Total Synthesis of Resorcylic Acid Lactone (−)-Neocosmosin A Using Palladium-Catalyzed α-Arylation of Enones as the Key Step

The total synthesis of the 14-membered resorcylic acid lactone neocosmosin A is described. The key step in the synthesis is the palladium-catalyzed α-arylation of TES-enol ethers of enones. The employment of the α-arylation approach to this class of resorcylic acid lactones is a new approach, which has the scope of being generalized into a unified approach for the synthesis of this class of natural products.     

A Doubly Interpenetrated Cu(II)-based Metal-Organic Framework as a Heterogeneous Catalyst for the ipso-Hydroxylation of Arylboronic Acids

A doubly interpenetrated Cu(II)-organic framework with formula [{Cu₂( L )₂(4,4′-bpdc)₂(H₂O)₂} ⋅ 8H₂O ⋅ CH₃OH]_α ( 1 ) (where, L =N², N⁶-di(pyridin-4-yl)naphthalene-2,6-dicarboxamide and 4,4′-bpdc=[1,1′-biphenyl]-4,4′-dicarboxylate ion) has been synthesized and characterized with the help of several spectroscopic and analytical techniques including single crystal X-ray analysis. A single crystal X-ray analysis reveals that 1 exhibit interpenetrated two-dimensional sheet-like structure containing elongated channels of cross-section 11.09×31.22 Ų along the a-axis. Finally, 1 has been exploited as a heterogeneous catalyst for the ipso-hydroxylation of arylboronic acids yielding up to 99 % of the respective phenolic product. Importantly, the catalyst can be reused for five successive cycles without having a significant loss in its catalytic efficiency.     

Fabrication,chemical modification,and topographical patterning of reactive gels assembled from azlactone‐functionalized polymers and a diamine

The work reported here demonstrates an approach to the fabrication of chemically reactive and topographically patterned hydrogels using the azlactone‐functionalized polymer poly(2‐vinyl‐4,4'‐dimethylazlactone) (PVDMA) and the hydrophilic diamine Jeffamine®. Gels were initially assembled in DMSO but can be subsequently transferred into aqueous media to form hydrogels. Spectroscopic characterization of assembled gels demonstrated that variation in the stoichiometric ratio of azlactones to amines during gel synthesis permits control over the extent of crosslinking in the gels. Residual azlactones not consumed during crosslinking can be exploited to further functionalize these gels with hydrophobic, hydrophilic, and macromolecular amines that influence the physicochemical properties of these materials in aqueous solvents. The surface and bulk of these gels can be differentially functionalized (i.e., different functional groups on the gel surface relative to the bulk) by taking advantage of different rates of diffusion of macromolecular amines versus small molecule amines into assembled gels. Finally, these azlactone‐functionalized gels can be topographically patterned with microwell arrays using a replica molding technique and chemically modified postfabrication with amine nucleophiles. This reactive approach to the fabrication of topographically patterned and chemically functionalized hydrogels offers a straightforward method for the rapid synthesis of micropatterned scaffolds of interest in a broad range of applications. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017 , 55, 3185–3194     

Regioselective synthesis of pyrimidine-fused tetrahydropyridines and pyridines by microwave-assisted one-pot reaction

Molecular Diversity - A regioselective three-component reaction of α,β-unsaturated aldehydes, cyclic 1,3-dicarbonyls and 6-aminouracils in the presence of FeCl3·6H2O as catalyst...     

Quantum information entropy of Eckart potential

In this work, the position and momentum space information densities of the Eckart potential are graphically demonstrated and their properties are studied. The position space information densities have quite an asymmetric shape depending on the values of quantum numbers. The information entropy is obtained and Bialynicki‐Birula and Mycielski inequality is numerically saturated for some parameters of the potential. It is shown that the inequality is saturated with increasing potential depth.     

Synthesis and structural investigations of functionalizable hybrid β-hairpin

The solution and solid state conformations of a designed β-hairpin containing functionalizable α,β-unsaturated γ-amino acids at the antiparallel β-strands and a single step transformation to its saturated γ-peptide analogue are studied.     

A rapid fluorescence-based assay for classification of iNKT cell activating glycolipids

Structural variants of α-galactosylceramide (αGC) that activate invariant natural killer T cells (iNKT cells) are being developed as potential immunomodulatory agents for a variety of applications. Identification of specific forms of these glycolipids that bias responses to favor production of proinflammatory vs anti-inflammatory cytokines is central to current efforts, but this goal has been hampered by the lack of in vitro screening assays that reliably predict the in vivo biological activity of these compounds. Here we describe a fluorescence-based assay to identify functionally distinct αGC analogues. Our assay is based on recent findings showing that presentation of glycolipid antigens by CD1d molecules localized to plasma membrane detergent-resistant microdomains (lipid rafts) is correlated with induction of interferon-γ secretion and Th1-biased cytokine responses. Using an assay that measures lipid raft residency of CD1d molecules loaded with αGC, we screened a library of ～200 synthetic αGC analogues and identified 19 agonists with potential Th1-biasing activity. Analysis of a subset of these novel candidate Th1 type agonists in vivo in mice confirmed their ability to induce systemic cytokine responses consistent with a Th1 type bias. These results demonstrate the predictive value of this novel in vitro assay for assessing the in vivo functionality of glycolipid agonists and provide the basis for a relatively simple high-throughput assay for identification and functional classification of iNKT cell activating glycolipids.     

Iodine-catalyzed formation of aza-dienes: a novel synthesis of angularly fused hexahydropyrano- and furo[3,2-c]quinoline derivatives

In situ generated aza-diene, from N-[methyl-N-(trimethylsilyl)methyl]aniline in the presence of a catalytic amount of molecular iodine undergoes smooth [4+2] cycloaddition with electron-rich enol ethers, such as 3,4-dihydro-2H-pyran and 2,3-dihydrofuran under mild and neutral conditions to afford the corresponding hexahydropyrano- and furo[3,2-c]quinoline derivatives, respectively, in good yields with cis-selectivity.     

Ab-initio study of electronic and elastic properties of B2-type ductile YM (M=Cu, Zn and Ag) intermetallics

A theoretical study of structural, electronic, elastic, thermal and mechanical properties of nonmagnetic intermetallics YM (M=Cu, Zn and Ag), which crystallize in CsCl-type structure, is performed using first principles density functional theory based on full potential linearized augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) method. The calculations are carried out within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) for the exchange correlation potential. The calculated ground state properties such as lattice constants, bulk modulus and elastic constants agree well with the experiment. From energy dispersion curves, it is found that these compounds are metallic in nature. The ductility of these intermetallics is determined by calculating the bulk to shear ratio B/G_H. The calculated results indicate that YAg is the most ductile amongst the present YM compounds. The results obtained are compared with the available experimental and theoretical results. The mechanical and thermal properties are predicted from the calculated values of elastic constants.