Synthesis of bicyclic pyrimidine derivatives as ATP analogues

A highly efficient and general solid-phase synthesis of bicyclic pyrimidine derivatives that target purine dependent proteins is reported. The synthesis of the key intermediate, 4,6-disubstituted-5-amino-pyrimidine, involved reduction of the corresponding nitro derivatives using 1,1'-dioctyl-viologen in a triphasic milieu. The mild reduction conditions enable the use of any acid labile solid support as well as a wide range of combinatorial substituents, thus enabling the synthesis of large libraries of highly diverse bicyclic pyrimidines. Alternative reduction conditions with tin(II) chloride and structure-reactivity studies are discussed as well.     

Catalytic enantioselective synthesis of macrodiolides and their application in chiral recognition

New types of C₂-symmetric chiral macrodiolides are readily obtained via chiral N,N′-dioxide-scandium(iii) complex-promoted asymmetric tandem Friedel–Crafts alkylation/intermolecular macrolactonization of ortho-quinone methides with C3-substituted indoles. This protocol provides an array of enantioenriched macrodiolides with 16, 18 or 20-membered rings in moderate to good yields with high diastereoselectivities and excellent enantioselectivities through adjusting the length of the tether at the C3 position of indoles. Density functional theory calculations indicate that the formation of macrocycles is more favorable than that of 9-membered-ring lactones in terms of kinetics and thermodynamics. The potential utility of these intriguing chiral macrodiolide molecules is demonstrated in the enantiomeric recognition of aminols and chemical recognition of metal ions.

An asymmetric tandem Friedel–Crafts alkylation/intermolecular macrolactonization of ortho-quinone methides with C3-substituted indoles was achieved by using a chiral N,N′-dioxide-scandium(iii) complex.     

Rapid separation and laser-induced fluorescence detection of mutated DNA by capillary electrophoresis in a self-coating, low-viscosity polymer matrix

The detection of point and other simple mutations in DNA is important for cancer research and diagnosis and other biological studies. Capillary electrophoresis has been successfully used for separating DNA fragments. However, a low-viscosity polymer sieving buffer for DNA separation with on-line coating has never been reported. In this paper, a new method using capillary electrophoresis with on-line coating and laser-induced fluorescence detection (CE-LIF) for screening for point or simple DNA mutations has been demonstrated. The method uses an on-line dynamic coating technique that increases capillary lifetime and analysis reproducibility, and employs a low-viscosity polymer solution, which allows the user to rinse the capillary rapidly and refill with polymer solution easily. Experiments proved that the additives in the separation buffer for on-line capillary coating do not affect the separation efficiency of the running buffer, and do not interfere with the formation of hydrogen-bonded network between boric acid, mannitol and hydroxypropylmethylcellulose polymers. The stability of the dynamically coated capillary was quantitatively studied; the capillary lifetime was increased 6- to 7-fold compared with that of permanently coated CE columns. Standard DNA fragments containing mutations, with sizes of 209, 219, and 338 bps, were successfully separated and detected with this system, after the mutated DNA fragments were cleaved by CEL-I endonuclease. The technique is very sensitive for the size-separation of low-range, middle-range, and high-range DNA fragments. Results were compared with the HPLC methods developed by Transgenomic, Inc. and were in good agreement. The method should be applicable to mutation detection for all relevant biological and clinical studies. The factors influencing separations and the stability of dynamic capillary coatings are also discussed in the paper.     

Three-state 2',7'-difluorofluorescein excited-state proton transfer reactions in moderately acidic and very acidic media

2',7'-Difluorofluorescein (Oregon Green 488, OG488) is a novel fluorescein dye derivative which presents important advantages for improving the fluorimetric applications in the biomedical and biochemical sciences. In aqueous solution it displays four prototropic forms, namely cation (C), neutral (N), monoanion (M), and dianion (D). In previous works, we found (J. Phys. Chem. A 2005, 109, 734-747, 2840-2846) that OG488 undergoes excited-state proton transfer reactions, which may affect the results from applications using this dye. We established that the excited-state proton transfer (ESPT) reactions between neutral, monoanionic, and dianionic forms of OG488 are promoted by acetate buffer, and we characterized the ground and excited species involved. We also solved the kinetics of the prototropic reactions using global compartmental analysis. In the present paper, we extend our study on the ESPT reactions of OG488 to acidic media, in which only the three prototropic species cation, neutral, and monoanion coexist. We have solved the kinetics of the three-state ESPT reaction by means of global three-compartmental analysis of a fluorescence decay surface in moderately acidic media (pH between 1.1 and 3.0), recovering the kinetic and spectral parameters of this three-state system. This system is one of the most complex solved to date, due to the strong overlap of the absorption and emission spectra of the neutral and monoanionic forms of OG488. We also found that the cation behaves as "super" photoacid, showing a very high deprotonation rate constant (1.04 x 10(11) s(-1)) and an enhanced acidity. Therefore, we also carried out experiments at very high perchloric acid concentrations, dealing with some other effects which become noteworthy at these [H(+)]. The presence of xanthylium cation quenching due to "free" water molecules, and the reduction in the amount of water clusters acting as proton acceptors, are processes which alter notably the time course of the excited-species in this high [H(+)] range.     

A nanoscale vesicular polydiacetylene sensor for organic amines by fluorescence recovery

We report a nanoscale lipid membrane-based sensor of conjugated polydiacetylene (PDA) vesicles for fluorescence detection of organic amines. The vesicle sensor was constructed by incorporation of a BODIPY fluorescent dye into the PDA vesicles. The fluorescent properties of the resulting vesicles can be manipulated by adjusting lipid components, and are controlled by environmental and solution conditions. The fluorescence of the BODIPY dye was significantly quenched in the polymerization of diacetylene lipid vesicles by a UV irradiation process. However, it was sufficiently recovered by external stimuli such as a hike of solution pH. The fluorescence recovery process was reversible, and a decrease in solution pH resulted in repeated quenching. The reported system transforms an external stimulus into a large fluorescence intensity change, demonstrating great potential in developing new signal reporting method for biosensor design. The quench-recovery phenomenon of the BODIPY-PDA is believed to be related to the energy transfer between the dye and the PDA conjugate backbone. The vesicle sensor was applied for detecting an organic amine, triethylamine (TEA) and a large linear relationship was obtained between the increase in fluorescence intensity and the concentrations of TEA. The detection limit of TEA by vesicle sensors using fluorescence recovery was found to be 10 μM.     

Rapid and sensitive method for determining free amino acids in honey by gas chromatography with flame ionization or mass spectrometric detection

This paper describes a rapid, sensitive and specific method for determination of free amino acids in honey involving a new reaction of derivatization and gas chromatography (GC) with flame ionization (FID) and mass spectrometric (MS) detection. The method allows the determination of 22 free amino acids in honey samples in a short time: 8 and 5 min for GC-FID and GC-MS, respectively. Quantitation was performed using Norvaline as internal standard, with detection limits ranging between 0.112 and 1.795 mg/L by GC-FID and between 0.001 and 0.291 mg/L by GC-MS in the selected-ion monitoring mode. The method was validated and applied to a set of 74 honey samples belonging to four different botanical origins: eucaliptus, rosemary, orange and heather. The statistical treatment of data shows a correct classification of different origins over 90%.     

Synthesis of Optically Active P‐Chiral and Optically Inactive Oligophosphines

A series of optically active P‐chiral oligophosphines (S,R,R,S)‐ 2 , (S,R,S,S,R,S)‐ 3 , (S,R,S,R,R,S,R,S)‐ 4 , and (S,R,S,R,S,R,R,S,R,S,R,S)‐ 5 with four, six, eight, and 12 chiral phosphorus atoms, respectively, were successfully synthesized by a step‐by‐step oxidative‐coupling reaction from (S,S)‐ 1 . The corresponding optically inactive oligophosphines 1′ – 5′ were also prepared. Their properties were characterized by DSC, XRD, and optical‐rotation analyses. While optically active bisphosphine (S,S)‐ 1 and tetraphosphine (S,R,R,S)‐ 2 behaved as small molecules, octaphosphine (S,R,S,R,R,S,R,S)‐ 4 and dodecaphosphine (S,R,S,R,S,R,R,S,R,S,R,S)‐ 5 exhibited the features of a polymer. Furthermore, DSC and XRD analyses showed that hexaphosphine (S,R,S,S,R,S)‐ 3 is an intermediate between a small molecule and a polymer. Comparison of optically active oligophosphines 1 – 5 with the corresponding optically inactive oligophosphines 1′ – 5′ revealed that the optically active phosphines have higher crystallinity than the optically inactive counterparts. It is considered that the properties of oligophosphines depend on the enantiomeric purity as well as the oligomer chain length.     

Anion and Additive Effects on the Structure of Mercury(II) Halides Complexes with Tripodal Ligand

The metal complexes [Hg₂(tbim)₂Br₄]·2DMF ( 1 ) and [Hg₂(tbim)I₄]·1.5DMF ( 2 ) were prepared by reactions of 1,3,5‐tris(benzimidazol‐1‐ylmethyl)‐2,4,6‐trimethylbenzene (tbim) with HgBr₂, HgI₂, respectively, and [Hg₂(tbim)I₄]·0.5(FeCp₂)·H₂O ( 3 ) was obtained by the same method with addition of ferrocene (FeCp₂) as additive. Their structures were determined by X‐ray crystallographic analyses. Complex 1 has a macrocyclic binuclear structure with one benzimidazole arm of the ligand free of coordination and the binuclear units are further connected by C‐H···N hydrogen bonds to give an infinite zigzag chain. Complexes 2 and 3 have a 2D network structure in which tbim serves as a tridentate ligand. The results showed that the halides of bromide and iodide have remarkable impact on the structure of the complexes. The FeCp₂ molecules are trapped in the voids of framework 3 .     

Speciation of inorganic arsenic by electrochemical hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry

A simple procedure was developed for the speciation of inorganic arsenic by electrochemical hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry (EcHG–AAS), without pre-reduction of As(V). Glassy carbon was selected as cathode material in the flow cell. An optimum catholyte concentration for simultaneous generation of arsine from As(III) and As(V) was 0.06 mol l⁻¹ H₂SO₄. Under the optimized conditions, adequate sensitivity and difference in ratio of slopes of the calibration curves for As(III) and As(V) can be achieved at the electrolytic currents of 0.6 and 1 A. The speciation of inorganic arsenic can be performed by controlling the electrolytic currents, and the concentration of As(III) and As(V) in the sample can be calculated according to the equations of absorbance additivity obtained at two selected electrolytic currents. The calibration curves were linear up to 50 ng ml⁻¹ for both As(III) and As(V) at 0.6 and 1 A. The detection limits of the method were 0.2 and 0.5 ng ml⁻¹ for As(III) and As(V) at 0.6 A, respectively. The relative standard deviations were of 2.1% for 20 ng ml⁻¹ As(III) and 2.5% for 20 ng ml⁻¹ As(V). The method was validated by the analysis of human hair certified reference material and successfully applied to speciation of soluble inorganic arsenic in Chinese medicine.