Total Synthesis and Structural Reassignment of Aspergillomarasmine A

The increase and spread of Gram‐negative bacteria that resistant are to almost all currently available β‐lactam antibiotics is a major global health problem. The primary cause for drug resistance is the acquisition of metallo‐β‐lactamases such as metallo‐β‐lactamase‐1 (NDM‐1). The fungal natural product aspergillomarasmine A (AMA), a fungal natural product, is an inhibitor of NDM‐1 and has shown promising in vivo therapeutic potential in a mouse model infected with NDM‐1‐expressing Gram‐negative bacteria. The first total synthesis and stereochemical configuration reassignment of aspergillomarasmine A is reported. The synthesis highlights a flexible route and an effective strategy to achieve the required oxidation state at a late stage. This modular route is amenable to the efficient preparation of analogues for the development of metallo‐β‐lactamase inhibitors to potentiate β‐lactam antibiotics.     

Dinucleosides with Non‐Natural Backbones: A New Class of Ribonuclease A and Angiogenin Inhibitors

Ribonuclease A (RNase A) serves as a convenient model enzyme in the identification and development of inhibitors of proteins that are members of the ribonuclease superfamily. This is principally because the biological activity of these proteins, such as angiogenin, is linked to their catalytic ribonucleolytic activity. In an attempt to inhibit the biological activity of angiogenin, which involves new blood vessel formation, we employed different dinucleosides with varied non‐natural backbones. These compounds were synthesized by coupling aminonucleosides with dicarboxylic acids and amino‐ and carboxynucleosides with an amino acid. These molecules show competitive inhibition with inhibition constant (K_i) values of (59±3) and (155±5) μM for RNase A. The compounds were also found to inhibit angiogenin in a competitive fashion with corresponding K_i values in the micromolar range. The presence of an additional polar group attached to the backbone of dinucleosides was found to be responsible for the tight binding with both proteins. The specificity of different ribonucleolytic subsites were found to be altered because of the incorporation of a non‐natural backbone in between the two nucleosidic moieties. In spite of the replacement of the phosphate group by non‐natural linkers, these molecules were found to selectively interact with the ribonucleolytic site residues of angiogenin, whereas the cell binding site and nuclear translocation site residues remain unperturbed. Docked conformations of the synthesized compounds with RNase A and angiogenin suggest a binding preference for the thymine–adenine pair over the thymine–thymine pair.     

Two-dimensional TiO2 (001) nanosheets as an effective photo-assisted recyclable sensor for the electrochemical detection of bisphenol A

Electrochemical detection is an efficient method for the detection of Bisphenol A (BPA). Herein, a sensitive photo-electrochemical sensor based on two-dimensional (2D) TiO₂ (001) nanosheets was fabricated and then used for BPA electrochemical detection. Upon light irradiation, the 2D TiO₂ (001) nanosheets electrode provided a lower detection limit of BPA detection compared with an ambient electrochemical determination. The low detection limit is ∼5.37 nmol/L (S/N = 3). Furthermore, profiting from the photoelectric characteristics, the 2D TiO₂ (001) nanosheets electrode exhibits a nice regeneration property. After 45 min of light irradiation, the electrochemical signal was regenerated from 14.7% to 82.9% of the original signal at the 6^th cycle. This is attributed to the non-selective OH mediation produced by the 2D TiO₂ (001) nanosheets mineralizing anodic polymeric products and resuming surface reactive sites. This investigation indicates that photo-assistance is an efficient method to improve the electrochemical sensor for detecting BPA in water environments.     

Photocatalytic Cr(VI) sequestration and photo-Fenton bisphenol A decomposition over white light responsive PANI/MIL-88A(Fe)

Polyaniline (PANI)/MIL-88A(Fe) (Px@M88) composites were constructed through a simple one-pot hydrothermal method. The photocatalytic and photo-Fenton activities of Px@M88 composites toward reduction of Cr(VI) and degradation organic pollutants were explored by white light irradiation. PANI, as a conductive polymer, can improve MIL-88A(Fe)’s conductivity and the efficiency of photogenerated e⁻–h⁺ pair separation. In the presence of H₂O₂, a photo-Fenton reaction occured to boost the degradation efficiency of organic pollutants like bisphenol A. In addition, P9@M88 showed excellent recycling and stability in cycling experiments. Finally, a possible reaction mechanism for photocatalytic degradation was proposed and verified by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and electron spin resonance determination and electrochemical characterizations.     

Base dependent pyrrolidine ring pucker in aep-PNA monomers: NMR and PSEUROT analysis

The aep-PNA is a chiral and cyclic PNA analogue, which has a stronger and base dependent binding affinity with complementary DNA. To understand the base dependent properties at monomer level, the structural studies of aep-PNA-(T/C/A) monomers have been carried out focussing on the conformational analysis of pyrrolidine ring pucker in aep-PNA by ¹H NMR and the coupling constant data fitted into PSEUROT software. The results indicate that the type of pyrrolidine pucker depends on the electronic nature of substituent, implying the effect of pyrimidine or purine substituents in determining the ring pucker in monomers. This may consequently influence the aep-PNA oligomer conformation. Since pyrrolidine nucleic acids have emerged as an important class of PNA analogues, present results may have importance for their future development.     

Copper‐catalyzed one‐pot synthesis of propargylamines via C?H activation in PEG

An efficient and convenient three‐component A³ coupling reaction of aldehyde, amine and alkyne via C? H activation with CuI alone as the catalyst in PEG is developed, providing a wide range of propargylamines with yields ranging from moderate to excellent. Additionally, the catalyst system was recovered and reused several times without evident loss in activity. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rapid initiation of reactions in Al/Ni multilayers with nanoscale layering

Research into nanoenergetic materials is enabling new capabilities for controlling exothermic reaction rates and energy output, as well as new methods for integrating these materials with conventional electronics fabrication techniques. Many reactions produce primarily heat, and in some cases it is desirable to increase the rate of heat release beyond what is typically observed. Here we investigate the Al-Ni intermetallic reaction, which normally propagates across films or foils at rates lower than 10 m/s. However, models and experiments indicate that local heating rates can be very high (10⁷ K/s), and uniform heating of such a multilayer film can lead to a rapid, thermally explosive type of reaction. With the hopes of using a device to transduce electrical energy to kinetic energy of a flyer plate in the timescale of 100's of nanoseconds, we have incorporated a Ni/Al nanolayer film that locally heats upon application of a large electrical current. We observed flyer plate velocities in the 2-6 km/s range, corresponding to 4-36 kJ/g in terms of specific kinetic energy. Several samples containing Ni/Al films with different bilayer thicknesses were tested, and many produced additional kinetic energy in the 1.1-2.3 kJ/g range, as would be expected from the Ni-Al intermetallic reaction. These results provide evidence that nanoscale Ni/Al layers reacted in the timescale necessary to contribute to device output.     

Self-assembly and characterization of Ca-Al-LDH nanohybrids containing casein proteins as guest anions

Casein, a natural biopolymer contained in milk, has been successfully intercalated into a Ca-Al-LDH host structure. Synthesis was performed by rehydration of tricalcium aluminate in the presence of casein. The resulting nanohybrids were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), elemental analysis, infrared spectroscopy (IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Further experiments revealed that the single protein strains intercalate instead of the entire casein sub micelles, which are present in milk. Additionally, the pure phospho protein fractions α- and β-casein, which make up ∼80 wt% of total casein were isolated and intercalated into the Ca-Al-LDH host structure, yielding a biopolymer-inorganic hybrid material.