Syntheses of nucleosides with 2′-spirolactam and 2′-spiropyrrolidine moieties as potential inhibitors of hepatitis C virus NS5B polymerase

To discover novel nucleosides as potential antiviral agents, 2′-spirolactam and 2′-spiropyrrolidine-containing nucleoside analogs were envisioned. Efficient synthetic routes were developed with an epoxide opening as the key step to establish the quaternary center at the 2′ position, leading to the design and synthesis of uridine analogs 8 and 21, prodrugs 13–16, and cytidine analog 11.     

Syntheses of 4′-spirocyclic phosphono-nucleosides as potential inhibitors of hepatitis C virus NS5B polymerase

To discover novel nucleosides as potential antiviral agents, 4′-spirocyclic phosphono-nucleosides were designed to mimic the monophosphate of R-1479, a known nucleoside inhibitor of HCV NS5B. Bypassing the first kinase step to nucleoside monophosphate is viewed as advantageous since this phosphorylation is often observed as the rate-limiting transformation to the active NTP for many nucleosides. Efficient synthetic routes were developed with a triphenylphosphine–iodine cyclization reaction as the key step to form the tetrahydrofuran 4′-spirocycle. The desired 4′-spirocyclic phosphono-cytidine analogs 12a, 12b, and 16 were prepared in 11 steps.     

Validated LC–MS/MS method for quantitation of a selective JAK1 inhibitor,filgotinib in rat plasma,and its application to a pharmacokinetic study in rats

Filgotinib is a selective JAK1 (Janus kinase) inhibitor, filed in Japan for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. In this paper, we report a validated liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry for the quantification of filgotinib in rat plasma using tofacitinib as an internal standard (IS) as per the Food and Drug Administration regulatory guidelines. Filgotinib and the IS were extracted from rat plasma using ethyl acetate as an extraction solvent and chromatographed using an isocratic mobile phase (0.2% formic acid:acetonitrile; 20:80, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.9 mL/min on a Gemini C₁₈ column. Filgotinib and the IS were eluted at ~1.31 and 0.89 min, respectively. The MS/MS ion transitions monitored were m/z 426.3 → 291.3 and m/z 313.2 → 149.2 for filgotinib and the IS, respectively. The calibration range was 0.78–1924 ng/mL. No matrix effect and carryover were observed. Intra- and inter-day accuracies and precisions were within the acceptance range. Filgotinib was stable for three freeze–thaw cycles: on bench-top up to 6 h, in an autosampler up to 21 h, and at −80 ° C for 1 month. This novel method has been applied to a pharmacokinetic study in rats.     

Enantioselective LC–ESI–MS/MS method for quantitation of (−)-lumefantrine and (+)-lumefantrine in mice plasma and application to a pharmacokinetic study

We developed and validated a simple, sensitive, selective, and reliable LC–MS/MS–ESI method for the direct quantitation of lumefantrine (LFN) enantiomers [(−)-LFN and (+)-LFN] in mice plasma as per regulatory guideline. LFN enantiomers and carbamazepine (internal standard) were extracted from mice plasma using Strata X SPE (solid-phase extraction) cartridges. Good resolution between enantiomers was achieved on a Chiralpak IA-3 column using an isocratic mobile phase (0.1% of diethyl amine in methanol), which was delivered at a flow rate of 0.8 mL/min. Detection and quantitation were performed using multiple reaction monitoring mode following the transitions m/z 530.27 → 512.30 and 237.00 → 194.00 for LFN enantiomers and the internal standard, respectively, in the positive-ionization mode. The proposed method provided accurate and reproducible results over the linearity range of 2.39–895 ng/mL for each enantiomer. The intra- and inter-day precisions were in the range of 1.03–6.14 and 6.36–8.70 and 2.03–4.88 and 5.82–11.5 for (−)-LFN and (+)-LFN, respectively. Both (−)-LFN and (+)-LFN were found to be stable under different stability conditions. The method was successfully used to delineate stereoselective pharmacokinetics of LFN enantiomers in mice after an oral administration of rac-LFN (20 mg/kg). The pharmacokinetic results indicated that the disposition of LFN enantiomers was stereoselective in mice.     

Metal carbonyl-promoted reactions of ferrocenylacetylene with sulfur to form thiophene, dithiine, thioketone and vinylthioketone derivatives

Photolysis of a hexane solution of ferrocenylacetylene and sulfur powder in presence of Cr(CO)₆ resulted in the formation of 2,6-diferrocenyldithiine and 2,5-diferrocenylthiophene. Similar reactions with Mo(CO)₆ or W(CO)₆ gave only the thiophene derivative. Formation of ferrocenyl-substituted thioketone complexes was observed in the reaction of ferrocenylacetylene with water and sulfur, in presence of W(CO)₆. Use of D₂O confirmed water as source of protons for the conversion of acetylenic CH to CH₃.     

Information-theoretic approaches to SVM feature selection for metagenome read classification

Analysis of DNA sequences isolated directly from the environment, known as metagenomics, produces a large quantity of genome fragments that need to be classified into specific taxa. Most composition-based classification methods use all features instead of a subset of features that may maximize classifier accuracy. We show that feature selection methods can boost performance of taxonomic classifiers. This work proposes three different filter-based feature selection methods that stem from information theory: (1) a technique that combines Kullback-Leibler, Mutual Information, and distance information, (2) a text mining technique, TF-IDF, and (3) minimum redundancy-maximum-relevance (mRMR). The feature selection methods are compared by how well they improve support vector machine classification of genomic reads. Overall, the 6mer mRMR method performs well, especially on the phyla-level. If the number of total features is very large, feature selection becomes difficult because a small subset of features that captures a majority of the data variance is less likely to exist. Therefore, we conclude that there is a trade-off between feature set size and feature selection method to optimize classification performance. For larger feature set sizes, TF-IDF works better for finer-resolutions while mRMR performs the best out of any method for N=6 for all taxonomic levels.     

Regioselective cobalt-catalyzed addition of sulfides to unactivated alkenes

A novel method to synthesize tertiary alkyl/aryl sulfides in a mild and regioselective manner from unactivated alkenes using cobalt catalysis is described. The methodology is compatible with sensitive functionalities and is successful with several different types of alkenes and sulfides.     

Curing and thermal behaviour of DGEBA using mixture of biuret and 4,4′-diaminodiphenylsulfone

Curing behaviour of DGEBA was investigated in the presence of varying molar ratio of biuret and 4,4′-diaminodiphenylsulfone (DDS) by means of Differential scanning calorimetery. The multiple heating rate method (5, 10, 15 and 20 °C min⁻¹) was used to study the curing behaviour of epoxy resins. The peak exotherm temperature was found to be dependent on the heating rates, structure of biuret as well as on the ratios of biuret:DDS used. Ozawa method was used for calculating the activation energy of curing reaction. The thermal stability of the isothermally cured resins was evaluated by recording the thermogravimetric traces in nitrogen atmosphere. All the samples were stable up to 330 °C.     

Simple UV and visible spectrophotometric methods for the determination of doxycycline hyclate in pharmaceuticals

Doxycycline hyclate (DOX), a broad spectrum antibiotic with activity against a wide range of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, is widely used as a pharmacological agent and as an effector molecule in inducible gene expression system. Three simple, selective, rapid, accurate, precise and cost-effective spectrophotometric methods for the determination of DOX in bulk drug and in tablets have been developed and validated. First method (method A) is based on the measurement of absorbance of DOX in 0.1 M HCl at 240 nm. The second method (method B) is based on the measurement of yellow chromogen at 375 nm which is formed in 0.1 M NaOH. The third method is based on the measurement of 2: 1 complex formed between DOX and iron(III) in H₂SO₄ medium, the complex peaking at 420 nm (method C). The optimum conditions for all the three methods are optimized. Beer’s law was obeyed over the ranges 2.5–50.0, 1.50–30.0 and 10–100 g/mL for method A, method B and method C, respectively. The apparent molar absorptivity values are calculated to be 1.03 × 10⁴, 1.73 × 10⁴, and 5.21 × 10³ L mol⁻¹ cm⁻¹ for method A, method B, and method C, respectively. The Sandell sensitivity, limit of detection (LOD) and limit quantification (LOQ) values are also reported. All the methods were validated in accordance with current ICH guidelines. The developed methods were employed with high degree of precision and accuracy for the estimation of total drug content in commercial tablet formulations of DOX.     

Azopyrazolobenzylidene derivatives of 4‐amino‐1,2,4‐triazol‐3‐ones. Synthesis of 4‐{[4‐(3,5‐dimethyl‐1H‐pyrazol‐4‐yl)diazenyl]‐benzylidene}amino‐2‐aryl‐5‐methyl‐3H‐[1,2,4]‐triazol‐3‐ones

The Schiff bases 3a‐h obtained from 4‐amino‐1,2,4‐triazol‐3‐ones 1a‐h when subjected to Japp‐Klingemann reaction yielded the corresponding 3‐{2‐[(2‐aryl‐5‐methyl‐3H‐[1,2,4]‐triazol‐3‐one‐4‐yl)]‐iminophenyl}‐pentane‐2,4‐diones 4a‐h . These diones on cyclisation with N₂H₄ yielded the title compounds 5a‐h . The energetics of the Keto‐enol tautomers of the diones was calculated by semiemperical calculations using AM1 and PM3 methods. All these compounds were screened for their antimicrobial activity against few microbes and most of them exhibited fungal inhibition more than the reference drugs used.