Stereocontrolled synthesis of the aconitine D ring from D-glucose.

The synthesis of a fully oxygenated aconitine D ring precursor from (D)-(+)-glucose is described. The route features a highly diastereoselective alkynyl Grignard ketone addition and a base-mediated enelactone to 1,3-diketone rearrangement.

Improving the specificity of E. coli acetate/propionate exclusion biosensors via iterative engineering.

Real-time monitoring of key performance indicator analytes such as acetate and propionate within anaerobic digestors (AD) is required for optimum biogas production. In this paper the further refinement of acetate and propionate whole cell (E. coli) exclusion biosensors is reported following an iterative process in which key metabolites that might interfere with O2-uptake measurements are identified and genes required for their catabolism are knocked out (exclusion). Analysis of biological leachate from an AD reactor treating lignocellulosic material revealed the presence of formate, which was subsequently shown to elicit a response in previously developed E. coli biosensor strains. P1 phage transduction was employed to delete two genes encoding formate dehydrogenase, fdoH and fdnH, to eliminate formate catabolism. Deletion of these genes from the propionate biosensor strain W:ldgyepak abolished interference from formate and enabled accurate determination of propionate concentrations in biological leachate. However, the acetate biosensing strain E1/pGDR11-acs, despite not having any response to formate, responded to propionate. It was likely that this was a result of the promiscuity of the wild type acetyl CoA synthetase, which was replaced with Acs2 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, resolving the problem and enabling acetate determination with the biosensor. Acetate and propionate concentrations in authentic leachate influent were estimated to be 26.5 mM and 65.5 mM, respectively, using the biosensor, and 26.6 and 70 mM, respectively, by HPLC, demonstrating the accuracy and specificity of the refined biosensor.

Synthesis of a Protected keto-Lysidine Analogue via Improved Preparation of Arabino-isoCytosine Nucleosides.

Anhydrouridines react with aliphatic amines to give N-alkyl isocytosines, but reported procedures often demand very long reaction times and can be low yielding, with narrow scope. A modified procedure for such reactions has been developed, using microwave irradiation, significantly reducing reaction time and allowing facile access to a diverse range of novel nucleosides on the gram scale. The method has been used to prepare a precursor to a novel analogue of lysidine, a naturally occurring iminonucleoside found in tRNA.

Synthesis of 3-Substituted Pyrrolidines via Palladium-Catalyzed Hydroarylation.

Metal-catalyzed reactions have revolutionized synthetic chemistry, allowing access to unprecedented molecular architectures with powerful properties and activities. Nonetheless, some transformations remain sparse in number, or out of reach, even with the diverse modern catalytic chemical arsenal, including bimolecular alkene hydroarylation reactions. We report here a broad-scope, palladium-catalyzed pyrroline hydroarylation process that gives 3-aryl pyrrolidines, a class of small molecules with potency in a diverse range of biological scenarios. Thus, whereas N-acyl pyrrolines usually undergo palladium-catalyzed arylation to give alkene products, the corresponding reactions of N-alkyl pyrrolines deliver products of hydroarylation, pyrrolidines. The process has broad substrate scope and can be used to directly deliver drug-like molecules in a single step from readily available precursors.

Riluzole-Triazole Hybrids as Novel Chemical Probes for Neuroprotection in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Despite intense attention from biomedical and chemical researchers, there are few approved treatments for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), with only riluzole (Rilutek) and edaravone (Radicava) currently available to patients. Moreover, the mechanistic basis of the activity of these drugs is currently not well-defined, limiting the ability to design new medicines for ALS. This Letter describes the synthesis of triazole-containing riluzole analogues, and their testing in a novel neuroprotective assay. Seven compounds were identified as having neuroprotective activity, with two compounds having similar activity to riluzole.

A Simple, Broad-Scope Nickel(0) Precatalyst System for the Direct Amination of Allyl Alcohols.

The preparation of allylic amines is traditionally accomplished by reactions of amines with reactive electrophiles, such as allylic halides, sulfonates, or oxyphosphonium species; such methods involve hazardous reagents, generate stoichiometric waste streams, and often suffer from side reactions (such as overalkylation). We report here the first broad-scope nickel-catalysed direct amination of allyl alcohols: An inexpensive NiII /Zn couple enables the allylation of primary, secondary, and electron-deficient amines without the need for glove-box techniques. Under mild conditions, primary and secondary aliphatic amines react smoothly with a range of allyl alcohols, giving secondary and tertiary amines efficiently. This "totally catalytic" method can also be applied to electron-deficient nitrogen nucleophiles; the practicality of the process was demonstrated in an efficient, gram-scale preparation of the calcium antagonist drug substance flunarizine (Sibelium®).

Catalytic C-C Bond Formation Using a Simple Nickel Precatalyst System: Base- and Activator-Free Direct C-Allylation by Alcohols and Amines.

A "totally catalytic" nickel(0)-mediated method for base-free direct alkylation of allyl alcohols and allyl amines is reported. The reaction is selective for monoallylation, uses an inexpensive NiII precatalyst system, and requires no activating reagents to be present.

Development of a bacterial propionate-biosensor for anaerobic digestion monitoring.

Monitoring anaerobic digestion (AD) leachate for changes in acetate and propionate concentrations is essential for effective AD operation. In this paper the development of a novel propionate cell-based biosensor is described. A previously designed E. coli mutant (IMD Wldgy) that could selectively determine acetate concentrations in synthetic leachates, based on oxygen uptake measurements, was used as a starting point in the development of a propionate biosensor. However, the propionate-grown IMD Wldgy cells exhibited extremely low propionate:acetate O2 consumption ratios (1:2.4). Screening for alternative propionate-grown E. coli strains naturally possessing a more favourable propionate:acetate O2 consumption ratio identified strain IMD 1, which exhibited a positive ratio (1.6:1). To improve the selectivity of the strain, successive gene knockouts were performed generating the IMD 1 hldgyep mutant. However, propionate-grown IMD 1hdlgyep's O2 consumption ratio was deemed too low to be considered as a propionate detecting bio-element. It was reasoned that the mechanisms by which E. coli activates acetate had to be removed. Deleting acs (acetyl-CoA synthesase) and ackA (acetate kinase) from IMD Wldgyep, resulted in an E. coli IMD Wldgyepak knockout mutant that, when grown on propionate, produced a mean propionate:acetate O2 consumption ratio of approx. 13:1. The resulting IMD Wldgyep and IMD Wldgyepak strains, which formed the acetate- and propionate-biosensor, respectively, were capable of detecting acetate and propionate concentrations ranging from 0.05mM to 4.5mM within two-phase AD synthetic leachates.

An iron-catalysed C-C bond-forming spirocyclization cascade providing sustainable access to new 3D heterocyclic frameworks.

Heterocyclic architectures offer powerful creative possibilities to a range of chemistry end-users. This is particularly true of heterocycles containing a high proportion of sp3-carbon atoms, which confer precise spatial definition upon chemical probes, drug substances, chiral monomers and the like. Nonetheless, simple catalytic routes to new heterocyclic cores are infrequently reported, and methods making use of biomass-accessible starting materials are also rare. Here, we demonstrate a new method allowing rapid entry to spirocyclic bis-heterocycles, in which inexpensive iron(III) catalysts mediate a highly stereoselective C-C bond-forming cyclization cascade reaction using (2-halo)aryl ethers and amines constructed using feedstock chemicals readily available from plant sources. Fe(acac)3 mediates the deiodinative cyclization of (2-halo)aryloxy furfuranyl ethers, followed by capture of the intermediate metal species by Grignard reagents, to deliver spirocycles containing two asymmetric centres. The reactions offer potential entry to key structural motifs present in bioactive natural products.

Catalytic sp3 -sp3 Functionalisation of Sulfonamides: Late-Stage Modification of Drug-Like Molecules.

A new application of Pd-catalysed allylation is reported that enables the synthesis of a range of branched sp3 -functionalised sulfonamides, a compound class for which few reported methods exist. By reacting benzyl sulfonamides with allylic acetates in the presence of Pd0 catalysts and base at room temperature, direct allylation was efficiently performed, yielding products that are analogues of structural motifs seen in biologically active small molecules. The reaction was performed under mild conditions and could be applied to nanomolar sigma-receptor binders, thus enabling a late-stage functionalisation and efficient expansion of drug-like chemical space.

Tandem Aryne-Capture/Sigmatropic Rearrangement as a Metal-Free Entry to Functionalized N-Aryl Pyrrolidines.

We report a new method for the synthesis of novel N-aryl proline analogues. By reacting an aryne precursor with N-(2-malonyl) tetrahydropyridines in the presence of tetrabutylammonium fluoride (TBAF), a tandem aryne-capture/anion isomerisation/[2,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement is induced, leading to good yields of 3-substituted N-aryl-2-acylpyrrolidines. These products are known subunits of biological probes, sensors and drug-like fragments, and are not easily accessed directly by other methods. The reaction is also notable as the first [2,3]-rearrangement of cyclic ammonium ylides at room temperature.

The creation and characterisation of a National Compound Collection: the Royal Society of Chemistry pilot.

We present a summary of the National Compound Collection (NCC) pilot; which harvested chemical structure data from 746 publicly-available PhD theses to create an enhanced database of diverse and interesting (largely organic) molecular entities. The database comprised ∼75 000 structure entries, of which 70% were new to ChemSpider at the time of upload. The dataset was evaluated for structural uniqueness by twelve external drug discovery groups from the pharmaceutical, biotech, academic and not-for-profit sectors. These partners generated data reported here comparing the NCC pilot with their in-house compound collections. The proportion of NCC structures considered to be useful for drug discovery ranged from 5-80% depending on the strictness of the filters used; most interestingly from a drug discovery standpoint ∼13k NCC compounds (18% of the NCC) passed the filters and were of good diversity. These compounds are quite different from those that are already present in the screening collections but not so different that they are no longer considered to be drug-like. In general, the drug discovery teams would consider these compounds to be high value molecules for inclusion in their screening collections. This pilot addressed the potential value of unpublished data and explored the practicalities of large-scale data extraction, to inform both retrospective and prospective extraction of chemical data from theses.

Bidentates versus monodentates in asymmetric hydrogenation catalysis: synergic effects on rate and allosteric effects on enantioselectivity.

C 1-Symmetric phosphino/phosphonite ligands are prepared by the reactions of Ph 2P(CH 2) 2P(NMe 2) 2 with ( S)-1,1'-bi-2-naphthol (to give L A ) or ( S)-10,10'-bi-9-phenanthrol (to give L B ). Racemic 10,10'-bi-9-phenanthrol is synthesized in three steps from phenanthrene in 44% overall yield. The complexes [PdCl 2( L A,B )] ( 1a, b), [PtCl 2( L A,B )] ( 2a, b), [Rh(cod)( L A,B )]BF 4 ( 3a, b) and [Rh( L A,B ) 2]BF 4 ( 4a, b) are reported and the crystal structure of 1a has been determined. A (31)P NMR study shows that M, a 1:1 mixture of the monodentates, PMePh 2 and methyl monophosphonite L 1a (based on ( S)-1,1 '-bi-2-naphthol), reacts with 1 equiv of [Rh(cod) 2]BF 4 to give the heteroligand complex [Rh(cod)(PMePh 2)( L 1a )]BF 4 ( 5) and homoligand complexes [Rh(cod)(PMePh 2) 2]BF 4 ( 6) and [Rh(cod)( L 1a ) 2]BF 4 ( 7) in the ratio 2:1:1. The same mixture of 5- 7 is obtained upon mixing the isolated homoligand complexes 6 and 7 although the equilibrium is only established rapidly in the presence of an excess of PMePh 2. The predominant species 5 is a monodentate ligand complex analogue of the chelate 3a. When the mixture of 5- 7 is exposed to 5 atm H 2 for 1 h (the conditions used for catalyst preactivation in the asymmetric hydrogenation studies), the products are identified as the solvento species [Rh(PMePh 2)( L 1a )(S) 2]BF 4 ( 5'), [Rh(S) 2(PMePh 2) 2]BF 4 ( 6') and [Rh(S) 2( L 1a ) 2]BF 4 ( 7') and are formed in the same 2:1:1 ratio. The reaction of M with 0.5 equiv of [Rh(cod) 2]BF 4 gives exclusively the heteroligand complex cis-[Rh(PMePh 2) 2( L 1a ) 2]BF 4 ( 8), an analogue of 4a. The asymmetric hydrogenation of dehydroamino acid derivatives catalyzed by 3a, b is reported, and the enantioselectivities are compared with those obtained with (a) chelate catalysts derived from analogous diphosphonite ligands L 2a and L 2b , (b) catalysts based on methyl monophosphonites L 1a and L 1b , and (c) catalysts derived from mixture M. For the cinnamate and acrylate substrates studied, the catalysts derived from the phosphino/phosphonite bidentates L A,B generally give superior enantioselectivities to the analogous diphosphonites L 2a and L 2b ; these results are rationalized in terms of delta/lambda-chelate conformations and allosteric effects of the substrates. The rate of hydrogenation of acrylate substrate A with heterochelate 3a is significantly faster than with the homochelate analogues [Rh( L 2a )(cod)]BF 4 and [Rh(dppe)(cod)]BF 4. A synergic effect on the rate is also observed with the monodentate analogues: the rate of hydrogenation with the mixture containing predominantly heteroligand complex 5 is faster than with the monophosphine complex 6 or monophosphonite complex 7. Thus the hydrogenation catalysis carried out with M and [Rh(cod) 2]BF 4 is controlled by the dominant and most efficient heteroligand complex 5. In this study, the heterodiphos chelate 3a is shown to be more efficient and gives the opposite sense of optical induction to the heteromonophos analogue 5.

First efficient and general copper-catalyzed [2,3]-rearrangement of tetrahydropyridinium ylids.

The factors affecting the copper-catalyzed rearrangement of ammonium ylids derived from tetrahydropyridines and diazoesters have been examined,and the first examples of high-yielding metal-catalyzed [2,3]-sigmatropic rearrangements of a wide range of such ylids are reported. The nature of the alpha-substituent in the diazo component of the reaction has a dramatic effect upon the yields of the reaction, with electron-withdrawing substituents enhancing the yield of the reaction. [reaction: see text]

Copper(II)-catalyzed [2,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement of N-methyltetrahydropyridinium ylids.

A ring-contractive and highly diastereoselective [2,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement occurs when N-methyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine is treated with sub-stoichiometric amounts of copper or rhodium salts, in the presence of ethyl diazoacetate, giving ethyl cis-N-methyl-3-ethenyl proline (4).