The synthesis and the assessment of the anti-HIV activity of a set of molecules inspired by the multivalent structures of some naturally-occurring polyphenols (tannins) are reported. Different multibranched scaffolds have been derived from pentaerythritol as the central core which distribute spatially synthetic polyphenolic subunits based on 1-substituted 2,3,4-trihydroxyphenyl moieties. A tetr...

The present studies explore multivalent ligand-receptor interactions between pentameric cholera toxin B subunits (CTB) and the corresponding membrane ligand, ganglioside GM1. CTB binding was monitored on supported phospholipid bilayers coated on the walls and floors of microfluidic channels. Measurements were made by total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM). Apparent dissociati...

Several gene-based vaccine approaches are being tested to drive multivalent cellular immune responses to control HIV-1 viral variants. To compare the utility of these approaches, HLA-A*0201 transgenic mice were genetically immunized with plasmids encoding wild-type (wt) gag-pol, codon-optimized (CO) gag-pol, and an expression library immunization (ELI) vaccine genetically re-engineered to expre...

Cyclodextrin vesicles are versatile models for biological cell membranes since they provide a bilayer membrane that can easily be modified by host-guest interactions with functional guest molecules. In this article, we investigate the multivalent interaction of the lectin concanavalin A (ConA) with cyclodextrin vesicles decorated with mannose-adamantane conjugates with one, two or three adamant...

Shifts of the critical coagulation concentration (CCC) in particle suspensions in salt solutions containing multivalent co-ions and monovalent counterions are rationalized. One observes that the CCC is inversely proportional to the valence, and this behavior is referred to as the inverse Schulze-Hardy rule. This dependence is established by means of measurements of the stability ratio for posit...

Adsorption of multivalent counterions on the charged surface of a macroion is known to lead to inversion of the macroion charge due to the strong lateral correlations of counterions. We consider a nontrivial role of the excluded volume of counterions on this effect. It is shown analytically that when the bare charge of the macroion increases, its net charge including the adsorbed counterions os...

We introduce a certain subclass of multivalent analytic functions by making use of the principle of subordination between these functions and Cătas operator. Such results as subordination and superordination properties, convolution properties, inclusion relationships, distortion theorems, inequality properties, and sufficient conditions for multivalent starlikeness are provide. The results pres...

We propose a mechanism for the stabilization and destabilization of cell membranes by multivalent ions with an emphasis on its implications for the division and fusion of cells. We find that multivalent cations preferentially adsorbed onto a membrane dramatically change the membrane stability. They not only reduce the surface charge density of the membrane but also induce a barrier to pore grow...