Loss of mitochondrial complex I catalytic activity in the electron transport chain (ETC) is found in multiple tissues from individuals with sporadic Parkinson's disease (PD) and is a property of some PD model neurotoxins. Using special ETC subunit-specific and complex I immunocapture antibodies directed against the entire complex I macroassembly, we quantified ETC proteins and protein oxidation...

Orthopalladation of the phenyl ring in the cyclopalladated complex [Pd{C,N-pyl-SCHC(O)Ph}(μ-X)]2 (pyl = 2-pyridyl, X = Cl; 1·Cl) occurs upon reacting it with AgOAc (1 : 2) in MeCN to give the pincer complex [Pd{C,C,N-pyl-SCHC(O)C6H4-2}(NCMe)] (2). The nature of the base and X plays a key role because palladation neither occurs with other bases nor when AgOAc is the base and X is Br, in which ca...

Introduction Aerobic catalytic oxidation is much more environmentally friendly than oxidation using stoichiometric oxidants. The Pd(OAc)2/pyridine system is active for the catalytic oxidation of primary and secondary alcohols to aldehydes and ketones, which are valuable for fine chemicals synthesis. Pyridine stabilizes the monomeric Pd complex and promotes its aerobic reoxidation to Pd prior to...

The ability of small molecules to perturb the natural structure and dynamics of nucleic acids is intriguing and has potential applications in cancer therapeutics. This work reports the synthesis, characterization, cytotoxicity and DNA-binding studies of two cytotoxic and intercalative [M(bpy)(pyrr-dtc)]NO3 complexes (where M = Pt(II) and Pd(II), bpy = 2,2´-bipyridine and pyrr-dtc = p...

BACKGROUND In the substantia nigra of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, increased lipid peroxidation, decreased activities of the mitochondrial complex I of the respiratory chain, catalase and glutathione-peroxidase, and decreased levels of reduced glutathione have been reported. These observations suggest that oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction play a role in the neurodegeneration...

Blockage of the interactions between immunologic checkpoint protein PD-1 and its ligand PD-L1 showed efficacy for cancer treatment. X-ray structures have captured static conformational snapshots of PD-1 and revealed that the CC' loop adopts an open conformation in the apo-protein but turns into a closed form and interacts with PD-L1 in the complex. This structural heterogeneity brings difficult...

The application of the [Pd{C6H3(CH2CH2NH2)-4-OMe-5-κ2-C,N}(μ-Br)]2 complex of 2-methoxyphenethylamine in the Heck coupling reaction was considered under both conventional and microwave irradiation conditions, and their results were compared. This complex is an efficient, stable and non-sensit...

While major inroads have been made in identifying the genetic causes of rare Mendelian disorders, little progress has been made in the discovery of common gene variations that predispose to complex diseases. The single gene variants that have been shown to associate reproducibly with complex diseases typically have small effect sizes or attributable risks. However, the joint actions of common g...

Cancer immunotherapy by targeting of immune checkpoint molecules has been a research 'hot-spot' in recent years. Nivolumab, a human monoclonal antibody targeting PD-1, has been widely used clinically since 2014. However, the binding mechanism of nivolumab to PD-1 has not yet been shown, despite a recent report describing the complex structure of pembrolizumab/PD-1. It has previously been specul...