Olefin Metathesis on a TLC Plate as a Tool for a High-Throughput Screening of Catalyst-Substrate Sets

Nanomole-scaled high-throughput chemistry plus direct bioautography on the same chromatography plate for drug discovery

The powerful fusion of on-surface synthesis and effect-directed analysis was introduced as novel tool for synthetic drug discovery, all on the same high-performance thin-layer chromatography plate. Precise automated sample application allowed both, high-throughput chemistry of 60 reactions at once and reaction miniaturization down to the 15-nmol scale. The antibiotic activity of all on-surface synthesized compounds was evaluated on the same surface via the Gram-positive Bacillus subtilis bioassay. For one product, synthesis (reaction, purification and identification) took 5.3 min and semi-quantitative biological evaluation took 2.8 min. Out of 60 on-surface reactions 10 products (17%) were identified to be more active than a well-known antibiotic reference. The concept was transferred to the Gram-negative Aliivibrio fischeri bioassay. For the first time, a new analytical platform was shown for a streamlined workflow at the most miniaturized scale from synthesis, purification, identification and quantification to semi-quantitative biological activity evaluation (all on the same chromatography plate).

An automated workflow to screen alkene reductases using high-throughput thin layer chromatography

BACKGROUND

Synthetic biology efforts often require high-throughput screening tools for enzyme engineering campaigns. While innovations in chromatographic and mass spectrometry-based techniques provide relevant structural information associated with enzyme activity, these approaches can require cost-intensive instrumentation and technical expertise not broadly available. Moreover, complex workflows and analysis time can significantly impact throughput. To this end, we develop an automated, 96-well screening platform based on thin layer chromatography (TLC) and use it to monitor in vitro activity of a geranylgeranyl reductase isolated from Sulfolobus acidocaldarius (SaGGR).

RESULTS

Unreduced SaGGR products are oxidized to their corresponding epoxide and applied to thin layer silica plates by acoustic printing. These derivatives are chromatographically separated based on the extent of epoxidation and are covalently ligated to a chromophore, allowing detection of enzyme variants with unique product distributions or enhanced reductase activity. Herein, we employ this workflow to examine farnesol reduction using a codon-saturation mutagenesis library at the Leu377 site of SaGGR. We show this TLC-based screen can distinguish between fourfold differences in enzyme activity for select mutants and validated those results by GC-MS.

CONCLUSIONS

With appropriate quantitation methods, this workflow can be used to screen polyprenyl reductase activity and can be readily adapted to analyze broader catalyst libraries whose products are amenable to TLC analysis.

Catalysis of linear alkene metathesis by Grubbs-type ruthenium alkylidene complexes containing hemilabile α,α-diphenyl-(monosubstituted-pyridin-2-yl)methanolato ligands

Four new Grubbs-type precatalysts [RuCl(H₂IMes)(O^N)(=CHPh)], where [O^N = α,α-diphenyl-(3-methylpyridin-2-yl)methanolato, α,α-diphenyl-(4-methylpyridin-2-yl)methanolato, α,α-diphenyl-(5-methylpyridin-2-yl)methanolato and α,α-diphenyl-(3-methoxypyridin-2-yl)methanolato] were synthesized and tested for their activity, stability and selectivity in the 1-octene metathesis reaction. Overall the precatalysts showed good activity and high stability for the metathesis of 1-octene at temperatures above 80 °C and up to 110 °C. Selectivities towards the primary metathesis products, i.e., 7-tetradecene and ethene, above 85% were obtained with all the precatalysts at 80 and 90 °C. High selectivities were also observed at 100 °C for the 4-Me- and 3-OMe-substituted precatalysts. With an increase in temperature an increase in isomerisation products and secondary metathesis products were observed with the latter reaching values >20% for the 3-OMe- and 3-Me-substituted precatalysts at 110 and 100 °C, respectively. All the precatalysts exhibits first-order kinetics at 80 °C with the 3-substituted precatalysts the slowest. The behaviour of the 3-substituted precatalysts can be attributed to electronic and steric effects associated with the adjacent bulky phenyl groups.

Allenyl esters as quenching agents for ruthenium olefin metathesis catalysts

In the attempt to synthesize substituted allenyl esters through a metathesis coupling of unsubstituted allenyl esters and alkenes using a variety of ruthenium catalysts, it was discovered that allenyl esters themselves cleanly arrested the activity of the catalysts. Further studies suggests possible utility of allene esters as general quenching agents for metathesis reactions. To explore this idea, several representative olefin metathesis reactions, including ring closing, were successfully terminated by the addition of simple allenyl esters for more convenient purification.

Morphological and pharmacokinetic properties of oral solid dietary supplements containing plant extracts

Introduction: Dietary supplements are a good way to supplement the deficiency of certain micronutrients and organic components (therapeutic agents) in human body. They are most often available in concentrated form as tablets, capsules, powder or liquid.

Objective: To investigate morphological parameters and the pharmaceutical availability of coated tablets – dietary supplements – that contain selected pharmacopeial titrated dry plant extracts.

Methods: Testing of the effective time of the tablet surface erosion was performed in model acceptor fluids using pharmacopeial methods in static (Erweka apparatus) and dynamic (unlimited diffusion method) conditions. Furthermore, morphological parameters of tablets (the original shape of an ellipse) as well as their hardness were determined.

Results: The effective erosion time was determined by conductometric method using carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt (NaCMC) contained in the tablet. The content of gum arabic and NaCMC in the tablet testifies that the granulate was produced using the “wet granulation” technique which resulted in high hardness of original, esthetic, elliptical tablets and in prolonged disintegration time (erosion).

Conclusions: The used excipients: gum arabic and NaCMC for the production of the tested tablets containing selected dry plant extracts result in their high hardness. The tested dietary supplements are characterized by esthetic design, original shape, and prolonged disintegration time which affects the pharmaceutical availability.

Effective immobilisation of a metathesis catalyst bearing an ammonium-tagged NHC ligand on various solid supports

An ammonium-tagged ruthenium complex, 8, was deposited on several widely available commercial solid materials such as silica gel, alumina, cotton, filter paper, iron powder or palladium on carbon. The resulting catalysts were tested in toluene or ethyl acetate, and found to afford metathesis products in high yield and with extremely low ruthenium contamination. Depending on the support used, immobilised catalyst 8 shows also additional traits, such as the possibility of being magnetically separated or the use for metathesis and subsequent reduction of the obtained double bond in one pot.

Ru complexes of Hoveyda-Grubbs type immobilized on lamellar zeolites: activity in olefin metathesis reactions

Hoveyda-Grubbs type catalysts with cationic tags on NHC ligands were linker-free immobilized on the surface of lamellar zeolitic supports (MCM-22, MCM-56, MCM-36) and on mesoporous molecular sieves SBA-15. The activity of prepared hybrid catalysts was tested in olefin metathesis reactions: the activity in ring-closing metathesis of citronellene and N,N-diallyltrifluoroacetamide decreased in the order of support MCM-22 ≈ MCM-56 > SBA-15 > MCM-36; the hybrid catalyst based on SBA-15 was found the most active in self-metathesis of methyl oleate. All catalysts were reusable and exhibited low Ru leaching (<1% of Ru content). XPS analysis revealed that during immobilization ion exchange between Hoveyda-Grubbs type catalyst and zeolitic support occurred in the case of Cl(-) counter anion; in contrast, PF6 (-) counter anion underwent partial decomposition.

Combinatorial screening of an in situ generated library of tungsten oxyhalide and imido complexes for olefin metathesis

A series of substituted tungsten(VI) halides with general formula WECl4 (E = O or -NR (imido)) were screened via a high throughput study to identify potential new olefin metathesis catalysts. The tungsten species were treated with a series of aluminum alkyl activators and modifier ligands to generate active catalyst species in situ. Ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) of cyclooctene was used as a primary screen to identify potential metathesis catalysts and active catalysts were subjected to a secondary screen to evaluate tolerance toward polar functional groups. Several combinations from the high throughput campaign yielded active metathesis catalysts for the ROMP of cyclooctene. However, none of the catalysts examined in this study exhibited any evidence of significant polar functional group tolerance as determined by the results of the secondary cyclooctene/butyl acetate screen.

Improved metathesis lifetime: chelating pyridinyl-alcoholato ligands in the second generation Grubbs precatalyst

Hemilabile ligands can release a free coordination site "on demand" of an incoming nucleophilic substrate while occupying it otherwise. This is believed to increase the thermal stability and activity of catalytic systems and therefore prevent decomposition via free coordination sites. In this investigation chelating pyridinyl-alcoholato ligands were identified as possible hemilabile ligands for incorporation into the second generation Grubbs precatalyst. The O,N-alcoholato ligands with different steric bulk could be successfully incorporated into the precatalysts. The incorporation of the sterically hindered, hemilabile O,N-ligands improved the thermal stability, activity, selectivity and lifetime of these complexes towards the metathesis of 1-octene. A decrease in the activity of the second generation Grubbs precatalyst was additionally observed after incorporating a hemilabile O,N-ligand with two phenyl groups into the system, while increasing their lifetime.

Linker-free, silica-bound olefin-metathesis catalysts: applications in heterogeneous catalysis

A set of heterogenized olefin-metathesis catalysts, which consisted of Ru complexes with the H(2)ITap ligand (1,3-bis(2',6'-dimethyl-4'dimethyl aminophenyl)-4,5-dihydroimidazol-2-ylidene) that had been adsorbed onto a silica support, has been prepared. These complexes showed strong binding to the solid support without the need for tethering groups on the complex or functionalized silica. The catalysts were tested in the ring-opening-ring-closing-metathesis (RO-RCM) of cyclooctene (COE) and the self-metathesis of methyl oleate under continuous-flow conditions. The best complexes showed a TON>4000, which surpasses the previously reported materials that were either based on the Grubbs-Hoveyda II complex on silica or on the classical heterogeneous Re(2)O(7)/B(2)O(3) catalyst.