Synthesis of an Isostegane from Matairesinol

In a recent communication,¹ we reported that the inclusion of boron trifluoride etherate in a thallium(III) trifluoroacetate (TTFA)-induced oxidative aryl-benzyl coupling reaction dramatically altered its outcome in that demethylation of a-phenyl methyl ether no longer accompanied the cyclization. A preliminary investigation also revealed that use of the combined reagents improved the yield of the dibenzocyclooctadiene obtained from a non-phenolic aryl-aryl coupling of a 1,4-diaryl substituted butane.²     

Effects of the biological backbone on stacking interactions at DNA-protein interfaces: the interplay between the backbone···π and π···π components

The (gas-phase) MP2/6-31G*(0.25) π···π stacking interactions between the five natural bases and the aromatic amino acids calculated using (truncated) monomers composed of conjugated rings and/or (extended) monomers containing the biological backbone (either the protein backbone or deoxyribose sugar) were previously compared. Although preliminary energetic results indicated that the protein backbone strengthens, while the deoxyribose sugar either strengthens or weakens, the interaction calculated using truncated models, the reasons for these effects were unknown. The present work explains these observations by dissecting the interaction energy of the extended complexes into individual backbone···π and π···π components. Our calculations reveal that the total interaction energy of the extended complex can be predicted as a sum of the backbone···π and π···π components, which indicates that the biological backbone does not significantly affect the ring system through π-polarization. Instead, we find that the backbone can indirectly affect the magnitude of the π···π contribution by changing the relative ring orientations in extended dimers compared with truncated dimers. Furthermore, the strengths of the individual backbone···π contributions are determined to be significant (up to 18 kJ mol(-1)). Therefore, the origin of the energetic change upon model extension is found to result from a balance between an additional (attractive) backbone···π component and differences in the strength of the π···π interaction. In addition, to understand the effects of the biological backbone on the stacking interactions at DNA-protein interfaces in nature, we analyzed the stacking interactions found in select DNA-protein crystal structures, and verified that an additive approach can be used to examine the strength of these interactions in biological complexes. Interestingly, although the presence of attractive backbone···π contacts is qualitatively confirmed using the quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM), QTAIM electron density analysis is unable to quantitatively predict the additive relationship of these interactions. Most importantly, this work reveals that both the backbone···π and π···π components must be carefully considered to accurately determine the overall stability of DNA-protein assemblies.     

Characterization of polyethylene crystallization from an oriented melt by molecular dynamics simulation

Molecular dynamics is used to characterize the process of crystallization for a united atom model of polyethylene. An oriented melt is produced by uniaxial deformation under constant load, followed by quenching below the melting temperature at zero load. The development of crystallinity is monitored simultaneously using molecular-based order parameters for density, energy, and orientation. For crystallization temperatures ranging from 325 to 375 K, these simulations clearly show the hallmarks of crystal nucleation and growth. We can identify multiple nucleation events, lamellar growth up to the limit imposed by periodic boundaries of the simulation cell, and lamellar thickening. We observe a competition between the rate of nucleation, which results in multiple crystallites, the rate of chain extension, which results in thicker lamellae, and the rate of chain conformational relaxation, which is manifested in lower degrees of residual order in the noncrystalline portion of the simulation. The temperature dependence of lamellar thickness is in accord with experimental data. At the higher temperatures, tilted chain lamellae are observed to form with lamellar interfaces corresponding approximately to the [201] facet, indicative of the influence of interfacial energy.     

Correction of biased time domain NMR estimates of the solid content of partially crystallized systems

The solid content values obtained from the intensity of the nuclear magnetic resonance free induction decay signal of partially crystallized samples such as fats, supersaturated solutions, solid dispersions of waxes, gels are biased due to the difference between the proton density and mass density of the samples. It is shown here that this can be easily corrected with the specific volumes (determined gravimetrically) and proton densities (determined by time-domain nuclear magnetic resonance) of completely liquefied models of the solid and liquid phases and provided that the total amount of crystallizable material is known. The corrected data are in excellent agreement with the values obtained by differential scanning calorimetry for both model systems and real petroleum samples.     

Independent component analysis as a pretreatment method for parallel factor analysis to eliminate artefacts from multiway data

Parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) has successfully been used in many applications for the analysis of excitation-emission fluorescence data. However, some measurement “artefacts”, such as Rayleigh or Raman scattering, can pose a problem for the extraction of the PARAFAC components and their interpretation. Replacing the spectral zones corresponding to these signals by missing values in the data is not necessarily a method of choice in the cases where informative signals lie in the same wavelength regions. In this article, independent component analysis (ICA) is used on the unfolded cubic array, and the independent components related to the Rayleigh and Raman scattering are identified and removed prior to the reconstruction of the excitation-emission fluorescence data cube. PARAFAC is then applied on these data reconstructed after selective artefact removal, and satisfactory models can be obtained. This procedure, although particularly useful for 3D fluorescence data, may be applied to other types of data as well.     

Determination of metoprolol and its alpha-hydroxide metabolite in serum by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography

A high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method for the simultaneous quantitation of metoprolol and alpha-hydroxymetoprolol concentrations in serum is developed. Analysis is performed on a C18 column using a 70:30 mixture of two solutions, A and B respectively. Solution A is 1 L of a 1% acetic acid solution with 25 mL of 0.005 M 1-heptanesulfonic acid. Solution B is 1 L of acetonitrile with 25 mL of 0.005 M 1-heptanesulfonic acid. Column effluent is monitored by fluorescence detection at an excitation wavelength of 225 nm. A 320-nm band pass filter is employed. The limit of sensitivity is approximately 2 ng/mL for both compounds. No potential sources of interference are identified. A coefficient of variation of less than 10% is observed on replicate determinations at 10 ng/mL for both compounds and at 300 and 180 ng/mL for metoprolol and alpha-hydroxymetoprolol, respectively. The method has the advantages of complete resolution of the metabolite of metoprolol, a high degree of reproducibility, adequate sensitivity, and an easily accessible internal standard.