Fluorescent Imidazo[1,2-a]pyrimidine Compounds as Biocompatible Organic Photosensitizers that Generate Singlet Oxygen: A Potential Tool for Phototheranostics.

Photodynamic therapy has been used to treat a variety of diseases, however, there is continuing search for new biocompatible photosensitizers. Herein, we demonstrate for the first time that imidazo[1,2-a]pyrimidine compounds are able to generate singlet oxygen species and can act as photosensitizers in the intracellular environment. Our results show that this class of compounds absorb and emit in the 400-500 nm region, present low cytotoxicity in the dark, are efficiently uptaken by cells, are fluorescent in intracellular medium, and generate singlet oxygen upon irradiation, killing cancer cells within 2 h at low concentration (2.0 µm). The imidazo[1,2-a]pyrimidine compounds are a potential new tool for phototheranostics, because they can be simultaneously used for fluorescence imaging and photodynamic therapy.

Discovering Biomolecules with Huisgenase Activity: Designed Repeat Proteins as Biocatalysts for (3 + 2) Cycloadditions.

Designed repeat proteins catalyze the 1,3-dipolar reaction between an imine and a π-deficient dipolarophile in THF solution to form unnatural nitroproline esters, a reaction that no enzyme can catalyze. NMR studies and mutation experiments show that both acidic and basic residues can catalyze the reaction. The diastereocontrol of the reaction depends on the flexibility of the protein and on the number and location of the active lysine and glutamate residues, which can participate independently or forming dyads that promote the formation of unusual diastereomeric cycloadducts. QM/MM calculations permit one to rationalize the origins of this Huisgenase activity and of its diastereocontrol.

Microwave-Assisted Organocatalyzed Rearrangement of Propargyl Vinyl Ethers to Salicylaldehyde Derivatives: An Experimental and Theoretical Study.

The microwave-assisted imidazole-catalyzed transformation of propargyl vinyl ethers (PVEs) into multisubstituted salicylaldehydes is described. The reaction is instrumentally simple, scalable, and tolerates a diverse degree of substitution at the propargylic position of the starting PVE. The generated salicylaldehyde motifs incorporate a broad range of topologies, spanning from simple aromatic monocycles to complex fused polycyclic systems. The reaction is highly regioselective and takes place under symmetry-breaking conditions. The preparative power of this reaction was demonstrated in the first total synthesis of morintrifolin B, a benzophenone metabolite isolated from the small tree Morinda citrifolia L. A DFT study of the reaction was performed with full agreement between calculated values and experimental results. The theoretically calculated values support a domino mechanism comprising a propargyl Claisen rearrangement, a [1,3]-H shift, a [1,7]-H shift (enolization), a 6π electrocyclization, and an aromatization reaction.