Inside Cover: Structural and Mechanistic Studies on Substrate and Stereoselectivity of the Indole Monooxygenase VpIndA1: New Avenues for Biocatalytic Epoxidations and Sulfoxidations (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 17/2023)

Flavoprotein monooxygenases are a versatile group of enzymes for biocatalytic transformations. Among these, group E monooxygenases (GEMs) catalyze enantioselective epoxidation and sulfoxidation reactions. Here, we describe the crystal structure of an indole monooxygenase from the bacterium Variovorax paradoxus EPS, a GEM designated as VpIndA1. Complex structures with substrates reveal productive binding modes that, in conjunction with force-field calculations and rapid mixing kinetics, reveal the structural basis of substrate and stereoselectivity. Structure-based redesign of the substrate cavity yielded variants with new substrate selectivity (for sulfoxidation of benzyl phenyl sulfide) or with greatly enhanced stereoselectivity (from 35.1 % to 99.8 % ee for production of (1S,2R)-indene oxide). This first determination of the substrate binding mode of GEMs combined with structure-function relationships opens the door for structure-based design of these powerful biocatalysts.     

Electrocatalytic Synthesis of Nylon-6 Precursor at Almost 100 % Yield

Synthesis of cyclohexanone oxime via the cyclohexanone-hydroxylamine process is widespread in the caprolactam industry, which is an upstream industry for nylon-6 production. However, there are two shortcomings in this process, harsh reaction conditions and the potential danger posed by explosive hydroxylamine. In this study, we presented a direct electrosynthesis of cyclohexanone oxime using nitrogen oxides and cyclohexanone, which eliminated the usage of hydroxylamine and demonstrated a green production of caprolactam. With the Fe electrocatalysts, a production rate of 55.9 g h⁻¹ g_cat⁻¹ can be achieved in a flow cell with almost 100 % yield of cyclohexanone oxime. The high efficiency was attributed to their ability of accumulating adsorbed hydroxylamine and cyclohexanone. This study provides a theoretical basis for electrocatalyst design for C−N coupling reactions and illuminates the tantalizing possibility to upgrade the caprolactam industry towards safety and sustainability.     

Development,stability-indicating assessment,and evaluation of influential method conditions using a full factorial design for the determination of Nintedanib esylate-related impurities

The design of an appropriate analytical method for assessing the quality of pharmaceuticals requires a deep understanding of science, and risk evaluation approaches are appreciated. The current study discusses how a related substance method was developed for Nintedanib esylate. The best possible separation between the critical peak pairs was achieved using an X-Select charged surface hybrid Phenyl Hexyl (150 × 4.6) mm, 3.5 μm column. A mixture of water, acetonitrile, and methanol in mobile phase-A (70:20:10) and mobile phase-B (20:70:10), with 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid and 0.05% formic acid in both eluents. The set flow rate, wavelength, and injection volumes were 1.0 ml/min, 285 nm, and 5 μl, respectively, with gradient elution. The method conditions were validated as per regulatory requirements and United States Pharmacopeia general chapter < 1225 >. The correlation coefficient for all impurities from the linearity experiment was found to be > 0.999. The % relative standard deviation from the precision experiments ranged from 0.4 to 3.6. The mean %recovery from the accuracy study ranged from 92.5 to 106.5. Demonstrated the power of the stability-indicating method through degradation studies; the active drug component is more vulnerable to oxidation than other conditions. Final method conditions were further evaluated using a full-factorial design. The robust method conditions were identified using the graphical optimization from the design space.     

吡嗪类化合物的合成及其抗血小板凝集活性测试

为提高川芎嗪的抗血小板凝集活性,分别以不同的二胺、2,3-丁二酮和硫辛酸为起始原料,采用溴代、水解、环化、氧化、氢化、取代等反应,通过四条路线合成了7个川芎嗪衍生物,其结构经1H NMR、13C NMR及ESI-MS确证。采用Born比浊法初步测试了化合物的体外抗血小板凝集活性,结果显示,化合物1(IC50=0. 26mmol/L)、2(IC50=0. 27mmol/L)和7(IC50=0. 21mmol/L)对由二磷酸腺苷(ADP)诱导的血小板凝集具有一定的抑制活性,优于先导化合物川芎嗪(IC50=0. 49mmol/L)。因此,在不改变川芎嗪药效团的前提下对其进行不同程度的环化,能明显提高川芎嗪的抗血小板凝集活性,此研究为后期化合物的结构修饰提供了一定的参考价值。     

Synthesis of Novel 3-(5-(Alkyl/arylthio)-1,3,4-Oxadiazol-2-yl)-8-Phenylquinolin-4(1H)-One Derivatives as Anti-HIV Agents

Novel quinolone derivatives featuring an 1,3,4-oxadiazole ring as a metal-chelating component and a benzyl group base on HIV-1 integrase inhibitors pharmacophore were designed and synthesized. An antiviral assay revealed that most analogues inhibited HIV-1 replication in the cell culture. Our results showed that compounds bearing small alkyl groups as R group were inactive in anti-HIV-1 assay, whereas compounds possessing benzyl or substituted benzyl at the same position showed good anti-HIV activity with the range of 20–57% at 100 μM concentration. Among them, 3-(5-((2-fluorobenzyl)thio)-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl)-8-phenylquinolin-4-(1H)-one (compound 13) showed reasonable cell-based antiviral activity (EC₅₀ = 50 μM) with no considerable cytotoxicity (CC₅₀ > 100 μM) in the cell viability assay, suggesting that it may be amenable to further development for identifying new anti-HIV-1 agents. Docking studies using the later crystallographic data available for PFV integrase corroborate favorable binding to the active site of HIV integrase, providing a basis for the design of more potent analogues.     

物理化学实验内容的探索与实践

The laboratory teaching plays more important role for improving the students' scientific literacy according to the progress of the modern society. To provide enough scientific training opportunities, the usual technology and methods used in physical chemistry research field were introduced into the physical chemistry laboratory teaching.     

Enhanced process development using automated continuous reactors by self-optimisation algorithms and statistical empirical modelling

Reaction optimisation and understanding is fundamental for process development and is achieved using a variety of techniques. This paper explores the use of self-optimisation and experimental design as a tandem approach to reaction optimisation. A Claisen-Schmidt condensation was optimised using a branch and fit minimising algorithm, with the resulting data being used to fit a response surface model. The model was then applied to find new responses for different metrics, highlighting the most important for process development purposes.     

Small-molecule fluorescent probes for the detection of carbon dioxide

This review summarizes the design principles, recognition mechanisms, properties and functions of various kinds of small-molecule fluorescent probes for the detection of carbon dioxide     

新型手性近晶C相液晶共聚酯的设计与合成

以对苯二甲酰氯 ,2 ,5 二 [4 ((s) 2 甲基丁氧基 )苯甲酰氧基 ]对苯二酚和乙二醇、一缩乙二醇、二缩三乙二醇、三缩四乙二醇和聚乙二醇为单体 ,采用低温溶液缩聚方法 ,合成了一系列新的手性近晶C相串型液晶共聚酯 .共聚酯通过GPC、DSC、TG、WAXD、偏光显微镜和旋光仪等方法表征 .发现所有的共聚酯加热至各自的熔点以上都能形成液晶态 ,在液晶态可以观察到近晶相的焦锥织构 ,所有的手性化合物和共聚酯都有较高的旋光性 .通过变温X 射线衍射研究结合偏光显微镜观察和旋光分析证明它们为手性近晶C相 .所有共聚酯的熔融温度 (Tm)和各向同性温度 (Ti)随共聚酯中不同柔性链段长度的增加逐渐降低 ,液晶态温度范围变宽