Cyclodextrin (CD) history has been largely dominated by their unique ability to form inclusion complexes with guests fitting in their hydrophobic cavity. Chemical funcionalization was soon recognized as a powerful mean for improving CD applications in a wide range of fields, including drug delivery, sensing or enzyme mimicking. However, 100 years after their discovery, CDs are still perceived as novel nanoobjects of undeveloped potential. This critical review provides an overview of different strategies to promote interactions between CD conjugates and genetic material by fully exploiting the inside-outside/upper-lower face anisotropy of the CD nanometric platform. Covalent modification, self-assembling and supramolecular ligation can be put forward with the ultimate goal to build artificial viruses for programmed and efficient gene therapy (222 references).

Hydrogen sulfide-mediated signaling pathways regulate many physiological and pathophysiological processes in mammalian and plant systems. The molecular mechanism by which hydrogen sulfide exerts its action involves the post-translational modification of cysteine residues to form a persulfidated thiol motif, a process called protein persulfidation. We have developed a comparative and quantitative proteomic analysis approach for the detection of endogenous persulfidated proteins in wild-type Arabidopsis and L-CYSTEINE DESULFHYDRASE 1 mutant leaves using the tag-switch method. The 2015 identified persulfidated proteins were isolated from plants grown under controlled conditions, and therefore, at least 5% of the entire Arabidopsis proteome may undergo persulfidation under baseline conditions. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that persulfidated cysteines participate in a wide range of biological functions, regulating important processes such as carbon metabolism, plant responses to abiotic and biotic stresses, plant growth and development, and RNA translation. Quantitative analysis in both genetic backgrounds reveals that protein persulfidation is mainly involved in primary metabolic pathways such as the tricarboxylic acid cycle, glycolysis, and the Calvin cycle, suggesting that this protein modification is a new regulatory component in these pathways.

Viruses represent a paradigmatic example of multicomponent, self‐organized supramolecular systems specialized in the delivery and replication of their genetic material. Mimicking their functioning by artificial synthetic molecules represents a fantastic challenge that will lead to the future development of gene therapy. This is only possible if general approaches towards the construction of nanoscale vehicles for DNA are developed and the key rules governing their capacity to compact genetic material and its active transport/delivery through cell membranes are understood. In this area of research, synthetic organic chemistry plays an important role by providing tools to create tailor‐made molecules of increasing complexity. Preorganization of functional elements onto macromolecular platforms has the potential to allow control of the self‐assembling behavior of discrete architectures to produce nanometric objects that can be programmed to complex, compact, deliver, and release plasmid DNA in a target cell.

(2011). Pharmacological chaperone therapy for Gaucher disease: a patent review. Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Patents: Vol. 21, No. 6, pp. 885-903. doi: 10.1517/13543776.2011.569162