Development of a Photoactivatable Phosphine Probe for Induction of Intracellular Reductive Stress with Single‐Cell Precision

Photoactivatable phosphines that induce intracellular reductive stress are reported. The design of these probes takes advantage of the conjugate addition of trialkylphosphines to carbocyanine dyes, which can be reverted photochemically to produce the trialkylphosphine and a fluorescent reporter. The photochemical release depends on the efficiency of photoinduced electron transfer from the indolenine arm of the probe to the coumarin acceptor. These probes readily permeate the mammalian plasma membrane and can be photoactivated in live cells. Upon irradiation of the probe, the released trialkylphosphine induces intracellular reductive stress, which ultimately leads to formation of thioflavin‐positive intracellular protein aggregates. These effects could be induced in individual cells within a monolayer, with minimal disturbance of neighboring cells.     

Extending the Substrate Scope for the Asymmetric Iridium‐Catalyzed Hydrogenation of Minimally Functionalized Olefins by Using Biaryl Phosphite‐Based Modular Ligand Libraries

Asymmetric hydrogenation is one of the most efficient and atom‐economical tools to prepare chiral molecules. However, the enantiodiscrimination of simple, minimally functionalized olefins is still challenging and requires more sophisticated ligand design. Herein, we discuss our progress in the successful development of ligand design for the iridium‐catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of minimally functionalized olefins.

     

Unsupported palladium nanoparticles for ethanol cyclic voltammetric sensing in alkaline media

Carbon-supported palladium nanostructures have had a recent rise in their use for ethanol oxidation applications. In this work, we present the use of unsupported palladium nanoparticles (PdNPs), synthesized by sodium borohydride chemical reduction method, for ethanol electrochemical sensing. The unsupported PdNPs were studied for ethanol oxidation in alkaline media by cyclic voltammetry, and additionally were characterized using transmission electron microscopy, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The performance of unsupported PdNP-modified glassy carbon electrodes for the electrochemical ethanol oxidation in 1.0 M potassium hydroxide (KOH) solution was studied by cyclic voltammetry. These electrochemical results demonstrated that the unsupported PdNPs have very promising catalytic activity towards the oxidation of ethanol in alkaline media with good detection performance in the concentration range of 2304 to 288 ppm (i.e., 50.00 to 6.25 mM). The detection limit and linear correlation coefficient were 49.3 ppm (1.10 mM) and 0.9998, respectively. The unsupported PdNP-modified glassy carbon electrodes presented good cyclic voltammetric stability for ethanol sensing application in alkaline media.     

Chiral pyranoside phosphite-oxazolines: a new class of ligand for asymmetric catalytic hydrogenation of alkenes

We have described the first successful application of a phosphite-oxazoline ligand library in the asymmetric Ir-catalyzed hydrogenation of several unfunctionalized olefins. The introduction of a bulky biaryl phosphite moiety in the ligand design is highly adventitious in the product outcome. By carefully selecting the ligand components, we obtained high activities (TOFs up to >1500 mol x (mol x h)(-1) at 1 bar of H2) and enantioselectivities (ee values up to >99%) and, at the same time, show a broad scope for different substrate types. So, this is an exceptional ligand class that competes favorably with a few other ligand series that also provide high ee values for tri- and disubstituted substrate types.     

Hydrocarbon Oxidation by a Porphyrin-π-Cation Radical Complex

Heme and chlorin π-cation radical oxidants are widely implicated in biological and synthetic oxidation catalysis. Little insight into the role of π-cation radicals in proton coupled electron transfer (PCET) oxidation is available. We prepared a Ni^II-porphyrin-π-cation complex ([Ni^II(P⋅⁺)]) and found it to be capable of the oxidation of a variety of simple hydrocarbon substrates. Interestingly, some of the products were hydroxylated, with ([Ni^II(P⋅⁺)]) working in concert with atmospheric O₂ to yield hydroxylated hydrocarbons. Kinetic data suggested that the porphyrin-π-cation radical species oxidised substrates through a concerted PCET mechanism, where the porphyrin-π-cation radical accepted the electron, and the proton was transferred to a free anion. Our findings highlight the potential role of π-cation radicals as hydrocarbon activators, demonstrating that porphyrin ligand non-innocence could be a readily manipulated resource for oxidation catalyst development.     

The Evolution of Phosphite-Oxazoline Ligands for the Pd-Allylic Substitution and Their Application in Building Chiral Molecules

Pd-catalyzed asymmetric allylic substitution (AAS) is a highly effective method for producing chiral molecules with alkene-substituted frameworks which can be further derivatized. However, its stereochemical outcome is affected by the steric requirements of the substrate and only a narrow set of nucleophiles yield excellent enantioselectivities. In this regard, phosphite-oxazolines have emerged as strong candidates to be privileged ligands for this process, providing results that surpass most of the previously published studies. They have provided high enantiocontrol when used in the Pd-AAS of several hindered and unhindered substrates, using a wide range of C-, O-, and N-nucleophiles. In this concept, we review and discuss the current progress made in the design of tailor-made phosphite-oxazoline ligand libraries for the Pd-AAS of a broad range of substrates and nucleophiles and its application in the construction of chiral complex molecules.     

M(III)(bpym)(CN)(4)](-): a suitable building block to design ferrimagnetic cyano-bridged heterobimetallic chains (M = Fe, Cr; bpym = 2,2'-bypyrimidine)

Two cyano-bridged M(III)Mn(III) [M = Fe () and Cr ()] ferrimagnetic chains are reported; exhibits metamagnetism with two critical fields of 1250 G and 2.0 T which correspond to the overcoming by the applied dc field of the inter- and intrachain magnetic interactions, respectively.     

Finite-element model of interaction between fungal polysaccharide and monoclonal antibody in the capsule of Cryptococcus neoformans

Many microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi possess so-called capsules made of polysaccharides which protect these microorganisms from environmental insults and host immune defenses. The polysaccharide capsule of Cryptococcus neoformans, a human pathogenic yeast, is capable of self-assembly, composed mostly of glucuronoxylomannan (GXM), a polysaccharide with a molecular weight of approximately 2,000,000, and has several layers with different densities. The objective of this study was to model pore-hindered diffusion and binding of the GXM-specific antibody within the C. neoformans capsule. Using the finite-element method (FEM), we created a model which represents the in vivo binding of a GXM-specific antibody to a C. neoformans cell taking into account the intravenous infusion time of antibody, antibody diffusion through capsular pores, and Michaelis-Menten kinetics of antibody binding to capsular GXM. The model predicted rapid diffusion of antibody to all regions of the capsule where the pore size was greater than the Stokes diameter of the antibody. Binding occurred primarily at intermediate regions of the capsule. The GXM concentration in each capsular region was the principal determinant of the steady-state antibody-GXM complex concentration, while the forward binding rate constant influenced the rate of complex formation in each region. The concentration profiles predicted by the model closely matched experimental immunofluorescence data. Inclusion of different antibody isotypes (IgG, IgA, and IgM) into the modeling algorithm resulted in similar complex formation in the outer capsular regions, but different depths of binding at the inner regions. These results have implications for the development of new antibody-based therapies.     

Ab initio study of naphtho-homologated DNA bases

Naphtho-homologated DNA bases have been recently used to build a new type of size-expanded DNA known as yyDNA. We have used theoretical techniques to investigate the structure, tautomeric preferences, base-pairing ability, stacking interactions, and HOMO-LUMO gaps of the naphtho-bases. The structure of these bases is found to be similar to that of the benzo-fused predecessors (y-bases) with respect to the planarity of the aromatic rings and amino groups. Tautomeric studies reveal that the canonical-like forms of naphtho-thymine (yyT) and naphtho-adenine (yyA) are the most stable tautomers, leading to hydrogen-bonded dimers with the corresponding natural nucleobases that mimic the Watson-Crick pairing. However, the canonical-like species of naphtho-guanine (yyG) and naphtho-cytosine (yyC) are not the most stable tautomers, and the most favorable hydrogen-bonded dimers involve wobble-like pairings. The expanded size of the naphtho-bases leads to stacking interactions notably larger than those found for the natural bases, and they should presumably play a dominant contribution in modulating the structure of yyDNA duplexes. Finally, the HOMO-LUMO gap of the naphtho-bases is smaller than that of their benzo-base counterparts, indicating that size-expansion of DNA bases is an efficient way of reducing their HOMO-LUMO gap. These results are examined in light of the available experimental evidence reported for yyT and yyC.     

Addendum to “Complete rotation hypersurfaces with <Emphasis Type="Italic">H</Emphasis><Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis></Subscript> constant in space forms”*

Here we study complete rotation hypersurfaces with constant k-th mean curvature H_k in even and 2 < k < n. We prove the existence of a constant such that there are no such hypersurfaces for . We have only one compact hypersurface of this kind with . For each there is a corresponding family of complete immersed rotation hypersurfaces, each family containing two isoparametric hypersurfaces. For H_k ≥ 0, there is also such a family, now containing only one isoparametric hypersurface. Finally, we prove the existence of compact hypersurfaces with arbitrarily large H_k , neither isometric to a sphere nor to a product of spheres. *Bull. Braz. Math. Soc. 30 (2), 1999, 139–161. **Partially supported by FUNCAP, Brazil. ***Partially supported by CNPq, Brazil and DGAPA-UNAM, México.