr wahrscheinlich auf die fehlende Wechselwirkung des GA mit dem Cyclodextrinring zurückzuführen ist. Cyclodextrine, die Hydroxamsäuregruppen entlang der Kavität enthalten, sind ebenfalls in der Lage, GA abzubauen. Bei diesen Untersuchungen zeigte sich, dass die Aktivität des Scavengers mit der Anzahl an reaktiven Einheiten entlang der Cyclodextrinkavität steigt. Mit Hydroxamsäure modifizierte Cyclodextrine zeigten erstmals auch Aktivität im Abbau von VX. Mit Halbwertszeiten von fast drei Stunden ist der Abbau noch zu langsam für einen in vivo Einsatz, jedoch stellen diese Verbindungen sehr vielversprechende Leitstrukturen für weitere Arbeiten in diesem Gebiet dar

Using the Nonlinear Duffing Effect of Piezoelectric Micro-Oscillators for Wide-Range Pressure Sensing

This paper investigates the resonant behaviour of silicon-based micro-oscillators with a length of 3600 µm, a width of 1800 µm and a thickness of 10 µm over a wide range of ambient gas (N2 ) pressures, extending over six orders of magnitude from 10−3 mbar to 900 mbar. The oscillators are actuated piezoelectrically by a thin-film aluminium-nitride (AlN) layer, with the cantilever coverage area being varied from 33% up to 100%. The central focus is on nonlinear Duffing effects, occurring at higher oscillation amplitudes. A theoretical background is provided. All relevant parameters describing a Duffing oscillator, such as stiffness parameters for each coverage size as well as for different bending modes and more complex modes, are extracted from the experimental data. The so-called 2nd roof-tile-shaped mode showed the highest stiffness value of −97.3·107 m−2 s −2 . Thus, it was chosen as being optimal for extended range pressure measurements. Interestingly, both a spring softening effect and a spring hardening effect were observed in this mode, depending on the percentage of the AlN coverage area. The Duffing-effect-induced frequency shift was found to be optimal for obtaining the highest pressure sensitivity, while the size of the hysteresis loop is also a very useful parameter because of the possibility of eliminating the temperature influences and long-term drift effects of the resonance frequency. An reasonable application-specific compromise between the sensitivity and the measurement range can be selected by adjusting the excitation voltage, offering much flexibility. This novel approach turns out to be very promising for compact, cost-effective, wide-range pressure measurements in the vacuum range

Impact of target warhead and linkage vector on inducing protein degradation:comparison of Bromodomain and Extra-Terminal (BET) degraders derived from triazolodiazepine (JQ1) and tetrahydroquinoline (I-BET726) BET inhibitor scaffolds

The design of proteolysis-targeting chimeras (PROTACs) is a powerful small-molecule approach for inducing protein degradation. PROTACs conjugate a target warhead to an E3 ubiquitin ligase ligand via a linker. Here we examined the impact of derivatizing two different BET bromodomain inhibitors, triazolodiazepine JQ1 and the more potent tetrahydroquinoline I-BET726, via distinct exit vectors, using different polyethylene glycol linkers to VHL ligand VH032. Triazolodiazepine PROTACs exhibited positive cooperativities of ternary complex formation and were more potent degraders than tetrahydroquinoline compounds, which showed negative cooperativities instead. Marked dependency on linker length was observed for BET-degrading and cMyc-driven antiproliferative activities in acute myeloid leukemia cell lines. This work exemplifies as a cautionary tale how a more potent inhibitor does not necessarily generate more potent PROTACs and underscores the key roles played by the conjugation. The provided insights and framework for structure–activity relationships of bivalent degraders are anticipated to have wide future applicability

CENTRIFUGAL LABTUBE FOR FULLY AUTOMATED DNA EXTRACTION & LAMP AMPLIFICATION BASED ON AN INTEGRATED, LOW-COST HEATING SYSTEM

In this paper, we introduce a disposable battery-driven heating system for loop-mediated isothermal DNA amplification (LAMP) inside a centrifugally-driven DNA-extraction platform (LabTube). We demonstrate fully automated, fully closed extraction of as little as 100 DNA copies of verotoxin-producing (VTEC) Escherichia coli lysate in water, milk and apple juice in a standard laboratory centrifuge, followed by subsequent automatic LAMP amplification with an overall time-to-result of 1.5hrs. The system is disposable, fully closed and automated, requiring only a single pipetting step. The microcontroller-driven heating system is low-cost (<1$) and it can be easily parallelized. Because the heated LabSystem runs within a standard laboratory centrifuge, it is suitable for DNA extraction and amplification in low-resource areas, at production sites or sales locations

New synthetic routes to Triazolo-benzodiazepine analogues:expanding the scope of the bump-and-hole approach for selective Bromo and Extra-Terminal (BET) bromodomain inhibition

We describe new synthetic routes developed toward a range of substituted analogues of bromo and extra-terminal (BET) bromodomain inhibitors I-BET762/JQ1 based on the triazolo-benzodiazepine scaffold. These new routes allow for the derivatization of the methoxyphenyl and chlorophenyl rings, in addition to the diazepine ternary center and the side chain methylene moiety. Substitution at the level of the side chain methylene afforded compounds targeting specifically and potently engineered BET bromodomains designed as part of a bump and hole approach. We further demonstrate that marked selectivity for the second over the first bromodomain can be achieved with an indole derivative that exploits differential interaction with an aspartate/histidine conservative substitution on the BC loop of BET bromodomains

Centrifugal LabTube platform for fully automated DNA purification and LAMP amplification based on an integrated, low-cost heating system

This paper introduces a disposable battery-driven heating system for loop-mediated isothermal DNA amplification (LAMP) inside a centrifugally-driven DNA purification platform (LabTube). We demonstrate LabTube-based fully automated DNA purification of as low as 100 cell-equivalents of verotoxin-producing Escherichia coli (VTEC) in water, milk and apple juice in a laboratory centrifuge, followed by integrated and automated LAMP amplification with a reduction of hands-on time from 45 to 1 min. The heating system consists of two parallel SMD thick film resistors and a NTC as heating and temperature sensing elements. They are driven by a 3 V battery and controlled by a microcontroller. The LAMP reagents are stored in the elution chamber and the amplification starts immediately after the eluate is purged into the chamber. The LabTube, including a microcontroller-based heating system, demonstrates contamination-free and automated sample-to-answer nucleic acid testing within a laboratory centrifuge. The heating system can be easily parallelized within one LabTube and it is deployable for a variety of heating and electrical applications

Aggregation of bead-monolayers in flat microfluidic chambers - simulation by the model of porous media

In this paper, we for the first time simulate the process of hydrodynamic bead aggregation in a flat micro-fluidic chamber by a porous-media model in an iterative routine. This allows us to optimize the chamber design of our recently developed experimental method to form periodical monolayers from the flow of bead suspension. Periodical monolayers are advantageous for parallel assay formats since they enhance the mechanical rigidity of the aggregated pattern. This is important to avoid a spatial rearrangement along various steps of a read-out procedure which would impair the correlation between measurements. Furthermore, the monolayer formation guarantees the individual optical accessibility of all probe beads. By modelling the monolayers with porous media, we can drastically reduce the degrees of freedom in a two-phase, multi-particle problem. This way, we are able to compute stationary hydrodynamic flow patterns in the chamber. In order to simulate the complete filling process from these stationary solutions, we developed an iterative master routine which takes the transient aggregation pattern as the initial condition, then evaluates the placement of the newly introduced beads, and finally converts the points of aggregation into porous media