Synthesis of star‐shaped poly(D,L‐lactic acid‐alt‐glycolic acid)‐b‐poly(L‐lactic acid) with the poly(D,L‐lactic acid‐alt‐glycolic acid) macroinitiator and stannous octoate catalyst

Two types of three‐arm and four‐arm, star‐shaped poly(D,L ‐lactic acid‐alt‐glycolic acid)‐b‐poly(L ‐lactic acid) (D,L ‐PLGA50‐b‐PLLA) were successfully synthesized via the sequential ring‐opening polymerization of D,L ‐3‐methylglycolide (MG) and L ‐lactide (L ‐LA) with a multifunctional initiator, such as trimethylolpropane and pentaerythritol, and stannous octoate (SnOct₂) as a catalyst. Star‐shaped, hydroxy‐terminated poly(D,L ‐lactic acid‐alt‐glycolic acid) (D,L ‐PLGA50) obtained from the polymerization of MG was used as a macroinitiator to initiate the block polymerization of L ‐LA with the SnOct₂ catalyst in bulk at 130 °C. For the polymerization of L ‐LA with the three‐arm, star‐shaped D,L ‐PLGA50 macroinitiator (number‐average molecular weight = 6800) and the SnOct₂ catalyst, the molecular weight of the resulting D,L ‐PLGA50‐b‐PLLA polymer linearly increased from 12,600 to 27,400 with the increasing molar ratio (1:1 to 3:1) of L ‐LA to MG, and the molecular weight distribution was rather narrow (weight‐average molecular weight/number‐average molecular weight = 1.09–1.15). The ¹H NMR spectrum of the D,L ‐PLGA50‐b‐PLLA block copolymer showed that the molecular weight and unit composition of the block copolymer were controlled by the molar ratio of L ‐LA to the macroinitiator. The ¹³C NMR spectrum of the block copolymer clearly showed its diblock structures, that is, D,L ‐PLGA50 as the first block and poly(L ‐lactic acid) as the second block. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 40: 409–415, 2002     

Reactivity and Selectivity of Captodative Olefins as Dienes in Hetero‐Diels–Alder Reactions

The reactivity and selectivity of the the captodative olefins 1‐acylvinyl benzoates 1a – 1f and 3a as heterodienes in hetero‐Diels–Alder reactions in the presence of electron‐rich dienophiles is described. Heterodienes 1 undergo regioselective cycloaddition with the alkyl vinyl etherdienophiles 6a , b and 9 to give the corresponding dihydro‐2H‐pyrans 7, 8 , and 10 under thermal conditions. The reactivity of these cycloadditions depends, to a large extent, on the electronic demand of the substituent in the aroyloxy group of the heterodiene. Frontier‐molecular‐orbital (FMO; ab initio) and density‐functional‐theory (DFT) calculations of the ground and transition states account for the reactivity and regioselectivity observed in these processes.     

Expression,Purification and Characterization of a Bifunctional α‐L‐Arabinofuranosidase/β‐D‐Xylosidase from Trichoderma Koningii G‐39

A gene of α‐L ‐arabinofuranosidase (Abf) from Trichoderma koningii G‐39 was successfully expressed in Pichia pastoris. The recombinant enzyme was purified to > 90% homogeneity by a cation‐exchanged chromatography. The purified enzyme exhibits both α‐L ‐arabinofuranosidase and β‐D ‐xylosidase (Xyl) activities with p‐nitrophenyl‐α‐L ‐arabionfuranoside (pNPAF) and 2,4‐dinitrophenyl‐β‐D ‐xylopyanoside (2,4‐DNPX) as substrate, respectively. The stability and the catalytic feature of the bifunctional enzyme were characterized. The enzyme was stable for at least 2 h at pH values between 2 and 8.3 at room temperature when assayed for Abf and Xyl activities. Enzyme activity decreased dramatically when the pH exceeded 9.5 or dropped below 1.5. The enzyme lost 35% of Abf activity after incubation at 55 °C for 2 h, but retained 95% of Xyl activity, with 2,4‐DNXP as substrate, under the same conditions. Further investigation of the active site topology of both enzymatic functions was performed with the inhibition study of enzyme activities. The results revealed that methyl‐α‐L ‐arabinofuranoside inhibition is noncompetitive towards 2,4‐DNPX as substrate but competitive towards pNPAF. Based on the thermal stability and the inhibition studies, we suggest that the enzymatic reactions of Abf and Xyl are performed at distinct catalytic sites. The recombinant enzyme possesses both the retaining transarabinofuranosyl and transxylopyranosyl activities, indicating both enzymatic reactions proceed through a two‐step, double displacement mechanism.     

Synthesis of poly(lactide‐ran‐MOHEL) and its biodegradation with proteinase K

Homopoly(L ‐lactide) and homopoly(D,L ‐lactide) were almost inert for biodegradation with tricine buffer or normal enzymes such as bromelain, pronase, and cholesterol esterase but biodegradable with proteinase K. Significantly enhanced biodegradation was observed when an optically active (R)‐ or (S)‐3‐methyl‐4‐oxa‐6‐hexanolide (MOHEL) unit was introduced into poly(L ‐lactide) [poly(L ‐LA)] or poly(D,L ‐lactide) [poly(D,L ‐LA)] sequences. Poly[L ‐LA‐ran‐(R)‐MOHEL] in molar ratios of 86/14 to 43/57 showed good biodegradability that was independent of crystallinity. The biodegradation of polymers with proteinase K increased in the following order: poly[D,L ‐LA‐ran‐(R)‐MOHEL] > poly[L ‐LA‐ran‐(R)‐MOHEL] > poly[D,L ‐LA‐ran‐(S)‐MOHEL] > poly[L ‐LA‐ran‐(S)‐MOHEL] > poly(R)‐MOHEL > poly(D,L ‐LA). The number‐average molecular weight, molecular weight distribution, glass‐transition temperature, and melting temperature did not change before and after the biodegradation of poly[L ‐LA‐ran‐(R)‐MOHEL], indicating that the degradation occurred from the polymer surface. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 39: 1374–1381, 2001     

Energy gradients in combined fragment molecular orbital and polarizable continuum model (FMO/PCM) calculation

The analytic energy gradients for the combined fragment molecular orbital and polarizable continuum model (FMO/PCM) method are derived and implemented. Applications of FMO/PCM geometry optimization to polyalanine show that the structures obtained with the FMO/PCM method are very close to those obtained with the corresponding full ab initio PCM methods. FMO/PCM (RHF/6‐31G* level) is used to optimize the solution structure of the 304‐atom Trp‐cage miniprotein and the result is in agreement with NMR experiments. The key factors determining the relative stability of the α‐helix, β‐turn and the extended form in solution are elucidated for polyalanine. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem, 2010     

Theoretical study of the prion protein based on the fragment molecular orbital method

We performed fragment molecular orbital (FMO) calculations to examine the molecular interactions between the prion protein (PrP) and GN8, which is a potential curative agent for prion diseases. This study has the following novel aspects: we introduced the counterpoise method into the FMO scheme to eliminate the basis set superposition error and examined the influence of geometrical fluctuation on the interaction energies, thereby enabling rigorous analysis of the molecular interaction between PrP and GN8. This analysis could provide information on key amino acid residues of PrP as well as key units of GN8 involved in the molecular interaction between the two molecules. The present FMO calculations were performed using an original program developed in our laboratory, called “Parallelized ab initio calculation system based on FMO (PAICS)”. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem 2009     

Synthesis of Glycaro‐1,5‐lactams and Tetrahydrotetrazolopyridine‐5‐carboxylates: Inhibitors of β‐D‐Glucuronidase and α‐L‐Iduronidase

The known glucaro‐1,5‐lactam 8 , its diastereoisomers 9 – 11 , and the tetrahydrotetrazolopyridine‐5‐carboxylates 12 – 14 were synthesised as potential inhibitors of β‐D ‐glucuronidases and α‐L ‐iduronidases. The known 2,3‐di‐O‐benzyl‐4,6‐O‐benzylidene‐D ‐galactose ( 16 ) was transformed into the D ‐galactaro‐ and L ‐altraro‐1,5‐lactams 9 and 11 via the galactono‐1,5‐lactam 21 in twelve steps and in an overall yield of 13 and 2%, respectively. A divergent strategy, starting from the known tartaric anhydride 41 , led to the D ‐glucaro‐1,5‐lactam 8 , D ‐galactaro‐1,5‐lactam 9 , L ‐idaro‐1,5‐lactam 10 , and L ‐altraro‐1,5‐lactam 11 in ten steps and in an overall yield of 4–20%. The anhydride 41 was transformed into the L ‐threuronate 46 . Olefination of 46 to the (E)‐ or (Z)‐alkene 47 or 48 followed by reagent‐ or substrate‐controlled dihydroxylation, lactonisation, azidation, reduction, and deprotection led to the lactams 8 – 11 . The tetrazoles 12 – 14 were prepared in an overall yield of 61–81% from the lactams 54, 28 , and 67 , respectively, by treatment with Tf₂O and NaN₃, followed by saponification, esterification, and hydrogenolysis. The lactams 8 – 11 and 40 and the tetrazoles 12 – 14 are medium‐to‐strong inhibitors of β‐D ‐glucuronidase from bovine liver. Only the L ‐ido‐configured lactam 10 (K_i = 94 μM ) and the tetrazole 14 (K_i = 1.3 mM ) inhibit human α‐L ‐iduronidase.     

DFT/TDDFT Studies on the Electronic Structures and Spectral Properties of Carbazole‐based Blue Light‐emitting Dendrimers

The purpose of this paper is to provide an in‐depth investigation of the electronic and optical properties of two series of carbazole‐based blue light‐emitting dendrimers, including 1 – 6 six oligomers. These materials show great potential for application in organic light‐emitting diodes as efficient blue‐light and red‐light emitting materials due to the tuning of the optical and electronic properties by the use of different electron donors (D) and electron acceptors (A). The geometric and electronic structures of these compounds in the ground state are calculated using density functional theory (DFT) and the ab initio HF, whereas the lowest singlet excited states were optimized by ab initio single excitation configuration interaction (CIS). All DFT calculations are performed using the B3LYP functional on 6‐31G* basis set. The outcomes show that the highest occupied molecular orbitals (HOMOs), lowest occupied molecular orbitals (LUMOs), energies gaps, ionization potentials, electron affinities and reorganization energies of each molecular are affected by different D and A moieties and different substitute positions.     

Conformation and tautomerism of methoxy‐substituted 4‐phenyl‐4‐thiazoline‐2‐thiones: a combined crystallographic and ab initio investigation

4‐Phenyl‐4‐thiazoline‐2‐thiol is an active pharmaceutical compound, one of whose activities is as a human indolenamine dioxygenase inhibitor. It has been shown recently that in both the solid state and the gas phase, the thiazolinethione tautomer should be preferred. As part of both research on this lead compound and a medicinal chemistry program, a series of substituted arylthiazolinethiones have been synthesized. The molecular conformations and tautomerism of 4‐(2‐methoxyphenyl)‐4‐thiazoline‐2‐thione and 4‐(4‐methoxyphenyl)‐4‐thiazoline‐2‐thione, both C₁₀H₉NOS₂, are reported and compared with the geometry deduced from ab initio calculations [PBE/6‐311G(d,p)]. Both the crystal structure analyses and the calculations establish the thione tautomer for the two substituted arylthiazolinethiones. In the crystal structure of the 2‐methoxyphenyl regioisomer, the thiazolinethione unit was disordered over two conformations. Both isomers exhibit similar hydrogen‐bond patterns [R₂²(8) motif] and form dimers. The crystal packing is further reinforced by short S…S interactions in the 2‐methoxyphenyl isomer. The conformations of the two regioisomers correspond to stable geometries calculated from an ab initio energy‐relaxed scan.     

Syntheses of 2‐Keto‐3‐deoxy‐D‐xylonate and 2‐Keto‐3‐deoxy‐L‐arabinonate as Stereochemical Probes for Demonstrating the Metabolic Promiscuity of Sulfolobus solfataricus Towards D‐Xylose and L‐Arabinose

Practical syntheses of 2‐keto‐3‐deoxy‐D ‐xylonate (D ‐KDX) and 2‐keto‐3‐deoxy‐L ‐arabinonate (L ‐KDA) that rely on reaction of the anion of ethyl 2‐[(tert‐butyldimethylsilyl)oxy]‐2‐(dimethoxy phosphoryl) acetate with enantiopure glyceraldehyde acetonide, followed by global deprotection of the resultant O‐silyl‐enol esters, have been developed. This has enabled us to confirm that a 2‐keto‐3‐deoxy‐D ‐gluconate aldolase from the archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus demonstrates good activity for catalysis of the retro‐aldol cleavage of both these enantiomers to afford pyruvate and glycolaldehyde. The stereochemical promiscuity of this aldolase towards these enantiomeric aldol substrates confirms that this organism employs a metabolically promiscuous pathway to catabolise the C5‐sugars D ‐xylose and L ‐arabinose.     

Efficient Synthesis of 1,2,3,4,6‐Penta‐O‐acetyl‐L‐idopyranose

An efficient synthesis of 1,2,3,4,6‐penta‐O‐acetyl‐L ‐idopyranose 2 from 3,5‐O‐benzylidene‐1,2‐O‐isopropylidene‐α‐D ‐glucofuranose in five steps in 45% overall yield via hydroboration of enol ether, hydrolysis of L ‐idofuranosyl sugar and acetolysis of 1,6‐anhydro‐β‐L ‐idopyranose as key steps is described here.     

Peptide models XXIII. Conformational model for polar side‐chain containing amino acid residues: A comprehensive analysis of RHF,DFT, and MP2 properties of HCO‐L‐SER‐NH2

Geometric and energetic properties of a diamide of serine, HCO‐NH‐L ‐CH(CH₂OH)CO‐NH₂, are investigated by standard methods of computational quantum chemistry. Similarly to other amino acid residues, conformational properties of HCO‐L ‐Ser‐NH₂ can be derived from the analysis of its E=E(ϕ,ψ;χ₁,χ₂) hypersurface. Reoptimization of 44 RHF/3‐21G conformers at the RHF/6‐311++G** level resulted in 36 minima. For all conformers, geometrical properties, including variation of H‐bond parameters and structural shifts in the torsional space, are thoroughly investigated. Results from further single‐point energy calculations at the RHF, DFT, and MP2 levels, performed on the entire conformational data set, form a database of 224 energy values, perhaps the largest set calculated so far for any single amino acid diamide. A comprehensive analysis of this database reveals significant correlation among energies obtained at six levels of ab initio theory. Regression parameters provide an opportunity for extrapolation in order to predict the energy of a conformer at a high level by doing explicit ab initio computations only for a few selected conformers. The computed conformational and relative energy data are compared with structural and occurrence results derived from a nonhomologous protein database incorporating 1135 proteins. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Comput Chem 21: 626–655, 2000     

Evaluation of molecular integral of Cartesian Gaussian type basis function with complex‐valued center coordinates and exponent via the McMurchie–Davidson recursion formula,and its application to electron dynamics

McMurchie–Davidson recursion formula is extended to derive the ab initio molecular integrals with higher angular quantum number complex Gaussian type basis function which has complex‐valued center coordinates and a complex‐valued exponent. Using the analytical recursion formulae, some calculations of electronic dynamics after beta decay of tritium hydride molecular ion HT⁺ are performed by a quantum wave packet method with thawed Gaussian basis functions of s‐ and p‐type. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2009     

Preparation of N‐n‐Octyl‐D‐glucamine by the catalytic hydrogenation with palladium complex of MgO‐supported melamine‐formaldehyde polymer

The palladium complex of MgO‐supported melamine‐formaldehyde polymer catalyst was prepared and characterized by X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The preparation of N‐n‐octyl‐D ‐glucamine was investigated by using this complex as the catalyst. It was found that the palladium complex of MgO‐supported melamine‐formaldehyde polymer has a good catalytic activity for the hydrogenation of n‐octylamine with D ‐glucose to produce N‐n‐octyl‐D ‐glucamine. The effects of additive, solvent, temperature, hydrogen pressure, Pd content in the catalyst and the amount of catalyst on the preparation of N‐n‐octyl‐D ‐glucamine have all been studied. Under the optimum experimental conditions—D ‐glucose, 37.2 mmol; n‐octylamine, 31 mmol; triethylamine, 1.0 ml; ethanol, 60 ml; temperature, 333 K; hydrogen pressure, 1.5 MPa; the amount of the catalyst (Pd content 3.55%, N/Pd molar ratio 12), 0.7 g—the highest yield of N‐n‐octyl‐D ‐glucamine (57.6%) was obtained. XRD results show that melamine‐formaldehyde polymer changed the structure of MgO, and XPS results suggest that coordination bonds were formed between the hexatomic ring and metal atom, and palladium particles were immobilized on the polymer. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Chemical synthesis of poly‐γ‐glutamic acid by polycondensation of γ‐glutamic acid dimer: Synthesis and reaction of poly‐γ‐glutamic acid methyl ester

α‐Methyl glutamic acid (L ‐L )‐, (L ‐D )‐, (D ‐L )‐, and (D ‐D )‐γ‐dimers were synthesized from L ‐ and D ‐glutamic acids, and the obtained dimers were subjected to polycondensation with 1‐(3‐dimethylaminopropyl)‐3‐ethylcarbodiimide hydrochloride and 1‐hydroxybenzotriazole hydrate as condensation reagents. Poly‐γ‐glutamic acid (γ‐PGA) methyl ester with the number‐average molecular weights of 5000∼20,000 were obtained by polycondensation in N,N‐dimethylformamide in 44∼91% yields. The polycondensation of (L ‐L )‐ and (D ‐D )‐dimers afforded the polymers with much larger |[α]_D | compared with the corresponding dimers. The polymer could be transformed into γ‐PGA by alkaline hydrolysis or transesterification into α‐benzyl ester followed by hydrogenation. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 39: 732–741, 2001     

Drug release by pH‐responsive molecular tweezers: Atomistic details from molecular modeling

pH‐responsive molecular tweezers have been proposed as an approach for targeting drug‐delivery to tumors, which tend to have a lower pH than normal cells. We performed a computational study of a pH‐responsive molecular tweezer using ab initio quantum chemistry in the gas‐phase and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in solution. The binding free energy in solution was calculated using steered MD. We observe, in atomistic detail, the pH‐induced conformational switch of the tweezer and the resulting release of the drug molecule. Even when the tweezer opens, the drug molecule remains near a hydrophobic arm of the molecular tweezer. Drug release cannot occur, it seems, unless the tweezer is in a hydrophobic environment with low pH. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

ONIOM and FMO‐EDA study of metabotropic glutamate receptor 1: Quantum insights into the allosteric binding site

The crystal structure of metabotropic glutamate receptor 1 (mGluR1) complexed with 4‐fluoro‐N‐(4‐(6‐(isopropylamino)pyrimidin‐4‐yl)thiazol‐2‐yl)‐N‐methylbenzamide (FITM, a negative allosteric modulator) and its twelve close structural analogs with a broad spectrum of affinities (2.4 nM < IC₅₀ > 10 000 nM) were investigated using quantum mechanical methods. The our own N‐layered integrated molecular orbital and molecular mechanics (ONIOM) was used to optimize the molecular geometries of the receptor with complexed ligands, which were then used to perform the ab initio calculations using the fragment molecular orbitals method with energy decomposition analysis (FMO‐EDA). The results clearly showed that residues Q660^3.28 and/or Y805^6.55 were the anchoring points for all the studied analogs of FITM, while the H‐bond with T815^7.38 determined only the orientation of very active molecules containing an amino substituent in the pyrimidine moiety (e.g., FITM). The orientation of the other parts of ligands resulted from hydrophobic interactions mainly with L757^5.44, F801^6.51, or W798^6.48. The applied ONIOM/FMO–EDA approach facilitated the study of effects related to very small changes in the ligand structure and led to conclusions regarding the significance of individual interactions in the allosteric binding pocket of mGluR1.     

Construction of L‐Lysine Sensor by Layer‐by‐Layer Adsorption of L‐Lysine 6‐Dehydrogenase and Ferrocene‐Labeled High Molecular Weight Coenzyme Derivative on Gold Electrode

A ferrocene‐labeled high molecular weight coenzyme derivative (PEI‐Fc‐NAD) and a thermostable NAD‐dependent L ‐lysine 6‐dehydrogenase (LysDH) from thermophile Geobacillus stearothermophilus were used to fabricate a reagentless L ‐lysine sensor. Both LysDH and PEI‐Fc‐NAD were immobilized on the surface of a gold electrode by consecutive layer‐by‐layer adsorption (LBL) technique. By the simple LBL method, the reagentless L ‐lysine sensor, with co‐immobilization of the mediator, coenzyme, and enzyme was obtained, which exhibited current response to L ‐lysine without the addition of native coenzyme to the analysis system. The amperometric response of the sensor was dependent on the applied potential, bilayer number of PEI‐Fc‐NAD/LysDH, and substrate concentration. A linear current response, proportional to L ‐lysine concentration in the range of 1–120 mM was observed. The response of the sensor to L ‐lysine was decreased by 30% from the original activity after one month storage.