Unnatural Amino Acids for Biological Spectroscopy and Microscopy

Due to advances in methods for site-specific incorporation of unnatural amino acids (UAAs) into proteins, a large number of UAAs with tailored chemical and/or physical properties have been developed and used in a wide array of biological applications. In particular, UAAs with specific spectroscopic characteristics can be used as external reporters to produce additional signals, hence increasing the information content obtainable in protein spectroscopic and/or imaging measurements. In this Review, we summarize the progress in the past two decades in the development of such UAAs and their applications in biological spectroscopy and microscopy, with a focus on UAAs that can be used as site-specific vibrational, fluorescence, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), or nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) probes. Wherever applicable, we also discuss future directions.

Melanin Synthesized by the Endophytic Aureobasidium Pullulans AKW: A Multifaceted Biomolecule with Antioxidant, Wound Healing, and Selective Anti-Cancer Activity

INTRODUCTION

This study explores the potential of the endophytic fungus Aureobasidium pullulans AKW for melanin production and its anticancer activity.

METHOD

We report a significant achievement: A. pullulans AKW synthesized 4.89 g/l of melanin in a simple fermentation medium devoid of tyrosine, a precursor typically required for melanin biosynthesis. This suggests a potentially novel pathway for melanin production compared to previous studies relying on complex media and tyrosine. Furthermore, the isolated and characterized melanin exhibited promising selectivity as an anti-cancer agent. It triggered apoptosis in A431 cancer cells, demonstrating some selectivity compared to normal cells. This selectivity was confirmed by IC50 values and further supported by gene expression changes in A431 cells. Melanin treatment downregulated the anti-apoptotic Bcl2 gene while upregulating pro-apoptotic Bax and p53 genes, indicating its ability to induce programmed cell death in cancer cells.

RESULT

Our results demonstrate that A. pullulans AKW-derived melanin exhibits cytotoxic effects against A431, HEPG2, and MCF7 cell lines. Interestingly, the present fungal strain synthesized melanin in a simple medium without requiring precursors.

CONCLUSION

The selective activity of the current melanin towards cancer cells, its ability to induce apoptosis, and its relatively low toxicity towards normal cells warrant further investigation for its development as a novel therapeutic option.

Evaluation of excited state bond weakening for ammonia synthesis from a manganese nitride: stepwise proton coupled electron transfer is preferred over hydrogen atom transfer

Concepts for the thermodynamically challenging synthesis of weak N–H bonds by photoinduced proton coupled electron transfer are explored. By harvesting visible light as driving force, ammonia synthesis was achieved and mechanistically elucidated.

Excited-state intramolecular proton transfer to carbon atoms: nonadiabatic surface-hopping dynamics simulations

Excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) between two highly electronegative atoms, for example, oxygen and nitrogen, has been intensely studied experimentally and computationally, whereas there has been much less theoretical work on ESIPT to other atoms such as carbon. We have employed CASSCF, MS-CASPT2, RI-ADC(2), OM2/MRCI, DFT, and TDDFT methods to study the mechanistic photochemistry of 2-phenylphenol, for which such an ESIPT has been observed experimentally. According to static electronic structure calculations, irradiation of 2-phenylphenol populates the bright S1 state, which has a rather flat potential in the Franck-Condon region (with a shallow enol minimum at the CASSCF level) and may undergo an essentially barrierless ESIPT to the more stable S1 keto species. There are two S1/S0 conical intersections that mediate relaxation to the ground state, one in the enol region and one in the keto region, with the latter one substantially lower in energy. After S1 → S0 internal conversion, the transient keto species can return back to the S0 enol structure via reverse ground-state hydrogen transfer in a facile tautomerization. This mechanistic scenario is verified by OM2/MRCI-based fewest-switches surface-hopping simulations that provide detailed dynamic information. In these trajectories, ESIPT is complete within 118 fs; the corresponding S1 excited-state lifetime is computed to be 373 fs in vacuum. Most of the trajectories decay to the ground state via the S1/S0 conical intersection in the keto region (67%), and the remaining ones via the enol region (33%). The combination of static electronic structure computations and nonadiabatic dynamics simulations is expected to be generally useful for understanding the mechanistic photophysics and photochemistry of molecules with intramolecular hydrogen bonds.

Excited-state proton transfer in 4-2′-hydroxyphneylpyridine: full-dimensional surface-hopping dynamics simulations

We have employed combined electronic structure calculations and “on-the-fly” fewest switches surface-hopping dynamics simulations to study the S₁ excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) and decay dynamics of 4-(2′-hydroxyphenyl)pyridine.

Photogeneration of 1,5-naphthoquinone methides via excited-state (formal) intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) and photodehydration of 1-naphthol derivatives in aqueous solution

The photochemistry of naphthols 1, 2, 4, 5 and 9, and phenol 10 has been studied in aqueous solution with the primary aim of exploring the viability of such compounds for naphthoquinone and quinone methide photogeneration, along the lines already demonstrated by our group for phenol derivatives. 1-Naphthol (1) is known to be substantially more acidic than 2-naphthol (2) in the singlet excited state (pKa* = 0.4 and 2.8, respectively) and it was expected that this difference in excited-state acidity might be manifested in higher reactivity of 1-naphthol derivatives for photochemical reactions requiring excited-state naphtholate ions, such as quinone methide formation. Our results show that three types of naphthoquinone methides (26a, 26b, and 27) are readily photogenerated in aqueous solution by irradiation of 1-naphthols. Photolysis of the parent 1-naphthol (1) in neutral aqueous solution gave 1,5-naphthoquinone methide 26a as well as the non-Kekulé 1,8-naphthoquinone methide 26b, both via the process of excited-state (formal) intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT), based on the observation of deuterium exchange at the 5- and 8-positions, respectively, on photolysis in D2O–CH3CN. A transient assignable to the 1,5-naphthoquinone methide 26a was observed in laser flash photolysis experiments. The isomeric 2-naphthol (2) was unreactive under similar conditions. The more conjugated 1,5-naphthoquinone methide 27 was formed efficiently via photodehydroxylation of 4; isomeric 5 was unreactive. The efficient photosolvolytic reaction observed for 4 opens the way to design related naphthol systems for application as photoreleasable protecting groups by virtue of the long-wavelength absorption of the naphthalene chromophore.Key words: photosolvolysis, excited-state intramolecular proton transfer, quinone methide, photorelease, photoprotonation.

A new type of excited-state intramolecular proton transfer: proton transfer from phenol OH to a carbon atom of an aromatic ring observed for 2-phenylphenol

The photochemical deuterium incorporation at the 2'- and 4'-positions of 2-phenylphenol (4) and equivalent positions of related compounds has been studied in D(2)O (CH(3)OD)-CH(3)CN solutions with varying D(2)O (CH(3)OD) content. Predominant exchange was observed at the 2'-position with an efficiency that is independent of D(2)O (MeOD) content. Exchange at the 2'-position (but not at the 4'-position) was also observed when crystalline samples of 4-OD were irradiated. Data are presented consistent with a mechanism of exchange that involves excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) from the phenol to the 2'-carbon position of the benzene ring not containing the phenol, to generate the corresponding keto tautomer (an o-quinone methide). This is the first explicit example of a new class of ESIPT in which an acidic phenolic proton is transferred to an sp(2)-hybridized carbon of an aromatic ring. The complete lack of exchange observed for related substrates 6-9 and for planar 4-hydroxyfluorene (10) is consistent with a mechanism of ESIPT that requires an initial hydrogen bonding interaction between the phenol proton and the benzene pi-system. Similar exchange was observed for 2,2'-biphenol (5), suggesting that this new type of ESIPT is a general reaction for unconstrained 2'-aryl-substituted phenols and other related hydroxyarenes.

A photochemical retro-Friedel–Crafts alkylation. Rapid rearrangement of cyclohexadienyl cations

This paper reports the use of laser flash photolysis (LFP) techniques to show that cyclohexadienyl cations (σ complexes) of the Friedel–Crafts reaction of 1,3-dimethoxybenzene and the diphenylmethyl cation rearrange on the ns time scale without separating the aromatic compound and the electrophile. This is demonstrated through a study of the photochemical behaviour of 2-diphenylmethyl-1,3-dimethoxybenzene (4) in 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafIuoroisopropyl alcohol (HFIP). Derivatives of 1,3-dimethoxybenzene have previously been found to selectively protonate at C2 upon excitation in HFIP, and indeed the principal products with 4 are 1,3-dimethoxybenzene (6) and Ph2CHOCH(CF3)2 (7), the species expected if the cyclohexadienyl cation formed in the C2 protonation cleaved Ph2CH+. These products are, however, accompanied by 4-diphenylmethyl- 1,3-dimethoxybenzene (8), a rearranged isomer of 4. A portion of this product is explained by the combination of Ph2CH+ and 1,3-dimethoxybenzene as the latter accumulates during the irradiation. However, 11.5% of 8 is also seen upon extrapolation to zero time. LFP experiments on the ps time scale reveal that the C2 protonated cation, the 1-diphenylmethyl-2,6-dimethoxybenzenium ion (5), is formed within 100–200 ps, and reacts with k = 9 × 108 s−1, with absorbance for Ph2CH+ growing in as 5 decays. LFP studies on the ns time scale reveal that there is a second quantity of Ph2CH+ that grows in, with k = 5.0 × 105 s−1. The precursor for this has been identified as the 1-diphenylmethyl-2,4-dimethoxybenzenium ion (10), the thermodynamically more stable isomer of 5. A mechanistic model is proposed in which excited 4 is C2 protonated in HFIP with k ≥ 1 × 1010 s−1 to form 5, which loses Ph2CH+ with k = 3 × 108 s−1 in competition with rearrangement to 10 with k = 6 x 108 s−1. The cation 10 serves as the second source of Ph2CH+, losing Ph2CH+ with k = 4 × 105 s−1; in competition 10 is deprotonated by HFIP to give 8 with k = 8 × 104 s−1. The 11.5 % of the rearranged 8 that is observed at zero conversion is thus shown to come from an intramolecular pathway in which the key step is the migration of a diphenylmethyl group without separation: 4 → 4* → 5 → 10 → 8. Key words: cyclohexadienyl, photoprotonation, Friedel–Crafts, diphenylmethyl, 1,3-dimethoxybenzene.