Thermal and microwave-assisted N-formylation using solid-supported reagents

A rapid and easy route to formamides by microwave assisted N-formylation of primary and secondary amines is described. Using an insoluble polymer or an inorganic solid-supported reagent as a formylating agent, microwave irradiation furnished the corresponding formamides in high yields, with reduced reaction time and solvent volume over the conventional approach.     

Synthesis and 13C-NMR spectroscopic investigations of rhamnobioses

A convenient method has been developed for the synthesis of all mono- and di-O-benzyl ethers of methyl α-L-rhamnopyranoside applying a new stereoselective method for the hydrogenolytic ring-cleavage of benzylidene acetals. Using the prepared dibenzyl ethers as aglycones, the (1→2)-, (1→3)- and (l→4)-linked rhamnosyl-rhamnose derivatives (13–15) were synthesised. Hydrogenolysis of the latter compounds and subsequent acetylation gave the pentaacetates (16–18) of methyl dirhamnosides, which on saponification furnished the free methyl dirhamnosides (19–21). Acetolysis of 16–18 gave the corresponding dirhamnose-hexaacetates which were transformed into the three disaccharides by saponification. The structure of each product was investigated by ¹³C-NMR spectroscopy, and for the purpose of ¹³C-NMR studies the mono-O-methyl ethers of methyl α-L-rhamnopyranoside, the diacetates and di-O-benzyl ethers of the latter compounds, and, also the diacetates of methyl α-L-rhamnopyranoside were synthesised.It has been established that, for ¹³C-NMR investigations of oligosaccharides, the benzyl ethers of monosaccharides are more suitable model compounds than the currently used monosaccharide methyl ethers.     

Heterologous expression and characterization of recombinant phytochrome from the green alga Mougeotia scalaris

The full-length apoprotein (124 kDa) and the chromophore-binding N-terminal half (66 kDa) of the phytochrome of the unicellular green alga Mougeotia scalaris have been heterologously expressed in the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris. Assembly with the tetrapyrrole phycocyanobilin (PCB) yielded absorption maxima (for the full-length protein) at 646 and 720 nm for red- and far-red absorbing forms of phytochrome (Pr and Pfr), respectively, whereas the maxima of the N-terminal 66 kDa domain are slightly blueshifted (639 and 714 nm, Pr and Pfr, respectively). Comparison with an action spectrum reported earlier gives evidence that in Mougeotia, as formerly reported for the green alga Mesotaenium caldariorum, PCB constitutes the genuine chromophore. The full-length protein, when converted into its Pfr form and kept in the dark, reverted rapidly into the Pr form (lifetimes of 1 and 24 min, ambient temperature), whereas the truncated chromopeptide (66 kDa construct) was more stable and converted into Pr with time constants of 18 and 250 min. Also, time-resolved analysis of the light-induced Pfr formation revealed clear differences between both recombinant chromoproteins in the various steps involved. The full-length phytochrome showed slower kinetics in the long milliseconds-to-seconds time domain (with dominant Pfr formation processes of ca 130 and 800 ms), whereas for the truncated phytochrome the major component of Pfr formation had a lifetime of 32 ms.     

A highly stable short alpha-helix constrained by a main-chain hydrogen-bond surrogate

Herein we describe a strategy for the preparation of artificial alpha-helices involving replacement of one of the main-chain hydrogen bonds with a covalent linkage. To mimic the C=O...H-N hydrogen bond as closely as possible, we envisioned a covalent bond of the type C=X-Y-N, where X and Y are two carbon atoms connected through an olefin metathesis reaction. Our results demonstrate that the replacement of a hydrogen bond between the i and i + 4 residues at the N-terminus of a short peptide with a carbon-carbon bond results in a highly stable constrained alpha-helix at physiological conditions as indicated by CD and NMR spectroscopies. The advantage of this strategy is that it allows access to short alpha-helices with strict preservation of molecular recognition surfaces required for biomolecular interactions.     

Thermal conductivity of the urea-hexadecane inclusion compound

The thermal conductivity and the heat capacity per unit volumec _p have been measured for the urea-hexadecane inclusion compound using the transient hot-wire method. Measurements were made under isobaric conditions at a pressure of 0.1 GPa and in the temperature range of 100–300 K. There was evidence for a phase transition at a temperature of about 160 K, in reasonable agreement with previous work. For the high-temperature phase was independent of temperature within ±1%. The low-temperature phase showed a weak temperature dependence, with (d In/d InT) _p = –0.13. It was inferred that interaction between acoustic phonons and low-frequency vibrational excitations of the guest molecules made a major contribution to the thermal resistivity. For the quantityc _p a weak maximum was observed in the region of the phase transition temperature.Dedicated to Dr D. W. Davidson in honor of his great contributions to the sciences of inclusion phenomena.     

Vectorization of a classical trajectory code on a floating point systems,Inc. Model 164 attached processor

A triatomic classical trajectory code has been modified by extensive vectorization of the algorithms to achieve much improved performance on an FPS 164 attached processor. Extensive timings on both the FPS 164 and a VAX 11/780 with floating point accelerator are presented as a function of the number of trajectories simultaneously run. The timing tests involve a potential energy surface of the LEPS variety and trajectories with 1000 time steps. The results indicate that vectorization results in timing improvements on both the VAX and the FPS. For larger numbers of trajectories run simultaneously, up to a factor of 25 improvement in speed occurs between VAX and FPS vectorized code.     

α,ω-Diisocyanatocarbodiimides, -Polycarbodiimides,and Their Derivatives

Research in the field of low-molecular weight, oligomeric and polymeric α,ω-diisocyanatocarbodiimides and -polycarbodiimides has been fruitful, not only in connection with these compounds themselves, but also—as so often happens in chemistry—with quite different problems. Novel synthetic methods, discoveries concerning the properties of low-molecular weight carbodiimides and phosphane imide derivatives, as well as results on the fragmentation reactions of four-membered heterocyclic compounds containing oxygen, phosphorus, and nitrogen, and a better understanding of the diisocyanate polyaddition process are among the many by-products of this research. The “high- and low-temperature formation” of polycarbodiimides and the homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis of this process are described, and the fundamental importance of four-membered ring fragmentation mechanisms resulting in the formation of phosphane imide derivatives is outlined. Interesting building blocks for the diisocyanate polyaddition and polycondensation processes can be synthesized by many derivatization reactions of oligomeric and high-molecular weight polycarbodiimides and polyuretonimines. The in situ production of polycarbodiimides via matrix reactions in flexible polyurethane foams leads to a cellular arrangement of the material due to the pronounced symmetrical growth processes. Combination-foams with increased carbonation tendencies are formed in this way. Attention is drawn to several industrial applications of α,ω-diisocyanatopolycarbodiimides, of high-molecular weight cross-linked polyuretonimines, and of polycarbodiimide foams.     

New pressure-density-temperature measurements and new rational equations for the saturated liquid and vapour densities of oxygen

The results of pressure, density, temperature (p, ?, T) measurements in the temperature range from 65 K to 300 K, for pressures up to 7.2 MPa, and for densities from 0.3 mol dm^?3 to 39 mol dm^?3, are presented for pure oxygen. Using the experimental results, new values for the densities of saturated liquid and vapour are evaluated. To check the accuracy of these results, corresponding sets reported in the literature are critically analysed to determine the most reliable p, ?, T set for oxygen. Finally, new equations for the densities of saturated liquid and vapour are developed using a statistical procedure.     

Synthesis,renal vasodilator and dopamine-sensitive adenylate cyclase activities of O-Methyl derivatives of 6-chloro-2,3,4,5-tetr ahydro-1-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-1H-3-benzazepin-7,8-diol (SK&F 82526)

The three possible mono-O-methyl derivatives of 6-chloro-2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-1-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-1H-3-benzazepin-7,8-diol (SK&F 82526) ( 1 ) have been synthesized to facilitate the isolation and characterization of metabolites of this compound and for biological testing. The syntheses generally involved preparation of appropriately substituted benzaldehydes, conversion of these to phenylacetic acids and use of these to N-acylate arylethanolamines. The phenylacetamides thus formed were reduced to amines and these were deprotected and cyclized to the desired final products. In one case deprotection followed cyclization. These compounds were tested as activators of dopamine-sensitive adenylate cyclase (a measure of DA-1 agonist activity) and as renal vasodilators. All three O-methyl derivatives were much less potent than 1 in cyclase activation and as renal vasodilators. Weak inhibition of adenyl cyclase was also observed for all three compounds and one showed weak renal vasoconstrictor activity. Preliminary investigation of the metabolism of 1 disclosed that two of the three monomethoxy compounds were formed in trace amounts in the rat and the dog. In a related investigation, the trimethoxy derivative of 1 was subjected to acid-catalyzed hydrolysis conditions. The relative ease of cleavage of methoxy groups was 7 > > 4′ > 8.     

TreeDock: a tool for protein docking based on minimizing van der Waals energies

Predicting protein-protein and protein-ligand docking remains one of the challenging topics of structural biology. The main problems are (i) to reliably estimate the binding free energies of docked states, (ii) to enumerate possible docking orientations at a high resolution, and (iii) to consider mobility of the docking surfaces and structural rearrangements upon interaction. Here we present a novel algorithm, TreeDock, that addresses the enumeration problem in a rigid-body docking search. By representing molecules as multidimensional binary search trees and by exploring a sufficient number of docking orientations such that two chosen atoms, one from each molecule, are always in contact, TreeDock is able to explore all clash-free orientations at very fine resolution in a reasonable amount of time. Due to the speed of the program, many contact pairs can be examined to search partial or complete surface areas. The deterministic systematic search of TreeDock is in contrast to most other docking programs that use stochastic searches such as Monte Carlo or simulated annealing methods. At this point, we have used the Lennard-Jones potential as the only scoring function and show that this can predict the correct docked conformation for a number of protein-protein and protein-ligand complexes. The program is most powerful if some information is known about the location of binding faces from NMR chemical-shift perturbation studies, orientation information from residual dipolar coupling, or mutational screening. The approach has the potential to include docking-site mobility by performing molecular dynamics or other randomization methods of the docking site and docking families to families of structures. The performance of the algorithm is demonstrated by docking three complexes of immunoglobulin superfamily domains, CD2 to CD58, the V(alpha) domain of a T-cell receptor to its V(beta) domain, and a T-cell receptor to a pMHC complex as well as a small molecule inhibitor to a phosphatase.