Chemical and Biological Aspects of Nutritional Immunity—Perspectives for New Anti‐Infectives that Target Iron Uptake Systems

Upon bacterial infection, one of the defense mechanisms of the host is the withdrawal of essential metal ions, in particular iron, which leads to “nutritional immunity”. However, bacteria have evolved strategies to overcome iron starvation, for example, by stealing iron from the host or other bacteria through specific iron chelators with high binding affinity. Fortunately, these complex interactions between the host and pathogen that lead to metal homeostasis provide several opportunities for interception and, thus, allow the development of novel antibacterial compounds. This Review focuses on iron, discusses recent highlights, and gives some future perspectives which are relevant in the fight against antibiotic resistance.     

The Mitsunobu 1-O-esterification of 1-hydroxy-3-phenyl-1H-quinoxalin-2-one 4-oxide

1-Hydroxy-2-oxo-3-phenyl-1,2-dihydroquinoxaline 4-oxide under conditions of the Mitsunobu reaction reacts with alcohols giving the corresponding esters at the hydroxy group in position 1. Other representatives of hydroxamic acids such as 1,4-dihydroxyperhydroquinoxaline-2,3-dione and 1,4-dihydroxy-3,3,6,6-tetramethylpiperazine-2,5-dione undergo destruction under these conditions. Published in Russian in Izvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 6, pp. 1240–1243, June, 2008.     

Interaction of Hydroxylamine with Esters of 2-Oxobutenoic Acids. Synthesis of 1-Hydroxy-3-hydroximino-2-pyrrolidinones

New 3-hydroximino-1-hydroxy-2-pyrrolidinones have been synthesized by the interaction of NH₂OH and NH₂OBn with the methyl esters of 2-oxo-3-butenoic acid derivatives. Some intermediate compounds have been isolated and identified and the reaction mechanism is discussed.     

Discovery and Syntheses of “Superbug Challengers”—Platensimycin and Platencin

Bacteria have developed resistance to almost all existing antibiotics known today and this has been a major issue over the last few decades. The search for a new class of antibiotics with a new mode of action to fight these multiply‐drug‐resistant strains, or “superbugs”, allowed a team of scientists at Merck to discover two novel antibiotics, platensimycin and platencin using advanced screening strategies, as inhibitors of bacterial fatty acid biosynthesis, which is essential for the survival of bacteria. Though both these antibiotics are structurally related, they work by slightly different mechanisms and target different enzymes conserved in the bacterial fatty acid biosynthesis. This Focus Review summarizes the synthetic and biological aspects of these natural products and their analogues and congeners.     

Flavonoids as Inhibitors of Bacterial Efflux Pumps

Flavonoids are widely occurring secondary plant constituents, and are abundant in vegetable and fruit diets as well as herbal medicines. Therapeutic treatment options for bacterial infections are limited due to the spread of antimicrobial resistances. Hence, in a number of studies during the last few years, different classes of plant secondary metabolites as resistance-modifying agents have been carried out. In this review, we present the role of flavonoids as inhibitors of bacterial efflux pumps. Active compounds could be identified in the subclasses of chalcones, flavan-3-ols, flavanones, flavones, flavonols, flavonolignans and isoflavones; by far the majority of compounds were aglycones, although some glycosides like kaempferol glycosides with p-coumaroyl acylation showed remarkable results. Staphylococcus aureus NorA pump was the focus of many studies, followed by mycobacteria, whereas Gram-negative bacteria are still under-investigated.     

Synthesis and Extraction Properties of 1,3,5-O-trimethyl-2,4,6-tri-O-hydroxamic Acid p-tert-butyl Calix[6]arene

A calix[6]arene bearing three hydroxamic acid groups arranged in aC₃ symmetry has been synthesized. Extraction properties towards transition metal ions are presented and compared with other proton-ionizable related calix[6]arenes and with a monomeric hydroxamic acid analog.     

Mannich Reaction of Indole with Cyclic Imines in Water

An efficient MsOH promoted direct Mannich reaction of indoles with α-nonsubstituted aliphatic cyclic imines has been developed. The reactions were performed in water and the obtained piperidin-2-yl-indoles act as a useful precursor for the synthesis of various alkaloid-like derivatives.     

Simultaneous Determination of Ciprofloxacin and Ofloxacin in Animal Tissues with the Use of Capillary Electrophoresis with Transient Pseudo-Isotachophoresis

We have developed a precise and accurate method for the determination of ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin in meat tissues. Our method utilizes capillary electrophoresis with a transient pseudo-isotachophoresis mechanism and liquid–liquid extraction during sample preparation. For our experiment, a meat tissue sample was homogenized in pH 7.00 phosphate buffer at a ratio of 1:10 (tissue mass: buffer volume; g/mL). The extraction of each sample was carried out twice for 15 min with 600 µL of a mixture of dichloromethane and acetonitrile at a 2:1 volume ratio. We then conducted the electrophoretic separation at a voltage of 16 kV and a temperature of 25 °C using a background electrolyte of 0.1 mol/L phosphate–borate (pH 8.40). We used the UV detection at 288 nm. The experimentally determined LOQs for ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin were 0.27 ppm (0.8 nmol/g tissue) and 0.11 ppm (0.3 nmol/g tissue), respectively. The calibration curves exhibited linearity over the tested concentration range of 2 to 10 nmol/g tissue for both analytes. The relative standard deviation of the determination did not exceed 15%, and the recovery was in the range of 85–115%. We used the method to analyze various meat tissues for their ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin contents.     

Isomerism of copper(II) coordination compounds with hydroxamic acids

The structure of Cu^II complexes with hydroxamic acids Cu[R¹N(O)−(O)CR²]₂, where R¹=Ph, R²=Me; R¹=Me, R²=Ph, was studied by ESR spectroscopy. In toluene solutions and low-temperature glasses, the complexes exist as two forms, which were identified ascis-andtrans-isomers. The proportions of the isomers were determined. Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 4, pp. 726–729, April, 1999.     

Diversity in the Interaction of Amino Acid- and Peptide-Based Hydroxamic Acids with Some Platinum Group Metals in Solution

Complexes that incorporate both ligand(s) and metal(s) exhibiting cytotoxic activity can especially be interesting to develop multifunctional drug molecules with desired activities. In this review, the limited number of solution results collected in our laboratory on the complexes of Pd(II) and two other platinum group metals—the half-sandwich type, [(η⁶-p-cym)Ru(H₂O)₃]²⁺, and [(η⁵-Cp*)Rh(H₂O)₃]²⁺—with hydroxamic acid derivatives of three amino acids, two imidazole analogues, and four small peptides are summarized and evaluated. Unlike the limited number of coordination sites of these metal ions (four and three for Pd(II) and the organometallic cations, respectively), the ligands discussed here offer a relatively high number of donor atoms as well as variation in their position within the ligands, resulting in a large versatility of the likely coordination modes. The review, besides presenting the solution equilibrium results, also discusses the main factors, such as (N,N) versus (O,O) chelate; size of chelate; amino-N versus imidazole-N; primary versus secondary hydroxamic function; differences between hydrolytic ability of the metal ions studied; and hydrolysis of the coordinated peptide hydroxamic acids in their Pd(II) complexes, which all determine the coordination modes present in the complexes formed in measurable concentrations in these systems. The options for the quantitative evaluation of metal binding effectivity and selectivity of the various ligands and the comparison with each other by using solution equilibrium data are also discussed.     

Thermal Behaviour of Some New Polyoxometalate Complexes of Ciprofloxacin with Keggin-type Heteropoly Acids

Four polyoxometalate complexes, (CPFX·HCl)3H4SiW12O40, (CPFX·HCl)3H3PW12O40, (CPFX·HCl)3H3PMo12O40 and (CPFX·HCl)4H4SiMo12O40, were prepared from ciprofloxacin hydrochloride(CPFX·HCl) reacting with HnXM12O40·nH2O(X=P,Si; M=W,Mo) in an aqueous solution, and characterized by elemental analysis, IR spectrometry and TG-DTA. The IR spectrum confirms the presence of Keggin-type anions of heteropoly acids and the characteristic functional groups of ciprofloxacin. The TG/DTA curves show that their thermal decomposition is a multi-step process including simultaneous collapse of the Keggin-type structure. At first, these compounds had a mass loss of water molecules, then several other mass losses occurred due to the decomposition of ciprofloxacin hydrochloride and its fragments with the degradation of Keggin anions. The end product of decomposition is the mixture of WO3(or MoO3) and SiO2(or P2O5), identified by X-ray diffraction and IR spectroscopy. The possible thermal decomposition mechanisms of these complexes are proposed. This study exemplified that the thermal stability of the complexes containing tungsten is much better than that of the complexes containing molybdenum.     

Synergistic Spectrophotometric and Atomic Absorption Spectrometric Analysis of Zinc in Alloys and Environmental Samples with N-p-MEthoxyphenyl-2-Furylacrylohydroxamic Acid and Pyridylazo Reagents

Abstract

Zinc (II) was selectively extracted from aqueous solutions of pH 7.8–8.5 into chloroform with N-p-methoxyphenyl-2-furylacrylohydroxamic acid (MFHA). 1-(2-pyridylazo)-2-naphthol (PAN) or 2-[(5-nitro-2-pyridyl)azo]-1-naphthol (NPAN) were added to the extract to form intensely coloured ternary complexes measurable spectrophotometrically at 550 nm (? = 6.03 × 10⁴ 1 mol^?1 cm^?1) and 625 nm (? = 8.15 × 10⁴ mol^?1 cm^?1) respectively. For atomic absorption spectrometric analysis, methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK) was used as extracting solvent instead of chloroform and the zinc-MFHA-MIBK extract was aspirated directly into an air-acetylene flame. The absorbance was measured at the 213.9 nm resonance line with a detection limit of 0.05 ppb, which was significantly better than the limit of 1.0 ppb achieved for zinc previously with flame AAS. The method tolerated a large number of anions and cations normally occurring with zinc in environmental samples, and was applied to the trace analysis of zinc in alloys, coal, plant tissues, animal tissues and natural waters. The combinations of MFHA and PAN/NPAN were chosen from eleven hydroxamic acids and nine pyridylazo reagents as detailed in the paper.     

Boron-Containing Lipids and Liposomes: New Conjugates of Cholesterol with Polyhedral Boron Hydrides

A series of boron-containing lipids were prepared by reactions of cyclic oxonium derivatives of polyhedron boranes and metallacarboranes (closo-dodecaborate anion, cobalt and iron bis(dicarbollides)) with amine and carboxylic acids which are derived from cholesterol. Stable liposomal formulations, on the basis of synthesized boron-containing lipids, hydrogenated soybean l -α-phosphatidylcholine and (HSPC) 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine-N-[methoxy(polyethylene glycol)-2000] (DSPE-PEG) as excipients, were prepared and then characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS) that revealed the formation of particles to be smaller than 200 nm in diameter. The resulting liposomal formulations showed moderate to excellent loading and entrapment efficiency, thus justifying the design of the compounds to fit in the lipid bilayer and ensuring ease of in vivo use for future application. The liposomal formulations based on cobalt and iron bis(dicarbollide)-based lipids were found to be nontoxic against both human breast normal epithelial cells MCF-10A and human breast cancer cells MCF-7.     

Determination of L- and D-2-Halopropanoic Acids and 2-Halobutanoic Acids with Bacterial Dehalogenases

Abstract

A simple method for the enantioselective determination of 2-halopropanoic acids and 2-halobutanoic acids with two bacterial 2-halo acid dehalogenases has been developed. L-2-Halo acid dehalogenase acts specifically on L-2-haloalkanoic acids, and DL-2-halo acid dehalogenase acts on both enantiomers of the acids. The dehalogenation was followed by determination of halogen ions released. Linear relationship was established between the absorbance at 460 nm, and the amounts of L-2-haloalkanoic acids (0.025-0.5 μmol) or the racemates (0.05-1.0 μmol). The D-isomers were estimated by subtracting the amounts of L-isomers from those of DL-2-haloalkanoic acids.     

Determination of Vanadium with Chlorosubstituted Hydroxamic Acids for Photometric and Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometric Determination

Abstract

The eight newly synthesized chlorosubstituted hydroxamic acids are described for the extraction and spectrophotometric determination of vanadium. The sensitive and selective reagent, N-m-Chlorophenylpalmito hydroxamic acid, (m-CPPHA), which gives violet coloured vanadium complex was extracted with chloroform from 6M HCl. The violet coloured complex thus obtained has a maximum absorbance at 520 nm and molar absorptivity 4.9 ± 10³1mol^?1cm^?1. The Beer's law obeyed in the region 0.50-12.0ppm. Effects of acidity, reagent concentration, diverse ions have also been investigated. A comparison has been made with atomic absorption spectrophotometric method. Vanadium has been determined in the environment, e.g. plant, soil, rock, etc.     

Epoxidation of cycloolefins with hydrogen peroxide in the presence of heteropoly acids combined with phase transfer catalyst

Oxidation of cycloolefins (cyclohexene, cyclooctene, and cyclododecene) with a 30% solution of hydrogen peroxide at 65 °C in the presence of heteropoly acids (HPA) H₃PW_12–x Mo _x O₄₀ (x = 0—12), which are precursors of active peroxo complexes, and phase transfer catalysts Q⁺Cl^–, where Q⁺ is the quaternary ammonium cation containing C₄—C₁₈ alkyl groups or [C₅H₅NC₁₆H₃₃]⁺, was studied. The catalytic activity decreases in the HPA series: H₃PW₁₂O₄₀ > H₃PW₉Mo₃O₄₀ > H₃PW₆Mo₆O₄₀ > H₃PW₃Mo₉O₄₀ > H₃PMo₁₂O₄₀. The state of the H₃PW₁₂O₄₀—I₂I₂ system was studied using UV, IR, and ³¹P NMR spectroscopies with variation of the [H₂O₂] : [HPA] ratio from 2 to 200 during cyclohexene epoxidation. Despite different catalytic precursors, the reaction proceeds through the same peroxo complex.     

A novel convenient approach to the synthesis of 2-substituted analogs of ornithine and homolysine

A novel efficient method for the synthesis of earlier unknown 2-substituted analogs of ornithine and homolysine from substituted 5-aminopentyl- and 3-midopropylhydantoins (prepared from cyclic imines and amino and amido ketones) was developed. Hydrolysis of hydantoins with a solution of Ba(OH)₂ gave the target amino acids in high yields.__________Published in Russian in Izvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 12, pp. 2749–2753, December, 2004.