Synthesis of Aminoallenes via Selenium-π-Acid-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling of N-Fluorinated Sulfonimides with Simple Alkynes.

The facile synthesis of aminoallenes, accomplished by a selenium-π-acid-catalyzed cross-coupling of an N-fluorinated sulfonimide with simple, non-activated alkynes, is reported. Until now, aminoallenes were difficult to be accessed by customary means, inasmuch as pre-activated and, in part, intricate starting materials were necessary for their synthesis. In sharp contrast, the current study shows that ordinary internal alkynes can serve as simple and readily available precursors for the construction of the aminoallene motif. The operating reaction conditions tolerate numerous functional groups such as esters, nitriles, (silyl)ethers, acetals, and halogen substituents, furnishing the target compounds in up to 86 % yield.

Photocatalytic Aerobic Phosphatation of Alkenes.

A catalytic regime for the direct phosphatation of simple, non-polarized alkenes has been devised that is based on using ordinary, non-activated phosphoric acid diesters as the phosphate source and O2 as the terminal oxidant. The title method enables the direct and highly economic construction of a diverse range of allylic phosphate esters. From a conceptual viewpoint, the aerobic phosphatation is entirely complementary to traditional methods for phosphate ester formation, which predominantly rely on the use of prefunctionalized or preactivated reactants, such as alcohols and phosphoryl halides. The title transformation is enabled by the interplay of a photoredox and a selenium π-acid catalyst and involves a sequence of single-electron-transfer processes.

Design, Synthesis, and Biological Evaluation of Quercetagetin Analogues as JNK1 Inhibitors.

The recent discovery of c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase JNK1 suppression by natural quercetagetin (1) is a promising lead for the development of novel anticancer agents. Using both X-ray structure and docking analyses we predicted that 5'-hydroxy- (2) and 5'-hydroxymethyl-quercetagetin (3) would inhibit JNK1 more actively than the parent compound 1. Notably, our drug design was based on the active enzyme-ligand complex as opposed to the enzyme's relatively open apo structure. In this paper we test our theoretical predictions, aided by docking-model experiments, and report the first synthesis and biological evaluation of quercetagetin analogues 2 and 3. As calculated, both compounds strongly suppress JNK1 activity. The IC50 values were determined to be 3.4 µM and 12.2 µM, respectively, which shows that 2 surpasses the potency of the parent compound 1 (IC50 =4.6 µM). Compound 2 was also shown to suppress matrix metalloproteinase-1 expression with high specificity after UV irradiation.