A Way to Avoid Using Precious Metals: The Application of High-Surface Activated Carbon for the Synthesis of Isoindoles via the Diels–Alder Reaction of 2H-Pyran-2-ones

Radiolabelling small and biomolecules for tracking and monitoring

Radiolabelling small molecules with beta-emitters has been intensively explored in the last decades and novel concepts for the introduction of radionuclides continue to be reported regularly. New catalysts that induce carbon/hydrogen activation are able to incorporate isotopes such as deuterium or tritium into small molecules. However, these established labelling approaches have limited applicability for nucleic acid-based drugs, therapeutic antibodies, or peptides, which are typical of the molecules now being investigated as novel therapeutic modalities. These target molecules are usually larger (significantly >1 kDa), mostly multiply charged, and often poorly soluble in organic solvents. However, in preclinical research they often require radiolabelling in order to track and monitor drug candidates in metabolism, biotransformation, or pharmacokinetic studies. Currently, the most established approach to introduce a tritium atom into an oligonucleotide is based on a multistep synthesis, which leads to a low specific activity with a high level of waste and high costs. The most common way of tritiating peptides is using appropriate precursors. The conjugation of a radiolabelled prosthetic compound to a functional group within a protein sequence is a commonly applied way to introduce a radionuclide or a fluorescent tag into large molecules. This review highlights the state-of-the-art in different radiolabelling approaches for oligonucleotides, peptides, and proteins, as well as a critical assessment of the impact of the label on the properties of the modified molecules. Furthermore, applications of radiolabelled antibodies in biodistribution studies of immune complexes and imaging of brain targets are reported.

Supramolecular Diversity of Oxabicyclo[2.2.2]octenes Formed between Substituted 2H-Pyran-2-ones and Vinyl-Moiety-Containing Dienophiles

In Diels–Alder reactions, 2H-pyran-2-ones as dienes can yield a large variety of cycloadducts with up to four contiguous carbon stereogenic centers. Some of the potentially most useful, however difficult to prepare due to their low thermal stability, are the primary CO2-containing oxabicyclo[2.2.2]octenes, which could be formed as eight distinctive isomers (two sets of regioisomers, each of these composed of four different stereoisomers). A high-pressure synthesis of such products was recently described in a few cases where vinyl-moiety-containing dienophiles were used as synthetic equivalents of acetylene. However, structures of the primary products have been so far only rarely investigated in detail. Herein, we present seven novel single-crystal X-ray diffraction structures of such cycloadducts of both stereoisomeric forms, i.e., endo and exo. Additionally, we present a single-crystal structure of a rare case of a cyclohexadiene system stable at room temperature, obtained as a secondary product upon the retro-hetero-Diels–Alder elimination of CO2 under thermal conditions (microwave irradiation), during this elimination the symmetry is increased and out of eight initially possible isomers of the reactant, this number in the product is decreased to four. In oxabicyclo[2.2.2]octene compounds, centrosymmetric hydrogen bonding was found to be the predominant motif and diverse supramolecular patterns were observed due to rich variety of C–H⋯O and C–H⋯π interactions.

Tandem Synthesis of Polycyclic Isoindoles

We report an easy multicomponent synthesis of polycyclic isoindoles from cyclic 1,3-dicarbonyls, aldehydes, isocyanides, and maleimides. The key step consists of the one-pot Diels-Alder trapping of a reactive 2-aminofuran intermediate, formed by a sequence of a Knoevenagel condensation and a [4+1] cycloaddition. Moreover, a further microwave-promoted dehydrogenative N-C bond forming reaction allows the straightforward synthesis of a natural product like isoindolocarbazole, validating the utility of our methodology to obtain isoindoles as useful intermediates for the synthesis of complex polycyclic molecules.

Characterization of Reactions between Water-Soluble Trialkylphosphines and Thiol Alkylating Reagents: Implications for Protein-Conjugation Reactions

Water-soluble trialkylphosphines such as tris(carboxyethyl)phosphine (TCEP) and trishydroxypropyl phosphine (THPP) are effective agents for reducing disulfide bonds in proteins and are increasingly becoming the reagents of choice for bioconjugation strategies that modify cysteine (thiol containing) amino acids. These reducing agents are often considered as being chemically compatible with Michael acceptors such as maleimides and, as such, are often not removed prior to performing protein conjugation reactions. Here, we demonstrate the rapid and irreversible reaction of both TCEP and THPP with derivatives of the commonly employed thiol alkylating groups, maleimide and vinyl sulfone. Mechanistic investigations revealed distinct differences between the reactions of TCEP and THPP with maleimide, leading to the production of either nonproductive ylenes or succidimidyl derivatives, respectively. Importantly, we also demonstrate the incorporation of nonproductive ylenes formed between maleimide and TCEP into the Pneumococcal capsular polysaccharide Pn6b following strategies employed toward the production of conjugate vaccines.

Regioselective Hydrolysis and Transesterification of Dimethyl 3-Benzamidophthalates Assisted by a Neighboring Amide Group

An efficient, highly regioselective hydrolysis and transesterification of dimethyl 3-benzamidophthalates into the corresponding carboxylic acid monoesters and mixed esters (including tert-butyl esters) under basic conditions is presented. The selectivity is governed by the neighboring 3-benzamido moiety's participation and by the nature of the solvent. In alcohols the reaction occurred exclusively at the ortho-position to the benzamido functionality, in pyridine or acetonitrile at both ester groups. An insight into the mechanistic pathway was obtained from a (1)H NMR study in perdeuteromethanol.