Judicious application of site-selective reactions to non-aligned and aligned carbon nanotubes has opened a rich field of carbon nanotube chemistry. In order to meet specific requirements demanded by particular applications (e.g. biocompatibility for nanotube biosensors and interfacial strength for blending with polymers), chemical modification of carbon nanotubes is essential. The tips of carbon nanotubes are more reactive than their sidewalls, allowing a variety of chemical reagents to be attached at the nanotube tips. Recently, some interesting reactions have also been devised for chemical modification of both the inner and outer nanotube walls, though the seamless arrangement of hexagon rings renders the sidewalls relatively unreactive. This review provides a brief summary of very recent progress in the research on chemistry of carbon nanotubes.

Ethnopharmacological relevance Tetrastigma hemsleyanum Diels et Gilg ( T.hemsleyanum ), a rare herbal plant distributed in subtropical areas of mainland China, has become a focus of scientific attention in recent years because of its high traditional value, including uses for treatment of children with fever, pneumonia, asthma, rheumatism, hepatitis, menstrual disorders, scrofula, and pharynx pain. Aim This systematic review aims to provide an insightful understanding of traditional uses, chemical composition, pharmacological effect and clinical application of T. hemsleyanum , and lay a foundation for the further study and for the utilization of T. hemsleyanum resource. Materials and methods A domestic and overseas literature search in known databases was conducted for published articles using the relevant keywords. Results One hundred and forty-two chemical constituents identified from T. hemsleyanum have been reported, including flavonoids, phenolic acids, polysaccharide, organic acids, fatty acids, terpenoids, steroids, amino acid and others. Among these components, flavonoids and polysaccharides were the representative active ingredients of T. hemsleyanum , which have been widely investigated. Modern pharmacological studies have shown that these components exhibited various pharmacological activities, such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antivirus, antitumor, antipyretic, anti-hepatic injury, immunomodulatory, antibacterial etc. Moreover, different toxicological studies indicated that the clinical dosage of T. hemsleyanum was safe and reliable. Conclusions Modern pharmacological studies have well supported and clarified some traditional uses, and T. hemsleyanum has a good prospect for the development of new drugs due to these outstanding properties. However, the present findings did not provide an in-depth evaluation of bioactivity of the extracts, the composition of its active extracts was not clear. Moreover, they were insufficient to satisfactorily explain some mechanisms of action. Data regarding many aspects of T. hemsleyanum , such as links between the traditional uses and bioactivities, pharmacokinetics, quality control standard and the clinical value of active compositions is still limited which need more attention.

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Using the HIV-1 protease binding mode of and as inspiration, a novel aspartate binding bicyclic piperazine sulfonamide core was designed and synthesized. The resulting HIV-1 protease inhibitor containing this core showed an 60-fold increase in enzyme binding affinity and a 10-fold increase in antiviral activity relative to .

IgG antibodies were conjugated to Kodak X-Sight nanospheres to develop fluorescent-labeled antibodies using two different synthetic routes: one involving the DTT reduction method, and the other involving Traut's Reagent modification method. These two methods result in different conjugation efficiencies and different performances in antigen detection. Western blotting shows that the nanosphere-IgG antibody conjugates synthesized using the DTT reduction method are more immunospecific than the conjugates synthesized using Traut's Reagent modification method. In addition, the conjugates synthesized using DTT reduction also show higher antigen detection sensitivity than other commercially available fluorescent-IgG antibody conjugates, including Alexa Fluor, Qdot, and CyDye conjugates.