The aromaticity and Möbius characteristics of carbeno[8]heteroannulenes and triplet state annulenes

Two types of annulene which may show significant M?bius aromatic character and bond and twist delocalisation are proposed; triplet states with 4n + 2 occupancy of the p pi array of atomic orbitals and a novel 8-pi carbeno[8]heteroannulene ring system 1 where the Hückel highly antiaromatic nature as a planar system can be attenuated or even reversed by the C2 symmetric M?bius distortion.     

Electron Transfer Through Macromolecular Systems

Electron transfer between metal complexes which can be in intimate contact has been the subject of systematic study for about four decades. A major conclusion of the vast amount of work which has been done with intermolecular reactions of ordinary metal complexes is that the reactions are adiabatic, or nearly so (i.e., the only barriers to the reactions are the work of bringing the reagents into contact and the work of exciting them to the isoergic state, which is the configuration reached after the nuclei have readjusted so that the energy of the system is independent of the alternate sites the electron occupies). In adiabatic transfer, the rate of chemical change does not depend on the frequency of electron transfer between the two sites in the isoergic state. The measurement of the rate of electron transfer over large distances, especially when the intervening matter is made up of protein, has been a matter of great interest. At present, it is a very active field of investigation and several different methods for making such measurements have been introduced. The results obtained with one such method, developed by S. S. Isied in 1973, are emphasized. A key feature of the method is that reactions are studied in the intramolecular mode. This is a great simplification because the work of assembling the precursor complex is no longer a factor, and the interesting effects which arise from nonadiabatic behavior are more directly exposed. The method was first applied to simple bridging groups such as 4,4′-bipyridine, which tie the metal-containing moieties (NH₃)₅Co(III) and (NH₃)₅ Ru(III) together. An external reducing agent reduces Ru(III) in preference to Co(III), and the subsequent chemical change, which involves reduction of Co(III) by Ru(II) by an intramolecular process, can be followed spectrophotometrically. The work with these simple bridging ligands showed that unless measures are taken to uncouple the two centers electronically, electron transfer in these systems is adiabatic, a conclusion confirmed by studies of the properties of mixed valence molecules with the same bridging groups. Isied has gone on to study electron transfer through polyprolines using the same general kind of technique. Even with the simplest bridging group of the series, the reactions are nonadiabatic. They become quite slow as the length of the polypeptide chain increases, and with longer chains a conformation change in which the metal centers are brought closer together precedes electron transfer. A similar technique has also been applied by Isied and others to studying the rate of electron transfer between the iron center of cytochrome C and a ruthenium complex attached to a histidine diametrically opposite the heme group.     

Genotoxicity of 2-alkylcyclobutanones, markers for an irradiation treatment in fat-containing food—Part I: cyto- and genotoxic potential of 2-tetradecylcyclobutanone

Previous experiments had indicated a slight genotoxic potential both in rat and in human colon cells of a sample of 2-dodecylcyclobutanone, a compound formed by irradiation of food containing palmitic acid in its triglycerides. Up to date, there is no evidence that 2-alkylcyclobutanones occur in non-irradiated foodstuffs, consequently it is prudent to test several members of the class of 2-alkylcyclobutanones which are produced by treatment of fat-containing food with ionising radiation. In this work, 2-tetradecylcyclobutanone (derived from stearic acid) has been tested for its cytotoxic and genotoxic potential. Human colon tumor cell lines, i.e. HT 29 and HT 29 clone 19A, were employed as models for in vitro experiments for cytotoxicity and genotoxicity tests. Cytotoxicity was measured by tetrazolium salt reduction assays (MTT and WST-1) and genotoxicity by determining DNA damage using the Comet Assay. Neither cytotoxic nor genotoxic effects were induced by 2-TCB in HT 29 or HT 29 cl 19A cells at an incubation time of 30 min at 37°C, not even at the highest concentration (400 μM) tested. After prolonged incubation times (1–2 days) at higher concentrations (>50 μM) cytotoxicity did, however, appear. Studies on other 2-alkylcyclobutanones are in progress.     

Synthesis of Biologically Active 1-Arylethylphosphonates

A convenient and inexpensive general preparation method for 1-arylethylphosphonic acids and their esters was developed involving in reduction of the corresponding 1-ethenylphosphonates by ammonium formate in the presence of palladium on carbon. A homogeneous enantioselective hydrogenation of 1-arylethenylphosphonic acids in the presence of chiral ruthenium catalysts provided optically active 1-arylethylphosphonic acids of enantiomeric purity up to 86%. The preliminary data on biological activity testing of the 1-arylethylphosphoic acids synthesized evidence that some among the compounds obtained are low-toxic substances with the properties of immunosuppressors of the central type of action.     

Phospholipids Chiral at Phosphorus. 13. Stereochemical Comparison of Phospholipase A2, Lecithin-Cholesterol Acyl Transferase,and Platelet-Activating Factor

Abstract

Thiophospholipids and thiophosphate analogs of platelet activating factor were synthesized and used to compare the stereochemical properties in three different biological systems. Phospholipase A₂ shows high stereo-specificity, and this has been substantiated by computer graphics. Lecithin-cholesterol acyl transferase shows no stereospecificity. Platelet aggregation shows, preliminarily, a small degree of stereospecificity.     

Three‐dimensional Arrangement of Short DNA Oligonucleotides at Surfaces via the Synthesis of DNA‐branched Polyacrylamide Brushes by SI‐ATRP

Short DNA oligonucleotide branches are incorporated into acrylamide brushes via surface initiated atom transfer radical polymerization in an attempt to increase DNA surface density by building three‐dimensional molecular architectures. ATR‐FTIR as well as hybridization studies followed by SPR confirm the incorporation of the DNA sequences into the polymer backbone. MALDI‐TOF analysis further suggests that six acrylamide monomer units are typically separating DNA branches present on a single brushes approximately 26 units long. This new approach offers a promising alternative to SAM‐based nucleic acid and aptamer sensors and could enable the realization of more complex soft materials of controlled architecture capable of both recognition and signaling by including additional optically or electrochemically active moieties.

     

Diketopiperazine Formation in Fungi Requires Dedicated Cyclization and Thiolation Domains

Cyclization of linear dipeptidyl precursors derived from nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) into 2,5‐diketopiperazines (DKPs) is a crucial step in the biosynthesis of a large number of bioactive natural products. However, the mechanism of DKP formation in fungi has remained unclear, despite extensive studies of their biosyntheses. Here we show that DKP formation en route to the fungal virulence factor gliotoxin requires a seemingly extraneous couplet of condensation (C) and thiolation (T) domains in the NRPS GliP. In vivo truncation of GliP to remove the CT couplet or just the T domain abrogated production of gliotoxin and all other gli pathway metabolites. Point mutation of conserved active sites in the C and T domains diminished cyclization activity of GliP in vitro and abolished gliotoxin biosynthesis in vivo. Verified NRPSs of other fungal DKPs terminate with similar CT domain couplets, suggesting a conserved strategy for DKP biosynthesis by fungal NRPSs.     

Gas phase 1,3-deoxystannylation reactions of γ-substituted organotin alcohols utilizing chemical ionization mass spectrometry

The gas phase 1,3-deoxystannylation reactions of γ-substituted organotin alcohols have been studied by methane and isobutane chemical ionization mass spectrometry. It was found that γ-hydroxybutyltributyltin and γ-hydroxybutyldibutyltin chloride undergo the 1,3-deoxystannylation reaction to a greater extent than the corresponding 1,4-deoxystannylation using the δ-substituted analogues of the above named compounds. This result substantiates the unusual reactivity of γ-substituted organotin alcohols under gas phase protonolysis conditions.The electronic factors affecting the stabilization of the transition state were ascertained with γ-phenyl-γ-hydroxypropyltrimethyltin derivatives, in which the γ-phenyl group was substituted with groups such as H, p-OMe, p-Me, p-Cl, p-F, m-OMe, m-Me, m-Cl and m-CF₃. We observed a reasonably linear Hammett relationship when plotting the log [P ? 17]_x⁺/[P ? 17]_H⁺ vs. σ⁺ with rho (ρ) equal to ?1.0.Thus electron-donating groups stabilize the [P ? 17]⁺ ion and carbon—tin sigma (σ) electrons can either, by a neighbouring group effect, attack the nucleofugic center, or the carbonium ion can attack the carbon—tin σ electrons to form the trimethyltin cation and a cyclopropane derivative. Consequently, we propose that a two-step mechanism for the 1,3-deoxystannylation reaction is operating in the gas-phase with this type of compound. The factors contributing to this gas phase reaction will be discussed.     

Antibacterial potential of N-(2-furylmethylidene)-1, 3, 4-thiadiazole-2-amine: Experimental and theoretical investigations

Recently, a lot of interest has been attributed to the Schiff base compound because of its wide range of biological activities which include: antibacterial, antifungal, antima larial, including; antiproliferative, antiviral, and antipyretic. In this research work, N-(2-furylmethylidene)-1, 3, 4-thiadiazole- 2-amine gotten from o-phenylenediamine and 5- methoxysalicaldehyde was produced and characterized using UV–Visible, FT-IR, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, and GC-MS along with molecular modeling using density functional theory (DFT) and molecular docking approach. The results obtained indicated that the Schiff base exhibited antimicrobial action against all the tested microbes except Candidaalbicans isolate, which exhibited zero diameter zone of inhibition. The theoretical investigations of the synthesized compounds were computed applying density functional theory at the B3LYP/6–31++G (d, p) level of theory and in silico molecular docking simulation. In comparing binding affinity energies and binding poses of the studied compound and the standard drug (ampicillin), the deduction that the molecular docking analysis results are in good agreement with in vitro analysis of the synthesized compounds can be made.     

The ground and two lowest-lying singlet excited electronic states of copper hydroxide (CuOH)

Various ab initio methods, including self-consistent field (SCF), configuration interaction, coupled cluster (CC), and complete-active-space SCF (CASSCF), have been employed to study the electronic structure of copper hydroxide (CuOH). Geometries, total energies, dipole moments, harmonic vibrational frequencies, and zero-point vibrational energies are reported for the linear 1Sigma+ and 1Pi stationary points, and for the bent ground-state X 1A', and excited-states 2 1A' and 1 1A". Six different basis sets have been used in the study, Wachters/DZP being the smallest and QZVPP being the largest. The ground- and excited-state bending modes present imaginary frequencies for the linear stationary points, indicating that bent structures are more favorable. The effects of relativity for CuOH are important and have been considered using the Douglas-Kroll approach with cc-pVTZ/cc-pVTZ_DK and cc-pVQZ/cc-pVQZ_DK basis sets. The bent ground and two lowest-lying singlet excited states of the CuOH molecule are indeed energetically more stable than the corresponding linear structures. The optimized geometrical parameters for the X 1A' and 1 1A" states agree fairly well with available experimental values. However, the 2 1A' structure and rotational constants are in poor agreement with experiment, and we suggest that the latter are in error. The predicted adiabatic excitation energies are also inconsistent with the experimental values of 45.5 kcal mol(-1) for the 2 1A' state and 52.6 kcal mol(-1) for the 1 1A" state. The theoretical CC and CASSCF methods show lower adiabatic excitation energies for the 1 1A" state (53.1 kcal mol(-1)) than those for the corresponding 2 1A' state (57.6 kcal mol(-1)), suggesting that the 1 1A" state might be the first singlet excited state while the 2 1A' state might be the second singlet excited state.