New water-soluble calix[4]arene-based bipyridyl podands incorporating carboxylate groups

New calixarene-based bis-bipyridyl podands incorporating two sodium (4-oxo)-butanoate or four sodium carboxymethyl groups at the upper rim were synthesised and fully characterised. The (4-oxo)-butanoate derivative bearing unsubstituted bipyridyl arms was not soluble in water at neutral pH, while its 4,4′-dicarboxylate analogue was perfectly soluble, as were the carboxymethyl derivatives. The association of water solubility to the chelating behaviour of the bipyridyl subunits resulted in the ability to complex the unstable copper(I) cation in water, even in the presence of bovine serum albumin.     

Construction d'une paramétrixe pour des opérateurs différentiels hypoelliptiques marimaux sur un espace homogéne d'un groupe de Lie nilpotent gradué de rang 2

Soient G une alébre de Lie nilpotente stratifée de rang 2, une sous-algébre de G, _0, la représentation de G dans l'espace L ²( \ G) indiute par le caractére trivial C, P un opérateur homogène appartenant à l'algébre universelle enveloppante (complexifiée) U(G) tel que l'opérateur _0, (P) soit hypoelliptique maximal. Cet opérateur peut s'exprimer par une intégrale dépendant de la restriction du symbole p de P au sousensemble = G · décrit par les orbites des éléments de dans la représentation contragrédiente de G dans G ^*.Une algèbre de symboles définis sur est construite et permet de déterminer une paramétrixe de _0, (P); des résultats de réguralité de cet opérateur dans des espaces de Sobolev adaptés sont ensuite obtenus.     

Synthesis of chiral α-substituted N-[((2S)-2-hydroxy-2-phenyl)-ethyl]-2-phenylglycine derivatives by diastereocontrolled alkylation of (6 R)-2,3,5,6-tetrahydro-3,6-diaryl-N-[(2′R)-(2′-methyl)phenyl-methyl]-4H-1,4-oxazin-2-ones

The synthesis of α-substituted N-[((2S)-2-hydroxy-2-phenyl)-ethyl]-2-phenylglycine derivatives is reported. The key step of the sequence is the highly diastereoselective alkylation of (6R)-2,3,5,6-tetrahydro-3,6-diaryl-N-[(2′R)-(2′-methyl)phenylmethyl]-4H-1,4-oxazin-2-ones after deprotonation with t-BuOK. Opening of the resulting oxazinone with ethanolic KOH, followed by hydrogenolysis of the corresponding N-[(2R)-(2-methyl)phenylmethyl] compound to furnish the expected 2-phenylglycine derivative, is also described.     

Stability Enhancement of a Dimeric HER2-Specific Affibody Molecule through Sortase A-Catalyzed Head-to-Tail Cyclization

Natural backbone-cyclized proteins have an increased thermostability and resistance towards proteases, characteristics that have sparked interest in head-to-tail cyclization as a method to stability-enhance proteins used in diagnostics and therapeutic applications, for example. In this proof-of principle study, we have produced and investigated a head-to-tail cyclized and HER2-specific Z_HER2:342 Affibody dimer. The sortase A-mediated cyclization reaction is highly efficient (>95%) under optimized conditions, and renders a cyclic Z_HER3:342-dimer with an apparent melting temperature, T_m, of 68 °C, which is 3 °C higher than that of its linear counterpart. Circular dichroism spectra of the linear and cyclic dimers looked very similar in the far-UV range, both before and after thermal unfolding to 90 °C, which suggests that cyclization does not negatively impact the helicity or folding of the cyclic protein. The cyclic dimer had an apparent sub-nanomolar affinity (K_d ~750 pM) to the HER2-receptor, which is a ~150-fold reduction in affinity relative to the linear dimer (K_d ~5 pM), but the anti-HER2 Affibody dimer remained a high-affinity binder even after cyclization. No apparent difference in proteolytic stability was detected in an endopeptidase degradation assay for the cyclic and linear dimers. In contrast, in an exopeptidase degradation assay, the linear dimer was shown to be completely degraded after 5 min, while the cyclic dimer showed no detectable degradation even after 60 min. We further demonstrate that a site-specifically DyLight 594-labeled cyclic dimer shows specific binding to HER2-overexpressing cells. Taken together, the results presented here demonstrate that head-to-tail cyclization can be an effective strategy to increase the stability of an Affibody dimer.     

Synthesis of a C(sp2)-bridged Phosphine-Borane by Ionic Coupling

The vinyl carbenoid H₂C=CBr(Li) has been used as key precursor to prepare a geminal C(sp²)-bridged phosphine-borane. Starting from bromoethene, two sequences of lithiation/electrophilic trapping, with ClPiPr₂ and FBMes₂ respectively, affords iPr₂P–C(=CH₂)–BMes₂ 3 [Mes = 2,4,6-(H₃C)₃C₆H₂]. This new phosphine-borane 3 was characterized by multi-nuclear NMR and mass spectroscopy. It adopts a monomeric open structure without P→B interaction. A few crystals of a secondary product 4 were analyzed by X-ray diffraction, revealing an unusual dimeric structure.     

Emerging Bottom-Up Strategies for the Synthesis of Graphene Nanoribbons and Related Structures

The solution-phase synthesis is one of the most promising strategies for the preparation of well-defined graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) in large scale. To prepare high quality, defect-free GNRs, cycloaromatization reactions need to be very efficient, proceed without side reaction and mild enough to accommodate the presence of various functional groups. In this Minireview, we present the latest synthetic approaches for the synthesis of GNRs and related structures, including alkyne benzannulation, photochemical cyclodehydrohalogenation, Mallory and Pd- and Ni-catalyzed reactions.