N-Alkoxymethylation of heterocyclic compounds with diethyl phosphite via cleavage of P-O bond

N-Alkoxymethylation of heterocyclic compounds with diethyl phosphite via cleavage of P-O bond was investigated and a series of N3-ethoxymethylated heterocyclic compounds were synthesized. A mechanism in which diethyl phosphite acts as an efficient surrogate of ethanol was proposed and supported by several evidences.     

Biotransformation of a taxadiene by ginkgo cell cultures and the tumor multi-drug resistant reversal activities of the metabolites

The biotransformation of 2α,5α,10β-triacetoxy-14-oxo-taxa-4(20),11-diene (1) by cultured Gingko cells afforded four products. Their structures were identified on the basis of analyses of the chemical and spectroscopic (IR, MS, 1H- and 13C-NMR) data. Among them, 2, 3 and 5 were three new compounds, and 4 displayed potent multi-drug resistant (MDR) reversal activities to MX-1/T tumor MDR cells.     

Surface Functionalization Methods to Enhance Bioconjugation in Metal-Labeled Polystyrene Particles

Lanthanide-encoded polystyrene particles synthesized by dispersion polymerization are excellent candidates for mass cytometry based immunoassays, however they have previously lacked the ability to conjugate biomolecules to the particle surface. We present here three approaches to post-functionalize these particles, enabling the covalent attachment of proteins. Our first approach used partially hydrolyzed poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) as a dispersion polymerization stabilizer to synthesize particles with high concentration of -COOH groups on the particle surface. In an alternative strategy to provide -COOH functionality to the lanthanide-encoded particles, we employed seeded emulsion polymerization to graft poly(methacrylic acid) (PMAA) chains onto the surface of these particles. However, these two approaches gave little to no improvement in the extent of bioconjugation. In our third approach, seeded emulsion polymerization was subsequently used as a method to grow a functional polymer shell (in this case, poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA)) onto the surface of these particles, which proved highly successful. The epoxide-rich PGMA shell permitted extensive surface bioconjugation of NeutrAvidin, as probed by an Lu-labeled biotin reporter (ca. 7 × 10(5) binding events per particle with a very low amount of non-specific binding) and analyzed by mass cytometry. It was shown that coupling agents such as EDC were not needed, such was the reactivity of the particle surface. These particles were stable and the addition of a polymeric shell was shown did not affect the narrow lanthanide ion distribution within the particle interior as analyzed by mass cytometry. These particles represent the most promising candidates for the development of a highly multiplexed bioassay based on lanthanide-labeled particles to date.     

Preparation, characterization of hydrophilic and hydrophobic drug in combine loaded chitosan/cyclodextrin nanoparticles and in vitro release study

The compound nanoparticles of chitosan (CS) and cyclodextrin (CD) loading with hydrophilic and hydrophobic drug simultaneously were prepared via the cross-linking method. Methotrexate (MTX) and calcium folinate (CaF) were selected as the model drugs. The prepared nanoparticles were characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy to confirm the cross-linking reaction between CS and cross-linking agent. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was performed to reveal the form of the drug after encapsulation. The average size of nanoparticles ranged from 308.4 ± 15.22 to 369.3 ± 30.01 nm. The nanoparticles formed were spherical in shape with high zeta potentials (higher than +30mV). In vitro release studies in phosphate buffer saline (pH 7.4) showed an initial burst effect and followed by a slow drug release. Cumulative release data were fitted to an empirical equation to compute diffusional exponent (n), which indicated the non-Fickian trend for drug release.     

Guaiane-type sesquiterpenoid glucosides from Gardenia jasminoides Ellis

Two new guaiane-type sesquiterpenoid glucosides (1 and 2) were isolated from the fruit of Gardenia jasminoides Ellis. Their structures were elucidated to be (1R,7R,10S)-11-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-4-guaien-3-one (1) and (1R,7R,10S)-7-hydroxy-11-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-4-guaien-3-one (2) by one- and two-dimensional NMR techniques ((1)H NMR, (13)C NMR, HSQC, HMBC and NOESY), MS, CD spectrometry and chemical methods.     

A novel kernel Fisher discriminant analysis: constructing informative kernel by decision tree ensemble for metabolomics data analysis

Large amounts of data from high-throughput metabolomics experiments become commonly more and more complex, which brings an enormous amount of challenges to existing statistical modeling. Thus there is a need to develop statistically efficient approach for mining the underlying metabolite information contained by metabolomics data under investigation. In the work, we developed a novel kernel Fisher discriminant analysis (KFDA) algorithm by constructing an informative kernel based on decision tree ensemble. The constructed kernel can effectively encode the similarities of metabolomics samples between informative metabolites/biomarkers in specific parts of the measurement space. Simultaneously, informative metabolites or potential biomarkers can be successfully discovered by variable importance ranking in the process of building kernel. Moreover, KFDA can also deal with nonlinear relationship in the metabolomics data by such a kernel to some extent. Finally, two real metabolomics datasets together with a simulated data were used to demonstrate the performance of the proposed approach through the comparison of different approaches.     

Chiral palladacycle promoted asymmetric synthesis of functionalized bis-phosphine monoxide ligand

An organopalladium complex containing orthometalated (R)-(1-(dimethylamino)ethyl)naphthalene as the chiral auxiliary has been used to promote the asymmetric hydroalkoxylation reactions between weak nucleophile methanol and 1,1-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethylene or 1,1-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethylene monoxide in good regio- and stereo-selectivities in the presence of an external base. The major addition product obtained from methanol and 1,1-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethylene monoxide was subsequently isolated in a quantitative yield in its configurationally pure form and characterized by means of two-dimensional rotating-frame nuclear Overhauser enhancement (ROESY) NMR spectroscopy as well as single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. The enantiomerically pure bis-phosphine monoxide ligand was subsequently liberated in high yield.     

Synthesis, structures, and reactivity of yttrium alkyl and alkynyl complexes with mixed Tp(Me2)/Cp ligands

The structurally characterized Tp(Me2)-supported rare earth metal monoalkyl complex (Tp(Me2))CpYCH(2)Ph(THF) (1) was synthesized via the salt-metathesis reaction of (Tp(Me2))CpYCl(THF) with KCH(2)Ph in THF at room temperature. Treatment of 1 with 1 equiv of PhC≡CH under the same conditions afforded the corresponding alkynyl complex (Tp(Me2))CpYC≡CPh(THF) (2). Complex 1 exhibits high activity toward carbodiimides, isocyanate, isothiocyanate, and CS(2); treatment of 1 with such substrates led to the formation of a series of the corresponding Y-C(benzyl) σ-bond insertion products (Tp(Me2))CpY[(RN)(2)CCH(2)Ph] (R = (i)Pr(3a), Cy(3b), 2,6-(i)Pr-C(6)H(3)(3c)), (Tp(Me2))CpY[SC(CH(2)Ph)NPh] (4), (Tp(Me2))CpY[OC(CH(2)Ph)NPh] (5), and (Tp(Me2))CpY(S(2)CCH(2)Ph) (6) in 40-70% isolated yields. Carbodiimides and isothiocyanate can also insert into the Y-C(alkynyl) σ bond of 2 to yield complexes (Tp(Me2))CpY[(RN)(2)CC≡CPh] (R = (i)Pr(7a), Cy(7b)) and (Tp(Me2))CpY[SC(C≡CPh)NPh] (9). Further investigation results indicated that 1 can effectively catalyze the cross-coupling reactions of phenylacetylene with carbodiimides. However, treatment of o-allylaniline with a catalytic amount of 1 gave only the benzyl abstraction product (Tp(Me2))CpY(NHC(6)H(4)CH(2)CH═CH(2)-o)(THF) (10), without observation of the expected organic hydroamination/cyclization product. All of these new complexes were characterized by elemental analysis and spectroscopic properties, and their solid-state structures were also confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis.     

A fully automated system with on-line micro solid-phase extraction combined with capillary liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for high throughput analysis of microcystins and nodularin-R in tap water and lake water

Microcystins and nodularins are cyclic peptide hepatotoxins and tumour promoters from cyanobacteria. The present study describes the development, validation and practical application of a fully automated analytical method based on on-line micro solid-phase extraction-capillary liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for the simultaneous determination of seven microcystins and nodularin-R in tap water and lake water. Aliquots of just 100 μL of water samples are sufficient for the detection and quantification of all eight toxins. Selected reaction monitoring was used to obtain the highest sensitivity. Good linear calibrations were obtained for microcystins (50-2000ng/L) and nodularin-R (25-1000 ng/L) in spiked tap water and lake water samples. Excellent interday and intraday repeatability were achieved for eight toxins with relative standard deviation less than 15.7% in three different concentrations. Acceptable recoveries were achieved in the three concentrations with both tap water matrix and lake water matrix and no significant matrix effect was found in tap water and lake water except for microcystin-RR. The limits of detection (signal to noise ratio=3) of toxins were lower than 56.6 ng/L which is far below the 1 μg/L defined by the World Health Organization provisional guideline for microcystin-LR. Finally, this method was successfully applied to lake water samples from Tai lake and proved to be useful for water quality monitoring.     

A density functional theory approach to mushroom-like platinum clusters on palladium-shell over Au core nanoparticles for high electrocatalytic activity

Recently, it was found that Pt clusters deposited on Pd shell over Au core nanoparticles (Au@Pd@Pt NPs) exhibit unusually high electrocatalytic activity for the electro-oxidation of formic acid (P. P. Fang, S. Duan, et al., Chem. Sci., 2011, 2, 531-539). In an attempt to offer an explanation, we used here carbon monoxide (CO) as probed molecules, and applied density functional theory (DFT) to simulate the surface Raman spectra of CO at this core-shell-cluster NPs with a two monolayer thickness of Pd shell and various Pt cluster coverage. Our DFT results show that the calculated Pt coverage dependent spectra fit the experimental ones well only if the Pt clusters adopt a mushroom-like structure, while currently the island-like structure is the widely accepted model, which follows the Volmer-Weber growth mode. This result infers that there should be a new growth mode, i.e., the mushroom growth mode as proposed in the present work, for Au@Pd@Pt NPs. We suggest that such a mushroom-like structure may offer novel active sites, which accounts for the observed high electrocatalytic activity of Au@Pd@Pt NPs.