Aurilide, a cytotoxic depsipeptide from the sea hare Dolabella auricularia: isolation, structure determination, synthesis, and biological activity

The bioassay-guided fractionation of the cytotoxic constituents of the Japanese sea hare Dollabella auricularia led to the isolation of aurilide (1), a 26-membered cyclodepsipeptide. The gross structure of 1 was established by spectroscopic analysis including 2D NMR techniques. The absolute stereostructure was determined by chiral HPLC analysis of acid hydrolysates of 1 and by the enantioselective synthesis of a degradation product arising from a dihydroxylated fatty acid portion. The enantioselective synthesis of 1 was achieved in 12% overall yield (16 steps) and confirmed the absolute stereostructure of 1. The cytotoxicity of 1 was evaluated using a synthetic sample, which was found to exhibit potent cytotoxicity against HeLa S₃ cells with an IC₅₀ of 0.011 μg/mL. Further biological and pharmacological studies of 1 have been carried out by using synthetic 1.     

Photopolymerization of methyl methacrylate in the presence of tertiary amines

The sensitization effect of tertiary amines on the photopolymerization of methyl methacrylate was studied. N,N-Dimethylbenzylamine, triethylamine, and N,N-dimethylaniline increased the rate of polymerization in this order, but pyridine did not show any effect. A free-radical mechanism was confirmed by the tacticity of polymer, the retarding effect of hydroquinone, and the copolymer composition with styrene. On the basis of the detailed kinetics of the sensitized polymerization and the ultraviolet spectra of the reaction mixtures, a sensitization mechanism is proposed, in which the excited monomer and the amine form a complex and generate an initiating radical.     

A practical asymmetric synthesis of trans-4,5-benzhydrindan-1-ones as a precursor of A-nor B-aromatic steroidal compounds

The enantio-controlled synthesis of trans-4,5-benzhydrindan-1-ones was achieved by means of a stereoselective [4+2] cycloaddition of o-quinodimethanes generated by a thermal cleavage of benzocyclobutene derivatives as a key step. The chiral substrates of the thermal reaction were synthesized by a diastereoselective Grignard addition to the chiral O-isopropylideneglyceroketones connected to a benzocyclobutene ring, which were simply prepared from D-mannitol as a chiral source. This approach can provide a new efficient access to A-nor B-aromatic steroidal compounds.     

Combinatorial synthesis of MUC1 glycopeptides: polymer blotting facilitates chemical and enzymatic synthesis of highly complicated mucin glycopeptides

The chemoselective polymer blotting method allows for rapid and efficient synthesis of glycopeptides based on a "catch and release" strategy between solid-phase and water-soluble polymer supports. We have developed a heterobifunctional linker sensitive to glutamic acid specific protease (BLase). The general procedure consists of five steps, namely (i) the solid-phase synthesis of glycopeptide containing BLase sensitive linker, (ii) subsequent deprotections and the release of the glycopeptide from the resin, (iii) chemoselective blotting of the glycopeptide intermediates in the presence of water-soluble polymers with oxylamino functional groups, (iv) sugar elongations using glycosyltransferases, and (v) the release of target glycopeptides from the polymer platform by selective BLase promoted hydrolysis. The combined use of the solid-phase chemical syntheses of peptides and the enzymatic syntheses of carbohydrates on water-soluble polymers would greatly contribute to the production of complicated glycopeptide libraries, thereby enhancing applicative research. We report here a high-throughput synthetic system for the various types of MUC1 glycopeptides exhibiting a variety of sugar moieties. It is our belief that this concept will become part of the entrenched repertoire for the synthesis of biologically important glycopeptides on the basis of glycosyltransferase reactions in automated and combinatorial syntheses.     

Crystal structures of n-alkanes with branches of different size in the middle

We synthesized four branched n-alkane samples C35-C1, C35-C4, C35-C6, and C35-C4Ph with the same number of carbons as the main chain, n = 35, to which the methyl, butyl, hexyl, and butyl phenyl groups were respectively attached at the middle, and also the corresponding linear homologue of C35, and studied their crystalline structures from DSC, IR, and Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction measurement, and computer simulation. Solid-solid phase transitions characteristic of linear alkane C35 are not observed for any branched alkanes, and their melting temperatures Tm are lowered to 325.2, 318.5, 314.3, and 314.1K, respectively. Main chains of branched alkane molecules are not folded, irrespective of length and chemical structure of branches, but are extended to take the planar zigzag form in the solid state. The branches of C35-C4 and C35-C6 are also aligned inside the crystal in the extended form. Data analyses on solution-grown crystallized samples reveal that, with increasing the branch length, their crystal structures transform from polymorphic forms of the orthorhombic (P2(1)2(1)2(1)) and the triclinic (P) for C35-C1 and C35-C4 to the unique triclinic form for C35-C6 and C35-C4Ph, so as to minimize extra surface energy invoked by introduction of long branches.     

A synthesis of 2-substituted 2-aminoethanol derivatives having inhibitory activity against protein kinase C.

A series of 2-aminoethanol derivatives was synthesized and their inhibitory activities against protein kinase C were investigated. Among these compounds, 2-endo-hexadecylamino-5-norbornene-2- exo-methanol (4h) and 2-endo-hexadecylamino-5-norbornene-2,3-exo-dimethanol (4i) inhibited protein kinase C at the IC50 values of 2 x 10(-5) and 1 x 10(-5) M, respectively, but not protein kinase A at a concentration of 1 x 10(-3) M. The structure-activity relationships are discussed.     

Acidity distribution of carboxyl groups in Loy Yang brown coal: its analysis and the change by heat treatment

Brown coals have a considerable number of acidic functional groups of which the main component is carboxyl groups, and the acidity has a wide distribution. In this paper, changes of the acidity distribution were examined by aqueous titration when brown coal was heat-treated to control its acidity distribution. For Loy Yang brown coal from Australia dried at 50 degrees C under vacuum (LY50), the acid dissociation constant, Ka, was distributed over a wide pKa range between 2 and 9. Then, using Gaussian functions, the acidity distribution was divided into four groups, which were characterized by average pKa values: average pKa value of 3.8 (hereafter referred to as Group A), 5.2 (Group B), 6.8 (Group C), and 8.3 (Group D). Among them, Groups A, B, and C were assigned to carboxyl groups. From the changes of the number of carboxyl groups when brown coal was heat-treated up to 400 degrees C, it was found that the way of decrease was different among these acidic groups. The decrease of the amount of carboxyl groups in Group C was significant, and at 325 degrees C most of them disappeared. On the other hand, the carboxyl groups in Group A remained even at a high temperature of 400 degrees C. We estimated approximately the structures around carboxyl groups for LY50 and their structural changes by heat treatment using the known pKa values for simple carboxylic acids and the pKa values calculated by the MOPAC program for complicated carboxylic acids.     

Alkyl chain branching in ethylene–vinyl acetate copolymer

Ethylene–vinyl acetate copolymers contain two kinds of side chains: acetoxy branches originating from incorporated vinyl acetate and alkyl branches. The alkyl branching was determined by infrared analysis after converting the ethylene–vinyl acetate copolymer to a hydrocarbon polymer by three steps: hydrolysis, iodation with hydriodic acid containing red phosphorus, and reductive hydrogenation with lithium aluminum hydride. It was found that physical properties such as stiffness were dependent both on the degree of alkyl chain branching and on vinyl acetate content.     

Rapid ruthenium-catalyzed synthesis of pyranopyrandiones by reconstructive carbonylation of cyclopropenones involving C[bond]C bond cleavage

Pyranopyrandiones were prepared by a novel ruthenium-catalyzed carbonylative dimerization of cyclopropenones via C-C bond cleavage. For example, treatment of dipropylcyclopropenone with a catalytic amount of Ru3(CO)12 and NEt3 in THF under 15 atm of carbon monoxide at 140 degrees C for 20 h gave a novel functional monomer, 3,4,7,8-tetrapropylpyrano[6,5-e]pyran-2,6-dione, in an isolated yield of 81%. Unsymmetrically substituted pyranopyrandiones were also obtained by ruthenium-catalyzed carbonylative coupling of cyclopropenones with alkynes under similar reaction conditions.