Short,Enantioselective Total Synthesis of Chatancin

An enantioselective total synthesis of the polycyclic diterpene (+)‐chatancin, a potent PAF antagonist, is reported. Proceeding in seven steps from dihydrofarnesal, this synthetic route was designed to circumvent macrocyclization‐based strategies to complex, cyclized cembranoids. The described synthesis requires only six chromatographic purifications, is high yielding, and avoids protecting‐group manipulations. An X‐ray crystal structure of this fragile marine natural product was obtained.     

The first montmorillonite‐supported surface single‐structure titanium complex: synthesis,characterization and catalytic activity in alkene epoxidation

A well‐defined single‐site titanium‐modified montmorillonite (MMT) with only one geometric construction ((?SiO)₃–Ti–NMe₂) was obtained in moderate conditions. Reaction of tetrakis(dimethylamido)titanium with hydroxylated MMT was conducted by surface organometallic chemistry technique, and the surface structure was characterized by in situ Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, ¹³C cross polarization magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, extended X‐ray absorption fine structure, and elemental analysis. The catalytic activity in alkene epoxidation was evaluated, and the results revealed that the steric hindrance of the substances is responsible for the catalytic activity of the MMT‐supported titanium complex but to the characteristic restricted layer‐like structure of the MMT. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Enhanced conformational sampling method for proteins based on the TaBoo SeArch algorithm: Application to the folding of a mini‐protein,chignolin

The conformational samplings are indispensible for obtaining reliable canonical ensembles, which provide statistical averages of physical quantities such as free energies. However, the samplings of vast conformational space of biomacromolecules by conventional molecular dynamics (MD) simulations might be insufficient, due to their inadequate accessible time‐scales for investigating biological functions. Therefore, the development of methodologies for enhancing the conformational sampling of biomacromolecules still remains as a challenging issue in computational biology. To tackle this problem, we newly propose an efficient conformational search method, which is referred as TaBoo SeArch (TBSA) algorithm. In TBSA, an inverse energy histogram is used to select seeds for the conformational resampling so that states with high frequencies are inhibited, while states with low frequencies are efficiently sampled to explore the unvisited conformational space. As a demonstration, TBSA was applied to the folding of a mini‐protein, chignolin, and automatically sampled the native structure (C_α root mean square deviation < 1.0 Å) with nanosecond order computational costs started from a completely extended structure, although a long‐time 1‐µs normal MD simulation failed to sample the native structure. Furthermore, a multiscale free energy landscape method based on the conformational sampling of TBSA were quantitatively evaluated through free energy calculations with both implicit and explicit solvent models, which enable us to find several metastable states on the folding landscape. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Application of a multivariate approach for analyte focusing by micelle collapse‐micellar electrokinetic chromatography for analyzing sunscreen agents in cosmetics

The operating parameters that affect the performance of the online preconcentration technique “analyte focusing by micelle collapse‐MEKC (AFMC‐MEKC)” were examined using a multivariate approach involving experimental design to determine the sunscreen agents in cosmetics. Compared to the single‐variable approach, the advantage of the multivariate approach was that many factors could be investigated simultaneously to obtain the best separation condition. A fractional factorial design was used to identify the fewest significant factors in the central composite design (cCD). The cCD was adopted for evaluating the location of the minimum or maximum response in this study. The influences of the experimental variables on the response were investigated by applying a chromatographic exponential function. The optimized condition and the relationship between the experimental variables were acquired using the JMP software. The ANOVA analysis indicated that the Tris pH value, SDS concentration, and ethanol percentage influenced the separation quality and significantly contributed to the model. The optimized condition of the running buffer was 10 mM Tris buffer (pH 9.5) containing 60 mM SDS, 7 mM γ‐CD, and 20% v/v ethanol. The sample was prepared in 100 mM Tris buffer (pH 9.0) containing 7.5 mM SDS and 20% v/v ethanol. The SDS concentration in the sample matrix was slightly greater than the CMC value that makes the micelle be easily collapsed and the analytes be accumulated in the capillary. In addition, sunscreen agents in cosmetics after 1000‐fold dilution were successfully determined by AFMC‐MEKC.     

Incorporation of graphene oxide nanosheets into boronate‐functionalized polymeric monolith to enhance the electrochromatographic separation of small molecules

Graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets were incorporated into an organic polymer monolith containing 3‐acrylamidophenylboronic acid (AAPBA) and pentaerythritol triacrylate (PETA) to form a novel monolithic stationary phase for CEC. The effects of the mass ratio of AAPBA/PETA, the amount of GO, and the volume of porogen on the morphology, permeability and pore properties of the prepared poly(AAPBA‐GO‐PETA) monoliths were investigated. A series of test compounds including amides, alkylbenzenes, polycyclic aromatics, phenols, and anilines were used to evaluate and compare the separation performances of the poly(AAPBA‐GO‐PETA) and the parent poly(AAPBA‐co‐PETA) monoliths. The results indicated that incorporation of GO into monolithic column exhibited much higher resolutions (>1.5) and column efficiency (62 000 ～ 110 000 plates/m for toluene, DMF, formamide, and thiourea) than the poly(AAPBA‐co‐PETA). The successful application in isocratic separation of peptides suggests the potential of the GO incorporated monolithic column in complex sample analysis. In addition, the reproducibility and stability of the prepared poly(AAPBA‐GO‐PETA) monolith was assessed. The run‐to‐run, column‐to‐column and batch‐to‐batch reproducibilities of this monolith for alkylbenzenes’ retention were satisfactory with the RSDs less than 1.8% (n = 5), 3.7% and 5.6% (n = 3), respectively, indicating the effectiveness and practicability of the proposed method.