Milligram scale enantioresolution of promethazine and its main metabolites, determination of their absolute configuration and assessment of enantioselective effects on human SY-SY5Y cells

The misuse of pharmaceuticals has significantly increased in recent decades, becoming a major public health concern. The risks associated with medication misuse are particularly high in cases of overdose, especially when the active substances are chiral, as enantioselectivity plays an important role in toxicity. Promethazine (PMZ) is a chiral antihistamine marketed as a racemate and it is misused in "Purple Drank", a recreational drug beverage, that combines codeine and/or PMZ, with soda or alcohol leading to serious health consequences and fatalities in consumers around the world, particularly among teenagers. Information regarding the enantioselectivity in the toxicity of (R,S)-PMZ and its main metabolites, namely promethazine sulfoxide (PMZSO) and desmonomethyl promethazine (DMPMZ), is unknown. This work reported, for the first time, the enantioseparation, in milligram scale, of (R,S)-PMZ, (R,S)-DMPMZ, (R,S)- PMZSO and the determination of their absolute configurations by electronic circular dichroism (ECD). The enantioseparation of all the six enantiomers was accomplished in a homemade semi-preparative column with amylose tris-3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamate (AD) coated with aminopropyl Nucleosil silica. The enantiomeric purity was evaluated using the analytical Lux® 3 µm i-Amylose-3 column, yielding enantiomeric purity values ranging between 94.4% and 99.7%. The elution order of all the enantiomers was accomplished combining the ECD results with an optical rotation detector. The elution order of the enantiomers was influenced only by the chiral selector, rather than the mobile phase. The cytotoxicity of the racemates and the isolated enantiomers towards differentiated SH-SY5Y cells was evaluated. (R,S)-DMPMZ exhibited a significantly higher cytotoxicity than (R,S)-PMZ, suggesting the metabolic bioactivation of (R,S)-PMZ. Conversely, no significant cytotoxicity was found for (R,S)-PMZSO, underscoring a metabolic detoxification pathway. Remarkably, enantioselectivity was observed for the cytotoxicity of PMZ; (R)-PMZ was significantly more cytotoxic than (S)-PMZ. The results underscore the importance to isolate the enantiomers in their enantiomerically form and their correct identification for toxicity enantioselectivity studies, which are vital to understand the drug's behaviour and safety, especially in case of overdoses.

Structure Revision of the Sesquiterpene Nordine Based on NMR Spectroscopic Analysis and X-ray Crystallography

Nordine was reported to be an unusual humulene-type macrocyclic sesquiterpenoid that contains an ether-bridged bicyclic ring between C-10 and C-6 with a hydroxy group at position 2. Here, we report the structure revision of nordine based on incongruities found for carbon chemical shifts in the originally proposed structure, in addition to formation of a diacetylated derivative. As expected, a single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis unambiguously confirmed our proposal that the nordine (1) structure contains an ether-bridged bicyclic ring between C-10 and C-7 and hydroxy groups at C-2 and C-6. Furthermore, the absolute configuration was determined by ECD spectroscopic analysis.

Revisiting the structure of Heliannuol L: A computational approach

Recently, structural elucidation of natural products has undergone a revolution. The combined use of different modern spectroscopic methods has allowed obtaining a complete structural assignment of natural products using small amounts of sample. However, despite the extraordinary ongoing advances in spectroscopy, the mischaracterization of natural products has been and remains a recurrent problem, especially when the substance presents several stereogenic centers. The misinterpretation of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) data has resulted in frequent reports addressing structural reassignment. In this context, a great effort has been devoted to developing quantum chemical calculations that simulate NMR parameters accurately, allowing to achieve a more precise spectral interpretation. In this work, we employed a protocol for theoretical calculations of ¹ H NMR chemical shifts and coupling constants using density functional theory (DFT), followed by the application of the DP4+ method to revisit the structure of Heliannuol L, a member of the Heliannuol class, isolated from Helianthus annuus. Our results indicate that the originally proposed structure of Heliannuol L needs a stereochemical reassignment, placing the hydroxyl bonded to C10 in the opposite side of the methyl and hydroxyl groups bonded to C7 and C8, respectively.

Picraviane A and B: Nortriterpenes with limonoid-like skeletons containing a heptanolide E-ring system from Picramnia glazioviana

Two highly oxygenated nortriterpenes, picraviane A and B, were isolated from the ethanolic extract of Picramnia glazioviana Engl. The structures were determined by analysis of HRMS and 2D NMR spectroscopic data. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction data was also obtained for picraviane B. The absolute configuration of both compounds were assigned by comparison of experimental and calculated vibrational and electronic circular dichroism spectroscopy, respectively. Picraviane A showed a moderate cytotoxic activity against the triple negative MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell line. These compounds represent an undescribed class of natural products with limonoid-like skeletons containing a heptanolide as the E-ring.