Exploring Intra- and Intermolecular Interactions in Selected N-Oxides-The Role of Hydrogen Bonds

Ionic Hydrogen Bond-Assisted Catalytic Construction of Nitrogen Stereogenic Center via Formal Desymmetrization of Remote Diols

The control of noncarbon stereogenic centers is of profound importance owing to their enormous interest in bioactive compounds and chiral catalyst or ligand design for enantioselective synthesis. Despite various elegant approaches have been achieved for construction of S-, P-, Si- and B-stereocenters over the past decades, the catalyst-controlled strategies to govern the formation of N-stereogenic compounds have garnered less attention. Here, we disclose the first organocatalytic approach for efficient access to a wide range of nitrogen-stereogenic compounds through a desymmetrization approach. Intriguingly, the pro-chiral remote diols, which are previously not well addressed with enantiocontrol, are well differentiated by potent chiral carbene-bound acyl azolium intermediates. Preliminary studies shed insights on the critical importance of the ionic hydrogen bond (IHB) formed between the dimer aggregate of diols to afford the chiral N-oxide products that feature a tetrahedral nitrogen as the sole stereogenic element with good yields and excellent enantioselectivities. Notably, the chiral N-oxide products could offer an attractive strategy for chiral ligand design and discovery of potential antibacterial agrochemicals.

N-Oxides as Control Element for the Direction of a Sigmatropic Rearrangement: Application as a Switch for Fluorescence

An exceptional level of control over the direction of the (2,3)-sigmatropic rearrangement between N-oxides and alkoxylamine is achieved by simply changing the solvent in which they are dissolved. Protic solvents like water, methanol and hexafluoroisopropanol favour the N-oxide form, while other solvents like acetone, acetonitrile and benzene favour the alkoxylamine. The reaction temperature and nature of the substituents on the alkene affect the rate of rearrangement. A N-oxide fragment was attached to two fluorescent molecules and acted as an on/off switch for their fluorescence. The conversion of alkoxylamines into the corresponding N-oxides has not previously been described and is here termed the 'Reverse Meisenheimer Rearrangement'.

Synthesis, crystal structure, and a molecular modeling approach to identify effective antiviral hydrazide derivative against the main protease of SARS-CoV-2

In the fall of 2019, a new type of coronavirus took place in Wuhan city, China, and rapidly spread across the world and urges the scientific community to develop antiviral therapeutic agents. In our effort we have synthesized a new hydrazide derivative, (E)-N'-(1-(4-bromophenyl)ethylidene)-2-(6-methoxynaphthalen-2-yl)propanehydrazide for this purpose because of its potential inhibitory proprieties. The asymmetric unit of the title molecule consists of two independent molecules differing noticeably in conformation. In the crystal, the independent molecules are linked by N-H···O and C-H···O hydrogen bonds and C-H···π(ring) interactions into helical chains extending along the b-axis direction. The chains are further joined by additional C-H···π(ring) interactions into the full 3-D structure. To obtain a structure-activity relationship, the DFT-NBO analysis is performed to study the intrinsic electronic properties of the title compound. Molecular modeling studies were also conducted to examine the binding affinity of the compound for the SARS-CoV-2 main protease enzyme and to determine intermolecular binding interactions. The compound revealed a stable binding mode at the enzyme active pocket with a binding energy value of -8.1 kcal/mol. Further, stable dynamics were revealed for the enzyme-compound complex and reported highly favorable binding energies. The net MMGBSA binding energy of the complex is -37.41 kcal/mol while the net MMPBSA binding energy is -40.5 kcal/mol. Overall, the compound disclosed the strongest bond of ing the main protease enzyme and might be a good lead for further structural optimization.