Revisiting Hafner's Azapentalenes: The Chemistry of 1,3-Bis(dimethylamino)-2-azapentalene.

Stable azaheterocyclic derivatives of pentalene have been reported by the group of Hafner in the 1970s. However, these structures remained of low interest until recently, when they started to be investigated in the context of organic light-emitting diodes' (OLEDs') development. Herein, we revisit the synthesis of stable azapentalene derivative 1,3-bis(dimethylamino)-2-azapentalene and further explore its properties both computationally and experimentally. Beyond the reproduction and optimization of some previously reported transformations, such as formylation and amine substitution, the available scope of reactions was expanded with azo-coupling, selective halogenations, and cross-coupling reactions.

Polymorphic amyloid nanostructures of hormone peptides involved in glucose homeostasis display reversible amyloid formation.

A large group of hormones are stored as amyloid fibrils in acidic secretion vesicles before they are released into the bloodstream and readopt their functional state. Here, we identify an evolutionarily conserved hexapeptide sequence as the major aggregation-prone region (APR) of gastrointestinal peptides of the glucagon family: xFxxWL. We determine nine polymorphic crystal structures of the APR segments of glucagon-like peptides 1 and 2, and exendin and its derivatives. We follow amyloid formation by CD, FTIR, ThT assays, and AFM. We propose that the pH-dependent changes of the protonation states of glutamate/aspartate residues of APRs initiate switching between the amyloid and the folded, monomeric forms of the hormones. We find that pH sensitivity diminishes in the absence of acidic gatekeepers and amyloid formation progresses over a broad pH range. Our results highlight the dual role of short aggregation core motifs in reversible amyloid formation and receptor binding.

Novel Polycondensed Partly Saturated ß-Carbolines Including Ferrocene Derivatives: Synthesis, DFT-Supported Structural Analysis, Mechanism of Some Diastereoselective Transformations and a Preliminary Study of Their in vitro Antiproliferative Effects.

Use of a Pictet-Spengler reaction of tryptamine and l-tryptophan methyl ester and subsequent reduction of the nitro group followed by further cyclocondensation with aryl aldehydes and formyl-substituted carboxylic acids, including ferrocene-based components, furnished a series of diastereomeric 6-aryl-substituted 5,6,8,9,14,14b-hexahydroindolo[2',3':3,4]pyrido[1-c]-quinazolines and 5,5b,17,18-tetrahydroindolo[2',3':3,4]pyrido[1,2-c]isoindolo[2,1-a]quinazolin-11-(15bH)-ones with the elements of central-, planar and conformational chirality. The relative configuration and the conformations of the novel polycyclic indole derivatives were determined by 1H- and 13C-NMR methods supplemented by comparative DFT analysis of the possible diastereomers. The structure of one of the pentacyclic methyl esters with defined absolute configuration "S" was also confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction measurement. Accounting for the characteristic substituent-dependent diastereoselective formation of the products multistep mechanisms were proposed on the basis of the results of DFT modeling. Preliminary in vitro cytotoxic assays of the products revealed moderate-to-significant antiproliferative effects against PANC-1-, COLO-205-, A-2058 and EBC-1 cell lines that proved to be highly dependent on the stereostructure and on the substitution pattern of the pending aryl substituent.