Structural and functional properties of designed globins

De novo design of artificial proteins is an essential approach to elucidate the principles of protein architecture and to understand specific functions of natural proteins and also to yield novel molecules for medical and industrial aims. We have designed artificial sequences of 153 amino acids to fit the main-chain framework of the sperm whale myoglobin structure based on the knowledge-based energy functions to evaluate the compatibility between protein tertiary structures and amino acid sequences. The synthesized artificial globins bind a single heme per protein molecule as designed, which show well-defined electrochemical and spectroscopic features characteristic of proteins with a low-spin heme. Redox and ligand binding reactions of the artificial heme proteins were investigated and these heme-related functions were found to vary with their structural uniqueness. Relationships between the structural and functional properties are discussed.     

Vanadium-catalyzed sulfenylation of indoles and 2-naphthols with thiols under molecular oxygen

Vanadium oxyacetylacetonate [VO(acac)(2)] works as a catalyst for the direct synthesis of 3-sulfanylindoles from indoles and thiols under an atmospheric pressure of molecular oxygen as a reoxidant. For example, the reaction of 2-phenylindole with benzenethiol in the presence of a catalytic amount of VO(acac)(2), potassium iodide, and 2,6-di-tert-butyl-p-cresol in chlorobenzene under molecular oxygen proceeds to afford 2-phenyl-3-(phenylsulfanyl)indole in 86% yield. This catalytic system can also be applied to 2-naphthols instead of indoles to give the corresponding 1-sulfanyl-2-naphthols in up to 57% yield.     

Most stable conformation of the cyclopropane ring attached at a carbon atom in a 1,2-dicarba-closo-dodecaborane(12) system

We obtained two crystal structures of electronically interesting dicarba-closo-dodecaborane(12)s (hereafter, "carboranes") substituted with a cyclopropyl group at a caged carbon atom, i.e., C-cyclopropyl-o-carborane (4) and C-cyclopropyl-o-carboranylphenylmethanol (9), at 123 K. In these C-cyclopropyl-o-carboranes, the cyclopropyl group adopted a slightly twisted perpendicular conformation with respect to the electron-deficient carbon-carbon (C-C) bond axis in the o-carborane cage. In contrast, it has previously been shown that a phenyl group substituted at the caged carbon atom, i.e., C-phenyl-o-carborane (3), is almost parallel to this axis at both 150 and 199 K. In other words, the pi system of the phenyl ring adopted an almost bisected conformation in 3. The preferred conformation of the cyclopropane ring in these C-cyclopropyl-o-carboranes was compared among the solid, the solution, and the gaseous states and was retained under the present conditions. Moreover, we found that the C-C bond length in the o-carborane cage not only varied along the rotation of the cyclopropyl group in 4 but also was longer than that in 3, which bears a phenyl group at the dominant conformation. These phenomena may be related to homoconjugations between the caged o-carborane system that serves as an electron acceptor and the homoconjugative substituent that serves as an electron donor. In these C-cyclopropyl-o-carboranes, two types of homoconjugations would result in a slightly twisted perpendicular conformation and 4 would be more strongly stabilized than would the phenyl derivative 3. On the basis of these studies, we propose the existence of a third type of strongly stabilizing interactive geometry for a cyclopropane ring in an o-carborane system.     

Mechanism of preferential enrichment,an unusual enantiomeric resolution phenomenon caused by polymorphic transition during crystallization of mixed crystals composed of two enantiomers

The mechanism of Preferential Enrichment, an unusual enantiomeric resolution phenomenon observed upon recrystallization of a series of racemic crystals which are classified as a racemic mixed crystal with fairly ordered arrangement of the two enantiomers, has been studied. On the basis of the existence of polymorphs and the occurrence of the resulting polymorphic transition during crystallization from solution, the mechanism has been accounted for in terms of (1) a preferential homochiral molecular association to form one-dimensional chain structures in the supersaturated solution of the racemate or nonracemic sample with a low ee value, (2) a kinetic formation of a metastable crystalline phase retaining the homochiral chain structures in a process of nucleation, (3) a polymorphic transition from the metastable phase to a stable one followed by enantioselective liberation of the excess R (or S) enantiomers from the transformed crystal into solution at the beginning of crystal growth to result in a slight enrichment (up to 10% ee) of the opposite S (or R) enantiomer in the deposited crystals, together with an enantiomeric enrichment of the R (or S) enantiomer in the mother liquor, and (4) a chiral discrimination by the once formed S (or R)-rich stable crystalline phase in a process of the subsequent crystal growth, leading to a considerable enantiomeric enrichment of the R (or S) enantiomer up to 100% ee in the mother liquor. The processes (3) and (4) are considered to be directly responsible for an enrichment of one enantiomer in the mother liquor. The association mode of the two enantiomers in solution has been investigated by means of (i) the solubility measurement and (ii) the number-averaged molecular weight measurement in solution by vapor pressure osmometry, together with (iii) the molecular dynamics simulation of oligomer models. The polymorphic transition during crystallization has been observed visually and by means of the in situ FTIR technique and DSC measurement. Both metastable and stable crystals have been obtained, and their crystal structures have been elucidated by X-ray crystallographic analysis of their single crystals.     

Effects of L-tyrosine esters on quenching and photosensitized charge separation using polymers containing ruthenium(II) complex

A series of ruthenium(II) complex-containing partially quaternized poly(1-vinylimidazole)s with various alkyl side chains such as hexyl (C₆RuQPIm), dodecyl (C₁₂RuQPIm), and hexadecyl (C₁₆RuQPIm) were synthesized. The effects of L -tyrosine esters with hexyl (C₆Tyr), octyl (C₈Tyr), and dodecyl (C₁₂Tyr) on the quenching with methylviologen and photosensitized charge separation reactions were investigated using these metallopolymers as polymer photosensitizers. The quenching reaction took place through both a dynamic quenching process and a static quenching one mediated by the L -tyrosine esters. The kinetic parameters for these processes were obtained from a computed curve fitting using a Stern–Volmer equation derived from a combination of dynamic quenching and static quenching. The parameters had a significant dependence on the lengths of the alkyl groups in the L -tyrosine esters and the alkyl side chains on these metallopolymers. During photosensitized charge separation, the reaction proceeded through these quenching processes, referred to as direct and mediated processes. The initial rates of methylviologen radical formation also depended on these lengths; they increased when the lengths of the alkyl side chain on these metallopolymers and alkyl groups in the L -tyrosine esters were long. Such a dependence was caused by a change in the balance of some effects such as the electrostatic and steric effects. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 37: 4360–4367, 1999     

Credit risk model with contagious default dependencies affected by macro-economic condition

We consider a credit risk model with two industrial sectors, where defaults of corporations would be influenced by two factors. The first factor represents the macro economic condition which would affect the default intensities of the two industrial sectors differently. The second factor reflects the influences of the past defaults of corporations against other active corporations, where such influences would affect the two industrial sectors differently. A two-layer Markov chain model is developed, where the macro economic condition is described as a birth-death process, while another Markov chain represents the stochastic characteristics of defaults with default intensities dependent on the state of the birth-death process and the number of defaults in two sectors. Although the state space of the two-layer Markov chain is huge, the fundamental absorbing process with a reasonable state space size could capture the first passage time structure of the two-layer Markov chain, thereby enabling one to evaluate the joint probability of the number of defaults in two sectors via the uniformization procedure of Keilson. This in turn enables one to value a variety of derivatives defined on the underlying credit portfolios. In this paper, we focus on a financial product called CDO, and a related option.     

Efficient synthesis of useful heterocycles via transition metal-catalyzed cascade processes

This paper reports our recent results from synthesis of some useful heterocycles, for example oxazolidinones, indoles, and quinoxalinones, by transition metal-catalyzed cascade processes. The scope and limitations of these procedures and the reaction mechanism for formation of the heterocycles are also discussed.