A Convenient Route for the Synthesis of 4-Aryl- and 4-Aminopyrimidines

Summary. A series of ureidopropenenitriles were synthesised by Knoevenagel condensation of ArCOCH₂CN and HC(OEt)₃ in presence of ureas in a one pot reaction. These ureidopropenenitriles were cyclised to 4-aryl-5-cyano-3-substituted pyrimidines (in acid) or to 4-amino-5-benzoylpyrimidines (in base) in 60–70% yields. The amine pyrimidine derivatives were further converted to substituted uracils by hydrolysis with isopentyl nitrite in DMF. Alkylation of uracils furnished 1,3-dimethyluracil derivatives with DMS in alkali. All new compounds were characterised by spectral and analytical methods.     

Polyethylene-Montmorillonite Nanocomposites: Preparation,Characterization and Properties

Polyethylene(PE)/clay nanocomposites have been successfully prepared by in situ polymerization with an intercalation catalyst titanium-montmorillonite (Ti-MMT) and analyzed by X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), Fourier transform infrared analysis (FT-IR), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), differentail scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and tensile testing. XRD and TEM indicate that the clay is exfoliated into nanometer size and disorderedly dispersed in the PE matrix, and the PE crystallinity of PE/clay nanocomposite declines to 15∼30%. Compared with pure PE, PE/clay nanocomposites behave higher thermal, physical and mechanical properties; the layer structure of the clay decreases the polymerization activity and produce polymer with a high molecular weight. For PE/clay nanocomposites, the highest tensile strength of 33.4 MPa and Young's modulus of 477.4 MPa has been achieved when clay content is 7.7 wt %. The maximum thermal decomposition temperature is up to 110 °C higher, but the thermal decomposition temperature of the PE/clay nanocomposites decreases with the increases of the clay contents in the PE matrix.     

Chemoenzymatic glycan-selective remodeling of a therapeutic lysosomal enzyme with high-affinity M6P-glycan ligands. Enzyme substrate specificity is the name of the game

Functionalization of therapeutic lysosomal enzymes with mannose-6-phosphate (M6P) glycan ligands represents a major strategy for enhancing the cation-independent M6P receptor (CI-MPR)-mediated cellular uptake, thus improving the overall therapeutic efficacy of the enzymes. However, the minimal high-affinity M6P-containing N-glycan ligands remain to be identified and their efficient and site-selective conjugation to therapeutic lysosomal enzymes is a challenging task. We report here the chemical synthesis of truncated M6P-glycan oxazolines and their use for enzymatic glycan remodeling of recombinant human acid α-glucosidase (rhGAA), an enzyme used for treatment of Pompe disease which is a disorder caused by a deficiency of the glycogen-degrading lysosomal enzyme. Structure–activity relationship studies identified M6P tetrasaccharide oxazoline as the minimal substrate for enzymatic transglycosylation yielding high-affinity M6P glycan ligands for the CI-MPR. Taking advantage of the substrate specificity of endoglycosidases Endo-A and Endo-F3, we found that Endo-A and Endo-F3 could efficiently deglycosylate the respective high-mannose and complex type N-glycans in rhGAA and site-selectively transfer the synthetic M6P N-glycan to the deglycosylated rhGAA without product hydrolysis. This discovery enabled a highly efficient one-pot deglycosylation/transglycosylation strategy for site-selective M6P-glycan remodeling of rhGAA to obtain a more homogeneous product. The Endo-A and Endo-F3 remodeled rhGAAs maintained full enzyme activity and demonstrated 6- and 20-fold enhanced binding affinities for CI-MPR receptor, respectively. Using an in vitro cell model system for Pompe disease, we demonstrated that the M6P-glycan remodeled rhGAA greatly outperformed the commercial rhGAA (Lumizyme) and resulted in the reversal of cellular pathology. This study provides a general and efficient method for site-selective M6P-glycan remodeling of recombinant lysosomal enzymes to achieve enhanced M6P receptor binding and cellular uptake, which could lead to improved overall therapeutic efficacy of enzyme replacement therapy.

An efficient one-pot M6P glycan remodeling of a multiply glycosylated lysosomal enzyme (Lumizyme) affords a new glycoengineered protein that shows greatly improved receptor binding, cellular uptake, and degradation of lysosomal glycogen in an in vitro model of Pompe disease.     

A Highly Selective Potassium Sensor for the Detection of Potassium in Living Tissues

The development of highly selective sensors for potassium is of great interest in biology. Two new hydrosoluble potassium sensors (Calix‐COU‐Alkyne and Calix‐COU‐Am) based on a calix[4]arene bis(crown‐6) and an extended coumarin were synthesized and characterized. The photophysical properties and complexation studies of these compounds have been investigated and show high molar extinction coefficients and high fluorescence quantum yields. Upon complexation with potassium in the millimolar concentration range, an increase of one‐ and two‐photon fluorescence emission is detected. A twofold fluorescence enhancement is observed upon excitation at λ=405 nm. The ligands present excellent selectivity for potassium in the presence of various competitive cations in water and in a physiological medium. The photophysical properties are not affected by the presence of a large amount of competing cations (Na⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, etc.). Ex vivo measurements on mouse hippocampal slices show that Calix‐COU‐Alkyne accumulates extracellularly and does not alter the neuronal activity. Furthermore, the sensor can be utilized to monitor slow extracellular K⁺ increase induced by inhibition of K⁺ entry into the cells.     

Tip‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy – an interlaboratory reproducibility and comparison study

Since its first experimental realization, tip‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) has emerged as a potentially powerful nanochemical analysis tool. However, questions about the comparability and reproducibility of TERS data have emerged. This interlaboratory comparison study addresses these issues by bringing together different TERS groups to perform TERS measurements on nominally identical samples. Based on the spectra obtained, the absolute and relative peak positions, number of bands, peak intensity ratios, and comparability to reference Raman and surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) data are discussed. Our general findings are that all research groups obtained similar spectral patterns, irrespective of the setup or tip that was used. The TERS (and SERS) spectra consistently showed fewer bands than the conventional Raman spectrum. When comparing these three methods, the spectral pattern match and substance identification is readily possible. Absolute and relative peak positions of the three major signals of thiophenol scattered by 19 and 9 cm⁻¹, respectively, which can probably be attributed to different spectrometer calibrations. However, within the same group (but between different tips), the signals only scattered by 3 cm⁻¹ on average. This study demonstrated the suitability of TERS as an analytical tool and brings TERS a big step forward to becoming a routine technique. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

2.50 Gbit/s optical CDMA over FSO communication system

Optical CDMA over FSO communication system is very effective to provide high data rate transmission with very low bit error rate and low amount of multiple access interference. In this paper, we have presented optical CDMA over FSO communication system to the range of 8000 m. The simulative results reveal that the transmission distance is limited mainly by the multi-access interference (MAI) which arises when there are number of users in the system because of the fact that one user data becomes noisy for all other users in the channel.     

Lead Tetraacetate Fragmentation of Loganin Aglucone O-Metheyl Ether and its Stereoisomers

During the investigation into methods of converting loganin (1) into secologanin (2, R=β-D-glucose), the lead tetraacetate fragmentation reaction¹ of the four diastereomeric loganin aglucone O-methyl ethers 4, 6, 9, and 11, was studied.     

Plasmon resonance in multilayer graphene nanoribbons

Plasmon resonances in nanopatterned single‐layer graphene nanoribbons (SL‐GNRs), double‐layer graphene nanoribbons (DL‐GNRs) and triple‐layer graphene nanoribbons (TL‐GNRs) are studied experimentally using ‘realistic’ graphene samples. The existence of electrically tunable plasmons in stacked multilayer graphene nanoribbons was first experimentally verified by infrared microscopy. We find that the strength of the plasmonic resonance increases in DL‐GNRs when compared to SL‐GNRs. However, further increase was not observed in TL‐GNRs when compared to DL‐GNRs. We carried out systematic full‐wave simulations using a finite‐element technique to validate and fit experimental results, and extract the carrier‐scattering rate as a fitting parameter. The numerical simulations show remarkable agreement with experiments for an unpatterned SLG sheet, and a qualitative agreement for a patterned graphene sheet. We conclude with our perspective of the key bottlenecks in both experiments and theoretical models.

     

Synthesis of Novel Pyrido[3′,2′:4,5]furo[3,2‐d]pyrimidine Derivatives and Their Cytotoxic Activity

The 3‐amino‐6‐(trifluoromethyl)furo[2,3‐b]pyridine‐2‐carbohydrazide ( 5 ) was prepared from 3‐cyano‐6‐trifluoromethyl‐2(1H)pyridone ( 2 ) in series of steps via selective O‐alkylation, Thorpe–Ziegler cyclization followed by reaction with hydrazine hydrate. The 2‐carbohydrazide ( 5 ) was further reacted with aliphatic acids under different reaction temperatures to form a series of novel N‐acylfuro[2,3‐b]pyridine‐2‐carbohydrazide ( 6 ) and pyrido[3′,2′:4,5]furo[3,2‐d]pyrimidine derivatives ( 7 ). All the compounds 6 and 7 were screened for cytotoxic activity against breast carcinoma MD Anderson‐Metastatic Breast (MDA‐MB) 231 (aggressive) cell lines at 10 µM concentration. Compounds 6a , 6b , and 6c showed promising activity.     

Studies on Synthesis of Novel Triazole Tagged Pyrazole Fused Naphthalene 5‐Thiazine‐5,5‐dioxide Derivatives,Their Antimicrobial,and Antioxidant Activity

A series of novel triazole tagged pyrazole fused naphthalene‐5‐thiazine‐5,5‐dioxide derivatives 8 and 9 were synthesized starting from sodium salt of saccharin 1 . The structure of each intermediate and products was established on the basis of spectroscopy data. All the synthesized compounds 8 and 9 were screened against various bacterial and fungal strains but found to show no activity up to 150‐µg/mL concentration. Further screening for antioxidant property resulted promising compounds.