Cyclisation of 2-(2-aminophenyl)quinazolin-4(3H)-one reexamined: formation of isomeric angular fused quinazolinoquinazolinones and their spectroscopic identification

Cyclisation of 2-(2-aminophenyl)quinazolin-4(3H)-ones on to N₃ and on to N₁ leading to 6-alkyl-(8H)-quinazolino[4,3-b]quinazolin-8-one and 6-alkyl-(13H)-quinazolino[3,4-a]quinazolin-13-one, respectively was described for the first time. The differences in the IR and carbon NMR data of these isomeric fused quinazolinoquinazolinones afford a useful method for distinguishing between the two series.     

Top–down mass spectrometry reveals new sequence variants of the major bovine seminal plasma protein PDC‐109

The major protein of bovine seminal plasma, PDC‐109, is a 109‐residue polypeptide that exists as a polydisperse aggregate under native conditions. The oligomeric state of this aggregate varies with ionic strength and the presence of lipids. Binding of PDC‐109 to choline phospholipids on the sperm plasma membrane results in an efflux of cholesterol and choline phospholipids, which is an important step in sperm capacitation. In this study, Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry was used to analyze PDC‐109 purified from bovine seminal plasma. In addition to the previously known PDC‐109 variants, four new sequence variants were identified by top–down mass spectrometry. For example, a protein variant containing point mutations P10L and G14R was identified along with another form having a 14‐residue truncation in the N‐terminal region. Two other minor variants could also be identified from the affinity‐purified PDC‐109. These results demonstrate that PDC‐109 is naturally produced as a mixture of several protein forms, most of which have not been detected in previous studies. Native mass spectrometry revealed that PDC‐109 is exclusively monomeric at low protein concentrations, suggesting that the protein oligomers are weakly bound and can easily be disrupted. Ligand binding to PDC‐109 was also investigated, and it was observed that two molecules of O‐phosphorylcholine bind to each PDC‐109 monomer, consistent with previous reports. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Selective Ortho alkylation of phenol with alcohols over catalysts derived from hydrotalcite-like anionic clays

The vapour phase alkylation of phenol with a series of alcohols containing different number of carbons ranging from C₁ to C₈ were investigated over catalysts derived from magnesium-aluminium hydrotalcite with Mg/Al atomic ratio 3 (MgAl 3.0-HT). The results indicated that at 623 K the catalytic activity for phenol conversion increased with increasing chain length of linear long chain alcohols to give 2-alkylated linear alkyl phenols, without any isomerisation of the alkyl moiety. Isomorphous substitution of Mg²⁺ by Cu²⁺ or Ni²⁺ in the MgAl 3.0-HT resulted in an increase in selectivity of 2-alkyl and 2,6-dialkylphenols (≈60%) in the alkylation of phenol with 1-hexanol or 1-octanol.     

A potassium–18-crown-6 salt of a cyclic myo-inositol phosphate

The six-membered phosphorinane ring in (1,4,7,10,13,16-hexaoxa­cyclo­octa­decane)­potassium 2-O-benzoyl-1,3,5-O-methyl­idyne-myo-in­osi­tol 4,6-cyclo­phosphate trihydrate, [K(C₁₂H₂₄O₆)](C₁₄H₁₂O₉P)·3H₂O, has a boat rather than a chair conformation. The K⁺ ion is eight-coordinate and is connected to one of the phosphate O atoms, one of the O atoms of the myo-inositol residue and the six O atoms of the crown ether.     

A comparative study on the modeling of sound pressure field distributions in a sonoreactor with experimental investigation

In sonochemical reactors the effect of emerging cavitation bubbles has significant influence on the amplitude and structure of the developing sound field. Calculations show that the damping parameter and the phase velocity may, depending on the pressure amplitude, change by several orders of magnitude. For example, the sound velocity in water comes to 1500 ms⁻¹, whereas in a bubbly liquid it may decrease to 20 ms⁻¹, which is much below the velocity of sound in air (about 340 ms⁻¹). In this paper, a method of calculating the time dependent three-dimensional pressure field in sonochemical reactors of various shapes is presented. It takes into account inhomogeneous distributed wave parameters which are a function of the spatial depending pressure amplitude. The modeled results are then compared with experimentally measured values of a certain kind of reaction vessel. The agreement is found to be satisfactory.     

Fluorescence quenching, time-resolved fluorescence and chemical modification studies on the tryptophan residues of snake gourd (Trichosanthes anguina) seed lectin

Fluorescence quenching and time-resolved fluorescence studies have been performed on the galactose-specific lectin purified from snake gourd (Trichosanthes anguina) seeds, in order to investigate the tryptophan accessibility and environment in the native protein and in the presence of bound ligand. Estimation of the tryptophan content by N-bromosuccinimide modification in the presence of 8 M urea yields four residues per dimeric molecule. The emission spectrum of native lectin in the absence as well as in the presence of 50 mM methyl--d-galatopyranoside (MeGal) shows a maximum around 331 nm, which shifts to 361.8 nm upon reduction of the disulfide bonds and denaturation with 8 M urea, indicating that all four tryptophan residues in the native state of this protein are in a hydrophobic environment. The extent of quenching that is observed is highest with acrylamide, intermediate with succinimide, and low with Cs⁺ and I⁻, further supporting the idea that the tryptophan residues are predominantly buried in the hydrophobic core of the protein. The presence of MeGal (50 mM) affects the quenching only marginally. Time-resolved fluorescence measurements yield bi-exponential decay curves with lifetimes of 1.45 and 4.99 ns in the absence of sugar, and 1.36 and 4.8 ns in its presence. These results suggest that the tryptophan residues are not directly involved in the saccharide binding activity of the T. anguina lectin. Of the four quenchers employed in this study, the cationic quencher, Cs⁺, is found to be a very sensitive probe for the tryptophan environment of this lectin and may be useful in investigating the environment of partially buried tryptophan residues and unfolding processes in other proteins as well.     

The Crystal and Molecular Structure of (μ‐terephthlato) bis [(N‐Salicylidene ‐N'‐(2‐hydroxyethyl) ethylenediamine) Copper(II)]

The title compound [[Cu(shen)]₂(tp)], {[Cu(C₁₅H₁₇O₄N₂)]2}, where tp = dianion of terephthalic acid and shen = (N‐salicylidene‐N'‐(2‐hydroxyethyl ethylene‐diamine)) has been prepared and its crystal structure determined by single crystal X‐ray diffraction at room temperature. The complex crystallizes in the orthorhombic space group Pbca with four formula units in a unit cell of dimensions a = 12.298(2), b = 14.214(2) and c = 16.436(2)Å. The structure consists of binuclear units with Cu(II) ion bridged by the tp ligand in a bis‐unidentate fashion. The five coordinate Cu(II) complex adopts a distorted square‐based pyramid. A crystallographic inversion center has been located at the center of the benzene ring of the tp bridging ligand. The Cu … Cu distance inside a same binuclear entity is 11.069Å. Intermolecular aromatic ring stacking interactions were observed with the shortest atom to atom contact being 3.423Å.     

Novel Inhibitors of Nicotinamide-N-Methyltransferase for the Treatment of Metabolic Disorders

Nicotinamide-N-methyltransferase (NNMT) is a cytosolic enzyme catalyzing the transfer of a methyl group from S-adenosyl-methionine (SAM) to nicotinamide (Nam). It is expressed in many tissues including the liver, adipose tissue, and skeletal muscle. Its expression in several cancer cell lines has been widely discussed in the literature, and recent work established a link between NNMT expression and metabolic diseases. Here we describe our approach to identify potent small molecule inhibitors of NNMT featuring different binding modes as elucidated by X-ray crystallographic studies.