A Facile Route to Substituted Dimethoxy Phosphonothionates Using Dimethyl Thiophosphite

Dimethyl thiophosphite reacts with aliphatic aldehydes and ketones, Michael acceptors, and N-benzyl imines to afford excellent yields of f -hydroxy phosphonothionates, g -substituted phosphonothionates and f -amino phosphonothionates, respectively. Dealkylation of f -amino phosphonothionates affords N-benzyl f -amino phosphonothioic acids. Dimethyl thiophosphite reacts with electrophiles at a significantly greater rate than dimethyl phosphite.     

Structural Basis of 2-Phenylamino-4-phenoxyquinoline Derivatives as Potent HIV-1 Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors

New target molecules, namely, 2-phenylamino-4-phenoxyquinoline derivatives, were designed using a molecular hybridization approach, which was accomplished by fusing the pharmacophore structures of three currently available drugs: nevirapine, efavirenz, and rilpivirine. The discovery of disubstituted quinoline indicated that the pyridinylamino substituent at the 2-position of quinoline plays an important role in its inhibitory activity against HIV-1 RT. The highly potent HIV-1 RT inhibitors, namely, 4-(2′,6′-dimethyl-4′-formylphenoxy)-2-(5″-cyanopyridin-2″ylamino)quinoline (6b) and 4-(2′,6′-dimethyl-4′-cyanophenoxy)-2-(5″-cyanopyridin-2″ylamino)quinoline (6d) exhibited half-maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC50) of 1.93 and 1.22 µM, respectively, which are similar to that of nevirapine (IC50 = 1.05 µM). The molecular docking results for these two compounds showed that both compounds interacted with Lys101, His235, and Pro236 residues through hydrogen bonding and interacted with Tyr188, Trp229, and Tyr318 residues through π–π stacking in HIV-1 RT. Interestingly, 6b was highly cytotoxic against MOLT-3 (acute lymphoblastic leukemia), HeLA (cervical carcinoma), and HL-60 (promyeloblast) cells with IC50 values of 12.7 ± 1.1, 25.7 ± 0.8, and 20.5 ± 2.1 µM, respectively. However, 6b and 6d had very low and no cytotoxicity, respectively, to-ward normal embryonic lung (MRC-5) cells. Therefore, the synthesis and biological evaluation of 2-phenylamino-4-phenoxyquinoline derivatives can serve as an excellent basis for the development of highly effective anti-HIV-1 and anticancer agents in the near future.     

Stereoselective addition of dimethyl thiophosphite to imines

Dimethyl thiophosphite (DMTP) was synthesized from dimethyl phosphite, and the diastereoselective addition of DMTP to benzaldimines bearing chiral auxiliary groups was examined. Yields of the product alpha-aminophosphonothionates ranged from 17% to 75% after chromatography. The addition of DMTP to the benzaldimine derived from (S)-phenylglycinol afforded the highest diastereoselectivity (83:17), whereas addition of DMTP to the benzaldimine derived from threonine methyl ester and alanine methyl ester were far less diastereoselective, affording 38:62 and 61:39 ratios, respectively. Addition of DMTP to the benzaldimine derived from (R)-alpha-methylbenzylamine (78:22) and (S)-serine methyl ester (73:27) were intermediate in selectivity. DMTP addition to the imines formed between serine methyl ester and acetaldehyde and isobutyraldehyde gave 55:45 and 70:30 ratios, respectively, with the diastereoselectivity corresponding roughly to the size of the alpha-alkyl group. The stereochemistry of the newly formed alpha-stereocenters resulting from the addition of DMTP to (S)- and (R)-phenylglycinol benzaldimines was confirmed by conversion of the product alpha-aminophosphonothionates to the known enantiomers of phosphonophenylglycine.     

Nitrogenous sesquiterpenes from the Thai marine sponge Halichondria sp.

Five nitrogenous sesquiterpenes having an isonitrile [(−)-axisonitrile-3], a formamide [(+)-axamide-3, axamide-2 and (3S^*,5R^*,6R^*,9R^*)-3-formamido-1(10)-cadinene], and an amine [(−)-halichamine] functionality were isolated from the Thai marine sponge Halichondria sp., together with two steroids, ergosterol and ergosterol peroxide. (−)-Axisonitrile-3 was isolated from the natural source for the first time, while (+)-axamide-3 and (−)-halichamine were new metabolites. The structures of these compounds were elucidated on the basis of their spectroscopic data and by chemical transformations. All sesquiterpenes were tested for their cytotoxic activity against six cancer cell lines (HeLa, HuCCA-1, A549, MOLT-3, HepG2, MDA-MB231). Only (−)-axisonitrile-3 showed strong activity to the HepG2 cell line with an IC₅₀ value of 1.3 μM.     

Photochemistry of 3- and 5-phenylisothiazoles. Competing phototransposition pathways

5-Phenylisothiazole undergoes phototransposition via the electrocyclic ring closure-heteroatom migration pathway and by the N(2)-C(3) interchange reaction pathway. The latter route is enhanced by the addition of triethylamine (TEA) to the reaction medium and by increasing the polarity of the solvent. In addition to phototransposition, 5-phenylisothiazole also undergoes photocleavage to 2-cyano-1-phenylethenethiol which was trapped by reaction with benzyl bromide to yield 2-cyano-1-phenylethen-1-ylbenzyl thioether. 3-Phenylisothiazole also phototransposes by both reaction pathways, but the product distribution is not affected by the addition of TEA or by changing the solvent polarity.     

Monte Carlo Simulation and Experimental Studies of CO2, CH4 and Their Mixture Capture in Porous Carbons

Adsorption of carbon dioxide and methane in porous activated carbon and carbon nanotube was studied experimentally and by Grand Canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulation. A gravimetric analyzer was used to obtain the experimental data, while in the simulation we used graphitic slit pores of various pore size to model activated carbon and a bundle of graphitic cylinders arranged hexagonally to model carbon nanotube. Carbon dioxide was modeled as a 3-center-Lennard-Jones (LJ) molecule with three fixed partial charges, while methane was modeled as a single LJ molecule. We have shown that the behavior of adsorption for both activated carbon and carbon nanotube is sensitive to pore width and the crossing of isotherms is observed because of the molecular packing, which favors commensurate packing for some pore sizes. Using the adsorption data of pure methane or carbon dioxide on activated carbon, we derived its pore size distribution (PSD), which was found to be in good agreement with the PSD obtained from the analysis of nitrogen adsorption data at 77 K. This derived PSD was used to describe isotherms at other temperatures as well as isotherms of mixture of carbon dioxide and methane in activated carbon and carbon nanotube at 273 and 300 K. Good agreement between the computed and experimental isotherm data was observed, thus justifying the use of a simple adsorption model.