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A series of novel furan-2-yl(phenyl)methanone derivatives were synthesized, and their structures were established on the basis of 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and mass spectral data. All the prepared compounds were screened for their in vitro protein tyrosine kinase inhibitory activity and several new derivatives exhibited promising activity, which, in some cases, was identical to, or even better than that of genistein, a positive reference compound. The preliminary structure-activity relationships of these compounds were investigated and are discussed.

Neuropathic pain is a chronic disease that severely afflicts the life and emotional status of patients, but currently available treatments are often ineffective. Novel therapeutic targets for the alleviation of neuropathic pain are urgently needed. Rhodojaponin VI, a grayanotoxin from Rhododendron molle, showed remarkable antinociceptive efficacy in models of neuropathic pain, but its biotargets and mechanisms are unknown. Given the reversible action of rhodojaponin VI and the narrow range over which its structure can be modified, we perforwmed thermal proteome profiling of the rat dorsal root ganglion to determine the protein target of rhodojaponin VI. N-Ethylmaleimide-sensitive fusion (NSF) was confirmed as the key target of rhodojaponin VI through biological and biophysical experiments. Functional validation showed for the first time that NSF facilitated trafficking of the Cav2.2 channel to induce an increase in Ca2+ current intensity, whereas rhodojaponin VI reversed the effects of NSF. In conclusion, rhodojaponin VI represents a unique class of analgesic natural products targeting Cav2.2 channels via NSF.

Oxygen is important in maintaining a clean and reliable water environment. Designing heterojunction photocatalysts that can evolve oxygen from water splitting through an artificial Z-scheme pathway is a promising strategy for solving environmental problems. In this study, flower-like MoS2 nanostructures were fabricated via a simple hydrothermal process, and the electrostatic-based assembly ion-exchange method was used to construct a tandem Ag3PO4/MoS2/g-C3N4 (AMC) heterojunction. The as-synthesized photocatalyst exhibited significant improvements in harvesting visible light and transporting charge carriers. Moreover, the catalyst that was similar to the Z-scheme with intimate interface contact exhibited a strong oxygen evolution performance. The oxygen evolution activity of the optimal AMC-10 catalyst was approximately 11 times that of the pristine Ag3PO4. The results indicated that addition of a small amount of the flower-like MoS2 could significantly enhance the efficiency of oxygen evolution by the heterojunction. The findings in this study provide an alternative pathway for rationally designing efficient oxygen-evolving photocatalysts in order to improve the quality of water and rehabilitate the water environment.