Tuberculosis (TB) remains as a global pandemic that is aggravated by a lack of health care, the spread of HIV, and the emergence of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) strains. New anti-TB drugs are urgently required to shorten the long 6-12 month treatment regimen and to battle drug-resistant Mtb strains. We have identified several potent quinoline-based anti-TB compounds, bearing an isoxazole containing side-chain. The most potent compounds, 7g and 13, exhibited submicromolar activity against the replicating bacteria (R-TB), with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of 0.77 and 0.95 microM, respectively. In general, these compounds also had micromolar activity against the nonreplicating persistent bacteria (NRP-TB) and did not show toxicity on Vero cells up to 128 microM concentration. Compounds 7g and 13 were shown to retain their anti-TB activity against rifampin, isoniazid, and streptomycin resistant Mtb strains. The results suggest that quinoline-isoxazole-based anti-TB compounds are promising leads for new TB drug development.

The copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) reaction has proven to be a pivotal advance in chemical ligation strategies with applications ranging from polymer fabrication to bioconjugation. However, application in vivo has been limited by the inherent toxicity of the copper catalyst. Herein, we report the application of heterogeneous copper catalysts in azide-alkyne cycloaddition processes in biological systems ranging from cells to zebrafish, with reactions spanning from fluorophore activation to the first reported in situ generation of a triazole-containing anticancer agent from two benign components, opening up many new avenues of exploration for CuAAC chemistry.

Polymerisation reactions conducted inside cells must be compatible with the complex intracellular environment, which contains numerous molecules and functional groups that could potentially prevent or quench polymerisation reactions. Here we report a strategy for directly synthesising unnatural polymers in cells through free radical photo-polymerisation using a number of biocompatible acrylic and methacrylic monomers. This offers a platform to manipulate, track and control cellular behaviour by the in cellulo generation of macromolecules that have the ability to alter cellular motility, label cells by the generation of fluorescent polymers for long-term tracking studies, as well as the generation within cells of a variety of nanostructures. It is remarkable that free radical polymerisation chemistry can take place within such complex cellular environments and this demonstration opens up a multitude of new possibilities for how chemists can modulate cellular function and behaviour and for understanding cellular behaviour in response to the generation of free radicals.

Transition metals have been successfully applied to catalyze non-natural chemical transformations within living cells, with the highly efficient labeling of subcellular components and the activation of prodrugs. In vivo applications, however, have been scarce, with a need for the specific cellular targeting of the active transition metals. Here, we show the design and application of cancer-targeting palladium catalysts, with their specific uptake in brain cancer (glioblastoma) cells, while maintaining their catalytic activity. In these cells, for the first time, two different anticancer agents were synthesized simultaneously intracellularly, by two totally different mechanisms (in situ synthesis and decaging), enhancing the therapeutic effect of the drugs. Tumor specificity of the catalysts together with their ability to perform simultaneous multiple bioorthogonal transformations will empower the application of in vivo transition metals for drug activation strategies.

A fluorescently labelled ubiquicidin peptide enables bacterial detection in human lung tissue in vitro.