Cross-metathesis and ring-closing metathesis reactions of amino acid-based substrates

Enantioselective Vanadium-Catalyzed Oxidative Coupling: Development and Mechanistic Insights

The evolution of a more reactive chiral vanadium catalyst for enantioselective oxidative coupling of phenols is reported, ultimately resulting in a simple monomeric vanadium species combined with a Brønsted or Lewis acid additive. The resultant vanadium complex is found to effect the asymmetric oxidative ortho-ortho coupling of simple phenols and 2-hydroxycarbazoles with good to excellent levels of enantioselectivity. Experimental and quantum mechanical studies of the mechanism indicate that the additives aggregate the vanadium monomers. In addition, a singlet to triplet crossover is implicated prior to carbon-carbon bond formation. The two lowest energy diastereomeric transition states leading to the enantiomeric products differ substantially with the path to the minor enantiomer involving greater torsional strain between the two phenol moieties.

Incorporation of Bulky and Cationic Cyclam-Triazole Moieties into Marimastat Can Generate Potent MMP Inhibitory Activity without Inducing Cytotoxicity

The synthesis and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) inhibitory activity of a cyclam-marimastat conjugate and its metal complexes are described. The conjugate, synthesized with a copper(I)-catalyzed Huisgen 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition ("click" reaction), contains two zinc-binding groups (ZBGs). The metal complexation behavior with copper(II) and zinc(II) was investigated using UV/Vis spectrophotometry and (1)H NMR spectroscopy, respectively, demonstrating that the first equivalent of the metal ion was chelated by the cyclam-triazole moiety rather than the hydroxamic acid site. Thus, the corresponding mononuclear metal-cyclam complexes were successfully prepared with one equivalent of the metal salt. Both the cyclam-marimastat conjugate and its metal complexes exhibited slightly reduced potency against MMP-1, but essentially identical inhibitory activity against MMP-3. The conjugate and its metal complexes displayed little or no cytotoxicity, further supporting their potential suitability for imaging MMP localization and activity. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report that describes the incorporation of metal complexes into an MMP inhibitor without influencing the preexisting ZBG, and the first report of the evaluation of structures containing more than one ZBG as MMP inhibitors.

Novel multiple opioid ligands based on 4-aminobenzazepinone (Aba), azepinoindole (Aia) and tetrahydroisoquinoline (Tic) scaffolds

The dimerization and trimerization of the Dmt-Tic, Dmt-Aia and Dmt-Aba pharmacophores provided multiple ligands which were evaluated in vitro for opioid receptor binding and functional activity. Whereas the Tic- and Aba multimers proved to be dual and balanced delta/mu antagonists, as determined by the functional [S(35)]GTPgammaS binding assay, the dimerization of potent Aia-based 'parent' ligands unexpectedly resulted in substantial less efficient receptor binding and non-active dimeric compounds.