CrCl2-promoted stereospecific and stereoselective alkyl- and silylcyclopropanation of alpha,beta-unsaturated amides

An efficient chromium-promoted alkyl- or silylcyclopropanation of alpha,beta-unsaturated amides is described. These reactions can be carried out on (E)- or (Z)-alpha,beta-enamides in which the C-C double bond is di-, or trisubstituted. This process takes place with total stereospecificity and the new stereogenic center is generated with high or total stereoselectivity. Some synthetic applications of the obtained silylcyclopropyl amides are also reported. Two mechanisms based on the generation of carbenoid or carbene complexes have been proposed to explain this cyclopropanation reaction.     

A simple helical macrocyclic polyazapyridinophane as a stereoselective receptor of biologically important dicarboxylates under physiological conditions

The interaction of a synthetic enantiopure azamacrocyclic receptor (L) with biologically important chiral dicarboxylates (A, 1-7) has been studied by means of potentiometric titrations in 0.15 M NaCl aqueous solution in a wide pH range. This macrocycle forms strong complexes of the type [HnLA](n-2) (with n = 0-5). As a general trend, the binding is much tighter at basic or neutral pH than in acidic medium. Interestingly, nonprotected excitatory amino acids (Asp and Glu) are strongly bound even at acidic pH. Regarding selectivity, the receptor showed stereoselective binding toward those substrates bearing an H-bonding donor at Calpha, being S-selective in most of the cases, except for glutamic acid. Thus, L displayed an excellent enantioselectivity for (S)-malate dianion (KS/KR = 11.50 at pH 10.0 and KS/KR = 6.86 at pH 7.0) and exhibited moderate enantiopreference for (S,S)-tartrate (KSS/KRR = 3.01 at pH 10 and KSS/KRR = 1.70 at pH 7.0). For this last anion, a very good diastereopreference was also observed (KSS/KRS = 8.46 at pH 10 and KSS/KRS = 4.99 at pH 7.0). On the contrary, L is smoothly R-selective toward (R)-Glu (KR/KS = 3.22 at pH 10 and KR/KS = 2.05 at pH 7.0) due to its longer and more flexible molecular structure. The stereoselectivity of the corresponding complexes decreased when decreasing pH values. For the hydroxy derivatives, mass spectrometry also reflected the trends observed by potentiometry and confirmed the receptor:dicarboxylate 1:1 stoichiometry of the supramolecular complexes. Additional experimental techniques were used to study the most stereoselective example. Solution studies by NMR suggested a good geometrical complementarity between the malate dianion and the receptor, which showed a predominant helical conformation in solution. Besides, self-diffusion rates (PGSE) of the diastereomeric complexes with malate also agree with binding data. Circular dichroism was also used in this case at different pH values, showing a very good correlation between the helical content of the receptor and the stereoselectivity of the molecular recognition process.     

Epothilone Analogues with Benzimidazole and Quinoline Side Chains: Chemical Synthesis,Antiproliferative Activity,and Interactions with Tubulin

A series of epothilone B and D analogues bearing isomeric quinoline or functionalized benzimidazole side chains has been prepared by chemical synthesis in a highly convergent manner. All analogues have been found to interact with the tubulin/microtubule system and to inhibit human cancer cell proliferation in vitro, albeit with different potencies (IC₅₀ values between 1 and 150 nM ). The affinity of quinoline‐based epothilone B and D analogues for stabilized microtubules clearly depends on the position of the N‐atom in the quinoline system, while the induction of tubulin polymerization in vitro appears to be less sensitive to N‐positioning. The potent inhibition of human cancer cell growth by epothilone analogues bearing functionalized benzimidazole side chains suggests that these systems might be conjugated with tumor‐targeting moieties to form tumor‐targeted prodrugs.     

1,n-Diamines. Part 3: Microwave-assisted synthesis of N-acyl-N′-arylhexahydropyrimidines and hexahydro-1,3-diazepines

In this Letter we present a method for the synthesis of N-acyl-N′-arylhexahydropyrimidines 1, by ring closure of N-acyl-N′-aryl-1,3-propanediamines 3 with formaldehyde. Cyclodehydrations were performed in aqueous medium under microwave irradiation, and led to high yields of the desired compounds in remarkably short reaction times. The method also allowed for the synthesis of hitherto unreported N-acyl-N′-arylhexahydro-1,3-diazepines 2. The acyclic tetramethylenic precursors 4 were synthesized by selective functionalization of N-arylputrescines.     

Hydrogen‐bonded assembly in six closely related pyrazolo[3,4‐b]pyridine derivatives; a simple chain,three types of chains of rings and a complex sheet structure

Six closely related pyrazolo[3,4‐b]pyridine derivatives, namely 6‐chloro‐3‐methyl‐1,4‐diphenylpyrazolo[3,4‐b]pyridine‐5‐carbaldehyde, C₂₀H₁₄ClN₃O, (I), 6‐chloro‐3‐methyl‐4‐(4‐methylphenyl)‐1‐phenylpyrazolo[3,4‐b]pyridine‐5‐carbaldehyde, C₂₁H₁₆ClN₃O, (II), 6‐chloro‐4‐(4‐chlorophenyl)‐3‐methyl‐1‐phenylpyrazolo[3,4‐b]pyridine‐5‐carbaldehyde, C₂₀H₁₃Cl₂N₃O, (III), 4‐(4‐bromophenyl)‐6‐chloro‐3‐methyl‐1‐phenylpyrazolo[3,4‐b]pyridine‐5‐carbaldehyde, C₂₀H₁₃BrClN₃O, (IV), 6‐chloro‐4‐(4‐methoxyphenyl)‐3‐methyl‐1‐phenylpyrazolo[3,4‐b]pyridine‐5‐carbaldehyde, C₂₁H₁₆ClN₃O₂, (V), and 6‐chloro‐3‐methyl‐4‐(4‐nitrophenyl)‐1‐phenylpyrazolo[3,4‐b]pyridine‐5‐carbaldehyde, C₂₀H₁₃ClN₄O₃, (VI), which differ only in the identity of a single small substituent on one of the aryl rings, crystallize in four different space groups spanning three crystal systems. The molecules of (I) are linked into a chain of rings by a combination of C—H...N and C—H...π(arene) hydrogen bonds; those of (II), (IV) and (V), which all crystallize in the space group P, are each linked by two independent C—H...O hydrogen bonds to form chains of edge‐fused rings running in different directions through the three unit cells; the molecules of (III) are linked into complex sheets by a combination of two C—H...O hydrogen bonds and one C—H...π(arene) hydrogen bond; finally, the molecules of (VI) are linked by a single C—H...O hydrogen bond to form a simple chain.     

Room-temperature liquid phosphorimetry of the aluminium-ferron chelate in micellar media : Determination of aluminium

Aluminium reacts with 7-iodo-8-quinolinol-5-sulphonic acid (Ferron) in cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) micelles to form a highly phosphorescent complex at room temperature. Suitable experimental conditions and the phosphorescent characteristics of the complex are described. Comparison with the results obtained for the phosphorescent niobium-Ferron complex in CTAB micelles helps to elucidate the mechanism of this type of phosphorescence. For aluminium the detection limit is 5.4 ng ml^?1; the relative standard deviation is 4.5% for 20 μg Al. The method is applied to aluminium determination in waters and dialysis fluids.     

Novel combination of non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis and multivariate curve resolution-alternating least squares to determine phenolic acids in virgin olive oil

This paper presents the development of a non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis method coupled to UV detection combined with multivariate curve resolution-alternating least-squares (MCR-ALS) to carry out the resolution and quantitation of a mixture of six phenolic acids in virgin olive oil samples. p-Coumaric, caffeic, ferulic, 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic, vanillic and 4-hydroxyphenilacetic acids have been the analytes under study. All of them present different absorption spectra and overlapped time profiles with the olive oil matrix interferences and between them. The modeling strategy involves the building of a single MCR-ALS model composed of matrices augmented in the temporal mode, namely spectra remain invariant while time profiles may change from sample to sample. So MCR-ALS was used to cope with the coeluting interferences, on accounting the second order advantage inherent to this algorithm which, in addition, is able to handle data sets deviating from trilinearity, like the data herein analyzed. The method was firstly applied to resolve standard mixtures of the analytes randomly prepared in 1-propanol and, secondly, in real virgin olive oil samples, getting recovery values near to 100% in all cases. The importance and novelty of this methodology relies on the combination of non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis second-order data and MCR-ALS algorithm which allows performing the resolution of these compounds simplifying the previous sample pretreatment stages.     

Determination of the amino acid tryptophan and the biogenic amine tryptamine in foods by the heavy atom induced-room temperature phosphorescence methodology

Very simple and selective methods are presented to determine the amino acid tryptophan (Trp) and the biogenic amine tryptamine (Tryp), both compounds with an indole-type molecular structure by the methodology named Heavy Atom Induced-Room Temperature Phosphorescence (HAI-RTP) which constitutes the first time that HAI-RTP has been used to detect compounds with non-naphthalenic structures in their molecules. Different variables affecting the phosphorescence signal (heavy atom perturber and sodium sulfite concentration) were carefully studied. The analytical curves give a linear dynamic range of 15-100 ng ml(-1) and a detection limit of 4 ng ml(-1) for Trp and 94-400 ng ml(-1) and 28 ng ml(-1) for Tryp. The methods have been successfully applied to the analysis of complex food matrices such as the presence of tryptophan in yoghurt and tryptamine in bottled beer. A single alkaline hydrolysis to release Trp from yoghurt proteins and two methods for extracting Tryp from beer samples are proposed and optimised. A total Trp content of 374 mg of Trp per kg of yoghurt was quantified by the standard addition method of calibration and a recovery of 90% was obtained for 250 ng ml(-1) of Tryp in spiked non-alcoholic beer samples.     

TOPS-MODE based QSARs derived from heterogeneous series of compounds. Applications to the design of new herbicides

A new application of TOPological Sub-structural MOlecular DEsign (TOPS-MODE) was carried out in herbicides using computer-aided molecular design. Two series of compounds, one containing herbicide and the other containing nonherbicide compounds, were processed by a k-Means Cluster Analysis in order to design the training and prediction sets. A linear classification function to discriminate the herbicides from the nonherbicide compounds was developed. The model correctly and clearly classified 88% of active and 94% of inactive compounds in the training set. More specifically, the model showed a good global classification of 91%, i.e., (168 cases out of 185). While in the prediction set, they showed an overall predictability of 91% and 92% for active and inactive compounds, being the global percentage of good classification of 92%. To assess the range of model applicability, a virtual screening of structurally heterogeneous series of herbicidal compounds was carried out. Two hundred eighty-four out of 332 were correctly classified (86%). Furthermore this paper describes a fragment analysis in order to determine the contribution of several fragments toward herbicidal property; also the present of halogens in the selected fragments were analyzed. It seems that the present TOPS-MODE based QSAR is the first alternate general "in silico" technique to experimentation in herbicides discovery.     

Monitoring dediazoniation product formation by high-performance liquid chromatography after derivatization

A derivatization protocol that exploits the rapid reaction between arenediazonium ions and a suitable coupling agent followed by high-performance liquid chromatography analyses of the reaction mixture was employed to determine the product distribution, the rate constants for product formation and the association constant of 4-nitrobenzenediazonium, PNBD, ion with beta-cyclodextrin, beta-CD. The derivatization of PNBD with the coupling agent leads to the formation of a stable azo dye that prevents by-side reactions of PNBD with the solvents of the mobile phase, including water, or the metallic parts of the chromatographic system that would eventually lead to erroneous identification and quantification of dediazoniation products. The results show that in the presence of beta-CD, nitrobenzene is formed at the expense of 4-nitrophenol, which is the major product in its absence. The observed rate constants for the interaction between PNBD and beta-CD increase upon increasing [beta-CD] showing a saturation profile indicative of the formation of an inclusion complex between PNBD and beta-CD. By fitting the experimental data to a simplified Lineaweaver-Burk equation, the corresponding association constant and the maximum acceleration rate of beta-CD towards PNBD were estimated. The protocol is applicable under a variety of experimental conditions provided that the rate of the coupling reaction is much faster than that of dediazoniation.