An efficient route for the preparation of a 21-fluoro progestin-16 alpha,17 alpha-dioxolane,a high-affinity ligand for PET imaging of the progesterone receptor

Two different synthetic routes were explored for the synthesis of fluoro furanyl norprogesterone (FFNP) 1, a high-affinity ligand for the progesterone receptor (PgR) that is being developed as a PET imaging agent for PgR-positive breast cancer. Both approaches proceed through a key intermediate, triol 5. The first approach, starting from keto-ketal 2, employed a dioxenyl group as a synthon for installing a corticosteroid side chain in keto-alcohol 4. The second approach, starting from propargylic acetate 12b, involved the application of a two-step method, a Pd(II)-catalyzed oxidative rearrangement followed by a base-catalyzed acetate rearrangement of the intermediate unsaturated acetate 13b, to generate the requisite corticosteroid side chain in keto-acetate 14b. This intermediate was further elaborated to the final product 1 via efficient dihydroxylation with potassium permangnate, furan acetalization with scandium triflate, and mesylation and fluorination reactions. The palladium-catalyzed route is considerably more efficient than the dioxene approach for the synthesis of key intermediate triol 5, and the scandium triflate-catalyzed acetalization, in particular, led to a considerable improvement in the overall yield of the endo furan acetal alcohol 16a. This route provides a major improvement in the overall yield of the final progestin target, FFNP 1.     

Ab initio study of (13)C(alpha) chemical shift anisotropy tensors in peptides

This study reports magnitudes and the orientation of the (13)C(alpha) chemical shift anisotropy (CSA) tensors of peptides obtained using quantum chemical calculations. The dependency of the CSA tensor parameters on the energy optimization of hydrogen atom positions and hydrogen bonding effects and the use of zwitterionic peptides in the calculations are examined. Our results indicate that the energy optimization of the hydrogen atom positions in crystal structures is necessary to obtain accurate CSA tensors. The inclusion of intermolecular effects such as hydrogen bonding in the calculations provided better agreement between the calculated and experimental values; however, the use of zwitterionic peptides in calculations, with or without the inclusion of hydrogen bonding, did not improve the results. In addition, our calculated values are in good agreement with tensor values obtained from solid-state NMR experiments on glycine-containing tripeptides. In the case of peptides containing an aromatic residue, calculations on an isolated peptide yielded more accurate isotropic shift values than the calculations on extended structures of the peptide. The calculations also suggested that the presence of an aromatic ring in the extended crystal peptide structure influences the magnitude of the delta(22) which the present level of ab initio calculations are unable to reproduce.     

Neutron activation analysis of extractable organohalogens in milk from China

Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) has been used for the determination of extractable organohalogens (EOX) in milk. The detection limits are 50 ng, 8 ng and 3.5 ng for Cl, Br and I, respectively. The EOX concentrations in milk samples from various regions of China were determined. Meanwhile, organochlorine pesticides residues were detected by gas chromatography. The concentrations of the EOX in the milk samples are decreasing in the order of EOCl >> EOBr > EOI, and EOCl accounts for 95% of the total EOX. The average concentration of EOCl in milk is 4.44 ·g/g expressed as fat weight basis, with the highest value of 17.6 ·g/g from South China. The mean concentrations of total HCH and DDT are 0.038 ·g/g and 0.046 ·g/g, respectively. Organochlorine pesticides account only for 1.6% of the EOCl, indicating the very high proportion of the unknown EOCl in the milk sample. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

AIBN-initiated radical addition of gem-difluorinated alkyl iodides to alkynes and the Pd-catalyzed Sonogashira coupling reaction of E-phenyl difluoromethylene vinylic iodides with terminal alkynes

The addition of gem-difluorinated alkyl iodides to alkynes initiated by AIBN neatly gave the corresponding difluoromethylene vinyl iodides among which the stereoselectivity of aromatic acetylenes was high. The further coupling reaction of E-phenyl difluoromethylene vinyl iodides with terminal alkynes in the presence of catalytic palladium afforded the substituted difluorinated enynes.     

Increased throughput in quantitative bioanalysis using parallel-column liquid chromatography with mass spectrometric detection

The feasibility of quantitative bioanalysis by parallel-column liquid chromatography in conjunction with a conventional single-source electrospray mass spectrometer has been investigated using plasma samples containing a drug and its three metabolites. Within a single chromatographic run time, sample injections were made alternately onto each of two analytical columns in parallel at specified intervals, with a mass spectrometer data file opened at every injection. Thus, the mass spectrometer collected data from two sample injections into separate data files within a single chromatographic run time. Therefore, without sacrificing the chromatographic separation or the selected reaction monitoring (SRM) dwell time, the sample throughput was increased by a factor of two. Comparing the method validation results obtained using the two-column system with those obtained using the corresponding conventional single-column approach, the methods on the two systems were found to be equivalent in terms of accuracy and precision. The parallel-column system is simple and can be implemented using existing laboratory equipment with no additional capital outlays. A parallel-column system configured in this manner can be used not only for the within-a-run analysis of two samples containing two different sets of chemical entities, but also for the within-a-run analysis of two samples containing the same set of chemical entities.     

Development of a quantitative method for determination of acrylamide in infant powdered milk and baby foods in jars using isotope dilution liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry

An improved method has been developed for the determination of acrylamide in infant powdered milk and baby foods in jars, a particular class of foodstuffs which represent an important source of nutrition for young infants and babies. This method uses isotope dilution liquid chromatography coupled to a tandem mass spectrometer with electrospray ionization and is significantly more sensitive than previous published methods with a limit of quantification estimated at 1 microg kg(-1). The new method offers effective sample preparation procedures including defatting with petroleum ether, extraction with aqueous solution of sodium chloride, further liquid-liquid extraction with ethyl acetate and clean-up by solid-phase extraction (SPE) with HLB 200 mg cartridges. The analytical method was well validated and good results were obtained with respect to repeatability (RSD < 5%) and recovery (86-97%) which fulfilled the requirements defined by European Union (EU) legislation. The acrylamide level in infant powdered milk and baby foods in jars were 3.01-9.06 microg kg(-1) and 6.80-124.93 microg kg(-1), respectively. Especially, this new method is successfully applied to the trace quantification of acrylamide in infant/baby foods, the content of which is less than 10 microg kg(-1).     

羟丙基醋酸纤维素的合成及其膜的反渗透性

研究了羟丙基纤维素和羟丙基醋酸纤维素的合成。制备羟丙基纤维素的较佳反应温度为40℃左右和2小时或稍长,羟丙基含量随环氧丙烷浓度的增加而增加。在制备羟丙基醋酸纤维素时,随羟丙基含量的增加,所需醋化和水解的时间减少。以甘油-正丙醇或磷酸为添加剂,丙酮为溶剂经30～60s蒸发后制得了羟丙基醋酸纤维素反渗透膜。后者在20kg/cm~2下对氯化钠脱盐率可达95～98％,水通量1.0～2.1mL/cm~2·h,其使用温度上限比醋酸纤维素反渗透膜提高10℃以上。     

Potential-energy surface for the electronic ground state of NH3 up to 20,000 cm-1 above equilibrium

Ab initio coupled cluster calculations with single and double substitutions and a perturbative treatment of connected triple excitations [CCSD(T)] with the augmented correlation-consistent polarized valence triple-zeta aug-cc-pVTZ basis at 51 816 geometries provide a six-dimensional potential-energy surface for the electronic ground state of NH3. At 3814 selected geometries, CBS+ energies are obtained by extrapolating the CCSD(T) results for the aug-cc-pVXZ(X=T,Q,5) basis sets to the complete basis set (CBS) limit and adding corrections for core-valence correlation and relativistic effects. CBS** ab initio energies are generated at 51,816 geometries by an empirical extrapolation of the CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ results to the CBS+ limit. They cover the energy region up to 20,000 cm-1 above equilibrium. Parametrized analytical functions are fitted through the ab initio points. For these analytical surfaces, vibrational term values and transition moments are calculated by means of a variational program employing a kinetic-energy operator expressed in the Eckart-Sayvetz frame. Comparisons against experiment are used to assess the quality of the generated potential-energy surfaces. A "spectroscopic" potential-energy surface of NH3 is determined by a slight empirical adjustment of the ab initio potential to the experimental vibrational term values. Variational calculations on this refined surface yield rms deviations from experiment of 0.8 cm-1 for 24 inversion splittings and 0.4 (3.0) cm-1 for 34 (51) vibrational term values up to 6100 (10,300) cm-1.     

New Nitrogenous Bisabolene‐Type Sesquiterpenes from a Hainan Sponge Axinyssa aff. variabilis

Two new uncommon nitrogenous sesquiterpenes, 11‐ethoxy‐3‐formamidotheonellin ( 1 ) and 7‐ethoxy‐3‐formamidobisabolane‐8,10‐diene ( 2 ), together with two known related sesquiterpenes, 3‐formamidotheonellin (=theonellin formamide; 3 ) and theonellin isothiocyanate ( 4 ), were isolated from the Hainan sponge Axinyssa aff. variabilis. Their structures were determined on the basis of extensive spectroscopic analysis and by comparison of their NMR data with those of known compounds.