A collaborative hit-to-lead investigation leveraging medicinal chemistry expertise with high throughput library design, synthesis and purification capabilities

High throughput screening (HTS) campaigns, where laboratory automation is used to expose biological targets to large numbers of materials from corporate compound collections, have become commonplace within the lead generation phase of pharmaceutical discovery. Advances in genomics and related fields have afforded a wealth of targets such that screening facilities at larger organizations routinely execute over 100 hit-finding campaigns per year. Often, 10(5) or 10(6) molecules will be tested within a campaign/cycle to locate a large number of actives requiring follow-up investigation. Due to resource constraints at every organization, traditional chemistry methods for validating hits and developing structure activity relationships (SAR) become untenable when challenged with hundreds of hits in multiple chemical families per target. To compound the issue, comparison and prioritization of hits versus multiple screens, or physical chemical property criteria, is made more complex by the informatics issues associated with handling large data sets. This article describes a collaborative research project designed to simultaneously leverage the medicinal chemistry and drug development expertise of the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research Inc. (NIBRI) and ArQule Inc.'s high throughput library design, synthesis and purification capabilities. The work processes developed by the team to efficiently design, prepare, purify, assess and prioritize multiple chemical classes that were identified during high throughput screening, cheminformatics and molecular modeling activities will be detailed.     

An extended chain structure formed by covalently linking polyoxovanadate cages with tetrahedral six rings

The compound Cs10.5[(V16O40)(Si4.5V1.5O10)].3.5H2O is the first example of an extended structure in which a polyoxometallate anion is linked by an extended tetrahedral unit.     

Direct electrochemical redox of tyrosinase at silver electrodes

The direct electron transfer reactions between tyrosinase and silver electrode were investigated by using cyclic voltammetry and potential-step chronoamperometry as well as current-step chronopotentiometry techniques. The kinetics of these reactions is quasi-reversible with two electron transfer reactions and 0.030 s(-1) apparent electrode reaction rate constant. The results demonstrate that neither electrode surface modification nor the inclusion of mediators is necessary to study the electron transfer reactions of tyrosinase at silver electrodes. Moreover, both the anodic and the cathodic currents are linear relationship with the tyrosinase concentration in the range of 1 x 10(-9) approximately 5 x 10(-8)moll(-1). It is possible to be used as a method of analyzing tyrosinase concentration.     

Fragmentation of wastewater sludge floc by planar ice front

Floc size has substantial impact on sludge dewaterability, which might be increased or reduced after freezing and thawing. It is commonly assumed that floc size would be increased by low-speed freezing, with a planar ice front rejecting most flocs ahead of it to form large aggregates. We demonstrate in this work that an advancing planar ice front can not only engulf an activated sludge floc of size 3030 mum, but also fragment it. During floc freezing, when the ice engulfed a thin layer of floc, the latter would be pulled apart vertically by the action of the former. This particular portion of floc was then axially elongated and fixed in the frozen layer, with accumulated force pushing upward. In the present test the floc's vertical length was increased by over 92% and its width decreased by 37% over freezing. The force measurement and floc morphology tracking revealed that the force gradient that pulled apart the floc was 0.0027 N/m. The floc under investigation was fragmented at the point where the normal stress acting on the interior network exceeded 8 Pa.     

Advances in coupling a commercial total organic carbon analyser with an isotope ratio mass spectrometer to determine the isotopic signal of the total dissolved nitrogen pool

A new method has been developed to analyse 15N of the total dissolved nitrogen (TDN) pool. The method operates on a commercial total organic carbon (TOC) analyser coupled to an elemental analyser/isotope ratio mass spectrometer (EA-IRMS). Nitrogen compounds are combusted to nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) by high-temperature catalytic oxidation (HTCO), after which the NOx gas is transferred to an EA-IRMS for isotopic nitrogen analysis. The system is described, including five modifications of the system in order to overcome analytical problems. First, flow paths were modified to run both systems on helium as carrier gas, while complete sample oxidation was maintained. Secondly, the catalyst structure was adapted to allow high injection volumes at the given backpressures delivered by the EA system. Thirdly, we installed a Permapure dehumidification system as the standard Peltier element did not satisfy dehumidification requirements. Finally, we prevented the inflow of atmospheric nitrogen into the system. In a final stage, we are planning to automate the coupled system in order to run a continuous batch of up to 60 samples. We have obtained satisfactory results on the accuracy and precision of 180+/-1 per thousand potassium nitrate samples (IAEA, USGS-32). Running a batch of five samples resulted in a mean isotopic value of 178.8 per thousand with a standard deviation of 2.8 per thousand. Some important issues could not yet be addressed here, and will have to be evaluated once the system is running on a continuous base. However, the results appear promising and this system has the potential to become a method for TD15N analysis. An appropriate TD15N analysis method might open new challenges in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem nitrogen studies, including a more comprehensive study of the dissolved organic nitrogen pool.     

A novel three-dimensional pillared-layer hybrid zinc phosphite featuring double-helical channels

A new zinc phosphite (C₂H₈N₂)_0.5(HPO₃)Zn has been hydrothermally synthesized from a mixture of ZnO, H₃PO₃, 4,4’-bipyridine, ethylenediamine, and H₂O. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis reveals that the Zn ions are first interconnected by HPO₃ ²- ligands to produce a neutrally infinite two-dimensional inorganic layer with four- and eight-membered rings, which is further used as the second building units and helically pillared by bridging ethylenediamine molecules to form the scarcely reported three-dimensional pillared-layer hybrid zinc phosphite with double-helical channels due to the flexibility of the ethylenediamine ligands.     

Synthesis and characterization of a novel complex [Pd(Bipy)2](Bpcc) · 11H2O

The complex [Pd(Bipy)₂](Bpcc) · 11H₂O has been synthesized and characterized (Bipy = 2,2′-bipyridyl, H₂Bpcc = 4,4′-biphenylcarboxylic acid). The supramolecular architecture was constructed through hydrogen bonding and π-π-stacking. The Pd atom is four-coordinated and forms a distorted square geometry. The free H₂O molecules form 1D infinite zigzag chains of water cluster, while the water cluster and Bpcc^2? form an organic-water framework.     

A highly efficient synthetic method for the preparation of 3,4-dimethylbenzaldehyde from o-xylene in aqueous media

In this study, 3,4-dimethylbenzaldehyde was obtained in 82.3% total yield by oxidation of 3,4-dimethylbenzyl chloride with NaNO₃/AcOH catalyzed by PEG-600 in aqueous media. The starting material 3,4-dimethylbenzyl chloride was prepared by chloromethylation of o-xylene in CTAB micellar catalytic system. Compared with other synthetic methods, this method not only enhanced the yield, but also afforded an efficient work-up procedure. The structures of the products were confirmed by Elemental analysis, ¹H NMR and ¹³C NMR or compared with authentic samples.     

Syntheses and crystal structures of nine-coordinate K2[EuIII(dtpa)(H2O)]·5H2O and Na2[TbIII(Httha)]·6H2O complexes

The title complexes, K₂[Eu^III(dtpa)(H₂O)]·5H₂O (H₅dtpa = diethylenetriamine-N,N,N′,N″,N″-pentaacetic acid), Na₂[Tb^III(Httha)]·6H₂O (H₆ttha = triethylenetetramine-N,N,N′,N′,N″,N″-hexaacetic acid), were prepared, and their compositions and structures were determined by elemental analyses and single-crystal X-ray diffraction techniques. The crystal of K₂[Eu^III(dtpa)(H₂O)]·5H₂O belongs to triclinic crystal system and $ P\bar 1 $ P\bar 1 space group. The crystal data are as follows: a = 8.3540(17), b = 10.147(2), c = 15.059(3) α = 84.63(3)?, β = 82.02(3)°, γ = 83.96(3)°, V = 1253.1(4)?³, Z = 2, R = 0.0325 and wR = 0.1013 for 4407 observed reflections with I ≥ 2σ(I). The [Eu^III(dtpa)(H₂O)]²⁻ has a nine-coordinate pseudo-monocapped square antiprismatic structure, in which the nine coordinate atoms, three N and six O are from one dtpa ligand and one water molecule. The crystal of the Na2[Tb^III(Httha)]·6H₂O belongs to monoclinic system and P2₁/c space group. The crystal data are as follows: a = 10.3976(10), b = 12.7908(13), c = 23.199(2) ? = 90.914(2)°, V = 3084.9(5)?³, Z = 4, R = 0.0309 and wR = 0.0704 for 5429 observed reflections with I ≥ 2σ(I). In the [Tb^III(Httha)]²⁻, the Tb³⁺ ion is nine-coordinated yielding a pseudo-monocapped square antiprismatic conformation, in which the ttha ligand coordinates to the central Tb³⁺ ion with four N atoms and five O atoms. There is a free non-coordinate carboxyl group (−CH₂COOH) that can be modified by some biological molecules having target function.     

Effect of flow rate on the sorption breakthrough behaviors of uranium(VI), phosphate,and fulvic acid onto a silica column

Five column experiments have been carried out to investigate the effect of flow rate on the breakthrough curves (BTCs) of phosphate, fulvic acid, and uranium(VI) onto a silica column. Both BTCs of phosphate and fulvic acid, and three BTCs of uranium(VI) in the presence and absence of phosphate or fulvic acid at high flow rate published in the previous paper [1] were compared with corresponding initial parts of BTCs at low flow rate in this paper. Each BTC in this paper was expressed as both C/C_o–t and C/C_o–V/V_o plots, where C and C_o are the concentrations in the influent and the effluent respectively, t and V are the time and the effluent volume from the start of injection of pulse solution respectively, V_o is the pore volume of the SiO₂ column. Based on the experimental results and the relationship among V, t, and flow rate F, it was found that there are advantages to using C/C_o–V/V_o plot as BTC to study the effect of flow rate. Based on these comparisons of C/C_o–V/V_o plots at different flow rates and the theoretical analysis from the Bohart–Adams sorption model, it was found that the right shift (increase in V/V_o of breakthrough), the left shift (decrease in V/V_o of breakthrough), and the non-shift (non-change in V/V_o of breakthrough) of initial parts of BTCs with increasing flow rate are certain to occur instead of only left shift and that three different trends of shifts can be mainly attributed to different rate-controlling mechanisms of sorption process.