Directional Formation of Reactive Oxygen Species Via a Non-Redox Catalysis Strategy That Bypasses Electron Transfer Process.

A broad range of chemical transformations driven by catalytic processes necessitates the electron transfer between catalyst and substrate. The redox cycle limitation arising from the inequivalent electron donation and acceptance of the involved catalysts, however, generally leads to their deactivation, causing substantial economic losses and environmental risks. Here, a "non-redox catalysis" strategy is provided, wherein the catalytic units are constructed by atomic Fe and B as dual active sites to create tensile force and electric field, which allows directional self-decomposition of peroxymonosulfate (PMS) molecules through internal electron transfer to form singlet oxygen, bypassing the need of electron transfer between catalyst and PMS. The proposed catalytic approach with non-redox cycling of catalyst contributes to excellent stability of the active centers while the generated reactive oxygen species find high efficiency in long-term catalytic pollutant degradation and selective organic oxidation synthesis in aqueous phase. This work offers a new avenue for directional substrate conversion, which holds promise to advance the design of alternative catalytic pathways for sustainable energy conversion and valuable chemical production.

Structure-Based Identification of Kelch-like ECH-Associated Protein 1 as a Pharmacological Target of Electrophile-Containing Catechol-O-Methyltransferase Inhibitors.

Entacapone and nitecapone are electrophile-containing catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) inhibitors that are used to treat Parkinson's disease in combination with L-DOPA. It is desirable to investigate whether they can covalently bind to cellular protein targets using their reactive electrophilic warheads. We identified Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1 (KEAP1), a sensor for oxidative and electrophilic stress, as a potential pharmacological target of both drugs by performing covalent-based reverse docking. We confirmed that both drugs activate nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (NRF2) by reversibly modifying C151 on KEAP1. Both drugs can enhance the expression of growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) and NRF2 downstream antioxidant response element (ARE) genes, both in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, both drugs exhibit anti-inflammatory effects in an NRF2-dependent acute gout model. Our findings suggest that these two drugs could be repurposed for the treatment of NRF2-modulated inflammatory diseases, and the 3-methylene-acetylacetone group of nitecapone could serve as a new reversible covalent warhead.