Oligomers of Cyclic Oligochalcogenides for Enhanced Cellular Uptake.

Monomeric cyclic oligochalcogenides (COCs) are emerging as attractive transporters to deliver substrates of interest into the cytosol through thiol-mediated uptake. The objective of this study was to explore COC oligomers. We report a systematic evaluation of monomers, dimers, and trimers of asparagusic, lipoic, and diselenolipoic acid as well as their supramolecular monomers, dimers, trimers, and tetramers. COC dimers were more than twice as active as the monomers on both the covalent and noncovalent levels, whereas COC trimers were not much better than dimers. These trends might suggest that thiol-mediated uptake of COCs is synergistic over both short and long distances, that is, it involves more than two COCs and more than one membrane protein, although other interpretations cannot be excluded at this level of complexity. These results thus provide attractive perspectives for structural evolution as well as imminent use in practice. Moreover, they validate automated HC-CAPA as an invaluable method to collect comprehensive data on cytosolic delivery within a reasonable time at a level of confidence that is otherwise inconceivable.

Room-Temperature CuI-Catalyzed Amination of Aryl Iodides and Aryl Bromides.

A general and effective CuI/N',N'-diaryl-1H-pyrrole-2-carbohydrazide catalyst system was developed for the amination of aryl iodides and bromides at room temperature with good chemoselectivity between -OH and -NH2 groups. Only 5 mol % of CuI and ligands was needed in this protocol to effect the amination of various aryl bromides and aryl iodides with a wide range of aliphatic and aryl amines (1.3 equiv).