Species-dependent binding of tocainide analogues to albumin: affinity chromatography and circular dichroism study.

A series of novel tocainide analogues were characterized for their HSA and RSA binding, by using high-performance liquid affinity chromatography (HPLAC) and circular dichroism (CD). In this HPLAC study, HSA and RSA were covalently immobilized to the silica matrix of HPLC columns, with a procedure that maintained unaltered the binding properties of the proteins. The tocainide analogues were ranked for their affinity to HSA and RSA on the basis of their bound fractions measured by the two albumin-based columns. This technique was also applied to characterize the high affinity binding sites of these tocainide analogues to the protein. For this purpose displacement experiments were carried out by means of increasing concentrations in the mobile phase of competitors known to bind selectively to the main binding sites of HSA. The results obtained with the immobilized proteins were confirmed by investigating the same drug-protein systems in solution by circular dichroism. The comparison of the data collected with both methodologies highlighted the dramatic effect of small differences in the amino acidic sequences of the two proteins. In fact, despite their similar primary and secondary structures, a small difference in the amino acidic sequence leads to significant differences in their three-dimensional structure reflecting their different binding capacity and their stereoselectivity. Therefore, this study confirms how it is crucial to consider the significant differences among the animal models when performing pharmacokinetic studies. It is also clear that the knowledge of serum carrier binding parameters at an early stage of drug discovery represents a great advantage that may help to save time and efforts.

One hundred years of helicene chemistry. Part 2: stereoselective syntheses and chiral separations of carbohelicenes.

Carbohelicenes generally incorporate a helical, distorted, conjugated, polyaromatic system with ortho-fused benzenoid rings, which is a fundamental molecular characteristic of this class of compounds. They have been described as "molecules in distress" due to their distortion. The generation of a chiral helicity in helicenes was observed because of a severe intramolecular steric strain. Helicity is a molecular necessity in the higher series of carbohelicenes, when at some point, a helical pitch occurs when a second coil is formed. The most interesting properties resulting from such molecular distortion are the very high chiroptical and circular dichroism values. For instance, the resolution of some helicene racemates by "hand picking" of a few homochiral single enantiomeric crystals allowed for a measurement of their optical rotation. Due to that intrinsic chirality spanned over a large polyaromatic template, preliminary results clearly established the efficiency of carbohelicenes to induce asymmetry and chirality in organic synthesis and in supramolecular chemistry. Additionally, they have some potential uses in several fields: materials science, nanoscience, chemical biology and supramolecular chemistry. It has encouraged many attempts to develop new asymmetric syntheses of carbohelicenes, as well as some chiral separations of enantiomers and diastereoisomers. This review is thus dedicated to carbohelicene chirality. It gathered a substantial collection of data, and a comprehensive review on the preparations of enantioenriched helicenes, either from an asymmetric synthesis or from a chiral separation. Utilizations of non-racemic helicenes and their applications will be treated in the following review (Part 3), and will not be the subject of this manuscript.

Two-dimensional nanostructured growth of nanoclusters and molecules on insulating surfaces.

Noncontact atomic force microscopy (nc-AFM), Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) and first principle calculations show that the nanostructured (001) Suzuki surface of Cd(2+) doped NaCl can be used to confine the growth of palladium clusters and functionalized brominated pentahelicene molecules into only the Suzuki regions, which contain the impurities. The Suzuki surface is an ideal model surface for nanostructuring metal clusters and molecules.

5-Imino-1,2-4-thiadiazoles and quinazolines derivatives as glycogen synthase kinase 3ß (GSK-3ß) and phosphodiesterase 7 (PDE7) inhibitors: determination of blood-brain barrier penetration and binding to human serum albumin.

5-Imino-1,2,4-thiadiazoles and quinazolines derivatives as glycogen synthase kinase 3ß (GSK-3ß) and phosphodiesterase 7 (PDE7) inhibitors were characterized for their ability to pass the blood-brain barrier (BBB) together with their human serum albumin (HSA) binding using high-performance liquid affinity chromatography (HPLAC) and circular dichroism (CD). To study the blood-brain barrier penetration, a parallel artificial membrane permeability assay (PAMPA) using a porcine brain lipid was employed. For the HPLAC investigation, HSA was previously covalently immobilized to the silica matrix of the HPLC column. This HSA-based column was used to characterize the high affinity binding sites of 5-imino-1,2,4-thiadiazoles and quinazolines derivatives to HSA. Displacement experiments in the presence of increasing concentrations of competitors known to bind selectively to the main binding sites of HSA were carried out to determine their possible binding site. The same drug-protein system was studied by CD. The analysed compounds were able to pass BBB, they present good drug-like properties and they showed a high affinity to HSA. Competition experiments showed an anticooperative interaction at sites I and II, and an independent binding at bilirubin binding site on HSA.

Green chiral HPLC enantiomeric separations using high temperature liquid chromatography and subcritical water on Chiralcel OD and Chiralpak AD.

We report here the application of subcritical water in chiral separations on two popular polysaccharide chiral stationary phases (CSPs): Chiralpak AD and Chiralcel OD. The behavior of these two CSPs was studied under reversed phase conditions at room temperature to discover the maximum percentage of water in the mobile phase, which provided the separation of enantiomers of flavanone and benzoin, respectively, in a reasonable time (i.e., less than 1 h). Then, the stability of Chiralpak AD and Chiralcel OD versus temperature was investigated and discussed. Chiralcel OD separation of flavanone racemate was obtained at 120 °C with water and 2-propanol (80/20) as the mobile phase, while benzoin racemate was separated in pure water at 160 °C. Separations of several racemates were also presented, and advantages and limitations of the technique were discussed.

Tocainide analogues binding to human serum albumin: a HPLAC and circular dichroism study.

A series of synthesised tocainide analogues were characterized for their human serum albumin (HSA) binding, using high-performance liquid affinity chromatography (HPLAC) and circular dichroism (CD). The synthesis and physico-chemical characterization of compounds 7a-7d is reported here. For the HPLAC investigation HSA was covalently immobilized to the silica matrix of the HPLC column, using an anchoring procedure, which allows the binding properties of the protein to be maintained. The HSA-based column was used for getting information on the high affinity binding sites of the tocainide analogues to HSA. According to the displacement chromatography approach, the retentions of the analytes were determined in the absence and in the presence of increasing concentrations of competitors known to bind to specific binding sites on the protein. The same system, drug/protein, was investigated in solution by CD. The analysed compounds, proved active as sodium channel blockers, showed a much higher affinity to the serum carrier with respect to the parent compound, tocainide. Further, a non-cooperative interaction at sites I and II, and an almost independent binding at the bilirubin binding site on HSA were hypothesised on the bases of the competition experiments.

HSA binding of HIV protease inhibitors: a high-performance affinity chromatography study.

The binding of HIV protease inhibitors, drugs important for anti-HIV chemotherapy, to HSA was examined by high-performance affinity chromatography. Frontal analysis was first used to determine the amount of anchored protein and the binding capacity for selected markers on this column. Zonal elution experiments then ranked the HSA bound fraction of the examined compounds. Information on the binding region was obtained by competitive zonal elution experiments using probe compounds with known sites on HSA. An allosteric competition between HIV protease inhibitors (PIs) and valproate (a probe for the bilirubin site) was detected, consistent with a noncooperative binding mechanism. No significant competition was observed between the examined compounds and salicylate or ibuprofen, probes for sites I and II, respectively. The observations were confirmed by circular dichroism spectroscopy, based on the change in the induced circular dichroism signals of selected markers for the main binding sites of HSA when ritonavir was added as the competitor. These results were in good agreement with previous literature reports and provide more details on how PIs are transported in plasma and how they may compete with other drugs in the body.

On-line multi-enzymatic approach for improved sequence coverage in protein analysis.

The development of a new mixed bioreactor for proteomic studies based on trypsin and chymotrypsin is described. Trypsin and chymotrypsin were simultaneously bonded to an epoxy monolithic silica column (100 mmx4.6 mm id) in a one-step reaction via epoxy-groups. In order to compare the catalytic properties of the two enzymes in the isolated and in the multi-enzymatic approach, two other single enzyme bioreactors based on trypsin and chymotrypsin were prepared following the same immobilization protocol. The kinetic parameters of the multi-enzymatic bioreactor were derived and it was demonstrated that it retains the individual catalytic activity of the two enzymes. To prove the power of this experimental approach the new mixed bioreactor was integrated in an LC-ESI-MS/MS system for digestion, enrichment, separation and identification of the test protein insulin-like growth factor binding-protein 1 (IGFBP-1). The peptide map and protein sequence coverage obtained with the three bioreactors were compared. The results clearly indicate that the proposed multi-enzyme approach can reduce both digestion and analysis time, accelerate data interpretation and increase the confidence degree in protein identification.

Chymotrypsin immobilization on epoxy monolithic silica columns: development and characterization of a bioreactor for protein digestion.

The preparation and optimization of a new monolithic chymotrypsin bioreactor for online protein digestion is described. Silica monolithic supports have been activated with epoxide functionalities following an optimized in situ procedure and used for covalent immobilization of chymotrypsin in one-step reaction under different conditions. A total of four bioreactors were prepared and characterized in terms of the amount of immobilized enzyme and apparent active units by using a standard substrate, N-benzoyl-L-tyrosine p-nitroanilide (BTPNA). The stability of the bioreactors was evaluated and the morphology of the support after immobilization and use was studied by SEM analysis. The proteolytic activity of the optimized chymotrypsin bioreactor was evaluated using HSA as a model protein by online coupling of the bioreactor with LC-ESI-MS. With the online protocol, complete protein digestion in 120 min was achieved with a sequence coverage of 97.3%.

Exhaustively substituted bile acids as chiral selectors for enantioselective chromatography. Aim, use and perspectives.

The use of chiral stationary phases (CSPs) obtained from cholic and deoxycholic acid derivatives in the HPLC resolution of racemic compounds is presented. The CSPs containing arylcarbamoyl derivatives of bile acids show enantiodiscriminating capabilities depending on the electronic character of the aryl substituents: the CSPs obtained starting from heteroderivatized selectors, i.e. bile acid derivatives containing both pi-acidic and pi-basic arylcarbamoyl moieties, show enantiodiscriminating capabilities strongly dependent on the arrangement of the electronically different arylcarbamates on the cholestanic backbone. The CSPs obtained starting from deoxycholic acid derivatives possessing both arylamido and arycarbamoyl substituents show enantiodiscriminating capabilities restricted to the resolution of benzodiazepine derivatives. Again, the enantioresolution properties depend not only on the electronic nature of the aromatic substituents but also on their arrangement on the cholestanic backbone. The comparison among the different families of bile acid based CSPs allows us to find likeness and differences in the enantiorecognition mechanism exhibited by the different chiral selectors.

The study of chiral discrimination of organophosphonate derivatives on pirkle type chiral stationary phase by molecular modeling.

Molecular modeling and molecular dynamics (MD) have been used to study the chiral discrimination and interaction energy of organophosphonate in N-(3,5-dinitrobenzoyl)-S-leucine chiral stationary phase (CSP). The elution order of the enantiomers can be predicted from the interaction energy. Quantitative structure-retention relationship (QSRR) has also been used as an alternative method to confirm the elution order of enantiomers. Molecular mechanics (MM), molecular dynamics and QSRR proved to be useful methods to study chiral discrimination.