Versatile New Reagent for Nitrosation under Mild Conditions.

Here we report a new chemical reagent for transnitrosation under mild experimental conditions. This new reagent is stable to air and moisture across a broad range of temperatures and is effective for transnitrosation in multiple solvents. Compared with traditional nitrosation methods, our reagent shows high functional group tolerance for substrates that are susceptible to oxidation or reversible transnitrosation. Several challenging nitroso compounds are accessed here for the first time, including 15N isotopologues. X-ray data confirm that two rotational isomers of the reagent are configurationally stable at room temperature, although only one isomer is effective for transnitrosation. Computational analysis describes the energetics of rotamer interconversion, including interesting geometry-dependent hybridization effects.

Structure-activity relationship studies of 1,7-diheteroarylhepta-1,4,6-trien-3-ones with two different terminal rings in prostate epithelial cell models.

To systematically investigate the structure-activity relationships of 1,7-diheteroarylhepta-1,4,6-trien-3-ones in three human prostate cancer cell models and one human prostate non-neoplastic epithelial cell model, thirty five 1,7-diarylhepta-1,4,6-trien-3-ones with different terminal heteroaromatic rings have been designed for evaluation of their anti-proliferative potency in vitro. These target compounds have been successfully synthesized through two sequential Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons reactions starting from the appropriate aldehydes and tetraethyl (2-oxopropane-1,3-diyl)bis(phosphonate). Their anti-proliferative potency against PC-3, DU-145 and LNCaP human prostate cancer cell lines can be significantly enhanced by the manipulation of the terminal heteroaromatic rings, further demonstrating the utility of 1,7-diarylhepta-1,4,6-trien-3-one as a potential scaffold for the development of anti-prostate cancer agents. The optimal analog 40 is 82-, 67-, and 39-fold more potent than curcumin toward the three prostate cancer cell lines, respectively. The experimental data also reveal that the trienones with two different terminal aromatic rings possess greater potency toward three prostate cancer cell lines, but also have greater capability of suppressing the proliferation of PWR-1E benign human prostate epithelial cells, as compared to the corresponding counterparts with two identical terminal rings and curcumin. The terminal aromatic rings also affect the cell apoptosis perturbation.