Anomalous C−C Bond Cleavage in Sulfur-Centered Cation Radicals Containing a Vicinal Hydroxy Group

The Corey-Seebach Reagent in the 21st Century: A Review

The Corey-Seebach reagent plays an important role in organic synthesis because of its broad synthetic applications. The Corey-Seebach reagent is formed by the reaction of an aldehyde or a ketone with 1,3-propane-dithiol under acidic conditions, followed by deprotonation with n-butyllithium. A large variety of natural products (alkaloids, terpenoids, and polyketides) can be accessed successfully by utilizing this reagent. This review article focuses on the recent contributions (post-2006) of the Corey-Seebach reagent towards the total synthesis of natural products such as alkaloids (lycoplanine A, diterpenoid alkaloids, etc.), terpenoids (bisnorditerpene, totarol, etc.), polyketide (ambruticin J, biakamides, etc.), and heterocycles such as rodocaine and substituted pyridines, as well and their applications towards important organic synthesis.

Photocyclization of Diarylethenes: The Effect of Electron and Proton Acceptors as Additives

The effect of electron and proton acceptors on the photocyclization of diarylethenes has been studied. Without any additives, the deprotonation reaction is predominant, although other processes, including the sigmatropic shift, are not excluded. A deuterium exchange experiment has shown that a strong base (DABCO) facilitates the deprotonation reaction, thereby limiting the sigmatropic shift. In the presence of an oxidizing agent or additional sources of radicals (O₂, I₂, TEMPO), the processes of deprotonation and rearrangement (H-shift) are practically not observed, and the reaction proceeds along a radical pathway with the formation of phenanthrene or its heterocyclic analogue.

Photoactive Spatial Proximity Probes for Binding Pairs with Epigenetic Marks

A new strategy for encoding polypeptide libraries with photolabile tags is developed. The photoassisted assay, based on conditional release of encoding tags only from bound pairs, can differentiate between peptides which have minor differences in a form of post-translational modifications with epigenetic marks. The encoding strategy is fully compatible with automated peptide synthesis. The encoding pendants are compact and do not perturb potential binding interactions.

When ethyl is infinitely different from methyl: double addition of lithiated dithianes to aromatic carboxylates revisited

Addition of lithiated alkyl dithianes to benzoyl chloride or methyl benzoate does not produce the expected product of double addition, alpha,alpha-bis(alkyldithianyl) benzyl alcohol, for alkyls larger than methyl. Instead, the first step intermediate, i.e. 2-benzoylated dithiane, undergoes an electron-transfer reduction by the second molecule of the dithianyl anion. This reduction is followed by the ring-opening mesolytic fragmentation of the dithiane ring in the ketyl anion radical and subsequent radical recombination yielding acetophenone-tethered thioortho esters 4, alpha-[3-(2-alkyl-1,3-dithiane-2-ylthio)propylthio]-alpha-alkyl-acetophenones. It appears that the Corey-Seebach bisaddition of lithiated dithianes to methyl benzoate is an exception rather than the rule in the alkyl dithiane series.

Photoactive barbiturate receptors: an ultimate lock-and-key system in which the key unlocks the lock

Conditional photofragmentation is achieved with binary systems incorporating the isophthaloyl bis-aminopyridine barbiturate recognition motif and dithiane- or trithiane-based photolabile modules, which cleave only in the presence of an external sensitizer. The components of the host-guest molecular recognition pair were each outfitted with either the sensitizer or the photocleavable module. In these pairs, photoinduced fragmentation is contingent on a molecular recognition event, which brings the sensitizer into the immediate proximity of the photolabile latch. [structure: see text]

Release and Report: A New Photolabile Caging System with a Two-Photon Fluorescence Reporting Function

A new efficient photocaging system with a fluorescence reporting function has been developed. The photolabile latch is based on adducts of C-nucleophiles with aromatic ketones, such as thioxanthones and xanthones. The system is designed to quantify the release of biological effectors and to monitor their spatial distribution and localization by single- and two-photon fluorescence microscopy. In the armed state the ketone's conjugation is disrupted by nucleophilic addition, resulting in a blue shift of the absorption maxima and a dramatic decrease in fluorescence intensity. The mechanism of the photoinduced uncaging involves homolytic C-C bond fragmentation followed by radical disproportionation, regenerating the carbonyl moiety and restoring fluorescence. The uncaging can be initiated via either a one- or two-photon process, offering a new powerful tool for molecular life sciences. The synthesis and uncaging of dendrimer- and polymeric bead-based model systems are described.