Pituitary hormones are known to alter sex steroid receptor levels in the liver, and possibly the actions of the steroids as well. Recently, two classes of estrogen binding proteins have been characterized in male rat hepatic cytosol: a high affinity, low capacity estrogen receptor, and a lower affinity, higher capacity sex steroid binding component (moderate affinity component). It is of interest that the moderate affinity component binds both androgens and estrogens. A high affinity, low capacity androgen receptor has not been convincingly demonstrated in rat hepatic cytosol. Therefore, we have investigated the relationship of the moderate affinity component to sex steroid modulation of hepatic aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase (AHH) activity as a possible control mechanism. Because of the sexual dimorphism for hepatic drug and steroid metabolism known to occur in rat liver, we chose this model to study. We have shown that no sex difference exists for the binding of pH]-estradiol to the estrogen receptor from either immature or adult rats. However, the moderate affinity component does exhibit a sex difference. We did not detect binding to the moderate affinity component in adult female or immature rats of either sex. This site could normally only be measured in the adult male. These findings were consistent with the age and sex dependent elevation of male AHH activity. We have also observed that gonadectomy of the male reduced the levels of AHH activity and the capacity of the moderate affinity component in a testosterone reversible fashion. These results were obtained using either unlabeled estradiol or dihydrotestosterone (DHT) as competitors for [³H]-estradiol binding. Administration of mestranol reduced AHH activity and the capacity of the moderate affinity component in the male. The moderate affinity component was not detected in the pseudoherma-phroditic rat which resembled the female, rather than the male, with respect to control and induced AHH activity. Hypophysectomy of the female resulted in an increase in AHH activity and detection of the moderate affinity component. Hypophysectomy of the male reduced both the capacity of the moderate affinity component and AHH activity. Unlike the gonadectomized male, testosterone had no restorative effect on the levels of AHH activity or the capacity of the moderate affinity component in the hypophy-sectomized rat. Continuous infusion of rat growth hormone (rGH) reversed the effect of hypophysectomy on the increased AHH activity and capacity of the moderate affinity component in the female. Administration of rGH to the hypophysectomized male abolished the detection of the moderate affinity component and reduced AHH activity to control female levels. This suggested rGH may be the pituitary hormone involved in production of the female level of metabolism. The effects of prolactin were not as clear. Therefore, we have demonstrated the modulation of AHH activity by peripheral sex steroids, and the regulation of these parameters by rGH. We have shown, the capacity of the moderate affinity component to vary in a manner that paralleled changes in hepatic AHH activity in different physiological models. Changes in the estrogen receptor were not found to be consistent with changes in AHH activity in these models. We conclude that the moderate affinity component is comparable to the male hepatic cytosolic DHT-binding protein. Furthermore, this component is associated with sex steroid action on hepatic AHH activity in the male rat. Interestingly, we have also shown this component as well as the estrogen receptor, to bind polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Both 3-methylcholanthrene and benzo[a]pyrene competed for [³H]-estradiol binding to the estrogen receptor and moderate affinity component. In addition, dioxin congeners demonstrated specificity for the estrogen receptor in the female. However, this was not observed for the estrogen receptor or moderate affinity component in the male. The significance of this is presently unclear. / Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of / Graduate

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第21587号 / 理博第4494号 / 新制||理||1645(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科化学専攻 / (主査)教授 依光 英樹, 教授 大須賀 篤弘, 教授 丸岡 啓二 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DGAM

Hybrid materials synthesized by grafting of organic molecules onto silica surface have found numerous applications in chemistry, biochemistry, and chemical engineering. In particular, the functionalization of silica gel can be accomplished by various surface reactions of immobilized boronic acids. Suzuki coupling has been chosen due to several advantages, such as mild reaction conditions, tolerance to the aqueous environment, and high yields of the products. The objective of this work was to determine the most effective reaction conditions for modifying porous hybrid materials with large specific surface areas and high density of surface organoboron reactive sites by various functional groups. Prior to modification by Suzuki coupling, the surface of silica gel was functionalized by phenylboronic acid. Two methods were tested for immobilization of phenylboronic acid: hydrosilylation and thiol-ene coupling. The later radical reaction between surface alkylthiol groups and 4-vinylphenylboronic acid was found more effective. Obtained boronated silica gel was used for further functionalization by various aryl halides. Surface Suzuki coupling reaction was catalyzed by palladium acetate in the presence of cesium carbonate as a base, while dimethylformamide was chosen as a solvent. The coupling reactions proceeded at mild heating under constant sonication. Such ultrasonic irradiation was reported earlier to have an activating effect on Suzuki coupling. The analysis of the obtained products indicated formation of surface biaryl compounds, the highest yields have been obtained in reactions with iodobenzene and bromobenzene. Thus, novel functionalized organic/inorganic hybrid materials were successfully synthesized by surface modification of mesoporous silica gel.

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are an attractive cell source for various applications in regenerative medicine and cell-based therapies given their unique capability to differentiate into any cell type of the human body. However, human iPSCs are highly vulnerable to cryopreservation with post-thaw survival rates of 40-60%; this is due to cryoinjury resulting from ice recrystallization when using conventional slow cooling protocols. Ice recrystallization is a process where the growth of large ice crystals occurs at the expense of small ice crystals. Ice recrystallization inhibitors (IRIs) are designed to inhibit the growth of intracellular ice crystals, increasing post-thaw viability. In this study, we tested a panel of four IRIs to determine if the inhibition of ice recrystallization can decrease cellular damage during freezing and improve viability post-thaw of iPSC colonies. We supplemented commercially available and serum-free cryopreservation medium mFreSR, routinely used for the cryopreservation of iPSCs, with a class of N-aryl-D-ß-gluconamide IRIs. A 2-fold increase in post-thaw viability was observed, in a dose dependent response, for N-(4-methoxyphenyl)-D-gluconamide (PMA) at 15 mM, N-(2-fluorophenyl)-D-gluconamide (2FA) at 10 mM, and N-(4-chlorophenyl)-D-gluconamide (4ClA) at 0.5 mM over mFreSR controls. After testing the panel of four IRIs, 2FA frozen iPSCs showed an increase in cell viability, proliferation, and recovery. The addition of ROCK inhibitor (RI), commonly used to increase iPSC viability post thaw, further enhanced the survival of the iPSCs frozen in the presence of 2FA and is used routinely in research. This additive effect increased cell recovery and colony formation post thaw, resulting in increased proliferation with no adverse effects on iPSC pluripotency or differentiation capabilities. The development of improved cryopreservation strategies for iPSCs is key to establishing master clonal cell banks and limiting cell selection pressures, all while maintaining high post-thaw viability and function. This will help ensure sufficient supplies of high-quality iPSC required to meet the cell demands for cell and regenerative based therapies. Since iPSCs hold promise as a potentially unlimited cell source for a plethora of cell-based therapies, improving cryopreservation is essential to the successful deployment of iPSC-derived therapeutic cell products in the future.

Mesoporous silica gel was functionalized by various organic functional groups using thiol-ene coupling of surface thiol groups with 4-vinylphenylboronic acid followed by Suzuki coupling with aromatic halides. For better performance, the synthesis was conducted under sonication. The presence of surface functional groups was confirmed by thermoanalysis, FT-IR spectroscopy and characteristic reactions of these groups. Solid-phase conditions of the synthesis eliminate the risk of side reactions of boronic acids.

No description available.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Aromatic rings are universal motifs in natural products, pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and wide variety of organic materials. Aromatic halides are widely used as synthetic precursors in all these applications. Therefore, tremendous effort has been devoted to activate aryl halides in the past decades. The common methods to activate aryl halides require the use of transition- metals either in the form of Grignard reagents or through the use of transition-metal catalysis. Over the past decade, photoredox catalysis has attracted significant attention as a cogent tool to develop greener synthetic processes and enable new molecular activation pathways under mild conditions. The most common of these approaches uses a photoredox/nickel dual catalytic cycle. While this technology has greatly expanded the toolbox of organic chemists, this method still requires expensive rare-metal-based catalyts. Herein, we present a series of visible light-induced methods that are transition-metal-free. These new base-promoted transformations and their mechanistic work will be discussed in the following order: We will first present our discovery that the dimsyl anion enables visible-light-promoted charge transfer in cross-coupling reactions of aryl halides. This work was applied to the synthesis of unsymmetrical diaryl chalcogenides. This method has a broad scope and functional group tolerance. An electron-donor-acceptor (EDA) complex between a dimsyl anion and the aryl halide is formed during the reaction and explains the observed aryl radical reactivity observed. Then, a visible-light-induced borylation and phosphorylation of aryl halides under mild conditions was developed. Inspired by the mechanistic breakthroughs observed in the previous work. The mechanism of this reaction also involves an aryl radical that is presumed to be formed also via an EDA complex. In other work, a photo-induced phosphonation of ArI using N,N- diisopropylethylamine (DIPEA) and trialkyl phosphites was developed. This method uses very mild conditions, which allowed the preparation a wide variety of functionalized aromatic phosphonates derivatives, including natural products and medicinal compounds. Finally, a photochemical amination of amides was developed via a C(sp 3 )–H bond functionalization process under visible light irradiation. This reaction showed good functional group compatibility without the use of external radical initiators, strong oxidants, or heat source. An EDA complex between N-bromophthalimide and LiOtBu is formed during the reaction.

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) carboxyl terminal transcriptional activation domain was cloned, purified in denatured conditions from bacteria, refolded via limited dialysis, and analyzed for proper refolding via co-immunoprecipitation with the known binding partner SRC-1. This AhR NΔ515 transactivation domain construct was used, along with amino terminal AhR deletion constructs AhR CΔ274 and AhR CΔ553, to attempt to elucidate the nature of the interaction between AhR and p23 in vitro.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第20205号 / 理博第4290号 / 新制||理||1616(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科化学専攻 / (主査)教授 依光 英樹, 教授 大須賀 篤弘, 教授 丸岡 啓二 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DGAM

At the intersection between autoimmune disease and cancer lies a disruption in the balance of our body’s critically important immune system, and, specifically, in its regulation. While autoimmune diseases are the result of overactivation and a failure to regulate improper responses to the body’s own tissues, cancer is the result of improper suppression and a failure to recognize and eradicate transformed malignant cells. Although they are fundamentally different conditions, overlap can be found in the pathways which are critical to disease progression and which may represent important therapeutic targets. One such pathway implicated in both autoimmunity and cancer is the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR). AhR activation suppresses immune cell activation through the modulation of T cell differentiation and antigen presenting cell (APC) function. AhR activation shows a beneficial therapeutic effect in models of autoimmune disease, but has also been implicated in driving cancer progression and tumor-mediated immunosuppression. While it is clear that the AhR plays an important role in the immune response, the mechanisms behind AhR regulation of the immune system and the effects of its modulation in autoimmunity and cancer are still not fully understood. Thus, in this work, we investigated the effect of targeting the AhR in models of autoimmunity and cancer, using the experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) model of multiple sclerosis (MS) and the murine oral cancer (MOC) model of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). We demonstrated that AhR activation using the endogenous ligand 2-(1’H-indole-3’-carbonyl)-thiazole-4-carboxylic acid methyl ester (ITE) induced a tolerogenic transcriptional response in mouse and human dendritic cells (DCs) associated with the induction of immunoregulatory/immunosuppressive mechanisms. We further showed that targeting the AhR using a nanoliposome (NLP) delivery platform, which co-encapsulated a MS autoantigen, suppressed the development of EAE in multiple models, both in preventative and therapeutic contexts. This disease suppression was associated with the expansion of antigen-specific FoxP3+ regulatory T cells (Treg cells) and IL10+ type 1 regulatory T cells (Tr1 cells), and a reduction in CNS-infiltrating effector T cells (Teff cells). Using the MOC1 model of OSCC we demonstrated that deletion of the AhR in MOC1 malignant cells completely blocks in vivo tumor growth in an immune system-dependent manner and renders mice completely immune to either local or systemic re-challenge with wildtype MOC1 cells. Suppression of tumor growth was associated with a decrease in the expression of suppressive immune checkpoint markers including PD-L1 and CD39 on macrophages, dendritic cells, and Ly6G+ myeloid cells, and PD-1, CTLA4, Lag3, and CD39 on CD4+ T cells. Further, the AhR was found to control expression of chemokines and immunosuppressive IDO and PD-L1 in malignant cells themselves, suggesting that AhR activity in tumor cells may simultaneously regulate multiple immune checkpoints. Taken together, these results provide new insight into the critical role for the AhR in both autoimmunity and cancer, and confirm it as a valid therapeutic target for both diseases. / 2022-03-05T00:00:00Z