Intracellular Delivery of Plasmid DNA Using Amphipathic Helical Cell-Penetrating Peptides Containing Dipropylglycine.

Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) serve as potent vehicles for delivering membrane-impermeable compounds, including nucleic acids, into cells. In a previous study, we reported the successful intracellular delivery of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) with negligible cytotoxicity using a peptide containing an unnatural amino acid (dipropylglycine). In the present study, we employed the same seven peptides as the previous study to evaluate their efficacy in delivering plasmid DNA (pDNA) intracellularly. Although pDNA and siRNA are nucleic acids, they differ in size and biological function, which may influence the optimal peptide sequences for their delivery. Herein, three peptides demonstrated effective pDNA transfection abilities. Notably, only one of the three peptides previously exhibited efficient gene-silencing effect with siRNA. These findings validate our hypothesis and offer insights for the personalized design of CPPs for the delivery of pDNA and siRNA.

Regioselective carbon-carbon bond formation of 5,5,5-trifluoro-1-phenylpent-3-en-1-yne.

The regioselective carbon-carbon bond formation was studied using 5,5,5-trifluoro-1-phenylpent-3-en-1-yne as a model substrate, and predominant acceptance of electrophiles ß to a CF3 group as well as a deuterium trap experiment of the lithiated species led to the conclusion that the obtained regioselectivity is kinetically determined for the reactions with electrophiles, under equilibration of the possible two anionic species.