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Small molecules that promote oligodendrocyte formation have been identified in ‘drug repurposing’ screens to nominate candidate therapeutics for diseases in which myelin is lost, including multiple sclerosis. We recently reported that many such molecules enhance oligodendrocyte formation not by their canonical targets but by inhibiting a narrow range of enzymes in cholesterol biosynthesis. Here we identify enhancers of oligodendrocyte formation obtained by screening a structurally diverse library of 10,000 small molecules. Identification of the cellular targets of these validated hits revealed a majority inhibited the cholesterol biosynthesis enzymes CYP51, TM7SF2, or EBP. Additionally, evaluation of analogs led to identification of CW3388, a potent EBP-inhibiting enhancer of oligodendrocyte formation poised for further optimization. more...

The importance of BET protein BRD4 in gene transcription is well recognized through the study of chemical modulation of its characteristic tandem bromodomain (BrD) binding to lysine-acetylated histones and transcription factors. However, while monovalent inhibition of BRD4 by BET BrD inhibitors such as JQ1 blocks growth of hematopoietic cancers, it is much less effective generally in solid tumors. Here, we report a thienodiazepine-based bivalent BrD inhibitor, MS645, that affords spatially constrained tandem BrD inhibition and consequently sustained repression of BRD4 transcriptional activity in blocking proliferation of solid-tumor cells including a panel of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells. MS645 blocks BRD4 binding to transcription enhancer/mediator proteins MED1 and YY1 with potency superior to monovalent BET inhibitors, resulting in down-regulation of proinflammatory cytokines and genes for cell-cycle control and DNA damage repair that are largely unaffected by monovalent BrD inhibition. Our study suggests a therapeutic strategy to maximally control BRD4 activity for rapid growth of solid-tumor TNBC cells. more...

In this work, the inverse spin Hall effect was separated from the spin rectification effect by two methods. One is originated from that the inverse spin Hall effect which is an odd function of the spin injection direction while the spin rectification effect is independent on it. The second method is based on the relation between the direction of static magnetic field and the symmetric and anti-symmetric components of voltage. more...

4-Methyl-piperazine-1-carbodithioc acid 3-cyano-3,3-diphenylpropyl ester hydrochloride(TM208) is a newly synthesized compound, which has shown excellent in vivo and in vitro anticancer activity and low toxicity. In this study, the metabolism of TM208 in rats was studied for the first time by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. Following a single oral administration to rats, TM208 was metabolized to eight metabolites (M1-M8). M1 is the desmethyl metabolite and the acylation of M1 with N-acetyl transferase results in M6 (N-acetyl metabolite), M5 is N-formyl metabolite; M4 is phenyl monohydroxylation metabolite, M2 is the sulfine metabolite of TM208, and M3 is also an odd-oxygen added products which the possible oxidation site has described in this paper; M8 is the metabolite resulting from the replacement of '-C=S' with '-C=O', M7 is a ring-opened piperazine oxidation products to a kind of acid. more...

We develop a method for universally resolving the important issue of separating the inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE) from spin rectification effect (SRE) signal. This method is based on the consideration that the two effects depend on the spin injection direction: The ISHE is an odd function of the spin injection direction while the SRE is independent on it. Thus, inversion of the spin injection direction changes the ISHE voltage signal, while SRE voltage remains. It applies generally to analyzing the different voltage contributions without fitting them to special line shapes. This fast and simple method can be used in a wide frequency range, and has the flexibility of sample preparation., Comment: 4 figures more...

High-throughput screening of GSK compound collection led to the discovery of a novel series of thiadiazole amides as potent and S1P(3)-sparing sphingosine-1-phosphate 1 (S1P(1)) receptor agonists. Synthesis, structure and activity relationship, selectivity, and some developability properties are described. more...

4-Methyl-piperazine-1-carbodithioic acid 3-cyano-3,3-diphenylpropyl ester hydrochloride (TM-208) is a newly synthesized compound, which has shown excellent in vivo and in vitro anticancer activity and low toxicity. To investigate the metabolism of TM-208 in rats, in the present study, we administered TM-208 orally to rats and analyzed its metabolites existing in rat plasma and central tissues by LC-MS/MS. Rat plasma and tissue samples were collected before or after a single oral dose (250 mg/ kg) of TM-208, then the analytes were extracted from samples by liquid-liquid extraction and analyzed using LC-MS/MS. The structures of proposed metabolites were elucidated according to the rules of drug metabolism and disposition in vivo and the characteristic fragmentation behaviors of TM-208 in ESI-ITMS n . Five metabolites (M1-M5) were tentatively or assuredly identified: (2-amino-ethyl)-dithiocarbamic acid 3-cyano-3,3-diphenyl-propyl ester (M1), (2-methylamino-ethyl)-dithiocarbamic acid 3-cyano-3,3-diphenyl-propyl ester (M2), 4-methyl-piperazine-1-carbothioic acid S-(3-cyano-3,3-diphenyl-propyl) ester (M3), piperazine-1-carbodithioic acid 3-cyano-3,3-diphenylpropyl ester (M4), and sulfine of (4-methyl-piperazine-1-carbodithioic acid 3-cyano-3,3-diphenylpropyl ester) (M5). more...

4-Methylpiperazine-1-carbodithioc acid 3-cyano-3,3-diphenylpropyl ester hydrochloride (TM208) is a newly synthesized compound which has shown excellent in vivo and in vitro anticancer activity and low toxicity. In the present study, the major metabolites of TM208 in rat bile were studied by high-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry with an electrospray ionization (ESI) interface. It was demonstrated that TM208 was extensively metabolized in rat bile and nine metabolites (M1-M9) were definitely or tentatively identified: (2-aminoethyl)dithiocarbamic acid 3-cyano-3,3-diphenylpropyl ester (M1), (2-methylaminoethyl)dithiocarbamic acid 3-cyano-3,3-diphenylpropyl ester (M2), 4-[(4-methylpiperazin-1-yl)thioxomethanesulfinyl]-2,2-diphenylbutyronitrile (M3), 4-methylpiperazine-1-carbodithioic acid 3-cyano-3-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-3-phenylpropyl ester(M4), the sulfine of (4-methylpiperazine-1-carbodithioc acid 3-cyano-3,3-diphenylpropyl ester) (M5), 4-methylpiperazine-1-carbothioic acid S-(3-cyano-3,3-diphenylpropyl) ester (M6), piperazine-1-carbodithioic acid 3-cyano-3,3-diphenylpropyl ester (M7), 4-hydroxymethylpiperazine-1-carbothioic acid S-(3-cyano-3,3-diphenylpropyl) ester (M8) and the sulfine of [4-methylpiperazine-1-carbodithioic acid 3-cyano-3-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-3-phenylpropyl ester] (M9). more...