Studies Relating to Aziridine Antitumor Antibiotics. Part I. Asymmetric Syntheses. Part II. Chiral Aziridines and their Conversion to α-Aminoacids

Separable diastereomeric cis-l-menthyl 2-phenyl-3-aziridinecarboxylates (4 and 5) were prepared by the Gabriel reaction. N-Acylation with p-nitrobenzoyl chloride or p-anisoyl chloride of 4 and 5 gives 7 and 8, and 23 and 24, respectively. Sodium iodide-catalyzed rearrangement of the N-acylated aziridines is regiospecific with exclusive attack at C-2 and from 8 is obtained the chiral 2-oxazolines cis-9 and trans-10 in a ratio of 30:70 together with the unsaturated amide 11. The structure of the latter was proven by independent synthesis. The intermediate l-menthyl N-p-nitrobenzoyl-3-iodophenyl-alaninate (18) was isolated at lower temperatures and shown to form the equilibrium mixture of 9 and 10 with triethylamine owing to partial racemization by a Finkelstein identity reaction. Use of an N-p-anisoyl substituent in the aziridine improves the yield of chiral 2-oxazolines by preventing the formation of 11, and allows the separation of pure cis- and trans-oxazolines for characterization. The aziridines bearing N-p-anisoyl substituents display a greater sensitivity to attack by weaker nucleophiles than the p-N-nitrobenzoyl analogs.Acid hydrolysis of 9 and 10 gives D-allo-β-phenylserine in an optical yield of about 17% from which 5 and 8 are tentatively assigned the 2R,3R configuration. Similar acid hydrolysis of the 2-p-anisyl-2-oxazoline (26b) allowed the isolation of the intermediate l-menthyl O-anisoyl-allo-β-phenylserinate (30a), hydrolysis of which gave D-allo-β-phenylserine in about 18% optical yield. The isolation of allo-β-phenylserine only from cis- and trans-2-oxazolines is attributed to acid-catalyzed inversion at the benzylic center to the conformationally more stable allo form.

Ribonucleic acid biosynthesis in adult and infant rat brain in vitro

The rate of biosynthesis of ribonucleic acid (as judged by the rate of incorporation of uridine into ribonucleic acid) in infant and adullt rat brain cortex slices, incubated (aerobically in tile presenice of various substrates, is directly proportionial to the adenosine triphosphate concentration. This suggests that the adenosine triphosphate concentration is one of the factors involved in the control of ribonucleic acid biosynthesis in infant and adult rat brain. Acetoacetate or beta-hydroxybutyrate is about 70 percent as effective as glucose, with both infant and adult brain, for the promotion of ribonucleic acid biosynthesis. but they are considerably mnore effective than succinate in infant brain than in adult brain.

Protein components in the 40s ribonucleoprotein particles in Escherichia coli

The 40S ribonucleoprotein particle in Escherichia coli cells, accumulated in the presence of a low concentration of chloramphenicol, lacks at least four ribosomal structural protein components which are present in the mature 50S ribosomal subunit. The 40S ribonucleoprotein prepared by exposing the 50S ribosomal subunit to a concentrated lithium chloride solution may also be deficient in the same protein components.