Heteroaromatic Diazirines Are Essential Building Blocks for Material and Medicinal Chemistry

In materials (polymer) science and medicinal chemistry, heteroaromatic derivatives play the role of the central skeleton in development of novel devices and discovery of new drugs. On the other hand, (3-trifluoromethyl)phenyldiazirine (TPD) is a crucial chemical method for understanding biological processes such as ligand-receptor, nucleic acid-protein, lipid-protein, and protein-protein interactions. In particular, use of TPD has increased in recent materials science to create novel electric and polymer devices with comparative ease and reduced costs. Therefore, a combination of heteroaromatics and (3-trifluoromethyl)diazirine is a promising option for creating better materials and elucidating the unknown mechanisms of action of bioactive heteroaromatic compounds. In this review, a comprehensive synthesis of (3-trifluoromethyl)diazirine-substituted heteroaromatics is described.

Fishing for Drug Targets: A Focus on Diazirine Photoaffinity Probe Synthesis

Target identification is a high-priority, albeit challenging, aspect of drug discovery. Diazirine-based photoaffinity probes (PAPs) can facilitate the process by covalently capturing transient molecular interactions. This can help identify target proteins and map the ligand's interactome. Diazirine probes have even been incorporated by cellular machinery into proteins. Embarking on the synthesis of customized PAPs, containing either an aliphatic or trifluoromethyl phenyl diazirine, can be a considerable endeavor, particularly for medicinal chemists and chemical biologists new to the field. This review takes a synthetic focus, aiming to summarize available routes, propose new avenues, and illuminate recent advances in diazirine synthesis. Select examples of diazirine photoaffinity labeling applications have been included throughout to provide instructive definition of the advantages and limitations of the technology while simultaneously highlighting how these reagents can be applied in a practical sense.

Comprehensive synthesis of photoreactive (3-trifluoromethyl)diazirinyl indole derivatives from 5- and 6- trifluoroacetylindoles for photoaffinity labeling

5- and 6-trifluoromethyldiazirinyl indoles were synthesized from corresponding bromoindole derivatives for the first time. They acted as mother skeletons for the comprehensive synthesis of various bioactive indole metabolites. These can be used in biological functional analysis as diazirine-based photoaffinity labels.

Development and application of diazirines in biological and synthetic macromolecular systems

Many different reagents and methodologies have been utilised for the modification of synthetic and biological macromolecular systems. In addition, an area of intense research at present is the construction of hybrid biosynthetic polymers, comprised of biologically active species immobilised or complexed with synthetic polymers. One of the most useful and widely applicable techniques available for functionalisation of macromolecular systems involves indiscriminate carbene insertion processes. The highly reactive and non-specific nature of carbenes has enabled a multitude of macromolecular structures to be functionalised without the need for specialised reagents or additives. The use of diazirines as stable carbene precursors has increased dramatically over the past twenty years and these reagents are fast becoming the most popular photophors for photoaffinity labelling and biological applications in which covalent modification of macromolecular structures is the basis to understanding structure-activity relationships. This review reports the synthesis and application of a diverse range of diazirines in macromolecular systems.

Simple Synthesis of Deuterium and 13C Labeled Trifluoromethyl Phenyldiazirine Derivatives as Stable Isotope Tags for Mass Spectrometry

The synthesis of trifluoromethyl diazirine with a stable isotope tag is reported. We found that both Friedel-Crafts acylation and reduction of aryl carbonyl to methylene, using commercially available stable-isotope reagents, were utilized for the synthesis of diazirinyl fatty acid derivatives. The stable isotope labeled diazirine may be valuable for identifying binding sites by mass spectrometry.

Efficient synthesis of 3-trifluoromethylphenyldiazirinyl oleic acid derivatives and their biological activity for protein kinase C

3-trifluoromethylphenyldiazirine based oleic acids derivatives are synthesized to elucidate the functions of specific activation of protein kinase C (PKC) with oleic acid. The synthetic route is based on the alkylation of phenolic derivative with oleic acid equivalent and the post-functionalization of the compound to achieve radiolabeling. Several compounds have biological activity for PKC with similar efficacy with that of oleic acid. The results indicated that the diaizinyl oleic acid derivatives should be useful to study the specific functions of oleic acid for PKC.