Highly regioselective nucleophilic carbon-carbon bond formation on furans and thiophenes initiated by pummerer-type reaction

[reaction: see text] The reactions of (phenylsulfinyl)furans or -thiophenes with carbon nucleophiles in the presence of trifluoroacetic anhydride allowed the nucleophilic installation of carbon functional groups on the furan and thiophene nuclei with complete regioselectivity.     

Formation of Tc(III)-EDTA complex

Tc(III)-EDTA complex has been synthesized by the ligand substitution reaction of hexakis-(thiourea) technetium(III) ion with EDTA. The complex exhibits absorption maxima at 368 and 470 nm. The formation reaction proceeds predominantly as follows:

Duplex dissociation of telomere DNAs induced by molecular crowding

Because of the importance of telomere DNAs, the structures of these DNAs in vivo are currently of great research interest in the medical, pharmaceutical, chemical, and industrial fields. To understand the structure of biomolecules in vivo, their properties studied in vitro are extrapolated to the in vivo condition, while the condition in a living cell is inherently molecularly crowded and a nonideal solution contains various biomolecules. We investigated the effect of molecular crowding, which is one of the most important cellular environmental conditions, on the structure and stability of the telomere and G-rich and C-rich DNAs using circular dichroism (CD) spectra, CD melting curves, and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). The CD spectra and CD melting curves of G-rich DNA, C-rich DNA, and the 1:1 mixture of G-rich and C-rich DNAs showed that each G-rich DNA, C-rich DNA, and the 1:1 mixture form the antiparallel G-quadruplex, I-motif, and duplex, respectively, in the noncrowding condition as previously considered. On the contrary, the G-rich and C-rich DNAs individually form the parallel G-quadruplex and I-motif, respectively, in the molecular crowding condition, and the 1:1 mixture folds into the parallel G-quadruplex and I-motif but does not form a duplex. The ITC measurements indicated that the thermodynamic stability (DeltaG degrees (20)) of the duplex formation between the G-rich and C-rich DNAs in the noncrowding condition was -10.2 kcal mol(-)(1), while only a small heat change was observed in the ITC measurements in the molecular crowding condition. These ITC results also demonstrated that the molecular crowding condition prevents any duplex formation between G-rich and C-rich DNAs. These results indicate that a structural polymorphism of the telomere DNAs is induced by molecular crowding in vivo.     

Noticeable facilitation of the bismuth-mediated Barbier-type allylation of aromatic carbonyl compounds under solvent-free conditions

When milled together with bismuth shot in the presence of allyl halide, aromatic aldehydes readily underwent a Barbier-type allylation to afford the corresponding homoallyl alcohols in good yield. In contrast to the failure in solution reaction, aromatic ketones also underwent allylic carbonyl addition under solvent-free conditions to give the expected tertiary homoallyl alcohols in moderate to good yield.     

Ring‐Opening Reactions of 3‐Aryl‐1‐benzylaziridine‐2‐carboxylates and Application to the Asymmetric Synthesis of an Amphetamine‐Type Compound

Nucleophilic ring‐opening reactions of 3‐aryl‐1‐benzylaziridine‐2‐carboxylates were examined by using O‐nucleophiles and aromatic C‐nucleophiles. The stereospecificity was found to depend on substrates and conditions used. Configuration inversion at C(3) was observed with O‐nucleophiles as a major reaction path in the ring‐opening reactions of aziridines carrying an electron‐poor aromatic moiety, whereas mixtures containing preferentially the syn‐diastereoisomer were generally obtained when electron‐rich aziridines were used (Tables 1–3). In the reactions of electron‐rich aziridines with C‐nucleophiles, S_N2 reactions yielding anti‐type products were observed (Table 4). Reductive ring‐opening reaction by catalytic hydrogenation of (+)‐trans‐(2S,3R)‐3‐(1,3‐benzodioxol‐5‐yl)aziridine‐2‐carboxylate (+)‐trans‐ 3c afforded the corresponding α‐amino acid derivative, which was smoothly transformed into (+)‐tert‐butyl [(1R)‐2‐(1,3‐benzodioxol‐5‐yl)‐1‐methylethyl]carbamate((+)‐ 14 ) with high retention of optical purity (Scheme 6).     

New photoswitching unit for magnetic interaction: diarylethene with 2,5-bis(arylethynyl)-3-thienyl group

Photoswitching of the intramolecular magnetic interaction was demonstrated using diarylethenes with 2,5-bis(arylethynyl)-4-methyl-3-thienyl side group. Two nitroxide radicals were placed at each end of the 2,5-bis(arylethynyl)-4-methyl-3-thienyl group. Three kinds of aryl groups, 2,5-thienylene, p-phenylene, and m-phenylene groups, were used in the arylethynyl moiety. The diarylethene photoswitching units have an extended pi-conjugated chain on one side of the diarylethene. The photochromic reactivity was dependent on the arylethynyl group. Diarylethenes with m-phenylene group showed an efficient photochromic reactivity. Along with the photochromic reaction the diarylethenes showed photoswitching of an ESR spectrum originating from the change in the magnetic interaction between two unpaired electrons. The open-ring isomer showed stronger exchange interaction than the photogenerated closed-ring isomer. The magnetic interaction between two radicals via the pi-conjugated chain was altered by photocyclization due to the change of the hybrid orbital at the 2-position of the thiophene ring from sp(2) to sp(3).     

Phenomenological analysis of elongational flow birefringence in semidilute solutions of hydroxypropylcellulose

The relaxation time of a polymer chain in an elongational flow field was investigated for hydroxypropylcellulose (HPC) semidilute solution systems by two methods: phenomenological analysis of elongational flow-induced birefringence, and dynamic light scattering (DLS) and rheological measurements. To understand the relaxation time of an entangled semiflexible polymer solution in an elongational flow field, scaling analysis of the elongational flow-induced birefringence curve was performed. The results of both temperature and concentration scaling analyses showed that birefringence curves at different temperatures and at several HPC concentrations were described well by a universal birefringence–strain rate curve. This scaling behavior was compared with the "fuzzy cylinder" model. The critical strain rate corresponded to the correlation time of the slow relaxation mode determined by DLS measurement and the relaxation spectrum obtained by dynamic viscoelasticity measurement. The elongational flow-induced birefringence observed in an HPC semidilute solution was concluded to be attributed to the orientation of the HPC segment in the entangled molecular system, because the dominant relaxation mode is found to be the concentration fluctuation of an entangled molecular cluster in a quiescent state.     

Synthesis of functionalized porphyrins as oxygen ligand receptors

Oxophilic synthetic receptors were designed and synthesized using a porphyrin scaffold, with the aim of constructing a preorganized complementary binding site for phenols and carbohydrates. We pursued three strategies for phenol recognition: (1) Lewis acid/Lewis base combinations serving as a hydrogen bond donor and acceptor for the OH group, (2) Lewis base/pi-pi stacking, targeting both the OH group and the aromatic moiety of phenols, and (3) exchange of the axial hydroxyl ligand on a trivalent and oxophilic metal center of aluminum porphyrin. For the recognition of acidic phenols, the most promising recognition motif was Lewis base/pi-pi stacking, which can bind to phenols with a hydrogen bond and pi-pi stacking interactions. [5-(8-Quinolyl)-10,15,20-triphenylporphyrinato]zinc binds to p-nitrophenol with a binding constant of 540 M(-)(1) in CHCl(3) at 25 degrees C. For carbohydrate recognition, we designed the metalloporphyrin receptor having 8-quinolyl groups and o-carbomethoxymethoxyphenyl groups, where these Lewis basic parts serve as the cooperative hydrogen bonding sites for the hydroxyl groups of glucoside. The receptor binds to beta-octyl glucoside with a binding constant of 7.35 x 10(4) M(-)(1) in CHCl(3) at 15 degrees C, demonstrating importance of formation of a highly ordered hydrogen bonding network between the receptor and the guest. These binding features have significant implications for the rational design of oxophilic artificial receptors.     

Lewis Acid-Catalyzed Hydrostannation of Acetylenes. Regio- and Stereoselective Trans-Addition of Tributyltin Hydride and Dibutyltin Dihydride

Lewis acids such as ZrCl(4) or HfCl(4) catalyze the hydrostannation of acetylenes 1 by tributyltin hydride to produce the cis vinylstannanes 2 by regio- and stereoselective anti-hydrostannation. The hydrostannation of acetylenes using dibutyltin dihydride was also catalyzed by ZrCl(4) to give the stereodefined Z-Z divinyltin derivatives 4 by an anti-hydrostannation pathway. The use of nonpolar solvents such as toluene or hexane was essential for obtaining high stereoselectivity and chemical yield. Since ZrCl(4) and HfCl(4) are not soluble in such solvents, the hydrostannations were carried out in a heterogeneous system. The reactions of internal acetylenes with Bu(3)SnH proceeded smoothly, although the use of stoichiometric amounts of ZrCl(4) gave better results. The ZrCl(4)-catalyzed hydrostannation at 0 degrees C gave better yields and stereoselectivities than the reaction at room temperature. To help clalify the reason, the reaction of Bu(3)SnH with ZrCl(4) was monitored by (1)H and (119)Sn NMR spectroscopy, and it was found that Bu(3)SnH reacted with ZrCl(4) at room temperature to afford a mixture of tributyltin hydride, dibutyltin dihydride, and tetrabutyltin.     

Stereoselective syntheses of highly functionalized bicyclo[3.1.0]hexanes: a general methodology for the synthesis of potent and selective mGluR2/3 agonists

[Chemical reaction: See text] A Et3Al mediated intramolecular epoxide opening, cyclopropanation reaction is described. The transformation provided highly functionalized bicyclo[3.1.0]hexane systems in high efficiency and with perfect H or F endo selectivity. Application of this reaction to the synthesis of mGluR2/3 agonist 1 (43% overall yield) and a few intermediates suitable for the synthesis of other bicyclo[3.1.0]hexane mGluR2/3 agonists is discussed.