Delocalized, asynchronous, closed-loop discovery of organic laser emitters.

Contemporary materials discovery requires intricate sequences of synthesis, formulation, and characterization that often span multiple locations with specialized expertise or instrumentation. To accelerate these workflows, we present a cloud-based strategy that enabled delocalized and asynchronous design-make-test-analyze cycles. We showcased this approach through the exploration of molecular gain materials for organic solid-state lasers as a frontier application in molecular optoelectronics. Distributed robotic synthesis and in-line property characterization, orchestrated by a cloud-based artificial intelligence experiment planner, resulted in the discovery of 21 new state-of-the-art materials. Gram-scale synthesis ultimately allowed for the verification of best-in-class stimulated emission in a thin-film device. Demonstrating the asynchronous integration of five laboratories across the globe, this workflow provides a blueprint for delocalizing-and democratizing-scientific discovery.

Closed-loop optimization of general reaction conditions for heteroaryl Suzuki-Miyaura coupling.

General conditions for organic reactions are important but rare, and efforts to identify them usually consider only narrow regions of chemical space. Discovering more general reaction conditions requires considering vast regions of chemical space derived from a large matrix of substrates crossed with a high-dimensional matrix of reaction conditions, rendering exhaustive experimentation impractical. Here, we report a simple closed-loop workflow that leverages data-guided matrix down-selection, uncertainty-minimizing machine learning, and robotic experimentation to discover general reaction conditions. Application to the challenging and consequential problem of heteroaryl Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling identified conditions that double the average yield relative to a widely used benchmark that was previously developed using traditional approaches. This study provides a practical road map for solving multidimensional chemical optimization problems with large search spaces.

Machine Learning May Sometimes Simply Capture Literature Popularity Trends: A Case Study of Heterocyclic Suzuki-Miyaura Coupling.

Applications of machine learning (ML) to synthetic chemistry rely on the assumption that large numbers of literature-reported examples should enable construction of accurate and predictive models of chemical reactivity. This paper demonstrates that abundance of carefully curated literature data may be insufficient for this purpose. Using an example of Suzuki-Miyaura coupling with heterocyclic building blocks─and a carefully selected database of >10,000 literature examples─we show that ML models cannot offer any meaningful predictions of optimum reaction conditions, even if the search space is restricted to only solvents and bases. This result holds irrespective of the ML model applied (from simple feed-forward to state-of-the-art graph-convolution neural networks) or the representation to describe the reaction partners (various fingerprints, chemical descriptors, latent representations, etc.). In all cases, the ML methods fail to perform significantly better than naive assignments based on the sheer frequency of certain reaction conditions reported in the literature. These unsatisfactory results likely reflect subjective preferences of various chemists to use certain protocols, other biasing factors as mundane as availability of certain solvents/reagents, and/or a lack of negative data. These findings highlight the likely importance of systematically generating reliable and standardized data sets for algorithm training.

An Organodiselenide with Dual Mimic Function of Sulfhydryl Oxidases and Glutathione Peroxidases: Aerial Oxidation of Organothiols to Organodisulfides.

A novel organodiselenide, which mimics sulfhydryl oxidases and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) enzymes for oxidation of thiols by oxygen and hydrogen peroxide, respectively, into disulfides has been presented. The developed catalyst oxidizes an array of organothiols into respective disulfides in practical yields by using aerial O2 to avoid any reagents/additives, base, and light source. The synthesized diselenide also catalyzes the reduction of hydrogen peroxide into water by following the GPx enzymatic catalytic cycle with a reduction rate of 49.65 ± 3.7 µM·min-1.

Transition-metal-free Chemoselective Oxidative C-C Coupling of the sp3 C-H Bond of Oxindoles with Arenes and Addition to Alkene: Synthesis of 3-Aryl Oxindoles, and Benzofuro- and Indoloindoles.

A transition-metal (TM)-free and halogen-free NaOtBu-mediated oxidative cross-coupling between the sp3 C-H bond of oxindoles and sp2 C-H bond of nitroarenes has been developed to access 3-aryl substituted and 3,3-aryldisubstituted oxindoles in DMSO at room temperature in a short time. Interestingly, the sp3 C-H bond of oxindoles could also react with styrene under TM-free conditions for the practical synthesis of quaternary 3,3-disubstituted oxindoles. The synthesized 3-oxindoles have also been further transformed into advanced heterocycles, that is, benzofuroindoles, indoloindoles, and substituted indoles. Mechanistic experiments of the reaction suggests the formation of an anion intermediate from the sp3 C-H bond of oxindole by tert-butoxide base in DMSO. The addition of nitrobenzene to the in-situ generated carbanion leads to the 3-(nitrophenyl)oxindolyl carbanion in DMSO which is subsequently oxidized to 3-(nitro-aryl) oxindole by DMSO.

2,3-Diaryl-3H-imidazo[4,5-b]pyridine derivatives as potential anticancer and anti-inflammatory agents.

In this study we examined the suitability of the 3H-imidazo[4,5-b]pyridine ring system in developing novel anticancer and anti-inflammatory agents incorporating a diaryl pharmacophore. Eight 2,3-diaryl-3H-imidazo[4,5-b]pyridine derivatives retrieved from our in-house database were evaluated for their cytotoxic activity against nine cancer cell lines. The results indicated that the compounds showed moderate cytotoxic activity against MCF-7, MDA-MB-468, K562 and SaOS2 cells, with K562 being the most sensitive among the four cancer cell lines. The eight 2,3-diaryl-3H-imidazo[4,5-b]pyridine derivatives were also evaluated for their COX-1 and COX-2 inhibitory activity in vitro. The results showed that compound 3f exhibited 2-fold selectivity with IC50 values of 9.2 and 21.8 µmol/L against COX-2 and COX-1, respectively. Molecular docking studies on the most active compound 3f revealed a binding mode similar to that of celecoxib in the active site of the COX-2 enzyme.

Synthesis of Unsymmetrical Diaryl Acetamides, Benzofurans, Benzophenones, and Xanthenes by Transition-Metal-Free Oxidative Cross-Coupling of sp3 and sp2 C-H Bonds.

A chemo- and regioselective intermolecular sp3 C-H and sp2 C-H coupling reaction for C-C bond formation is described to access unsymmetrical diaryl acetamides under TM-free conditions from sec- and tert-arylacetamides and nitroarenes using tert-butoxide base in DMSO at room temperature. The coupling partners with sensitive functionalities such as chloro, bromo, hydroxy, and cyano were also amenable to the developed reaction. Synthesized α-(2/4-nitroaryl) phenylacetamides have been transformed into biologically important benzofurans, xanthenes, diaryl indoles, and unsymmetrical benzophenones by novel routes without applying a transition metal. Overall, an economical, yet efficient, strategy has been devised to access unsymmetrical diarylacetamides with the possibility of their further elaboration into a variety of biologically important heterocycles. Mechanistic understanding suggests that the reaction proceeds by a nucleophilic addition of a phenylacetamide carbanion, which is generated in the presence of tert-butoxide base, to the para or ortho (if para is substituted) position of nitrobenzene. The formed α-(4-nitrocyclohexa-2,4-dien-1-yl) phenylacetamide anion intermediate oxidized by a basic solution of DMSO or atmospheric oxygen led to the desired sp3 C-H and sp2 C-H coupled α-(2/4-nitroaryl) phenylacetamides.

KO(t)Bu-mediated annulation of acetonitrile with aldehyde: synthesis of substituted dihydropyridin-2(1H)-ones, pyridin-2(1H)-ones, and thiopyridin-2(1H)-ones.

The KO(t)Bu-mediated annulation of acetonitrile with aldehyde was observed, in which the cleavage of four C(sp(3))-H bonds occurred and a total of eight new bonds were formed during the synthesis of substituted dihydropyridinones in the presence of peroxide. Furthermore, dihydropyridinones have been transformed into pyridinones using KO(t)Bu in DMSO.

KO(t)Bu-mediated aerobic transition-metal-free regioselective ß-arylation of indoles: synthesis of ß-(2-/4-nitroaryl)-indoles.

A KO(t)Bu-mediated intermolecular oxidative C-C coupling of nitroarenes with indoles is presented in DMSO at room temperature in an open flask. By using this mild and economical methodology, syntheses of ß-(2/4-nitroaryl)-indoles with sensitive functionalities such as bromo, iodo, cyano, and nitro were achieved chemo- and regioselectively. Synthesized ß-(2/4-nitroaryl) indoles were transformed into densely functionalized biindoles, indoloindoles, and (4-aminoaryl)-indoles which demonstrate post-transformation utility of the developed methodology.

Design, synthesis and molecular modelling studies of novel 3-acetamido-4-methyl benzoic acid derivatives as inhibitors of protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B.

A novel series of 3-acetamido-4-methyl benzoic acid derivatives designed on the basis of vHTS hit ZINC02765569 were synthesized and screened for PTP1B inhibitory activity. The most potent compounds 3-(1-(5-methoxy-1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-ylthio)acetamido)-4-methyl benzoic acid (10c, IC50 8.2 µM) and 3-(2-(benzo[d]thiazol-2-ylthio)acetamido)-4-methyl benzoic acid (10e, IC50 8.3 µM) showed maximum PTP1B inhibitory activity. Docking studies were also performed to understand the nature of interactions governing the binding mode of the designed molecules within the active site of the PTP1B enzyme.

Synthesis and evaluation of 3-amino/guanidine substituted phenyl oxazoles as a novel class of LSD1 inhibitors with anti-proliferative properties.

A series of functionalized phenyl oxazole derivatives was designed, synthesized and screened in vitro for their activities against LSD1 and for effects on viability of cervical and breast cancer cells, and in vivo for effects using zebrafish embryos. These compounds are likely to act via multiple epigenetic mechanisms specific to cancer cells including LSD1 inhibition.

Synthesis and pharmacological evaluation of pyrazolo[4,3-c]cinnoline derivatives as potential anti-inflammatory and antibacterial agents.

A series of pyrazolo[4,3-c]cinnoline derivatives was synthesized, characterized and evaluated for anti-inflammatory and antibacterial activity. Test compounds that exhibited good anti-inflammatory activity were further screened for their ulcerogenic and lipid peroxidation activity. Compounds 4d and 4l showed promising anti-inflammatory activity with reduced ulcerogenic and lipid peroxidation activity when compared to naproxen. Docking results of these two compounds with COX-2 (PDB ID: 1CX2) also exhibited a strong binding profile. Among the test derivatives, compound 4i displayed significant antibacterial property against gram-negative (Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) bacteria. However, compound 4b emerged as the best dual anti-inflammatory-antibacterial agent in the present study.