Synthesis,characterization, and hypoglycemic efficacy of nitro and amino acridines and 4-phenylquinoline on starch hydrolyzing compounds: an in silico and in vitro study

α-Amylase and α-Glucosidase are important therapeutic targets for type II diabetes. The present focus of our study is to elucidate the hypoglycemic activity of novel compounds through in vitro and in silico studies. Here, we synthesized the nitro acridines (3a–3c), amino acridines (4a–4c), and nitro phenylquinoline (3d) and amino phenylquinoline (4d) using a multi-step reaction protocol in good yields. All the above derivatives were screened for molecular docking, α-Amylase and α-Glucosidase inhibitory activities utilizing acarbose as standard drug. In silico studies were performed to explore the binding ability of compounds with the active site of α-Amylase and α-Glucosidase enzymes. The in vitro antihyperglycemic report of 3c exhibits the maximum inhibitory activity with IC₅₀ values of 200.61?±?9.71 μmol/mL and 197.76?±?8.22 μmol/mL against α-Amylase and α-Glucosidase, respectively. Similarly, the compound 3a exhibits IC₅₀ values of 243.78?±?13.25 μmol/mL and 296.57?±?10.66 μmol/mL, and 4c exhibits IC₅₀ values of 304.28?±?3.51 μmol/mL and 278.86?±?3.24 μmol/mL with a significant p?<?0.05 in both enzyme inhibitions. In addition, the presence of diverse functional moieties in synthesized compounds may provide a strong inhibitory action against the abovementioned enzymes compared with standard acarbose inhibition (IC₅₀, 58.74?±?3.68 μmol/mL and 49.39?±?4.94 μmol/mL). Also, the docking studies provided an excellent support for our in vitro studies. The outcome of these studies recommends that the tested compounds might be treated as potential inhibitors for the starch hydrolyzing enzymes in type II diabetes.

     

A smooth access to benzotriazoles via azide-benzyne cycloaddition

A facile synthesis of 1-alkyl benzotriazoles is achieved through fluoride triggered azide-benzyne cycloaddition. Various alkyl azides were treated with 2-(trimethylsilyl) phenyl triflate in the presence of CsF in acetonitrile to afford the corresponding substituted benzotriazoles in good yield.     

Titanium tetrachloride mediated reductive ring opening of C-aryl pseudoglycals

A facile reductive ring opening of C-aryl pseudoglycals is reported for the first time. The combination of titanium tetrachloride (Lewis acid) and triethylsilane (reducing agent) at −78 °C in dichloromethane is a mild and efficient reagent system for this transformation. The reagent system was successfully tested on various C-aryl pseudoglycal substrates to yield the corresponding ring opened products containing two asymmetric hydroxyls and a cis-double bond.     

Beta-sugar aminoxy peptides as rigid secondary structural scaffolds

Short homo-oligomers of a new building block, cis-beta(2,3)-furanoid sugar aminoxy acid, are designed, characterized, and found to exhibit rigid ribbon-like secondary structures composed of 5/7 bifurcated intramolecular hydrogen bonds.     

Inter and intramolecular copper(I)-catalyzed 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of azido-alkynes: synthesis of furanotriazole macrocycles

The Cu(I)-catalyzed cycloaddition of azido-alkynes (click reaction) of furanose sugar substrates provides a facile approach for the construction of macrocyclic molecules via an inter and/or intramolecular cycloaddition based on the functionality between alkyne and azide.     

A systematic investigation of the ring size effects on the free radical ring-opening polymerization (rROP) of cyclic ketene acetal (CKA) using both experimental and theoretical approach

Radical ring-opening polymerization (rROP) reaction of cyclic ketene acetals (CKA) is an interesting route to biodegradable polymers. Contrary to their tremendous potential, fundamental understanding of their reaction kinetics and thermodynamics is still limited. We present experimental and theoretical investigations for rROP reactions of CKA to systematically elucidate the effects of monomer ring sizes on the homopolymerization. We aim to provide insights on the structural-reactivity relationship of CKA by studying the thermodynamics and kinetics of the forward ring-opening propagation reactions and key side reactions, namely ring-retained propagation and radical back-biting reaction leading to branching. Experimental results show that for the CKA with smaller ring sizes, significant amount of ring-retained side products are formed when up to 90% of the monomers are converted. However, for the larger ring sizes (7 and 8 membered), almost complete ring-opening polymerization with <1% of ring-retained products are formed. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations show that kinetic effects from the collision frequency dominate in differentiating between ring-opening propagation, ring-retained propagation, and backbiting. The results corroborate well with experiments and reports in the literature. Our systematic study from the first principle and experimental validation provide insights into CKA rROP to apply radical polymerization to generate biodegradable polymers.     

Self-assembly of cyclic homo- and hetero-beta-peptides with cis- furanoid sugar amino acid and beta-hGly as building blocks

The design, synthesis and characterization of a new class of peptide nanotubes, self-assembled from cyclic homo- and hetero-beta-peptides based on cis-furanoid sugar amino acid and beta-hGly residues are described; these results represent the expansion of the conformational pool of cis beta-sugar amino acids in the design of peptide nanotubes.     

Poly(ethylene glycol) (400) as superior solvent medium against ionic liquids for catalytic hydrogenations with PtO2

Adams' catalyst in poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) (400) has been found to be a superior solvent over the ionic liquids by severalfold in promoting the hydrogenation of various functional groups. Both the catalyst and PEG were recycled efficiently over 10 runs without loss of activity, and substrate cross contamination was not observed despite a change in the substrate four times.