Hypervalent iodine(III)-mediated tandem oxidative reactions: application for the synthesis of bioactive polyspirocyclohexa-2,5-dienones

In 2002, we reported the first total syntheses of potent antimalarial natural products, the aculeatins, employing the concept of tandem oxidative reactions mediated by hypervalent iodine(III) reagent to access to polyspirocyclohexa-2,5-dienone cores in very concise manner. Efforts in this field have allowed to identify cyclohexa-2,5-dienone group as a new potent class of pharmacophoric group for treating malaria disease. This article sums up recent contributions devoted to the synthesis of complex and diverse polycyclic structures using the concept of tandem oxidative activations, with p-phenol as co-reactant. More recently, we have explored a variant of the new tandem oxidative reactions that employs a catalytic amount of 4-iodotoluene in the presence of mCPBA as the stoichiometric oxidant (Kita’s procedure).     

Electron affinities of p-benzoquinone, p-benzoquinone imine and p-benzoquinone diimine, and spin densities of their p-benzosemiq

Restricted and unrestricted (U) Hartree–Fock (HF), second-order Møller–Plesset perturbation (MP2), density functional (DF), hybrid HF/DF and semiempirical (half-electron (HE) method) models have been used to calculate adiabatic electron affinities (EAad values) of p- benzoquinone (I), p-benzoquinone imine (VI) and p-benzoquinone diimine (XI), as well as expectation values (S2) and spin density distributions in the radical anions of I, VI and XI. The AM1/AM1-HE and ab initio calculated structures are found to be in accord with each other. The ROHF/6-31G(d) method gave the poorest EAad result. The UHF and UMP2 wave functions were found to be substantially spin contaminated (for the radicals) and the accuracies of the EAad values calculated were also poor. The use of molecular energies obtained after spin annihilation did not lead to significant improvement of the UHF and UMP2 results. In contrast to the ROHF, UHF and UMP2 results, the DF(USVWN, UBVWN, UBLYP) and hybrid HF/DF(UB3LYP) methods, as well as the AM1-HE, gave much better results. The calculated EAad values decreased, as predicted by most of the models, in the order EAad(I) > EAad(VI) > EAad(XI). The differences in the EAs, EAad(I) – EAad(VI) and EAad(I) – EAad(XI), were consistently predicted to be about 8–9 and 17–18 kcal/mol, respectively, by the DF, B3LYP and AM1-HE models. The performance of the PM3 and SAM1 models was not as good as the AM1 model. Of all the methods tested, the B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) model is concluded to give the most accurate quantitative trend (I(42.6) > VI(33.1) > XI(23.7)) in EAad. The predicted trend in EA can satisfactorily be rationalized by the calculated LUMO orbital energies, atomic charges and spin density distributions. Analysis of the spin density data predicts that phenoxyl- and anilino-type radical anions predominate in the p-benzosemiquinones of I and XI, respectively, while both phenoxyl- and anilino-type radicals contribute to the structure of the p-benzosemiquinone of VI, with the anilino-type predominating.     

Transition metal complexes of α-aminophosphonates part II: Synthesis,spectroscopic characterization,and in vitro anticancer activity of copper(II) complexes of α-aminophosphonates

Abstract

A one pot procedure was used to synthesize two new derivatives of α-aminophosphonates. Novel copper(II) complexes of α-aminophosphonates were synthesized by coordinating different copper salts with the newly synthesized α-aminophosphonates. Their structures were characterized by different spectral and analytical techniques. Evaluation of the metal-free ligands HL1, HL², and their Cu(II) complexes against human colon carcinoma HT-29 cell lines was performed, using cisplatin as a reference drug. The results indicated that the complexes of the ligand HL¹ exhibited enhanced anticancer activity, while ligand HL² complexes showed decreased anticancer activity.     

Top down characterization of larger proteins (45 kDa) by electron capture dissociation mass spectrometry.

The structural characterization of proteins expressed from the genome is a major problem in proteomics. The solution to this problem requires the separation of the protein of interest from a complex mixture, the identification of its DNA-predicted sequence, and the characterization of sequencing errors and posttranslational modifications. For this, the "top down" mass spectrometry (MS) approach, extended by the greatly increased protein fragmentation from electron capture dissociation (ECD), has been applied to characterize proteins involved in the biosynthesis of thiamin, Coenzyme A, and the hydroxylation of proline residues in proteins. With Fourier transform (FT) MS, electrospray ionization (ESI) of a complex mixture from an E. coli cell extract gave 102 accurate molecular weight values (2-30 kDa), but none corresponding to the predicted masses of the four desired enzymes for thiamin biosynthesis (GoxB, ThiS, ThiG, and ThiF). MS/MS of one ion species (representing approximately 1% of the mixture) identified it with the DNA-predicted sequence of ThiS, although the predicted and measured molecular weights were different. Further purification yielded a 2-component mixture whose ECD spectrum characterized both proteins simultaneously as ThiS and ThiG, showing an additional N-terminal Met on the 8 kDa ThiS and removal of an N-terminal Met and Ser from the 27 kDa ThiG. For a second system, the molecular weight of the 45 kDa phosphopantothenoylcysteine synthetase/decarboxylase (CoaBC), an enzyme involved in Coenzyme A biosynthesis, was 131 Da lower than that of the DNA prediction; the ECD spectrum showed that this is due to the removal of the N-terminal Met. For a third system, viral prolyl 4-hydroxylase (26 kDa), ECD showed that multiple molecular ions (+98, +178, etc.) are due to phosphate noncovalent adducts, and MS/MS pinpointed the overall mass discrepancy of 135 Da to removal of the initiation Met (131 Da) and to formation of disulfide bonds (2 x 2 Da) at C32-C49 and C143-C147, although 10 S-S positions were possible. In contrast, "bottom up" proteolysis characterization of the CoaBC and the P4H proteins was relatively unsuccessful. The addition of ECD substantially increases the capabilities of top down FTMS for the detailed structural characterization of large proteins.     

Insights on the Inhibitory Power of Flavonoids on Tyrosinase Activity: A Survey from 2016 to 2021

Tyrosinase is a multifunctional copper-containing oxidase enzyme that initiates melanin synthesis in humans. Excessive accumulation of melanin pigments or the overexpression of tyrosinase may result in skin-related disorders such as aging spots, wrinkles, melasma, freckles, lentigo, ephelides, nevus, browning and melanoma. Nature expresses itself through the plants as a source of phytochemicals with diverse biological properties. Among these bioactive compounds, flavonoids represent a huge natural class with different categories such as flavones, flavonols, isoflavones, flavan-3-ols, flavanones and chalcones that display antioxidant and tyrosinase inhibitor activities with a diversity of mechanistic approaches. In this review, we explore the role of novel or known flavonoids isolated from different plant species and their participation as tyrosinase inhibitors reported in the last five years from 2016 to 2021. We also discuss the mechanistic approaches through the different studies carried out on these compounds, including in vitro, in vivo and in silico computational research. Information was obtained from Google Scholar, PubMed, and Science Direct. We hope that the updated comprehensive data presented in this review will help researchers to develop new safe, efficacious, and effective drug or skin care products for the prevention of and/or protection against skin-aging disorders.     

Synthesis of new 1,2,4-triazolines and 1,3,4-thiadiazolines from bithioureas

2,4-Disubstituted thiosemicarbazides 1 react with acyl isothiocyanates to give bithioureas 2 , which by the action of sodium ethanolate cyclize to 1,2,4-triazoline-3-thiones 3 and 5 , respectively. Treatment of 2 with methyl iodide yields 1,3,4-thiadiazoline-2-imines 8 isomeric with 3 . Compound 8d undergoes a thermal induced DIMROTH rearrangement to give 3d in good yield.     

Aqueous-phase synthesis of di-(η5-cyclopentadienyl)salicylato- anddi-(η5-cyclopentadienyl)phthalatotitanium(IV) complexes

Di-(⁵-cyclopentadienyl)dichlorotitanium(IV) reacts with salicylic acid or some of its ring-substituted derivatives in aqueous medium in the presence of alkali carbonate, giving (substituted) di-(⁵-cyclopentadienyl)-salicylatotitanium(IV) complexes(3). Analogously, although less efficaciously, the dichlorotitanium compound reacts with phthalic acid to give the phthalato complex(5), and with dipicolinic acid to yield the pyridinedicarboxylato compound(7). Meticulous control of the experimental conditions is necessary to minimize hydrolytic side reactions. The product complexes(3) and(5) can be recrystallized from chloroform, in which they dissolve completely when freshly prepared; prolonged storage at ambient temperature causes reductions in solubility. I.r. and n.m.r. spectroscopic features of the product complexes are presented.     

Active learning of constraints for weighted feature selection

Advances in Data Analysis and Classification - Pairwise constraints, a cheaper kind of supervision information that does not need to reveal the class labels of data points, were initially suggested...