The microscopist’s utopia is filled with small, bright, photostable fluorescent probes. The contemporary toolbox of fluorescent probes—organic dyes, fluorescent proteins, and quantum dots—provides a range of sizes and photophysical properties, but we still await the perfect fluorescent probe. In a recent Biophysical Journal, Kim et al. (1) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign descr...

The activation of stimulator interferon genes (STING) in the cytosol by cyclic dinucleotides (CDNs) enhances antitumor immunity through induction proinflammatory cytokines, such as type-I interferons (IFN-I). However, high hydrophilicity and negative charge CDNs hinders their delivery into cells. Here, developing a library cationic polypeptide-modified dendrimers, it is shown that can be effici...

An acid-base interaction between hemin and PAMAM dendrimers affords supramolecular non-covalent peroxidase systems whose catalytic activity is enhanced after spontaneous electrostatic self-assembling onto a solid surface.

We present a contrast variation small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) study of a series of neutral PAMAM dendrimers in aqueous solutions using three different generations (G4-6) at a concentration of about 10 mg/mL. Varying the solvent hydrogen-deuterium ratio, the scattering contributions from the water molecules and the constituent components of PAMAM dendrimer can be determined. Using an ana...

The present study compares the use of high generation G3 and low generation G0 Polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers as drug carriers of naproxen (NAP), a poorly water soluble drug. Naproxen was conjugated to G3 in different ratios and to G0 in a 1:1 ratio via a diethylene glycol linker. A lauroyl chain (L), a lipophilic permeability enhancer, was attached to G3 and G0 prodrugs. The G3 and G0 conju...

The cell surface interaction between bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS), Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and MD-2 is central to bacterial sepsis syndromes and wound healing. We have shown that a generation (G) 3.5 polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimer that was partially glycosylated with glucosamine inhibits TLR4-MD-2-LPS induced inflammation in a rabbit model of tissue scaring. However, it was a mixtur...

Two strategies are applied to mimic the ampholytic nature of the surfaces of half-generation PAMAM dendrimers and yet retain the very narrow dispersity inherent of triazine dendrimers. Both strategies start with a monodisperse, single-chemical entity, generation two triazine dendrimer presenting twelve surface amines that is available at the kilogram scale. The first method relies on reaction w...

Poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimers were incorporated into cross-linked poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) matrix to improve carbon dioxide (CO2) separation performance at elevated pressures. In our previous studies, PAMAM/PVA hybrid membranes showed high CO2 separation properties from CO2/H2 mixed gases. In this study, three types of organic Ti metal compounds were selected as PVA cross-linkers that we...

Paclitaxel (Taxol) is an anticancer drug that induces mitotic arrest via microtubule hyperstabilization but causes side effects due to its hydrophobicity and cellular promiscuity. The targeted cytotoxicity of hydrophilic paclitaxel-conjugated polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers has been demonstrated in cultured cancer cells. Mechanisms of action responsible for this cytotoxicity are unknown, that...