Yuchao Zhang

Chinese Academy of Sciences | CAS · Institute of Basic Medicine and Cancer

The development of a mild, atom- and step-economical catalytic strategy that effectively generates value-added molecules directly from readily available commodity chemicals is a central goal of organic synthesis. In this context, the thiol-ene click chemistry for carbon-sulfur (C-S) bond construction has found widespread applications in the synthes...

In this work, synthesis and characterization of sulfonium salt photoinitiators (PIs) possessing coumarin skeleton are reported. Photochemical and photophysical properties were investigated by various spectroscopic and computational investigations. PIs exhibit excellent photolysis and outstanding initiating efficiency for cationic, free radical and...

Geminal and vicinal borosilanes are useful building blocks in synthetic chemistry and material science. Hydrosilylation/ hydroborylation of unsaturated systems offer expedient access to these motifs. In contrast to the well-established transition-metal-catalyzed methods, radical approaches are rarely explored. Herein we report the synthesis of gemi...

In order to explore the catalytic effect of alcohols on the 1,3-proton transfer of 1,1-diphenyl-N-(1-phenylethylidene) methylamine, the reaction potential energy surface was systematically studied at the theoretical level of ωB97M-V / def2-QZVPP // PBE0-D3(BJ) / 6-31G**. The results show that the catalytic mechanism of benzyl alcohol can be divided...

A new UV and visible light photoinitiator, quinizarin derivative 6,11-dimethoxy-7,10-dihydrotetracene-5,12-dione (Q4), was synthesized and characterized. Its photophysical properties were evaluated by various spectroscopic and computational methods. Q4 demonstrates excellent initiating efficiency for free-radical, thiol-ene, cationic and hybrid pho...

We report a new single component broad-band photoinitiator absorbing light at UV, Visible and Near-IR region for the initiation of free radical, cationic and hybrid polymerizations. This new photoinitiator may expand the curing application range of formulations of various pigmented systems. Abstract A novel broad-wavelength-absorbing photoinitiato...

A novel broad-wavelength-absorbing photoinitiator based on phenacyl phenothiazinium hexafluroantimonate (P-PTh) possessing both phenacyl and phenothiazine chromophoric groups was reported. P-PTh absorbs light at UV, Visible and Near-IR region. Photophysical, photochemical, and computational investigations revealed that P-PTh in solution decomposes...

In order to explore the catalytic effect of alcohols on the 1,3-proton transfer of 1,1-diphenyl-N-(1-phenylethylidene) methylamine, the reaction potential energy surface was systematically studied at the theoretical level of ωB97-MV / def2-QZVPP // PBE0(D3BJ) / 6-31G**. The results show that the catalytic mechanism of benzyl alcohol can be divided...

Obesity is a chronic disease that increases the risk of type II diabetes, heart diseases and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Unfortunately, to date, only handful of drugs are approved for clinical use. This study aims at discovery of anti-obesity agents based on naturally sourced oleanolic acid (OA) derivatives. 3T3-L1 preadipocytes were differen...

Stimuli-responsive biomaterials that contain logic gates hold great potential for detecting and responding to pathological markers as part of clinical therapies. However, a major barrier is the lack of a generalized system that can be used to easily assemble different ligand-responsive units to form programmable nanodevices for advanced biocomputat...

Osteoporosis is one of the most common diseases for aged people, posing a heavy burden to our aging society. Inhibition of osteoclastogenesis is a main strategy to prevent bone loss or bone micro architecture deterioration caused by postmenopausal osteoporosis. In current study, a series of quinoxaline‐fused oleanolic acid (QOA) derivatives were de...

In vivo monitoring of cargo protein delivery is critical for understanding the pharmacological efficacies and mechanisms during cancer therapy, but it still remains a formidable challenge because of the difficulty in observing non-fluorescent proteins at high resolution and sensitivity. Here we report an outer frame-degradable nanovehicle featured...

Denervation caused by sciatic nerve injury has brought great harm to the patients, especially denervation-induced muscle atrophy. The body stress produces a large number of Schwann cells when the sciatic nerve is injured, and the cells secrete some cytokines including ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) that not only play a role in promoting the rep...

Muscle atrophy refers to a decrease in the size of muscles in the body, occurs in certain muscles with inactivity in many diseases and lacks effective therapies up to date. Natural products still play an important role in drug discovery. In the present study, derivatives of a natural product, oleanolic acid, were screened with myoblast differentiat...

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly neoplasm with a 5-year survival rate of less than 6% owing to its remarkable tolerance to nutrient starvation, and new drugs and treatment strategies are urgently needed. During a project aiming at discovery of anticancer agents, we performed a structure modification on polycyclic polyprenylated acylphlor...

The unexpected formation of a 4-hydroxytetrahydroquinolin-2(1 H )-one from a bicyclo[3.3.1]nonanetrione system and an amino alcohol in the presence of TsOH is reported. The mechanism of this transformation was studied by DFT calculations. The reaction provides an entry to the synthesis of highly functionalized 4-hydroxytetrahydroquinolin-2(1 H )-on...

In article number 1702311, Feng Xu, Jun-Jie Zhu, and co-workers tune nanocarrier surface compositions on command for precise tumor targeting by way of pH-/thermal-/glutathione-responsive polymer zippers. The nanocarriers remain stealthy during blood circulation, but their surfaces are activated by the acidic microenvironment and photothermal heatin...

Osteoporotic treatments have largely depended on antiresorptive or anabolic drugs; but the former also suppresses new bone formation, and the latter only includes human parathyroid hormone. There is no drug that has a dual effect to inhibit bone resorption and to stimulate bone formation simultaneously. Here, we report a small molecule, a quinoxali...

Nanocarrier surface chemistry plays a vital role in mediating cell internalization and enhancing delivery efficiency during in vivo chemotherapy. Inspired by the ability of proteins to alter their conformation to mediate functions, a pH-/thermal-/glutathione-responsive polymer zipper consisting of cell-penetrating poly(disulfide)s and thermosensiti...

Osteoporosis is a major public health problem in our aging society. In the present study, a series of novel oleanolic acid (OA) derivatives were synthesized via modifications in the A-ring and C-28 position of OA, and their anti-bone resorption activities were evaluated. Screening results revealed that most of the derivatives inhibited RANKL-induce...