Negating coordinative cysteine and methionine residues during metathesis of unprotected peptides.

Ru-Alkylidene catalysed olefin metathesis generates metabolically stable cystine bridge peptidomimetics with defined geometry. Deleterious coordinative bonding to the catalyst by sulfur-containing functionality found in cysteine and methionine residues can be negated by in situ and reversible oxidation of thiol and thioether functionality, as disulfides and S-oxides respectively, to facilitate high yielding ring-closing and cross metathesis of bioorthogonally protected peptides.

Ring closing metathesis of unprotected peptides.

An efficient and expedient route to the synthesis of dicarba peptides from protecting group-free sequences is reported using Ru-alkylidene catalysed olefin metathesis. A range of cyclic peptides was prepared from linear peptides containing two Z-crotyl glycine residues. Free amine groups were masked as salts with Brønsted acids preventing in situ catalyst decomposition. Excellent RCM conversion was obtained in both DMF and methanol.

A Formal Synthesis of (-)-Perhydrohistrionicotoxin Using a Cross Metathesis-Hydrogenation Approach.

The development of an efficient, high yielding six-step convergent synthesis of the semisynthetic alkaloid (-)-perhydrohistrionicotoxin is described. The key transformations include the cross metathesis of a Brønsted-acid masked primary homoallylic amine with a vinyl cyclohexenone and a regioselective palladium catalyzed hydrogenation. This sequence generated the advanced Winterfeldt spirocyclic precursor in 47% overall yield, with a longest linear sequence of five steps.

Cross-Metathesis Approach to the Tricyclic Marine Alkaloids (-)-Fasicularin and (-)-Lepadiformine A.

A cross-metathesis protocol has been developed to provide facile access to highly hindered trisubstituted α-branched olefins, which when coupled with a cationic azaspirocyclization reaction, generates the marine alkaloids (-)-fasicularin 2 and a pro-forma synthesis of (-)-lepadiformine A 1.

Studies on the application of temperature-responsive ion exchange polymers with whey proteins.

Several new types of temperature-responsive ion exchange resins of different polymer composition have been prepared by grafting the products from the co-polymerisation of N-phenylacrylamide, N-iso-propylacrylamide and acrylic acid derivatives onto cross-linked agarose. Analysis of the binding isotherms for these different resins obtained under batch adsorption conditions indicated that the resin based on N-iso-propylacrylamide containing 5% (w/w) N-phenylacrylamide and 5% (w/w) acrylic acid resulted in the highest adsorption capacity, Bmax, for the whey protein, bovine lactoferrin, e.g. 14 mg bovine lactoferrin/mL resin at 4 °C and 62 mg bovine lactoferrin/mL resin at 40 °C, respectively. Under dynamic loading conditions at 40 °C, 94% of the loaded bovine lactoferrin on a normalised mg protein per mL resin basis was adsorbed by this new temperature-responsive ion-exchanger, and 76% was eluted by a single cycle temperature shift to 4 °C without varying the composition of the 10mM sodium dihydrogen phosphate buffer, pH 6.5, or the flow rate. The binding characteristics of these different ion exchange resins with bovine lactoferrin were also compared to results obtained using other resins based on N-isopropylacrylamide but contained N-tert-butylacrylamide rather than N-phenylacrylamide, where the corresponding dynamic capture and release properties for bovine lactoferrin required different temperature conditions of 20 °C and 50 °C, respectively for optimal desorption/adsorption. The cationic protein, bovine lactoperoxidase, was also adsorbed and desorbed with these temperature-responsive resins under similar conditions of changing temperature, whereas the anionic protein, bovine ß-lactoglobulin, was not adsorbed under this regime of temperature conditions but instead eluted in the flow-through.

Stereoselective synthesis and structural elucidation of dicarba peptides.

A facile stereoselective synthesis of cis and trans unsaturated dicarba peptides has been established using preformed diaminosuberic acid derivatives as bridging units. In addition, characteristic spectral differences in the (13)C-NMR spectra of the cis- and trans-isomers show that the chemical shift of carbons in the Δ4,5-diaminosuberic acid residue can be used to assign stereochemistry in unsaturated dicarba peptides formed from ring closing metathesis of linear peptide sequences.

One-Pot Selective Homodimerization/Hydrogenation Strategy for Sequential Dicarba Bridge Formation.

The installation of interlocked dicarba bridges into peptide sequences requires the development of a regioselective and chemoselective methodology. This manuscript describes a one-pot, chemoselective synthesis of three 2,7-diaminosuberic acid derivatives from an alkyne, a cobalt-carbonyl protected alkyne, and an alkene using metathesis and homogeneous hydrogenation catalysis.

Divergent Approach to a Family of Tyrosine-Derived Ru-Alkylidene Olefin Metathesis Catalysts.

A simple and generic approach to access a new family of Ru-alkylidene olefin metathesis catalysts with specialized properties is reported. This strategy utilizes a late stage, utilitarian Hoveyda-type ligand derived from tyrosine, which can be accessed via a multigram-scale synthesis. Further functionalization allows the catalyst properties to be tuned, giving access to modified second-generation Hoveyda-Grubbs-type catalysts. This divergent synthetic approach can be used to access solid-supported catalysts and catalysts that function under solvent-free and aqueous conditions.

Multidimensional and comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography of dichloromethane soluble products from a high sulfur Jordanian oil shale.

A high sulfur Jordanian oil shale was converted into liquid hydrocarbons by reaction at 390 °C under N2, and the dichloromethane soluble fraction of the products was isolated then analyzed by using gas chromatography (GC). Comprehensive two-dimensional GC (GC×GC) and multidimensional GC (MDGC) were applied for component separation on a polar - non-polar column set. Flame-ionization detection (FID) was used with GC×GC for general sample profiling, and mass spectrometry (MS) for component identification in MDGC. Multidimensional GC revealed a range of thiophenes (th), benzothiophenes (bth) and small amounts of dibenzothiophenes (dbth) and benzonaphthothiophenes (bnth). In addition, a range of aliphatic alkanes and cycloalkanes, ethers, polar single ring aromatic compounds and small amounts of polycyclic aromatics were also identified. Some of these compound classes were not uniquely observable by conventional 1D GC, and certainly this is true for many of their minor constituent members. The total number of distinct compounds was very large (ca.>1000). GC×GC was shown to be appropriate for general sample profiling, and MDGC-MS proved to be a powerful technique for the separation and identification of sulfur-containing components and other polar compounds.

An efficient protocol for the cross-metathesis of sterically demanding olefins.

Cross-metathesis of a wide range of previously unreactive, sterically demanding alkenes can be achieved in fair to excellent yield using a commercially available catalyst by a facile strategy involving reversal of steric preference.

Tandem Ru-alkylidene-catalysed cross metathesis/hydrogenation: synthesis of lipophilic amino acids.

Highly efficient synthesis of lipidic amino acids can be achieved via Ru-alkylidene-catalysed cross metathesis of long chain alkenes with commercially available allylglycine. The resultant unsaturated analogues can be then optionally hydrogenated under mild reaction conditions by using the spent metathesis catalyst.

Regioselective formation of interlocked dicarba bridges in naturally occurring cyclic peptide toxins using olefin metathesis.

Bis-dicarba analogues of native dicystine-containing alpha-conotoxin Rg1A, an analgesic peptide isolated from cone snail venom, were constructed on resin using a regioselective metathesis-hydrogenation strategy.

Development of a temperature-responsive agarose-based ion-exchange chromatographic resin.

A temperature-responsive ion-exchange resin (ItBA) has been prepared by grafting poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid-co-tert-butylacrylamide; ItBA) onto cross-linked agarose. A carboxymethylated ion exchanger (CM) of similar charge density was also prepared. Maximum adsorption capacities (B(max)) for lactoferrin at 20 degrees C and 50 degrees C were determined for both resins by batch adsorption procedures. Dynamic adsorption and desorption characteristics of the CM and ItBA with lactoferrin were established, as well as the ability of ItBA to selectively adsorb and desorb lactoferrin in the presence of other proteins. With the CM-agarose resin there was no significant difference between the B(max) values obtained at 20 degrees C and 50 degrees C. However, for the agarose-based ItBA resin the B(max) value at 50 degrees C was almost three times higher than the B(max) value at 20 degrees C. Dynamically, lactoferrin adsorbed to the ItBA packed column at 50 degrees C with a significant proportion of the adsorbed lactoferrin desorbed by reducing the temperature to 20 degrees C. In addition, anionic proteins did not adsorb to the ItBA packed column, and did not interfere with the dynamic adsorption/desorption behaviour of lactoferrin. These results indicate that this new temperature-responsive agarose-based ItBA resin has potential for the fractionation of whey proteins, with good selectivity for cationic proteins.

Metathesis assisted synthesis of cyclic peptides.

Installation of reversible, metathesis-active tethers into linear peptide sequences can be used to promote formation of cyclic peptide amides and esters.

Microwave-assisted RCM for the synthesis of carbocyclic peptides.

Microwave irradiation dramatically improves the efficiency of ring closing metathesis (RCM) reactions of resin-attached peptides and the technology is illustrated by the highly selective synthesis of dicarba analogues of alpha-conotoxin IMI.

Controlled synthesis of (S,S)-2,7-diaminosuberic acid: a method for regioselective construction of dicarba analogues of multicystine-containing peptides.

A method to facilitate regioselective formation of multiple dicarba isosteres of cystine is described. A sequence of ruthenium-catalyzed cross metathesis and rhodium-catalyzed hydrogenation of nonproteinaceous allylglycine derivatives has been developed to achieve high-yielding and unambiguous formation of diaminosuberic acid derivatives. Allylglycine derivatives readily undergo ruthenium-catalyzed metathesis and hydrogenation to yield diaminosuberic acid derivatives in near quantitative yield. Under the same experimental conditions, prenylglycine was found to be inert to both Grubbs' and Wilkinson's catalyzed metathesis and hydrogenation, respectively, but was readily activated for metathesis via cross metathesis with Z-butene. Subsequent cross metathesis of the metathesis-formed crotylglycine derivative, followed by hydrogenation, yielded the second diaminosuberic acid derivative in excellent yield.

A one pot, metathesis-hydrogenation sequence for the selective formation of carbon-carbon bonds.

A combination of homogeneous hydrogenation and metathesis reactions allows highly efficient, stepwise chemo- and stereoselective formation of three separate 2,7-diaminosuberic acid derivatives in a single pot without isolation of intermediates.

Cross-metathesis of unsaturated natural oils with 2-butene. High conversion and productive catalyst turnovers.

The cross-metathesis of synthetic and natural triglycerides containing unsaturated fatty acids with 2-butene can be achieved with high conversion and excellent productive turnovers. These reactions are catalysed by second-generation ruthenium-based olefin metathesis catalysts and can be conducted at -5 degrees C in liquid 2-butene.

A highly enantioselective synthesis of cyclic alpha-amino acids involving a one-pot, single catalyst, tandem hydrogenation-hydroformylation sequence.

Tandem enantioselective hydrogenation followed by a hydroformylation-cyclisation sequence leading to cyclic alpha-amino acids with ee's > 95% can be achieved in a single pot, one catalyst system by successive reactions of prochiral dienamide esters with H2 followed by H2/CO using Rh(I)-DuPHOS.