Synthesis of optically active gem-difluorocyclopropanes through a chemo-enzymatic reaction strategy

The synthesis of a chiral difluorocyclopropane building block has been accomplished using lipase-catalyzed reaction; the prochiral diacetate of cis-1,3-bishydroxymethyl-2,2-difluorocyclopropane was converted to the corresponding chiral monoacetate by the Alcaligenes lipase (lipase QL)-catalyzed hydrolysis with >99% enantiomeric excess. Enantiomerically pure trans-1,3-bishydroxymethyl-2,2-difluorocyclopropane was also obtained through the Pseudomonas cepacia SL-25 lipase (lipase SL)-catalyzed reaction. The synthesis of the chiral trans,trans-bis-gem-difluorocyclopropane derivatives has been accomplished using the same lipase technology; trans,trans-1,6-bishydroxymethyl-2,2,5,5-tetrafluorobicyclopropane was obtained in optically active form using the lipase SL-catalyzed hydrolysis of the corresponding diacetate.     

Non-catalytic conversion of C-F bonds of gem-difluoromethylene derivatives to C-H bonds with lithium aluminum hydride under room temperature

An unexpected hydrodefluorination of unactivated aliphatic C-F bonds of CF₂ derivatives with LiAlH₄ at room temperature without any added metal catalyst was reported. Deuterium-labeling experiments suggested that the hydrogens introduced into the products originated from LiAlH₄.     

gem-Difluoropropargylation of aldehydes using cat. In/Zn in aqueous media

Zn (0.9 equiv) in combination with catalytic amounts of In (0.1 equiv) and I₂ (0.1 equiv) was found to effect the reaction of several difluoropropargyl bromide derivatives with aldehydes to produce gem-difluorohomopropargyl alcohols in aqueous media under conditions suitable for large scale applications.     

A simple, efficient and versatile synthesis of primary gem-dihydroperoxides from aldehydes and hydrogen peroxide

Aldehydes were efficiently converted directly into the corresponding gem-dihydroperoxides (DHPs) on treatment with aqueous 70% H₂O₂ in a biphasic system with ether catalyzed by camphorsulfonic acid. The synthesis represents the most versatile access to this class of compounds.     

Highly efficient copper/palladium-catalyzed tandem Ullman reaction/arylation of azoles via C-H activation: synthesis of benzofuranyl and indolyl azoles from 2-(gem-dibromovinyl)phenols(anilines) with azoles

In this paper, a novel and highly efficient copper/palladium-catalyzed tandem intramolecular Ullman-type C-O(N) coupling reaction of 2-(gem-dibromovinyl)phenols(anilines) followed by an intermolecular arylation of azoles through C-H activation has been developed. In the presence of CuBr with Pd(PPh₃)₂Cl₂ used as co-catalyst, and LiO^tBu as a base, the one-pot reactions of 2-(gem-dibromovinyl)phenols and 2-(gem-dibromovinyl)anilines with a variety of azoles, including oxazoles, imidazoles, thiazoles, and oxadiazoles underwent smoothly in toluene at 100 °C to generate the corresponding biheteroaryl products in high yields. A tentative mechanism of copper/palladium-catalyzed tandem reaction was described.     

Characterization and identification of isomeric flavonoid O-diglycosides from genus Citrus in negative electrospray ionization by ion trap mass spectrometry and time-of-flight mass spectrometry

Flavonoid O-diglycosides are important bioactive compounds from genus Citrus. They often occur as isomers, which makes the structural elucidation difficult. In the present study, the fragmentation behavior of six flavonoid O-diglycosides from genus Citrus was investigated using ion trap mass spectrometry in negative electrospray ionization (ESI) with loop injection. For the flavonoid O-rutinosides, [M − H − 308]⁻ ion was typically observed in the MS² spectrum, suggesting the loss of a rutinose. The fragmentation patterns of flavonoid O-neohesperidosides were more complicated in comparison with their rutinoside analogues. A major difference was found in the [M − H − 120]⁻ ion in the MS² spectrum, which was a common feature of all the flavonoid O-neohesperidosides. The previous literature for naringin located the loss of 120 Da to the glycan part, whereas the present study for naringin had shown that the [M − H − 120]⁻ ion was produced by a retro-Diels-Alder reaction in ring C, and this fragmentation pattern was confirmed by the accurate mass measurement using an orthogonal time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Combined with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and diode array detection (DAD), the established approach to the structural identification of flavonoid O-diglycosides by ion trap mass spectrometry was applied to the analysis of extracts of two Chinese medicines derived from genus Citrus, namely Fructus aurantii and F. aurantii immaturus. According to the HPLC retention behavior, the diagnostic UV spectra and the molecular structural information provided by multistage mass spectrometry (MSⁿ) spectra, 13 flavonoid O-glycosides in F. aurantii and 12 flavonoid O-glycosides in F. a. immaturus were identified rapidly.     

Raman spectra and structural features of ClOF2 + cation in a solution of anhydrous HF

The Raman spectra of ClOF₂ ⁺ cation in solutions of anhydrous HF were studied. In the ClOF₂ ⁺HF₂ ⁻ and ClOF₂ ⁺BF₄ ⁻−HF systems, this cation exists as a pyramidal structure (C _s symmetry), while in the ClOF₂ ⁺AuF₆ ⁻−HF system, it exists as a planar structure (C _2v symmetry). Based on nonempirical calculations by the Hartree-Fock-Roothaan method, an explanation for the dependence of the structure of the ClOF₂ ⁺ cation on the nature of the anion was proposed. For the Cl−O bond vibrations, the correlation functions of vibrational and rotational relaxations were calculated, and the characteristic times of these processes were determined. The main contribution to the formation of the band contours corresponding to the above-mentioned modes is made by the vibrational dephasing. Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk, Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 3, pp. 432–437, March, 1998.     

Infrared spectra of p-, m- and o-fluorobenzaldehyde in low temperature argon matrices

Three structural isomers of fluorobenzaldehyde (p-, m- and o-forms) have been investigated in detail with matrix-isolation infrared spectroscopy, in the 700-3000 cm⁻¹ region, combined with the UV photoexcitation and the density functional calculations. Two rotamers (syn and anti) were identified for m- and o-fluorobenzaldehyde upon the photoexcitation and most of the bands of each rotamer were assigned. It is shown that the formation of the intramolecular C-H?F hydrogen bond for the anti rotamer of o-FB results in the shortening of the aldehyde C-H bond length and that the C-F and/or CO bond lengths are shortened for the syn rotamer of o-FB presumably due to the repulsion between the aldehyde O and F atoms.     

Bootstrap classification and point-based feature selection from age-staged mouse cerebellum tissues of matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectra using a fuzzy rule-building expert system

A bootstrap method for point-based detection of candidate biomarker peaks has been developed from pattern classifiers. Point-based detection methods are advantageous in comparison to peak-based methods. Peak determination and selection are problematic when spectral peaks are not baseline resolved or on a varying baseline. The benefit of point-based detection is that peaks can be globally determined from the characteristic features of the entire data set (i.e., subsets of candidate points) as opposed to the traditional method of selecting peaks from individual spectra and then combining the peak list into a data set. The point-based method is demonstrated to be more effective and efficient using a synthetic data set when compared to using Mahalanobis distance for feature selection. In addition, probabilities that characterize the uniqueness of the peaks are determined.This method was applied for detecting peaks that characterize age-specific patterns of protein expression of developing and adult mouse cerebella from matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry (MS) data. The mice comprised three age groups: 42 adults, 19 14-day-old pups, and 16 7-day-old pups. Three sequential spectra were obtained from each tissue section to yield 126, 57 and 48 spectra for adult, 14-day-old pup, and 7-day-old pup spectra, respectively. Each spectrum comprised 71,879 mass measurements in a range of 3.5-50 kDa. A previous study revealed that 846 unique peaks were detected that were consistent for 50% of the mice in each age group (C. Laurent, D.F. Levinson, S.A. Schwartz, P.B. Harrington, S.P. Markey, R.M. Caprioli, P. Levitt, Direct profiling of the cerebellum by MALDI MS: a methodological study in postnatal and adult mouse, J. Neurosci. Res. 81 (2005) 613-621.).A fuzzy rule-building expert system (FuRES) was applied to investigate the correlation of age with features in the MS data. FuRES detected two outlier pup-14 spectra. Prediction was evaluated using 100 bootstrap samples of 2 Latin-partitions (i.e., 50:50 split between training and prediction set) of the mice. The spectra without the outliers yielded classification rates of 99.1 ± 0.1%, 90.1 ± 0.8%, and 97.0 ± 0.6% for adults, 14-day-old pups, and 7-day-old pups, respectively. At a 95% level of significance, 100 bootstrap samples disclosed 35 adult and 21 pup distinguishing peaks for separating adults from pups; and 8 14-day-old and 15 7-day-old predictive peaks for separating 14-day-old pup from 7-day-old pup spectra. A compressed matrix comprising 40,393 points that were outside the 95% confidence intervals of one of the two FuRES discriminants was evaluated and the classification improved significantly for all classes. When peaks that satisfied a quality criterion were integrated, the 55 integrated peak areas furnished significantly improved classification for all classes: the selected peak areas furnished classification rates of 100%, 97.3 ± 0.6%, and 97.4 ± 0.3% for adult, 14-day-old pups, and 7-day-old pups using 100 bootstrap Latin partitions evaluations with the predictions averaged. When the bootstrap size was increased to 1000 samples, the results were not significantly affected. The FuRES predictions were consistent with those obtained by discriminant partial least squares (DPLS) classifications.     

Characterization of fatty acid and triacylglycerol composition in animal fats using silver-ion and non-aqueous reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry and gas chromatography/flame ionization detection

Fatty acid (FA) and triacylglycerol (TG) composition of natural oils and fats intake in the diet has a strong influence on the human health and chronic diseases. In this work, non-aqueous reversed-phase (NARP) and silver-ion high-performance liquid chromatography with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization mass spectrometry detection and gas chromatography with flame-ionization detection (GC/FID) and mass spectrometry detection are used for the characterization of FA and TG composition in complex samples of animal fats from fallow deer, red deer, sheep, moufflon, wild boar, cock, duck and rabbit. The FA composition of samples is determined based on the GC/FID analysis of FA methyl esters. In total, 81 FAs of different acyl chain length, double bond (DB) number, branched/linear, cis-/trans- and DB positional isomers are identified. TGs in animal fats contain mainly monounsaturated and saturated FAs. High amounts of branched and trans-FAs are observed in the samples of ruminants. In NARP mode, individual TG species are separated including the separation of trans- and branched TGs. Silver-ion mode provides the separation of TG regioisomers, which enables the determination of their ratios. Great differences in the preference of unsaturated and saturated FAs in the sn-2 position on the glycerol skeleton are observed among individual animal fats. Unsaturated FAs are preferentially occupied in the sn-2 position in all animal samples except for wild boar with the strong preference of saturated FAs in the sn-2 position.     

The consecutive loss of two H2O molecules from protonated 1,2- and 1,3- cyclohexanediols in the gas phase: An example for the incidence of skeletal rearrangement in chemical ionization mass spectrometry

The consecutive dehydration of protonated molecules [MH]⁺ of 1,2- and 1,3-cyclohexanediols (cis and trans isomers) by loss of two H₂O molecules has been investigated. Analysis of ²H labelled compounds showed that loss of the first H₂O molecule represents a simple heterolysis, i.e. a dissociation without exchange of hydrogens between O—H and C—H bonds. Subsequent elimination of the second H₂O molecule in the process [MH–H₂O]⁺→[MH–2H₂O]⁺ followed several competing paths. The two major ones corresponded formally (with reference to an intact 6-ring skeleton) to 1,3- and 1,4-eliminations; in comparison, the alternative 1,2-elimination is only a minor route at most. At least for the 1,3-elimination, water loss from the [MH–H₂O]⁺ ions is not direct, but is associated with skeletal rearrangement, most probably of the Wagner-Meerwein-type, effecting contraction of the 6- to a 5-membered ring.     

离子交换色谱-基质辅助激光解吸电离串联飞行时间质谱分离鉴定中国人乳中的β-酪蛋白

以新鲜中国人乳为研究对象,在酸性条件下加氯化钙分离酪蛋白,用十二烷基磺酸钠-聚丙烯酰胺凝胶电泳(SDS-PAGE)法测定分离效果。从pH值、离心力和CaCl2浓度等3个方面对分离效果进行评价。结果表明:当pH=4.3,离心力为10 400 g,CaCl2溶液浓度为60 mmol/L时,分离得到的酪蛋白组分纯度最高。对所得酪蛋白沉淀进行DEAE阴离子交换色谱分离,得到3个洗脱液。对其中第3个峰进行Western-Blot法及基质辅助激光解吸电离串联飞行时间质谱法(MALDI-TOF/TOF MS)鉴定,证明该峰能与人β-酪蛋白抗体特异性结合,确认其为人乳β-酪蛋白;将质谱结果在Mascot数据库中进行数据检索,序列覆盖率为50%,进一步确定其为人乳β-酪蛋白。综上所述,我们建立了能够得到符合蛋白质组学研究要求的人乳β-酪蛋白的方法。     

Development of a systematic approach to rapid classification and identification of notoginsenosides and metabolites in rat feces based on liquid chromatography coupled triple time-of-flight mass spectrometry

The present work contributes to the development of a powerful technical platform to rapidly identify and classify complicated components and metabolites for traditional Chinese medicines. In this process, notoginsenosides, the main active ingredients in Panaxnotoginseng, were chosen as model compounds. Firstly, the fragmental patterns, diagnostic product ions and neutral loss of each subfamily of notoginsenosides were summarized by collision-induced dissociation analysis of representative authentic standards. Next, in order to maximally cover low-concentration components which could otherwise be omitted from previous diagnostic fragment-ion method using only single product ion of notoginsenosides, a multiple product ions filtering strategy was proposed and utilized to identify and classify both non-target and target notoginsenosides of P.notoginseng extract (in vitro). With this strategy, 13 protopanaxadiol-type notoginsenosides and 30 protopanaxatriol-type notoginsenosides were efficiently extracted. Then, a neutral loss filtering technique was employed to trace prototype components and metabolites in rats (in vivo) since diagnostic product ions might shift therefore become unpredictable when metabolic reactions occurred on the mother skeleton of notoginsenosides. After comparing the constitute profiles in vitro with in vivo, 62 drug-related components were identified from rat feces, and these components were classified into 27 prototype compounds and 35 metabolites. Lastly, all the metabolites were successfully correlated to their parent compounds based on chemicalome–metabolome matching approach which was previously built by our group. This study provided a generally applicable approach to global metabolite identification for the complicated components in complex matrices.     

Characterization of steroidal saponins in crude extract from Dioscorea nipponica Makino by liquid chromatography tandem multi-stage mass spectrometry

The liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem multi-stage mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MSⁿ) method was developed for the analyses and characterization of steroidal saponins in plant extract from the rhizome of Dioscorea nipponica Makino. The HPLC experiments were performed by means of a reversed-phase C₁₈ column and a binary mobile phase system consisting of water and acetonitrile under gradient elution conditions. Pseudoprotodioscin, methyl protodioscin and dioscin were identified by comparing the retention times, UV spectra and the fragmentation properties of [M − H]⁻ ions with the authentic standards. Four groups of steroidal saponin isomers possessed the [M − H]⁻ ions at m/z 1063, 1045, 901 and 1047, respectively, were observed during the LC-ESI(−)-MS analysis, and three groups of them except the pair of isomers with the [M − H]⁻ ions at m/z 1047 could be differentiated by LC-ESI(−)-MS³. Furthermore, the ESI-MSⁿ fragmentation behaviors of the [M + Li]⁺ ions of pseudoprotodioscin and methyl protodioscin have been investigated, and the observed information helped the structural elucidation of the more abundant isomer with the [M − H]⁻ ion at m/z 1047. As the result, a special sugar sequence of the saccharide chains was observed that not glucose but rhamnose might be connected with the hydroxyl group at C-3 position of the steroidal aglycone.     

Qualitative and quantitative analysis of polycyclic polyprenylated acylphloroglucinols from Garcinia species using ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry

Polycyclic polyprenylated acylphloroglucinols (PPAPs) are a group of natural products isolated from different Garcinia species with a wide range of important biological activities. In this study, an ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) coupled to photodiode-array detection and quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (Q-TOF) method was developed to characterize 16 PPAPs in 10 Garcinia species. In source dissociation techniques based on cone voltage fragmentation were used to fragment the deprotonated molecules and multiple mass spectrometry (MS/MS) using ramping collision energy were used to further break down the resulting product ions. The resulting characteristic fragment ions were generated by cleavage of C1-C5 bond and C7-C8 bond through concerted pericyclic reaction, which is especially valuable for differentiating three types of PPAPs isomers. As such, two new PPAPs isomers present in minor amount in the extracts of Garcinia oblongifolia were tentatively characterized by comparing their tandem mass spectra to the known ones. In addition, an UPLC-Q-TOF-MS method was validated for the quantitative determination of PPAPs. The method exhibited limits of detection from 2.7 to 21.4 ng mL⁻¹ and intra-day and inter-day variations were less than 3.7% and the recovery was in the range of 89-107% with RSD less than 9.0%. This UPLC-Q-TOF-MS method has successfully been applied to quantify 16 PPAPs in 32 samples of 10 Garcinia species, which were found to be a rich source of PPAPs.     

Direct identification of phenolic constituents in Boldo Folium (Peumus boldus Mol.) infusions by high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection and electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry

A very simple and direct method was developed for the qualitative analysis of polyphenols in boldo (Peumus boldus Mol., Monimiaceae) leaves infusions by high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) and electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MSⁿ). The phenolic constituents identified in infusions of the crude drug Boldo Folium were mainly proanthocyanidins and flavonol glycosides. In the infusions, 41 compounds were detected in male and 43 compounds in female leaf samples, respectively. Nine quercetin glycosides, eight kaempferol derivatives, nine isorhamnetin glycosides, three phenolic acids, one caffeoylquinic acid glycoside and twenty one proanthocyanidins were identified by HPLC-DAD and ESI-MS for the first time in the crude drug. Isorhamnetin glucosyl-di-rhamnoside was the most abundant flavonol glycoside in the male boldo sample, whereas isorhamnetin di-glucosyl-di-rhamnoside was the main phenolic compound in female boldo leaves infusion. The results suggest that the medicinal properties reported for this popular infusion should be attributed not only to the presence of catechin and boldine but also to several phenolic compounds with known antioxidant activity. The HPLC fingerprint obtained can be useful in the authentication of the crude drug Boldo Folium as well as for qualitative analysis and differentiation of plant populations in the tree distribution range.     

Profiling of ornithine lipids in bacterial extracts of Rhodobacter sphaeroides by reversed-phase liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization and multistage mass spectrometry (RPLC-ESI-MS)

Ornithine lipids (OLs), a sub-group of the large (and of emerging interest) family of lipoamino acids of bacterial origin, contain a 3-hydroxy fatty acyl chain linked via an amide bond to the α-amino group of ornithine and via an ester bond to a second fatty acyl chain. OLs in extracts of Rhodobacter sphaeroides (R. sphaeroides) were investigated by high-performance reversed phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) in negative ion mode using a linear ion trap (LIT). The presence of OLs bearing both saturated (i.e, 16:0, 17:0, 18:0, 19:0 and 20:0) and unsaturated chains (i.e., 18:1, 19:1, 19:2 and 20:1) was ascertained and their identification, even for isomeric, low abundance and partially co-eluting species, was achieved by low-energy collision induced dissociation (CID) multistage mass spectrometry (MSⁿ, n = 2–4). OLs signatures found in two R. sphaeroides strains, i.e., wild type 2.4.1 and mutant R26, were examined and up to 16 and 17 different OL species were successfully identified, respectively. OLs in both bacterial strains were characterized by several combinations of fatty chains on ester-linked and amide-linked 3-OH fatty acids. Multistage MS spectra of monoenoic amide-linked 3-OH acyl chains, allowed the identification of positional isomer of OL containing 18:1 (i.e. 9-octadecenoic) and 20:1 (i.e. 11-eicosenoic) fatty acids. The most abundant OL ([M−H]⁻ at m/z 717.5) in R. sphaeroides R26 was identified as OL 3-OH 20:1/19:1 (i.e., 3-OH-eicosenoic acid amide-linked to ornithine and esterified to a nonadecenoic chain containing a cyclopropane ring). An unusual OL (m/z 689.5 for the [M−H]⁻ ion), most likely containing a cyclopropene ester-linked acyl chain (i.e., OL 3-OH 18:0/19:2), was retrieved only in the carotenoidless mutant strain R26. Based on the biosynthetic pathways already known for cyclopropa(e)ne ring-including acyl chains, a plausible explanation was invoked for the enzymatic generation of this ester-linked chain in R. sphaeroides.     

2-(2-Phenyl-1H-phenanthro-[9,10-d]imidazole-1-yl)-acetic acid (PPIA) and its application for determination of amines by high performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection and identification with mass spectroscopy/atmospheric pressure chemical ionization

A simple, sensitive, and mild method for the determination of amino compounds based on a condensation reaction with 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC·HCl) as the dehydrant with fluorescence detection has been developed. Amines were derivatized to their acidamides with labeling reagent 2-(2-phenyl-1H-phenanthro-[9,10-d]imidazole-1-yl)-acetic acid (PPIA). Studies on derivatization conditions indicated that the coupling reaction proceeded rapidly and smoothly in the presence of a base catalyst in acetonitrile to give the corresponding sensitively fluorescent derivatives with an excitation maximum at λ_ex 260 nm and an emission maximum at λ_em 380 nm. The labeled derivatives exhibited high stability and were enough to be efficiently analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography. Identification of derivatives was carried out by online post-column mass spectrometry (LC/APCI-MS/MS) and showed an intense protonated molecular ion corresponding m/z [MH]⁺ under APCI in positive-ion mode. At the same time, the fluorescence properties of derivatives in various solvents or at different temperature were investigated. The method, in conjunction with a gradient elution, offered a baseline resolution of the common amine derivatives on a reversed-phase Eclipse XDB-C₈ column. LC separation for the derivatized amines showed good reproducibility with acetonitrile-water as mobile phase. Detection limits calculated from 0.78 pmol injection, at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3, were 3.1-18.2 fmol. The mean intra- and inter-assay precision for all amine levels were <3.85% and 2.11%, respectively. Excellent linear responses were observed with coefficients of >0.9996. The established method for the determination of aliphatic amines from real wastewater and biological samples was satisfactory.