The cycloaddition way to novel deoxy disaccharide analogs

A novel heterocycloaddition merges 2-thiono-3-ketolactones with carbohydrate glycals to afford materials which resemble disaccharides with an O-glycosidic linkage at the anomeric center and a thioether linking both C-2 and C-2′, thus creating a third heterocyclic ring. Upon desulfurization, these novel cycloadducts afford materials which are models for 2-deoxydisaccharides. Studies with two keto lactones and seven glycals are described.     

Conversion of a trans-syn-trans to a cis-syn-trans perhydrobenz[e]indenone triggered by intramolecular 1,5-hydrogen transfer

The conversion of a trans-syn-trans perhydroiodomethyltrimethylbenz[e]indenone to the corresponding cis-syn-trans perhydrobenz[e]indenone occurred during the reduction of the iodomethyl to a methyl group under radical conditions.     

N-Glycosidase treatment with 18O labeling and de novo sequencing argues for flagellin FliC glycopolymorphism in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

In prokaryote organisms, N-glycosylation of proteins is often correlated to cell–cell recognition and extracellular events. Those glycoproteins are potential targets for infection control. To date, many surface-glycosylated proteins from bacterial pathogens have been described. However, N-linked Pseudomonas surface-associated glycoproteins remain underexplored. We report a combined enrichment and labeling strategy to identify major glycoproteins on the outside of microorganisms. More precisely, bacteria were exposed to a mix of biotinylated lectins able to bind with glycoproteins. The latter were then recovered by avidin beads, digested with trypsin, and submitted to mass spectrometry. The targeted mixture of glycoproteins was additionally deglycosylated in the presence of H₂ ¹⁸O to incorporate ¹⁸O during PNGase F treatment and were also analyzed using mass spectrometry. This approach allowed us to identify a few tens of potential N-glycoproteins, among which flagellin FliC was the most abundant. To detect the possible sites of FliC modifications, a de novo sequencing step was also performed to discriminate between spontaneous deamidation and N-glycan loss. This approach led to the proposal of three potential N-glycosylated sites on the primary sequence of FliC: N26, N69, and N439, with two of these three asparagines belonging to an N-X-(S/T) consensus sequence. These observations suggest that flagellin FliC is a heterogeneous protein mixture containing both O- and N-glycoforms.

Two-Photon Absorption and Cell Imaging of Fluorene-Functionalized Epicocconone Analogues

Epicocconone 1 is a natural chromophore isolated from the fungus Epicoccum nigrum that has shown applications in proteomics and fluorescent microscopy thanks to its unique pro-fluorescence properties. The modification of the skeleton of the natural product by replacing the triene side chain by a fluorenyl scaffold can noticeably increase the fluorophore's absorption coefficient. The synthesis of the analogues of the natural product has been made possible by the use of a palladium-catalyzed carbonylation reaction, allowing the construction of the β-keto-dioxinone key intermediate. Two-photon absorption cross-section measurements of the fluorenyl epicocconone analogues show a structure dependency with values ranging from 60 to 280 GM and live cell imaging show intense staining of intracellular vesicle-like structures around the nucleus.     

Tuning the Chemistry of Organonitrogen Compounds for Promoting All‐Organic Anionic Rechargeable Batteries

The ever‐increasing demand for rechargeable batteries induces significant pressure on the worldwide metal supply, depleting resources and increasing costs and environmental concerns. In this context, developing the chemistry of anion‐inserting electrode organic materials could promote the fabrication of molecular (metal‐free) rechargeable batteries. However, few examples have been reported because little effort has been made to develop such anionic‐ion batteries. Here we show the design of two anionic host electrode materials based on the N‐substituted salts of azaaromatics (zwitterions). A combination of NMR, EDS, FTIR spectroscopies coupled with thermal analyses and single‐crystal XRD allowed a thorough structural and chemical characterization of the compounds. Thanks to a reversible electrochemical activity located at an average potential of 2.2 V vs. Li⁺/Li, the coupling with dilithium 2,5‐(dianilino)terephthalate (Li₂DAnT) as the positive electrode enabled the fabrication of the first all‐organic anionic rechargeable batteries based on crystallized host electrode materials capable of delivering a specific capacity of ≈27 mAh/g_electrodes with a stable cycling over dozens of cycles (≈24 Wh/kg_electrodes).     

Multicentered effective group potentials: ligand-field effects in organometallic clusters and dynamical study of chemical reactivity

A new multicentered effective group potential (EGP) is obtained for η⁶-benzene. Applications on $[\hbox{Ru}_{4}(\hbox{H})_{4}(\hbox{C}_{6}\hbox{H}_{6})_{4}]^{n+}$ clusters (n = 0 or 2) are in excellent agreement with reference DFT studies in terms of geometries, energies and electronic structures. In particular, the small singlet–triplet energy difference (3.8 kcal mol^?1) in [Ru₄(H)₄(C₆H₆)₄]²⁺ is very well reproduced. This new EGP is nevertheless not free from the limitations associated to this first generation of molecular pseudopotentials. A cautious analysis of the nature and exact role of this EGP is made, which provides new directions for the elaboration of the next generation of EGPs. In addition, the η⁵-cyclopentadienyl EGP has been used to perform a constrained dynamical simulation for the reaction of Cp₂LaH with H₂. The energy conservation during the simulation as well as the activation barrier extracted from the simulation clearly demonstrate the good behavior of this EGP in the context of molecular dynamics. Anharmonic effects on this reaction are underlined, further demonstrating the high accuracy of the potential energy surface obtained with EGPs. From a more general point of view, such EGPs are expected to provide accurate albeit low-cost ligand-field effects in organometallic clusters or nanoparticles and to allow dynamical studies at the surface of such compounds.     

Practical synthesis of new and highly efficient ligands for the Suzuki reaction of aryl chlorides

A practical synthesis of a novel class of phosphine ligands, phosphino substituted N-aryl pyrroles (PAP ligands), has been developed. These ligands are applied in the palladium-catalyzed coupling of a variety of aryl and heteroaryl chlorides with phenylboronic acid showing exceedingly high turnover numbers at mild reaction temperatures and even at room temperature.     

Settling of paraffin crystals in cooled middle distillate fuels

The mechanism of action of additives that control the sedimentation of paraffin crystals after their crystallization in model diesel oil has been studied by means of a new experimental approach. The chemical analysis of the crystals and detailed measurements of the sedimentation phenomenon give new insights into this complex process. Thus, the wax antisettling additives used for preventing wax crystal sedimentation adsorb at the surfaces of wax particles and provide them with enhanced colloidal stability. The settling rate is not related to the size of the crystals or the viscosity of the liquid medium, but to the ability of the additives to prevent the aggregation of wax crystals. The reported methodology makes it possible to investigate the fundamental mechanisms, but also to evaluate structure-activity relationships of the various additives used in the petroleum industry.     

Towards two-dimensional electrophoresis mapping of the cerebrospinal fluid proteome from a single individual

We test the ability of state-of-the-art two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) technology to enable the proteome mapping of ante mortem cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from a single individual. Using the sensitive technologies of a fluorescent protein stain and fluorescence laser scanning of 2-DE gels, combined with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight/time of flight-mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF/TOF-MS) for protein identification, a highly detailed 2-DE map of the CSF proteome was created. The 2-DE map contains 600 identified spots representing 82 different proteins. Of the 82 proteins identified, 25 have not appeared in any previously published 2-DE map of CSF, and 11 have not been previously reported to exist in CSF. Most of the identifications originate from an ante mortem CSF sample collected from a single hydrocephalus patient. A supplemental map created from neurologically normal patients is also presented. A webpage with protein identification and scoring information from both maps is available at http://www.leelab.org/csfmap.