Late-Stage Modification of Oligopeptides by Nickel-Catalyzed Stereoselective Radical Addition to Dehydroalanine.

Radical addition to dehydroalanine (Dha) represents an appealing, modular strategy to access non-canonical peptide analogues for drug discovery. Prior studies on radical addition to the Dha residue of peptides and proteins have demonstrated outstanding functional group compatibility, but the lack of stereoselectivity has limited the synthetic utility of this approach. Herein, we address this challenge by employing chiral nickel catalysts to control the stereoselectivity of radical addition to Dha on oligopeptides. The conditions accommodate a variety of primary and secondary electrophiles to introduce polyethylene glycol, biotin, halo-tag, and hydrophobic and hydrophilic side chains to the peptide. The reaction features catalyst control to largely override substrate-based control of stereochemical outcome for modification of short peptides. We anticipate that the discovery of chiral nickel complexes that confer catalyst control will allow rapid, late-stage modification of peptides featuring nonnatural sidechains.

Palladium(II)-Catalyzed Enantioselective Azidation of Unactivated Alkenes.

The first Pd-catalyzed enantioselective azidation of unactivated alkenes has been established by using readily accessible 1-azido-1,2-benziodoxol-3(1H)-one (ABX) as an azidating reagent, which affords a wide variety of structurally diverse 3-N3 -substituted piperidines in good yields with excellent enantioselectivity. The reaction features good functional-group compatibility and mild reaction conditions. Notably, both an electrophilic azidating reagent and the sterically bulky chiral pyridinyl-oxazoline (Pyox) ligand are crucial to the successful reaction.

Enantioselective Pd(II)-Catalyzed Intramolecular Oxidative 6- endo Aminoacetoxylation of Unactivated Alkenes.

A novel asymmetric 6-endo aminoacetoxylation of unactivated alkenes by palladium catalysis, which yields chiral ß-acetoxylated piperidines with excellent chemo-, regio- and enantioselectivities under very mild reaction conditions, has been established herein by employing a new designed pyridine-oxazoline (Pyox) ligand. Importantly, introducing a sterically bulky group into the C-6 position of Pyox is crucial to enhance the reactivity of the aminoacetoxylation of alkenes.

Catalytic Oxidative Trifluoromethoxylation of Allylic C-H Bonds Using a Palladium Catalyst.

A catalytic intermolecular allylic C-H trifluoromethoxylation reaction of alkenes has been developed based on the use of a palladium catalyst, CsOCF3 as the trifluoromethoxide source, and benzoquinone as the oxidant. This reaction provides an efficient route for directly accessing allylic trifluoromethoxy derivatives with excellent regioselectivities from terminal alkenes via an allylic C-H bond activation process.

Intermolecular Palladium-Catalyzed Oxidative Fluorocarbonylation of Unactivated Alkenes: Efficient Access to ß-Fluorocarboxylic Esters.

A novel palladium-catalyzed intermolecular oxidative fluorocarbonylation of alkenes has been developed, in which employment of a cooperative process with electrophilic ArIF2 -meidated alkenes activation and palladium-catalyzed carbonylation is crucial for the successful catalytic transformation. The current transformation presents the first convenient method to generate ß-fluorinated carboxylic acid derivatives under mild reaction conditions from simple alkenes with excellent regioselectivity.

A Cooperative Strategy for the Highly Selective Intermolecular Oxycarbonylation Reaction of Alkenes using a Palladium Catalyst.

A novel method for intermolecular functionalization of terminal and internal alkenes has been designed. The electrophilic reagent, hypervalent iodine, plays a key role in this process by activating the alkene C=C bond for nucleophilic addition of the palladium catalyst. This process generates an iodonium-containing palladium species which undergoes CO insertion. The new approach, intermolecular oxycarbonylaton reactions of alkenes, has been achieved and carried out under mild reaction conditions to produce the corresponding ß-oxycarbonylic acids with excellent efficiencies and levels of regio- and diastereoselectivity.

Palladium-catalyzed intermolecular aminocarbonylation of alkenes: efficient access of ß-amino acid derivatives.

A novel palladium-catalyzed intermolecular aminocarbonylation of alkenes has been developed in which the employment of hypervalent iodine reagent can accelerate the intermolecular aminopalladation, which thus provides the successful catalytic transformation. The current transformation presents one of the most convenient methods to generate ß-amino acid derivatives from simple alkenes.

Copper-catalyzed intermolecular trifluoromethylazidation of alkenes: convenient access to CF3 -containing alkyl azides.

A novel copper-catalyzed intermolecular trifluoromethylazidation of alkenes has been developed under mild reaction conditions. A variety of CF3 -containing organoazides were directly synthesized from a wide range of olefins, including activated and unactivated alkenes, and the resulting products can be easily transformed into the corresponding CF3 -containing amine derivatives.

Responses of soil nematode abundance and food web to cover crops in a kiwifruit orchard.

Soil biodiversity plays an important role in both agricultural productivity and ecosystem functions. Cover crop species influence the primary productivity of the ecosystem and basal resources. However, it remains poorly understood how different cover crop treatments influence the community of soil nematodes in an orchard ecosystem. In this study, field experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of cover crop treatments with different species numbers, i.e., no cover crop (CK), two cover crop species (C2), four cover crop species (C4), and eight cover crop species (C8), on weed biomass, together with composition, abundance, and metabolic footprint of soil nematode community in a kiwifruit orchard. As compared to the CK group, the groups of cover crop treatments had lower weed biomass, which decreased with the increase of the cover crop diversity. Moreover, for the abundance of total nematodes, fungivores exhibited higher levels in C4 and C8 treatments than that in CK, bacterivores had a higher abundance in C4 treatment, and plant parasites had a higher abundance in C2 and C8 treatments. Cover crop treatments also changed the structure of nematode community and enhanced the nematode interactions and complexity of nematode community network. In addition, C4 increased the Wasilewska index but decreased the plant-parasite index. The metabolic footprints of fungivores were higher in cover crop treatments compared with CK, and C4 and C8 also increased the functional metabolic footprint of nematode. Soil nematode faunal analysis based on nematode metabolic footprints showed that C8 improved the soil nutrient status and food wed stability. Mantel test and redundancy analysis showed that soil microbial biomass nitrogen and carbon, organic carbon, nitrate nitrogen, moisture content, pH, and cover crop biomass were the main factors that affect soil nematode community. In conclusion, cover crop treatments with four or eight plant species displayed a positive role in weed control, improvement of soil health, and promotion of energy flow in the soil food web through the increase in the metabolic footprints of nematodes in kiwifruit orchard.

Nickel-Catalyzed Dicarbofunctionalization of Alkenes.

1,2-Dicarbofunctionalization of alkenes has emerged as an efficient synthetic strategy for preparing substituted molecules by coupling readily available alkenes with electrophiles and/or nucleophiles. Nickel complexes serve as effective catalysts owing to their tendency to undergo facile oxidative addition and slow ß-hydride elimination, and their capability to access both two-electron and radical pathways. Two-component alkene functionalization reactions have achieved high chemo-, regio-, and stereoselectivities by tethering one of the coupling partners to the alkene substrate. Three-component reactions, however, often incorporate directing groups to control the selectivity. Only a few examples of directing-group-free difunctionalizations of unactivated alkenes have been reported. Therefore, great opportunities exist for the development of three-component difunctionalization reactions with broad substrate scopes and tunable chemo-, regio-, and stereoselectivities.

Contrast ultrasound-guided photothermal therapy using gold nanoshelled microcapsules in breast cancer.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to test whether dual functional gold nano-shelled microcapsules (GNS-MCs) can be used as an ultrasound imaging enhancer and as an optical absorber for photothermal therapy (PTT) in a rodent model of breast cancer. METHODS: GNS-MCs were fabricated with an inner air and outer gold nanoshell spherical structure. Photothermal cytotoxicity of GNS-MCs was tested with BT474 cancer cells in vitro and non-obese diabetes-SCID (NOD/SCID) mice with breast cancer. GNS-MCs were injected into the tumor under ultrasound guidance and treated with near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation. The photothermal ablative effectiveness of GNS-MCs was evaluated by measuring the surface and internal temperature of the tumor as well as the size of the tumor using histological confirmation. RESULTS: NIR laser irradiation resulted in significant tumor cell death in GNS-MCs-treated BT474 cells in vitro. GNS-MCs were able to serve as an ultrasound enhancer to guide the intratumoral injection of GNS-MCs and ensure their uniform distribution. In vivo studies revealed that NIR laser irradiation increased the intratumoral temperature to nearly 70°C for 8 min in GNS-MCs-treated mice. Tumor volumes decreased gradually and tumors were completely ablated in 6 out of 7 mice treated with GNS-MCs and laser irradiation by 17 days after treatment. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that ultrasound-guided PTT with theranostic GNS-MCs is a promising technique for in situ treatment of breast cancer.