Roxin A & Zheng G Future Medicinal Chemistry, 2012 Peptides can serve as versatile cancer-targeting ligands and have been used for clinically relevant applications such as cancer imaging and therapy. A current and long-standing focus within peptide research is the creation of structurally constrained peptides generated through cyclization. Cyclization isContinue Reading
Huynh E, Lovell JF, Helfield BL, Jeon M, Kim C, Goertz DE, Wilson BC, & Zheng G Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2012 Porphyrin–phospholipid conjugates were used to create photonic microbubbles (MBs) having a porphyrin shell (“porshe”), and their acoustic and photoacoustic properties were investigated. The inclusion of porphyrin–lipidContinue Reading
Roxin A, Chen J, Scully CC, Rotstein BH, Yudin AK & Zheng G Bioconjugate Chemistry, 2012 Here, we demonstrate a conjugation strategy whereby cyclic RGD-containing macrocycles are prepared using aziridine aldehydes, isocyanides, and linear peptides, followed by conjugation to a cysteamine linker. Our method involves site-selective aziridine ring-opening with theContinue Reading
Lovell JF, Jin CS, Huynh E, MacDonald TD, Cao W & Zheng G Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2012 A select few: An enzyme screen is used to identify two enzymes that selectively cleave porphyrin–lipid regioisomers (see picture). Either of the isomerically pure conjugates assembles into physically similar porphysome nanovesicles. AlthoughContinue Reading
Jin H, Lovell JF, Chen J, Lin Q, Ding L, Ng K, Pandey R, Manoharan M, Zhang Z & Zheng G Bioconjugate Chemistry, 2011 Although small interfering RNA (siRNA) can silence the expression of disease-related genes, delivery of these highly charged molecules is challenging. Delivery approaches for siRNAs are activelyContinue Reading
Mawn TM, Popov AV, Beardsley NJ, Milkevitch M, Stefflova K, Zheng G & Delikatny EJ Bioconjugate Chemistry, 2011 In this article, the characterization of the first near-infrared (NIR) phospholipase-activated molecular beacon is reported, and its utility for in vivo cancer imaging is demonstrated. The probe consists of three elements: aContinue Reading
Lovell JF, Chan MW, Qi Q, Chen J & Zheng G Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2011 Photodynamic therapy (PDT) stands to benefit from improved approaches to real-time treatment monitoring. One method is to use activatable photosensitizers that can both induce cell death (via singlet oxygen) and monitor itContinue Reading
Jin CS & Zheng G Lasers in Surgery and Medicine, 2011 Background and Objective: In photodynamic therapy (PDT), photosensitizers are activated by light of a specific wavelength and produce cytotoxic molecules to damage diseased tissues. Most photosensitizers are hydrophobic and easily aggregate in aqueous solution. To maintain their photodynamic activityContinue Reading
Lovell JF, Roxin A, Ng KK, Qi Q, McMullen JD, DaCosta RS & Zheng G Biomacromolecules, 2011 We demonstrate that porphyrins can be used as efficient cross-linkers to generate a new class of hydrogels with enabling optical properties. Tetracarboxylic acid porphyrins reacted with PEG diamines to form a condensation polyamideContinue Reading
Yang M, Chen J, Cao W, Ding L, Ng KK, Jin H, Zhang Z & Zheng G Nanomedicine, 2011 Research in the development of nanoscale drug carriers primarily focuses on maximizing drug delivery efficiency to tumor tissues. However, less attention has been given to minimizing drug toxicity to non-targeted cellsContinue Reading
