Enantio and diastereoselective addition of phenylacetylene to racemic α-chloroketones.

In this report, we have presented the first diastereoselective addition of phenylacetylene to chiral racemic chloroketones. The addition is controlled by the reactivity of the chloroketones that allowed the stereoselective reaction to be performed at -20 °C. Chiral racemic chloroketones are used in the reaction. By carefully controlling the temperature and the reaction time we were able to isolate the corresponding products in moderate yields and with good, simple and predictable facial stereoselection. Our reaction is a rare example of the use of chiral ketones in an enantioselective alkynylation reaction and opens new perspectives for the formation of chiral quaternary stereocenters.

RAID Prediction: Pilot Study of Fecal Microbial Signature With Capacity to Predict Response to Anti-TNF Treatment.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis evolve with alternate outbreaks and remissions of variable duration in both cases. Despite the advances, about 10-30% of patients do not respond to the treatment after the induction period. Besides, between 20% to 50% further patients need an optimization of the dose to respond the treatment. Recent studies have pointed gut microbiota can play a role in the anti-TNF treatment response. This study aimed to define a bacterial signature that could be used to predict the response of patients to anti-TNF treatment. METHODS: There were obtained 38 stool samples from 38 IBD patients before starting anti-TNF treatments: Adalimumab, Golimumab or Infliximab. Patients were differentiated in 2 groups: responders and non-responders to biological treatment. From each sample, DNA was purified and used in a qPCR for the quantification of the 8 microbial markers. RESULTS: In this proof of concept, the predictive ability to identify anti-TNF treatment responders was analyzed. An algorithm consisting in the combination of 4 bacterial markers showed a high capacity to discriminate between responders and non- responders. The algorithm proved high sensitivity and specificity reporting values of 93.33% and 100% respectively, with a positive predictive value of 100% and a negative predictive value of 75% for predicting response to biologic treatment. CONCLUSIONS: A specific bacterial signature could beneficiate patients with inflammatory bowel disease predicting the therapeutic effectiveness of an anti-TNF treatment, leading to a personalized therapy, improving the patients' quality of life, saving costs and gaining time in patient improvement.

This study aimed to define a microbial signature that could be used to predict the response of patients to anti-TNF treatment in inflammatory bowel disease. An algorithm consisting in the combination of 4 bacterial markers showed a high capacity to discriminate between responders and nonresponders.

Me2Zn mediated, tert-butylhydroperoxide promoted, catalytic enantioselective Reformatsky reaction with aldehydes.

A practical and highly enantioselective catalytic Reformatsky reaction with aldehydes using a cheap, commercially available aminoalcohol as ligand is described.

An efficient high-yield synthesis of D-ribo-phytosphingosine.

[Structure: see text] [4R-[4alpha(S),5alpha]]-2,2-Dimethyl-4-(2-oxo-5-vinyl[1,3]dioxolan-4-yl)oxazolidine-3-carboxylic acid tert-butyl ester 5a, obtained in excellent yield and diastereoselectivity by the alpha-hydroxyallylation of the Garner aldehyde (4), is exploited in a novel high-yield synthesis of D-ribo-phytosphingosine (8), using microwave-enhanced cross metathesis as the key step in the chain elongation.

Base-mediated carboxylation of unprotected indole derivatives with carbon dioxide.

A simple and straightforward method for the preparation of indole-3-carboxylic acids was discovered through the direct carboxylation of indoles with atmospheric pressure of carbon dioxide (CO(2)) under basic conditions. The key for the reaction was found to be the use of a large excess of LiO(t)Bu as a base to suppress the undesired decarboxylation side reaction.

Catalytic stereoselective benzylic C-H functionalizations by oxidative C-H activation and organocatalysis.

An organocatalytic stereoselective alpha-alkylation reaction of aldehydes based on C-H activation is presented.