Generation of statin drug metabolites through electrochemical and enzymatic oxidations

The generation of key drug metabolites for the purpose of their complete structural characterization, toxicity testing, as well as to serve as standards for quantitative studies, is a critical step in the pharmaceutical discovery and development cycle. Here, we utilized electrochemistry/mass spectrometry for the detection and subsequent generation of six phase I metabolites of simvastatin and lovastatin. Both simvastatin and lovastatin are widely used for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia. There are known drug–drug interaction issues of statin therapy, and it has been suggested that the oxidative metabolites may contribute to the cholesterol-lowering effect of both statins. Of the known phase I metabolites of simvastatin and lovastatin, none are commercially available, and chemical means for the synthesis of a very few of them have been previously reported. Here, we report that electrochemical oxidation of less than 1 mg each of simvastatin and lovastatin led to the generation of three oxidative metabolites of each parent to allow complete nuclear magnetic resonance characterization of all six metabolites. The yields obtained by the electrochemical approach were also compared with incubation of parent drug with commercially available bacterial mutant CYP102A1 enzymes, and it was found that the electrochemical approach gave higher yields than the enzymatic oxidations for the generation of most of the observed oxidative metabolites in this study.

Intercalation of Toluidines into α-Zirconium Hydrogenphosphate

Intercalates of o-, m-, and p-toluidine into α-Zr(HPO₄)₂ · H₂O were prepared and characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis and infrared spectroscopy. As follows from IR, toludine molecules are protonated in the interlayer space. Toluidine molecules are arranged in a bimolecular way in the intercalates containing more than 1.5 toluidine molecules per Zr atom. On the other hand, a monolayer of the toluidine molecules is supposed in the intercalates with less than one toluidine molecule per Zr atom.     

Absolute Asymmetric Synthesis: The Origin, Control, and Amplification of Chirality

Biomolecular homochirality, the origin of which is still a puzzle, has challenged scientists to design chemical systems that provide chiral molecules through absolute asymmetric synthesis and to amplify a small stereochemical bias in such systems. The photoresolution of the enantiomers of helical-shaped, sterically overcrowded alkene 1 with circularly polarized light and the transduction of the stereochemical information by triggering the helical arrangement of a large collection of achiral molecules in a twisted nematic liquid crystalline phase (2) are examples of control and amplification of chirality.     

(4R,4aR,6S,7S,7aS)‐6‐Hydro­xy‐7‐hy­droxy­methyl‐4‐methyl­per­hydro­cyclo­penta­[c]­pyran‐1‐one chloro­form solvate from Valeriana laxiflora

The structure of an iridolactone isolated from Valeriana laxiflora was established as (4R,4aR,6S,7S,7aS)‐6‐hydroxy‐7‐hydroxy­methyl‐4‐methyl­per­hydro­cyclo­penta­[c]­pyran‐1‐one chloro­form solvate, C₁₀H₁₆O₄·CHCl₃. The two rings are cis‐fused. The δ‐lactone ring adopts a slightly twisted half‐chair conformation with approximate planarity of the lactone group and the cyclo­pentane ring adopts an envelope conformation. The hydroxy group, the hydroxymethyl group and the methyl group all have β orientations. The absolute configuration was determined using anomalous dispersion data enhanced by the adventitious inclusion of a chloro­form solvent mol­ecule. Hydro­gen bonding, crystal packing and ring conformations are discussed in detail.     

Complementary stereoselective conjugate addition reactions on indolo[2,3-a]quinolizine templates

We report a new and highly stereoselective approach for the construction of a range of functionalized indolo[2,3-a]quinolizine targets from a readily available, nonracemic chiral template. The methods developed allow us to predetermine relative product stereochemistries by judicious choice of substrate sub-structure.     

Standardization for oxygen isotope ratio measurement - still an unsolved problem

Numerous organic and inorganic laboratory standards were gathered from nine European and North American laboratories and were analyzed for their delta(18)O values with a new on-line high temperature pyrolysis system that was calibrated using Vienna standard mean ocean water (VSMOW) and standard light Antartic precipitation (SLAP) internationally distributed reference water samples. Especially for organic materials, discrepancies between reported and measured values were high, ranging up to 2 per thousand. The reasons for these discrepancies are discussed and the need for an exact and reliable calibration of existing reference materials, as well as for the establishment of additional organic and inorganic reference materials is stressed. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ab initio calculations of the photoionization of diatomic molecules

A review is presented of the calculation of photoionization spectra, particularly in the spectral range where electron autoionization of diatomic molecules takes place. In addition to some interesting results obtained over years that compare favourably with experiment, the emphasis here is put on the relation between the methods developed for the calculation of observables associated with the continuum energy spectrum of the electrons and the Alchemy system of programs. This system of programs serves as a basis for initial and intermediate calculations. The examples presented show that diatomic molecules not only in gas phase but also oriented in space or physisorbed at surfaces may be studied readily.     

On the formation of amorphous layers by interdiffusion in zirconium-copper system

Formation of amorphous phase by solid state reaction has been observed in bulk copper-zirconium couples. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques have been employed to detect and study the amorphous phase. The experimental observations have been explained with a model, which considers the breakdown of the a-zirconium lattice due to the solute enrichment beyond a certain limit where the nucleation of the amorphous phase becomes thermodynamically possible. The present-experiments convincingly show that amorphous phase can form in bulk diffusion couples made from large-grained well-annealed material and conclusively establish that the presence of crystal defects in high concentrations is not a pre-requisite for the formation of amorphous phase.     

Electronic structure of hafnium: A compton profile study

In this paper, we report the first-ever isotropic Compton profile of hafnium measured at an intermediate resolution, with 661.65 keV γ-radiation. To compare our experimental data, the theoretical computations have also been carried out within the framework of pseudopotential using CRYSTAL03 code and the renormalized-free-atom (RFA) model. It is found that the present experimental profile is in better agreement with the RFA calculations if the outer electronic configuration is chosen as 5d^3.26s^0.8. The cohesive energy of Hf is also deduced from the experimental data and is compared with the available data. On leave from Hindu College, Sonepat 131 001, India