Publications

Selected Publications

NCBI link

2025

Zheng C, Chia PHJ, Toyonaga T, Tong J, Le H, Dias M, Boyle AJ, Raymond R, Longbrake EE, Huang Y, Carson R, Airas L, Vasdev N, Chen M‑K. PET imaging of synaptic density loss in patients with multiple sclerosis. Research Square. 2025 Jun 3; Version 1. doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6769442/v1.

Balayeva T, Asch RH, Tan PW, Mennie W, Tong J, Chen B, Zhuang Z, Zheng C, Zheng M, Toyonaga T, Cai Z. Evaluation of radio‑thin‑layer chromatography as an alternative to radio‑HPLC for [¹⁸F]SynVesT‑1 metabolism analysis in rats. Nuclear Medicine & Biology. 2025 Jul–Aug;146–147:109029. doi: 10.1016/j.nucmedbio.2025.109029. Epub 2025 May 10.

Chen B, Zheng C, Balayeva T, Toyonaga T, Wang X, Tong J, Mennie W, Mihailovic J, Coman D, Hyder F, Strittmatter SM, Carson RE, Huang Y, Cai Z. [¹⁸F]SynVesT‑1 PET detects SV2A changes in the spinal cord and brain of rats with spinal cord injury. Journal of Nuclear Medicine. 2025 Jul 17; doi: 10.2967/jnumed.124.269291. Epub 2025 Jul 17.

Zheng C, Xia W, Zhang J. Rock inhibitors in Alzheimer’s disease. Front Aging. 2025 Mar 20;6:1547883. doi: 10.3389/fragi.2025.1547883.

Lindberg A, Tong J, Zheng C, Mueller A, Kroth H, Stephens A, Mathis CA, Vasdev N. Radiosynthesis, In Vitro Characterization, and In Vivo PET Neuroimaging of [18F]F-4 for Tau Protein: A First-in-Human PET Study. ACS Chem Neurosci. 2025 Mar;16(6):1182-1189. doi: 10.1021/acschemneuro.4c00866. Epub 2025 Mar 10.

Wang S, Feng D, Wang W, Zheng C, Liang C, Li S, Li H, Xu F, Cao H, Hua H, Cheng M, Li D. Discovery of SIRT1-Activating Hydrogen Sulfide Donating Derivatives for Efficient Resistant of Myocardial Ischemic Injury. J Med Chem. 2024 Sep;67(19):17657-17675. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.4c01649. Epub 2024 Sep 13.

2024

Liang C, Wang S, Feng D, Wang S, Zheng C, Qu Y, Wang W, Ma Y, Li H, Yang H, Cao H, Hua H, Cheng M, Li D. Structure‑Guided Discovery of Subtype Selective SIRT6 Inhibitors with a β‑Carboline Skeleton for the Treatment of Breast Cancer. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. 2024 Dec 26;67(24):21975–22001. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.4c01921. Epub 2024 Dec 4. PMID: 39631827. 

Liu H, Wang S, Qiu K, Zheng C, Tan H. Preparation, structural characterization, and biological activities of lotus polysaccharides: A review. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules. 2024 Nov;279(Pt 2):135191. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.135191. Epub 2024 Aug 29. PMID: 39216588. 

Wang S, Feng D, Wang W, Zheng C, Liang C, Li S, Li H, Xu F, Cao H, Hua H, Cheng M, Li D. Discovery of SIRT1‑activating hydrogen sulfide donating derivatives for efficient resistance of myocardial ischemic injury. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. 2024 Oct 10;67(19):17657–17675. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.4c01649. Epub 2024 Sep 13. PMID: 39268676. 

Yang Y, Zheng C, Chen B, Hernandez NC, Faust PL, Cai Z, Louis ED, Matuskey D. Decreased Synaptic Vesicle Glycoprotein 2A Binding in the Human Postmortem Essential Tremor Cerebellum: Evidence of Reduction in Synaptic Density. Cerebellum. 2024 Jun;23(3):1053-1060. doi: 10.1007/s12311-023-01611-8. Epub 2023 Oct 3. PMID: 37783917.

Drake LR, Wu Y, Naganawa M, Asch R, Zheng C, Najafzadeh S, Pracitto R, Lindemann M, Li S, Ropchan J, Labaree D, Emery PR, Dias M, Henry S, Nabulsi N, Matuskey D, Hillmer AT, Gallezot JD, Carson RE, Cai Z, Huang Y. First-in-Human Study of 18F-SynVesT-2: An SV2A PET Imaging Probe with Fast Brain Kinetics and High Specific Binding. J Nucl Med. 2024 Feb 15;65(3):462–9. doi: 10.2967/jnumed.123.266470. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38360052; PMCID: PMC10924160.

2023

Stoner A, Fu L, Nicholson L, Zheng C, Toyonaga T, Spurrier J, Laird W, Cai Z, Strittmatter SM. Neuronal transcriptome, tau and synapse loss in Alzheimer's knock-in mice require prion protein. Alzheimers Res Ther. 2023 Nov 15;15(1):201. doi: 10.1186/s13195-023-01345-z. PubMed PMID: 37968719; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC10647125.

Yang Y, Zheng C, Chen B, Hernandez NC, Faust PL, Cai Z, Louis ED, Matuskey D. Decreased Synaptic Vesicle Glycoprotein 2A Binding in the Human Postmortem Essential Tremor Cerebellum: Evidence of Reduction in Synaptic Density. Cerebellum. 2023 Oct 3;. doi: 10.1007/s12311-023-01611-8. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 37783917.

Yang Y, Zheng C, Chen B, Hernandez NC, Faust PL, Cai Z, Louis ED, Matuskey D. Decreased Synaptic Vesicle Glycoprotein 2A Binding in the Human Postmortem Essential Tremor Cerebellum: Evidence of Reduction in Synaptic Density. Res Sq. 2023 May 2;. doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2838184/v1. PubMed PMID: 37205584; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC10187382.

Ma J, Wang Q, Sun Y, Zhu E, Li X, Tan H, Chen G, Zheng C. Copper-catalyzed umpolung Sonogashira-type coupling of arene boronic acids under visible light. Chem Commun (Camb). 2023 Apr 25;59(34):5043-5046. doi: 10.1039/d3cc00682d. PubMed PMID: 37013962.

Zheng C, Toyonaga T, Chen B, Nicholson L, Mennie W, Liu M, Spurrier J, Deluca K, Strittmatter SM, Carson RE, Huang Y, Cai Z. Decreased synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2A binding in a rodent model of familial Alzheimer's disease detected by [(18)F]SDM-16. Front Neurol. 2023;14:1045644. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2023.1045644. eCollection 2023. PubMed PMID: 36846134; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9945093.

2022

Yang H, Zeng F, Luo Y, Zheng C, Ran C, Yang J. Curcumin Scaffold as a Multifunctional Tool for Alzheimer's Disease Research. Molecules. 2022 Jun 17;27(12). doi: 10.3390/molecules27123879. Review. PubMed PMID: 35745002; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9227459.

Zheng C, Holden D, Zheng MQ, Pracitto R, Wilcox KC, Lindemann M, Felchner Z, Zhang L, Tong J, Fowles K, Finnema SJ, Nabulsi N, Carson RE, Huang Y, Cai Z. A metabolically stable PET tracer for imaging synaptic vesicle protein 2A: synthesis and preclinical characterization of [(18)F]SDM-16. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2022 Apr;49(5):1482-1496. doi: 10.1007/s00259-021-05597-5. Epub 2021 Nov 11. PubMed PMID: 34761284; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8940841.

2021

Pracitto R, Wilcox KC, Lindemann M, Tong J, Zheng C, Li S, Finnema SJ, Huang Y, Cai Z. Further Investigation of Synaptic Vesicle Protein 2A (SV2A) Ligands Designed for Positron Emission Tomography and Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography Imaging: Synthesis and Structure-Activity Relationship of Substituted Pyridinylmethyl-4-(3,5-difluorophenyl)pyrrolidin-2-ones. ACS Omega. 2021 Oct 26;6(42):27676-27683. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.1c02433. eCollection 2021 Oct 26. PubMed PMID: 34722967; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8552234.

Qiao J, Wang M, Cui M, Fang Y, Li H, Zheng C, Li Z, Xu Y, Hua H, Li D. Small-molecule probes for fluorescent detection of cellular hypoxia-related nitroreductase. J Pharm Biomed Anal. 2021 Sep 5;203:114199. doi: 10.1016/j.jpba.2021.114199. Epub 2021 Jun 9. Review. PubMed PMID: 34130009.

Zheng C, Yu Y, Kuang S, Zhu B, Zhou H, Zhang SQ, Yang J, Shi L, Ran C. β-Amyloid Peptides Manipulate Switching Behaviors of Donor-Acceptor Stenhouse Adducts. Anal Chem. 2021 Jul 20;93(28):9887-9896. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.1c01957. Epub 2021 Jul 8. PubMed PMID: 34235921.

Hu X, Xiao Y, Sun J, Ji B, Luo S, Wu B, Zheng C, Wang P, Xu F, Cheng K, Hua H, Li D. New possible silver lining for pancreatic cancer therapy: Hydrogen sulfide and its donors. Acta Pharm Sin B. 2021 May;11(5):1148-1157. doi: 10.1016/j.apsb.2020.10.019. Epub 2020 Oct 31. Review. PubMed PMID: 34094825; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8144891.

Fang Y, Li H, Ji B, Cheng K, Wu B, Li Z, Zheng C, Hua H, Li D. Renieramycin-type alkaloids from marine-derived organisms: Synthetic chemistry, biological activity and structural modification. Eur J Med Chem. 2021 Jan 15;210:113092. doi: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2020.113092. Epub 2020 Dec 9. Review. PubMed PMID: 33333398.

Li H, Fang Y, Yan J, Ren X, Zheng C, Wu B, Wang S, Li Z, Hua H, Wang P, Li D. Small-molecule fluorescent probes for H2S detection: Advances and perspectives. TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry. 2021 January; 134:116117-. doi: 10.1016/j.trac.2020.116117.

2020

Chen Z, Hou L, Gan J, Cai Q, Ye W, Chen J, Tan Z, Zheng C, Li G, Xu H, Fowler CJ, Liang SH, Wang L. Synthesis and preliminary evaluation of a novel positron emission tomography (PET) ligand for imaging fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH). Bioorg Med Chem Lett. 2020 Nov 1;30(21):127513. doi: 10.1016/j.bmcl.2020.127513. Epub 2020 Aug 27. PubMed PMID: 32860981.

Zheng C, Yu Y, Kuang S, Zhu B, Zhou H, zhang S, Yang J, Shi L, Ran C. β-Amyloid peptides tailor switching behaviors of Donor-Acceptor Stenhouse Adducts. [preprint]. 2020 October. doi: 10.1101/2020.10.04.325696.

Yang J, Yin W, Van R, Yin K, Wang P, Zheng C, Zhu B, Ran K, Zhang C, Kumar M, Shao Y, Ran C. Turn-on chemiluminescence probes and dual-amplification of signal for detection of amyloid beta species in vivo. Nat Commun. 2020 Aug 13;11(1):4052. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-17783-4. PubMed PMID: 32792510; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7426431.

Li H, Xu F, Gao G, Gao X, Wu B, Zheng C, Wang P, Li Z, Hua H, Li D. Hydrogen sulfide and its donors: Novel antitumor and antimetastatic therapies for triple-negative breast cancer. Redox Biol. 2020 Jul;34:101564. doi: 10.1016/j.redox.2020.101564. Epub 2020 May 4. Review. PubMed PMID: 32403079; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7218030.

Wang L, Wang T, Cheng G, Li X, Wei J, Guo B, Zheng C, Chen G, Ran C, Zheng C. Direct C–H Arylation of Aldehydes by Merging Photocatalyzed Hydrogen Atom Transfer with Palladium Catalysis. ACS Catalysis. 2020 June; 10(14):7543-7551. doi: 10.1021/acscatal.0c02105.

Yang J, Zhu B, Yin W, Han Z, Zheng C, Wang P, Ran C. Differentiating Aβ40 and Aβ42 in amyloid plaques with a small molecule fluorescence probe. Chem Sci. 2020 May 11;11(20):5238-5245. doi: 10.1039/d0sc02060e. PubMed PMID: 34122980; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8159352.

Xiao Z, Wang L, Wei J, Ran C, Liang SH, Shang J, Chen GY, Zheng C. Visible-light induced decarboxylative coupling of redox-active esters with disulfides to construct C-S bonds. Chem Commun (Camb). 2020 Apr 14;56(30):4164-4167. doi: 10.1039/d0cc00451k. PubMed PMID: 32207477.

2019

Nie B, Wang L, Hu Y, Liang S, Tan Z, Chai P, Tang Y, Shang J, Pan Z, Zhao X, Zhang X, Gong J, Zheng C, Xu H, Wey HY, Liang SH, Shan B. A population stereotaxic positron emission tomography brain template for the macaque and its application to ischemic model. Neuroimage. 2019 Dec;203:116163. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116163. Epub 2019 Sep 5. PubMed PMID: 31494249.

Zheng C, Wang G, Shang R. Catalyst‐free Decarboxylation and Decarboxylative Giese Additions of Alkyl Carboxylates through Photoactivation of Electron Donor‐Acceptor Complex. Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis. 2019 August; 361(19):4500-4505. doi: 10.1002/adsc.201900803.

Bai M, Zheng CJ, Huang GL, Mei RQ, Wang B, Luo YP, Zheng C, Niu ZG, Chen GY. Bioactive Meroterpenoids and Isocoumarins from the Mangrove-Derived Fungus Penicillium sp. TGM112. J Nat Prod. 2019 May 24;82(5):1155-1164. doi: 10.1021/acs.jnatprod.8b00866. Epub 2019 Apr 16. PubMed PMID: 30990038.

Zheng C, Li MZ, You TP, Tang WP, Lou LG. Synthesis and antitumor activity of a series of lactone-opened camptothecin derivatives. J Asian Nat Prod Res. 2019 Jan;21(1):51-61. doi: 10.1080/10286020.2017.1392941. Epub 2017 Oct 24. PubMed PMID: 29063792.

2018

Fan C, Hu K, Wang J, Hao X, Wei J, Song M, Zheng C. Synthesis of quaternary succinimides promoted by Ferric Nitrate. Tetrahedron Letters. 2018 December; 59(52):4606-4610. doi: 10.1016/j.tetlet.2018.11.043.

Shi L, Zhang W, Chen S, Lu L, Fan R, Tan J, Zheng C. The Role of Ortho-dearomatization Reaction in Constructing Spirocyclic Scaffolds with an All-carbon Ring Junction. Current Organic Synthesis. 2018 October; 15(7):904-923. doi: 10.2174/1570179415666180720110051.

Zheng C, Wang Y, Xu Y, Chen Z, Chen G, Liang SH. Ru-Photoredox-Catalyzed Decarboxylative Oxygenation of Aliphatic Carboxylic Acids through N-(acyloxy)phthalimide. Org Lett. 2018 Aug 17;20(16):4824-4827. doi: 10.1021/acs.orglett.8b01885. Epub 2018 Aug 2. PubMed PMID: 30070856.

Zheng C, Cheng WM, Li HL, Na RS, Shang R. Cis-Selective Decarboxylative Alkenylation of Aliphatic Carboxylic Acids with Vinyl Arenes Enabled by Photoredox/Palladium/Uphill Triple Catalysis. Org Lett. 2018 May 4;20(9):2559-2563. doi: 10.1021/acs.orglett.8b00712. Epub 2018 Apr 17. PubMed PMID: 29664648.

Hu K, Zheng C, An M, Ma X, Wang L. A peptide-based supercapacitor and its performance improvement <i>via</i> TiO ₂ coating. Journal of Materials Chemistry A. 2018; 6(17):8047-8052. doi: 10.1039/C8TA01102H.

Before 2018

Zhou W, Tan H, Qiu S, Chen G, Liu H, Zheng C. Biomimetic total synthesis and structure confirmation of myrtucommulone K. Tetrahedron Letters. 2017 May; 58(19):1817-1821. doi: 10.1016/j.tetlet.2017.03.059.

Liu J, Li H, Zheng C, Lu S, Guo X, Yin X, Na R, Yu B, Wang M. A General Asymmetric Synthesis of (R)-Matsutakeol and Flavored Analogs. Molecules. 2017 Feb 27;22(3). doi: 10.3390/molecules22030364. PubMed PMID: 28264452; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6155351.

Zheng C, Wang L, Li J, Wang L, Wang DZ. Ortho-dearomatization of phenols creating all-carbon spiro-bicycles. Org Lett. 2013 Aug 16;15(16):4046-9. doi: 10.1021/ol401863k. Epub 2013 Aug 2. PubMed PMID: 23909662.

Tan H, Zheng C, Liu Z, Wang DZ. Biomimetic total syntheses of linderaspirone A and bi-linderone and revisions of their biosynthetic pathways. Org Lett. 2011 May 6;13(9):2192-5. doi: 10.1021/ol200418e. Epub 2011 Mar 29. PubMed PMID: 21446662.

Li M, Jin W, Jiang C, Zheng C, Tang W, You T, Lou L. 7-Cycloalkylcamptothecin derivatives: Preparation and biological evaluation. Bioorg Med Chem Lett. 2009 Aug 1;19(15):4107-9. doi: 10.1016/j.bmcl.2009.06.010. Epub 2009 Jun 6. PubMed PMID: 19541483.