Probing the activity differences of simple and complex brominated aryl compounds against 15-soybean, 15-human, and 12-human lipoxygenase.

Lipoxygenases (LO) have been implicated in asthma, immune disorders, and various cancers. As a consequence of these broad biological implications, there is great interest in understanding the effects of naturally occurring and environmental contaminants against its activity. On the basis of our earlier studies indicating that polybrominated diphenol ethers are potent inhibitors to mammalian 15-LO, we expanded our structure-activity study to include marine-derived brominated phenol ethers (including a newly discovered tribrominated diphenyl ether), dioxins, and bastadins, as well as the synthetic brominated fire retardants, brominated bisphenol A (BBPA), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). We report herein the effects of 21 simple and complex organobromine compounds against human platelet 12-LO, human reticulocyte 15-LO, and soybean 15-LO-1.

Oxazaborolidines as functional monomers: ketone reduction using polymer-supported Corey, Bakshi, and Shibata catalysts.

The first two polymer-supported versions of the Corey, Bakshi, and Shibata (CBS) catalyst have been prepared. Functional monomers based structurally upon the original B-methylated catalyst have been used to prepare catalytic polymers containing the CBS moiety bound both in a pendant fashion and in the form of a cross-link. Enantioselective reductions of two prochiral ketones have been carried out using the original catalyst in the solution phase as well as the two solid-state systems. While the pendant-bound system shows reduced stereoselectivity, the cross-linked version affords enantioselectivities almost identical to those of the solution-phase model.