The ABC of Insulin: The Organic Chemistry of a Small Protein

Insulin is a small protein crucial for regulating the blood glucose level in all animals. Since 1922 it has been used for the treatment of patients with diabetes. Despite consisting of just 51 amino acids, insulin contains 17 of the proteinogenic amino acids, A- and B-chains, three disulfide bridges, and it folds with 3 α-helices and a short β-sheet segment. Insulin associates into dimers and further into hexamers with stabilization by Zn²⁺ and phenolic ligands. Selective chemical modification of proteins is at the forefront of developments in chemical biology and biopharmaceuticals. Insulin's structure has made it amenable to organic and inorganic chemical reactions. This Review provides a synthetic organic chemistry perspective on this small protein. It gives an overview of key chemical and physico-chemical aspects of the insulin molecule, with a focus on chemoselective reactions. This includes N-acylations at the N-termini or at Lys^B29 by pH control, introduction of protecting groups on insulin, binding of metal ions, ligands to control the nano-scale assembly of insulin, and more.     

Hydrogen-Bond Catalysis of Imine Exchange in Dynamic Covalent Systems

The reversibility of imine bonds has been exploited to great effect in the field of dynamic covalent chemistry, with applications such as preparation of functional systems, dynamic materials, molecular machines, and covalent organic frameworks. However, acid catalysis is commonly needed for efficient equilibration of imine mixtures. Herein, it is demonstrated that hydrogen bond donors such as thioureas and squaramides can catalyze the equilibration of dynamic imine systems under unprecedentedly mild conditions. Catalysis occurs in a range of solvents and in the presence of many sensitive additives, showing moderate to good rate accelerations for both imine metathesis and transimination with amines, hydrazines, and hydroxylamines. Furthermore, the catalyst proved simple to immobilize, introducing both reusability and extended control of the equilibration process.     

Asymmetric synthesis of 1,3-oxathiolan-5-one derivatives through dynamic covalent kinetic resolution

The asymmetric synthesis of 1,3-oxathiolan-5-one derivatives through an enzyme-catalyzed, dynamic covalent kinetic resolution strategy is presented. Dynamic hemithioacetal formation combined with intramolecular, lipase-catalyzed lactonization resulted in good conversions with moderate to good enantiomeric excess (ee) for the final products. The process was evaluated for different lipase preparations, solvents, bases, and reaction temperatures, where lipase B from Candida antarctica (CAL-B) proved most efficient. The substrate scope was furthermore explored for a range of aldehyde structures, together with the potential access to nucleoside analog inhibitor core structures.     

Sustainability of microporous polymers and their applications

Microporous polymers (MPs) are studied for their intriguing chemistry and physics as well as their potential application in catalytic transformations, gas-separation processes, water purification and so on. Here, we critically review MPs with respect to the sustainability aspects of their synthesis as well as their applications that have sustainable character. Some MPs have been synthesized from monomers derived from biomass resources, but there is certainly a large potential for further developments. There are also opportunities to improve the sustainability of MP synthesis in terms of the use of solvents, catalysts, and related aspects. The applications of MPs in processes related to sustainability depend upon multiple properties. A rich and flexible chemistry is important to applications as catalysts for, among other useful reactions, the photoreduction of CO₂ and selective oxidation. The (ultra)micropore volume of MPs are crucial in gas-separation applications such as CO₂ capture, and the chemisorption of CO₂ on MP-tethered alkylamines could offer a means to remove that gas from dilute mixtures. When it comes to the storage of H₂ and CH₄ in MPs for onboard use in fuel cell or biogas cars, volumetric capacity is paramount, meaning that the density of the MPs must be considered. Finally, for use in separation and purifications from liquid mixtures (aqueous or hydrocarbon-based), crosslinked MPs are more limited than the solution-processable MPs that can be more easily processed into films and membranes.     

Constructive cooperative coevolution for large-scale global optimisation

This paper presents the Constructive Cooperative Coevolutionary (\(\mathrm {C}^3\)) algorithm, applied to continuous large-scale global optimisation problems. The novelty of \(\mathrm {C}^3\) is that it utilises a multi-start architecture and incorporates the Cooperative Coevolutionary algorithm. The considered optimisation problem is decomposed into subproblems. An embedded optimisation algorithm optimises the subproblems separately while exchanging information to co-adapt the solutions for the subproblems. Further, \(\mathrm {C}^3\) includes a novel constructive heuristic that generates different feasible solutions for the entire problem and thereby expedites the search. In this work, two different versions of \(\mathrm {C}^3\) are evaluated on high-dimensional benchmark problems, including the CEC’2013 test suite for large-scale global optimisation. \(\mathrm {C}^3\) is compared with several state-of-the-art algorithms, which shows that \(\mathrm {C}^3\) is among the most competitive algorithms. \(\mathrm {C}^3\) outperforms the other algorithms for most partially separable functions and overlapping functions. This shows that \(\mathrm {C}^3\) is an effective algorithm for large-scale global optimisation. This paper demonstrates the enhanced performance by using constructive heuristics for generating initial feasible solutions for Cooperative Coevolutionary algorithms in a multi-start framework.     

13C SPE MAS measurement of ligand concentration in compressible chromatographic beads

A method for measuring the ligand concentration in heterogeneous materials like chromatography media is described. In this method, ¹³C single pulse excitation magic angle spinning NMR experiment with broadband ¹H decoupling is used to determine the peak integrals for a butyl ligand in the spectrum of a dried chromatography medium. Within a carefully controlled protocol, those integrals compared with that of the internal reference compound dimethyl sulfone provide the required volume concentration with an accuracy of ca 2%. The effects of temperature, degree of hydration, and other experimental parameters are discussed. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Dynamic Covalent Organocatalysts Discovered from Catalytic Systems through Rapid Deconvolution Screening

The first example of a bifunctional organocatalyst assembled through dynamic covalent chemistry (DCC) is described. The catalyst is based on reversible imine chemistry and can catalyze the Morita–Baylis–Hillman (MBH) reaction of enones with aldehydes or N‐tosyl imines. Furthermore, these dynamic catalysts were shown to be optimizable through a systemic screening approach, in which large mixtures of catalyst structures were generated, and the optimal catalyst could be directly identified by using dynamic deconvolution. This strategy allowed one‐pot synthesis and in situ evaluation of several potential catalysts without the need to separate, characterize, and purify each individual structure. The systems were furthermore shown to catalyze and re‐equilibrate their own formation through a previously unknown thiourea‐catalyzed transimination process.