ß-arrestin2 recruitment at the ß2 adrenergic receptor: A luciferase complementation assay adapted for undergraduate training in pharmacology.

In the context of pharmacology teaching, hands-on activities constitute an essential complement to theoretical lectures. Frequently, these activities consist in exposing fresh animal tissues or even living animals to selected drugs and qualitatively or quantitatively evaluating functional responses. However, technological advancements in pharmacological research and the growing concerns for animal experimentation support the need for innovative and flexible in vitro assays adapted for teaching purposes. We herein report the implementation of a luciferase complementation assay (LCA) enabling to dynamically monitor ß-arrestin2 recruitment at the ß2 adrenergic receptor in the framework of pharmacological training at the faculty of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences. The assay allowed students to quantitatively characterize the competitive antagonism of propranolol, and to calculate pEC50 , pKB , and pA2 values after a guided data analysis session. Moreover, the newly implemented workshop delivered highly reproducible results and were generally appreciated by students. As such, we report that the luciferase complementation-based assay proved to be a straightforward, robust, and cost-effective alternative to experiments performed on animal tissues, constituting a useful and flexible tool to enhance and update current hands-on training in the context of pharmacological teaching.

Reduced scar maturation and contractility lead to exaggerated left ventricular dilation after myocardial infarction in mice lacking AMPKα1.

Cardiac fibroblasts (CF) are crucial in left ventricular (LV) healing and remodeling after myocardial infarction (MI). They are typically activated into myofibroblasts that express alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) microfilaments and contribute to the formation of contractile and mature collagen scars that minimize the adverse dilatation of infarcted areas. CF predominantly express the α1 catalytic subunit of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPKα1), while AMPKα2 is the major catalytic isoform in cardiomyocytes. AMPKα2 is known to protect the heart by preserving the energy charge of cardiac myocytes during injury, but whether AMPKα1 interferes with maladaptative heart responses remains unexplored. In this study, we investigated the role of AMPKα1 in modulating LV dilatation and CF fibrosis during post-MI remodeling. AMPKα1 knockout (KO) and wild type (WT) mice were subjected to permanent ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery. The absence of AMPKα1 was associated with increased CF proliferation in infarcted areas, while expression of the myodifferentiation marker α-SMA was decreased. Faulty maturation of myofibroblasts might derive from severe down-regulation of the non-canonical transforming growth factor-beta1/p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (TGF-ß1/p38 MAPK) pathway in KO infarcts. In addition, lysyl oxidase (LOX) protein expression was dramatically reduced in the scar of KO hearts. Although infarct size was similar in AMPK-KO and WT hearts subjected to MI, these changes resulted in compromised scar contractility, defective scar collagen maturation, and exacerbated adverse remodeling, as indicated by increased LV diastolic dimension 30days after MI. Our data genetically demonstrate the centrality of AMPKα1 in post-MI scar formation and highlight the specificity of this catalytic isoform in cardiac fibroblast/myofibroblast biology.

Water oxidation with molecularly defined iridium complexes: insights into homogeneous versus heterogeneous catalysis.

Molecularly defined Ir complexes and different samples of supported IrO(2) nanoparticles have been tested and compared in the catalytic water oxidation with cerium ammonium nitrate (CAN) as the oxidant. By comparing the activity of nano-scaled supported IrO(2) particles to the one of organometallic complexes it is shown that the overall activity of the homogeneous Ir precursors is defined by both the formation of the homogeneous active species and its conversion to Ir(IV)-oxo nanoparticles. In the first phase of the reaction the activity is dominated by the homogeneous active species. With increasing reaction time, the influence of nano-sized Ir-oxo particles becomes more evident. Notably, the different conversion rates of the homogeneous precursor into the active species as well as the conversion into Ir-oxo nanoparticles and the different particle sizes have a significant influence on the overall activity. In addition to the homogeneous systems, IrO(2)@MCM-41 has also been synthesized, which contains stabilized nanoparticles of between 1 and 3 nm in size. This latter system shows a similar activity to IrCl(3)⋅xH(2)O and complexes 4 and 5. Mechanistic insights were obtained by in situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy and scanning transmission electron microscopy.

Synthesis, characterisation and application of iridium(III) photosensitisers for catalytic water reduction.

The synthesis of novel, monocationic iridium(III) photosensitisers (Ir-PSs) with the general formula [Ir(III)(C^N)(2)(N^N)](+) (C^N: cyclometallating phenylpyridine ligand, N^N: neutral bidentate ligand) is described. The structures obtained were examined by cyclic voltammetry, UV/Vis and photoluminescence spectroscopy and X-ray analysis. All iridium complexes were tested for their ability as photosensitisers to promote homogeneously catalysed hydrogen generation from water. In the presence of [HNEt(3)][HFe(3)(CO)(11)] as a water-reduction catalyst (WRC) and triethylamine as a sacrificial reductant (SR), seven of the new iridium complexes showed activity. [Ir(6-iPr-bpy)(ppy)(2)]PF(6) (bpy: 2,2'-bipyridine, ppy: 2-phenylpyridine) turned out to be the most efficient photosensitiser. This complex was also tested in combination with other WRCs based on rhodium, platinum, cobalt and manganese. In all cases, significant hydrogen evolution took place. Maximum turnover numbers of 4550 for this Ir-PS and 2770 for the Fe WRC generated in situ from [HNEt(3)][HFe(3)(CO)(11)] and tris[3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]phosphine was obtained. These are the highest overall efficiencies for any Ir/Fe water-reduction system reported to date. The incident photon to hydrogen yield reaches 16.4% with the best system.