Synthetic, self-assembly ABCD nanoparticles; a structural paradigm for viable synthetic non-viral vectors

Gene therapy research is still in trouble owing to a paucity of acceptable vector systems to deliver nucleic acids to patients for therapy. Viral vectors are efficient but may be too dangerous. Synthetic non-viral vectors are inherently safer but are currently not efficient enough to be clinically viable. The solution for gene therapy lies with improved synthetic non-viral vectors systems. This review is focused on synthetic cationic liposome/micelle-based non-viral vector systems and is a critical review written to illustrate the increasing importance of chemistry in gene therapy research. This review should be of primary interest to synthetic chemists and biomedical researchers keen to appreciate emerging technologies, but also to biological scientists who remain to be convinced about the relevance of chemistry to biology.     

钯催化合成香豆素研究进展

香豆素是一类苯并六元含氧杂环类化合物,具有抗氧化、抗菌、抗炎等多种生理活性,受到人们的广泛关注。近年来不断有香豆素的新合成方法报道,特别是高效的过渡金属钯催化合成反应。本文综述了近20年来钯络合物催化合成香豆素骨架的研究进展,主要包括羰基化反应、炔烃芳基化反应、烯烃芳基化反应和偶联反应,以期为合成新型香豆素提供参考。     

Bowls,Hoops, and Saddles: Synthetic Approaches to Curved Aromatic Molecules

This review summarizes recent advances in the chemistry of curved aromatic molecules. By focusing on the key accomplishments of the last decade, we provide a general overview of synthetic methods capable of efficient induction of internal strain in π‐conjugated frameworks. The review is structured according to the topology change involved in the strain‐inducing reaction step (cyclizations, eliminations, ring expansions and contractions), and highlights the striking diversity of structures achievable with modern synthetic methodology.     

合成不同拓扑结构聚合物的一个简便策略

随着高分子化学的进步, 特别是可控自由基聚合反应的发现, 不同拓扑结构聚合物的合成己获得了巨大的进展. 为合成这些复杂结构的聚合物, 人们成功地研究了不同的聚合方法. 其中, 不同功能团引发剂方法是较为方便和可行的方法之一, 并且已广泛用于不同结构聚合物的合成. 本文综述了用该方法合成不同拓扑结构聚合物, 包括嵌段、杂臂星形、H-形、π-形、接枝和环状聚合物所取得的进展, 特别强调的是这篇论文没有覆盖这方面的所有研究工作. 这一合成方法的思路是基于将不同聚合反应, 尤其是不同可控聚合反应相结合, 或者将可控聚合与不同的偶合反应, 例如与点击反应、Diel-Alder反应和活性酯反应等相结合. 所讨论的多功能引发剂不仅包括小分子化合物, 也包括带有两个和两个以上引发基团或链转移基团的聚合物. 后者称为大分子多功能团引发剂, 可以独立引发不同的聚合反应.     

Non-racemic (scalemic) planar-chiral five-membered metallacycles: routes, means, and pitfalls in their synthesis and characterization

This critical review provides a systematic classification of the synthetic routes to planar-chiral five-membered metallacycles into several routes, namely C-H bond activation, oxidative addition, transmetallation and optical resolution. As a characteristic of these bulk compounds is that they are synthesized as binary mixtures of enantiomers in proportions varying from the racemate to enantiopure, a review of absolute-configuration determination of the title planar-chiral scalemates is presented. This review is of interest to organic and organometallic synthetic chemists involved in asymmetric synthesis (97 references).     

Five-membered ring systems with one heteroatom: Synthetic routes,chemical reactivity,and biological properties of furan-carboxamide analogues

This review described the synthetic methods, chemical reactivity and biological applications of furan carboxamide compounds. Furan-carboxamides are reported to have important and variable biological properties. The aim of this review is to highlight the chemistry and biological importance of this class of bioactive compounds. The basic sections covers: structure studies, synthetic methods pathways, synthesis of different heterocycles, reactions and biological applications. The reactions mechanisms of the unexpected products are discussed. The present study covers all the published work on the furan-carboxamides until now.     

Recent Advances in Methylation: A Guide for Selecting Methylation Reagents

Methylation is a well-known structural modification in organic and medicinal chemistry. This review summarizes recent advances in methylation by categorizing specific methylation reagents. The challenges of mono N-methylation of aliphatic amines and N-methylation of peptides are discussed. This review will be useful for chemists wanting to select the appropriate reagents for methylation chemistry. Based on the large diversity of methylation reagents and their wide scope, this review also broadens perspectives on which strategies to select for utilizing a particular methylation, resulting in an increased flexibility in synthetic route planning.     

Microreaction Technology for Synthetic Chemistry

Microreaction technology as an emerging tool for synthetic chemistry has been extensively applied in academic and industrial researches. Normally, synthetic chemists used to running reactions in the classical glassware for centuries are unfamiliar and unaccustomed to use microreaction technology for routine synthetic work. This review tries to give a general introduction of the capabilities of microreaction technology. After introducing the origin and history of microreaction technology, we review and discuss mainly several synthetic examples of high T‐P reactions, hazardous reactions, flash chemistry, polymerization, photochemistry, electrochemistry and multistep API's syntheses to demonstrate the capabilities of microreactors. A summary and perspectives on microreactor technology are also given in this paper. It is anticipated that more and more chemists will understand the capabilities and limitations of microreaction technology, and could work together with chemical engineers for the synergic development of chemistry and chemical engineering.     

Biosynthesis and metabolism of abscisic acid and related compounds

This review describes research on the chemistry (biosynthesis, metabolism and synthetic analogs) of a plant hormone, abscisic acid (ABA), covering 1970 to 2002 with 123 references     

Diastereoselective synthesis of 2,5-disubstituted tetrahydrofurans

This review focuses on synthetic methods allowing the preparation of 2,5-disubstituted tetrahydrofurans reported in the literature between 1993 and 2008.     

A review of biosensors and biologically-inspired systems for explosives detection

This article provides a review of the published literature describing the use of biosensors and biologically-inspired systems for explosives detection. The review focusses on the use of antibodies, enzymes, biologically-inspired synthetic ligands and whole-cell biosensors, providing a flavour of the range of technology, formats and approaches that can be used to detect explosives using biological systems.     

合成生物学展望

近年来,合成生物学快速发展成为一个新兴交叉学科领域,研究重点逐渐由基因线路、简单元件和模块的设计构建转向设计与构建复杂的人工生物系统.本文阐述了合成生物学与化学工程学科的内在联系,并从基因组的人工设计合成与编辑、人工细胞的设计合成、人工合成多细胞体系及其应用等方面展望了未来合成生物学的发展趋势.     

Recent synthetic methodologies for pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine

The development of new synthetic routes towards pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines for their biological and medicinal exploration is an attractive area for researchers. This review focuses on various synthetic routes developed in the last decade for the synthesis of differently substituted pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines by a broad range of organic reactions by means of 5-aminopyrazole as a precursor.     

Application of titanium catalysts for the syntheses of heterocycles

The metal catalyzed synthesis of heterocycles is becoming an important and highly rewarding protocol in organic synthesis. Traditional approaches require expensive or highly specialized equipment or would be of limited use to the synthetic organic chemist due to their highly inconvenient approaches. Titanium-mediated cyclization reactions have been recognized as some of the simplest and useful tools for regio- as well as stereoselective syntheses of five-membered N-heterocycles. This review summarizes the applications of titanium catalysts with emphasis of their synthetic applications for different heterocylces. This review covered interesting discoveries in the past few years.     

Total Syntheses of Pladienolide-Derived Spliceosome Modulators

Pladienolides, an emerging class of naturally occurring spliceosome modulators, exhibit interesting structural features, such as highly substituted 12-membered macrocycles and epoxide-containing diene side chains. The potential of pladienolides as anti-cancer agents is confirmed by H3B-8800, a synthetic analog of this natural product class, which is currently under Phase I clinical trials. Since its isolation in 2004 and the first total synthesis in 2007, a dozen total syntheses and synthetic approaches toward the pladienolide class have been reported to date. This review focuses on the eight completed total syntheses of naturally occurring pladienolides or their synthetic analogs, in addition to a synthetic approach to the main framework of the natural product.     

Overview on the synthetic routes to nicotine nitriles

The biological and medicinal properties of nicotinonitrile and its analogues have prompted enormous research aimed at developing synthetic routes to these heterocyclic. This review highlights the different synthetic routes to nicotine nitriles.     

Synthesis using aromatic homolytic substitution--recent advances

This critical review aims at presenting recent developments in intramolecular aromatic homolytic substitution which has become one of the common methodologies in modern synthesis. The application of Bu3SnH-mediated cyclisations have proved especially useful. The critical review illustrates the mechanistic considerations required for planning synthetic applications and a wide range of synthetic protocols and natural product syntheses are shown. The latest evidence for the mechanisms involved in aromatic homolytic substitution are presented. (152 references).     

2,4-Toluene diamines--their carcinogenicity, biodegradation, analytical techniques and an approach towards development of biosensors.

2,4-Toluene diamine (TDA), a class A carcinogen, is a major raw material for the production of toluene diisocyanate (TDI), which is one of the precursors for the production of polyurethane foams (PU). This review deals with 2,4-toluene diamine's (TDA) carcinogenicity, analytical techniques, biodegradation and use as a biosensor for biogenic and synthetic amines, emphasizing various carcinogenicity studies by 2,4-TDA on animals and humans. This review reports some publications of the analysis of body fluid samples of workers from a PU producing factory for presence of TDA and TDI, since TDI gets absorbed into the worker's body, getting metabolized into TDA. Biodegradations of 2,4-TDA by various researchers are reported and also our own research experience with biodegradation of 2,4-TDA using Aspergillus nidulans isolated from soil site at a polyurethane foam dumping site have been discussed in this review. Biosensors for various biogenic and synthetic amines are discussed.     

Environmental biodegradation of synthetic polymers I. Test methodologies and procedures

Biodegradation of synthetic polymers is an important property that is used in many applications. Evaluation of the extent of biodegradation has used different methods in recent years. For each environmental compartment, different approaches have to be made in order to obtain valuable data on biodegradability.This review describes validated and accepted methods based on standardized biodegradation tests, analytical tests, enzymatic tests or tests of physical properties to evaluate the biodegradability of synthetic polymers for different types of environmental compartments (e.g., soil, compost or aqueous media).Part II of this review will subsequently report on the environmental biodegradation of different groups of synthetic polymers.