RESUMEN
A DFT study of the Diels-Alder reactions of vinylboronic acid pinacol ester, allenylboronic acid pinacol ester, methyl acrylate, and methyl 2,3-butadienoate with cyclopentadiene has been performed. Competitive mechanisms for the reactions of the carboxylic esters have been fully investigated, and similar results to those previously found for the organoboron compounds were obtained. Moreover, reactivity and selectivity patterns were correctly reproduced. The distortion/interaction-activation strain energy model analysis provided a rationale to explain the experimental outcome of the studied [4 + 2] cycloadditions. While the regioselectivity of the allenyl compounds and the relative reactivity of the boronic and carboxylic esters appear to originate from electronic effects that arise from orbital overlap and correlate with the energies of the vacant orbitals of the dienophiles, the lower reactivity of the allenes relative to the vinyl compounds may be due to the distortion of the dienophiles.
RESUMEN
We have studied the reaction of allenylboronic acid pinacol ester with cyclopentadiene with experimental and computational methods. The reaction occurred efficiently with complete Diels-Alder periselectivity and regioselectivity at the proximal double bond. The concerted mechanism for the observed transformation was computed to be favored over competitive addition to the distal double bond, [3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangements, and stepwise radical mechanism. This unprecedented Diels-Alder reaction enables the construction of synthetically versatile boron-substituted cycloadducts.
RESUMEN
Oxidation of protein methionines to methionine-sulfoxides (MetOx) is associated with several age-related diseases. In healthy cells, MetOx is reduced to methionine by two families of conserved methionine sulfoxide reductase enzymes, MSRA and MSRB that specifically target the S- or R-diastereoisomers of methionine-sulfoxides, respectively. To directly interrogate MSRA and MSRB functions in cellular settings, we developed an NMR-based biosensor that we call CarMetOx to simultaneously measure both enzyme activities in single reaction setups. We demonstrate the suitability of our strategy to delineate MSR functions in complex biological environments, including cell lysates and live zebrafish embryos. Thereby, we establish differences in substrate specificities between prokaryotic and eukaryotic MSRs and introduce CarMetOx as a highly sensitive tool for studying therapeutic targets of oxidative stress-related human diseases and redox regulated signaling pathways.