Expanding the Landscape of Diterpene Structural Diversity through Stereochemically Controlled Combinatorial Biosynthesis

Plant‐derived diterpenoids serve as important pharmaceuticals, food additives, and fragrances, yet their low natural abundance and high structural complexity limits their broader industrial utilization. By mimicking the modularity of diterpene biosynthesis in plants, we constructed 51 functional combinations of class I and II diterpene synthases, 41 of which are “new‐to‐nature”. Stereoselective biosynthesis of over 50 diterpene skeletons was demonstrated, including natural variants and novel enantiomeric or diastereomeric counterparts. Scalable biotechnological production for four industrially relevant targets was accomplished in engineered strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.     

Small molecule library synthesis using segmented flow

Flow chemistry has gained considerable recognition as a simple, efficient, and safe technology for the synthesis of many types of organic and inorganic molecules ranging in scope from large complex natural products to silicon nanoparticles. In this paper we describe a method that adapts flow chemistry to the synthesis of libraries of compounds using a fluorous immiscible solvent as a spacer between reactions. The methodology was validated in the synthesis of two small heterocycle containing libraries. The reactions were performed on a 0.2 mmol scale, enabling tens of milligrams of material to be generated in a single 200 mL reaction plug. The methodology allowed library synthesis in half the time of conventional microwave synthesis while maintaining similar yields. The ability to perform multiple, potentially unrelated reactions in a single run is ideal for making small quantities of many different compounds quickly and efficiently.     

The R3O+···H+ hydrogen bond: toward a tetracoordinate oxadionium(2+) ion

Oxatriquinanes are tricyclic oxonium ions which are known to possess remarkable solvolytic stability compared to simple alkyl oxonium salts. Their rigid, hemispherical structure presents an oxygen at the apex of three fused five-membered rings. While trivalent oxygen species like these have been well described in the literature, the ability of oxygen to enter into a fourth covalent bonding relationship has been visited in theory and suggested by the outcome of certain reactions conducted in superacidic media, but has never been established by the characterization of a stable, persistent R(3)OH(2+) or R(4)O(2+) ion. In this study, the nucleophilicity of the oxatriquinane oxygen was evaluated first by a series of protonation studies using the Br?nsted superacid H(CHB(11)Cl(11)) both in the solid state and in liquid HCl solution. The interaction of the oxatriquinane oxygen with a bridging carbocation was also examined. A strong case could be made for the occurrence of hydrogen bonding between H(CHB(11)Cl(11)) and oxatriquinane using IR spectroscopy. Under the most forcing protonation conditions, the oxatriquinane ring is cleaved to give a bridged, dicationic, protonated tetrahydrofuran-carbenium ion.     

The HLA-A2-supermotif: a QSAR definition

Identification of epitopes capable of binding multiple HLA types will significantly rationalise the development of epitope-based vaccines. A quantitative method assessing the contribution of each amino acid at each position was applied to over 500 nonamer peptides binding to 5 MHC alleles--A*0201, A*0202, A*0203, A*0206 and A*6802--which together define the HLA-A2-like supertype. FXIGXI (L)IFV was identified as a supermotif for the A2-supertype based on the contributions of the common preferred amino acids at each of the nine positions. The results indicate that HLA-A*6802 is an intermediate allele standing between A2 and A3 supertypes: at anchor position 2 it is closer to A3 and at anchor position 9 it is nearer to A2. Models are available free on-line at http://www.jenner.ac.uk/MHCPred and can be used for binding affinity prediction.     

Photoinduced Palladium‐Catalyzed Negishi Cross‐Couplings Enabled by the Visible‐Light Absorption of Palladium–Zinc Complexes

A visible‐light‐induced Negishi cross‐coupling is enabled by the activation of a Pd⁰–Zn complex. With this photocatalytic method, the scope of deactivated aryl halides that can be employed in the Negishi coupling was significantly expanded. NMR experiments conducted in the presence and absence of light confirmed that the formation of the palladium–zinc complex is key for accelerating the oxidative addition step.     

Visible‐Light‐Induced Nickel‐Catalyzed Negishi Cross‐Couplings by Exogenous‐Photosensitizer‐Free Photocatalysis

The merging of photoredox and transition‐metal catalysis has become one of the most attractive approaches for carbon–carbon bond formation. Such reactions require the use of two organo‐transition‐metal species, one of which acts as a photosensitizer and the other one as a cross‐coupling catalyst. We report herein an exogenous‐photosensitizer‐free photocatalytic process for the formation of carbon–carbon bonds by direct acceleration of the well‐known nickel‐catalyzed Negishi cross‐coupling that is based on the use of two naturally abundant metals. This finding will open new avenues in cross‐coupling chemistry that involve the direct visible‐light absorption of organometallic catalytic complexes.     

Thermal degradation and isoconversional kinetic analysis of light-cured dimethacrylate copolymers

Thermal degradation kinetics of copolymers based on bis-phenol A ethoxylated dimethacrylate (Bis-EMA) with triethylene glycol dimethacrylate (TEGDMA), and urethane dimethacrylate (UDMA) with TEGDMA in wt/wt ratios 30/70, 50/50, or 70/30 were investigated using thermogravimetric analysis as a means to provide specific information regarding the internal structures of these resins. Thermogravimetric scans were taken at four different heating rates to perform an isoconversional analysis to determine the change of the effective activation energy as a function of conversion. A two-step degradation mechanism was found to occur in almost all copolymer compositions attributed to the existence of inhomogeneities in the macromolecular structure and the formation of weak links inside the polymeric network.     

Design,Synthesis and Antiparasitic Evaluation of Click Phospholipids

A library of seventeen novel ether phospholipid analogues, containing 5-membered heterocyclic rings (1,2,3-triazolyl, isoxazolyl, 1,3,4-oxadiazolyl and 1,2,4-oxadiazolyl) in the lipid portion were designed and synthesized aiming to identify optimised miltefosine analogues. The compounds were evaluated for their in vitro antiparasitic activity against Leishmania infantum and Leishmania donovani intracellular amastigotes, against Trypanosoma brucei brucei and against different developmental stages of Trypanosoma cruzi. The nature of the substituents of the heterocyclic ring (tail) and the oligomethylene spacer between the head group and the heterocyclic ring was found to affect the activity and toxicity of these compounds leading to a significantly improved understanding of their structure–activity relationships. The early ADMET profile of the new derivatives did not reveal major liabilities for the potent compounds. The 1,2,3-triazole derivative 27 substituted by a decyl tail, an undecyl spacer and a choline head group exhibited broad spectrum antiparasitic activity. It possessed low micromolar activity against the intracellular amastigotes of two L. infantum strains and T. cruzi Y strain epimastigotes, intracellular amastigotes and trypomastigotes, while its cytotoxicity concentration (CC₅₀) against THP-1 macrophages ranged between 50 and 100 μM. Altogether, our work paves the way for the development of improved ether phospholipid derivatives to control neglected tropical diseases.     

Cure Kinetics Study of Two Epoxy Systems with Fourier Tranform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC)

This work was aimed at the study of cure kinetics of two commercial thermosetting epoxy systems, Epikote resin 816 LV/Epikure F205 and Epikote resin 240/Epikure F205, by Fourier Tranform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). The studied systems consist of a resin (A), based on a diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A and a hardener (B) based on the Isophorodiamine (IPDA) a cycloaliphatic diamine. These systems are used for the building and civil engineering industries, e.g. flooring compounds, adhesives, mortars and grouts. FTIR spectroscopy was employed to investigate the isothermal curing kinetics at 30, 50 or 70°C and DSC analysis to study the non-isothermal curing kinetics at different heating rates 2.5, 5, 10 and 20°C/min, from 20 to 300°C. A kinetic model was employed to simulate the FTIR isothermal experimental data using two kinetic rate constants and incorporating also diffusion control at high degrees of conversion. Finally, the variation of the effective activation energy with the extent of curing was estimated using isoconversional analysis of non-isothermal DSC data.