Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry Blog

The development of synthetic molecules capable of facilitating the transport of ions across cell membranes has become a prominent and active field of research. These compounds mimic the activity of natural ionophores and have found broad application in materials sciences, chemical biology and medicine.

The majority of known synthetic ionophores facilitate the transport of cations. However, there is mounting evidence to support the ability of anion selective ionophores (anionophores) to act as anticancer agents and novel leads in the treatment of channelopathies—diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, caused by dysfunctional ion channels or related regulatory proteins. The ultimate hope is that they can be used to restore ion channel function in such cases.

An important step toward practical application is to demonstrate the activity of anionophores not only in synthetic vesicle assays but in live cell environments. In a collaborative study between Prof. Phillip Gale of the University of Sydney, Prof. Anthony Davis and Prof. David Sheppard of the University of Bristol, the biological activity of a series of ortho-phenylene bis-urea (OPBU) anionophores was explored using a biological anion transport assay employing Fischer rat thyroid cells. This family of anionophores is readily prepared from commercially available starting materials using simple chemistry which allows for facile structural variation and the study of structure-activity relationships.

It was shown that activity was dependent on both the electronic nature and lipophilicity of the bis-urea anionophore. Interestingly, while lipophilicity was shown to promote intrinsic activity it also had a contrary effect on deliverability which hampered the anionophore’s effectiveness in living cells. Bis-urea 4a (Figure) was shown to be the most effective in all assays and is based on a difluorinated central scaffold.

This study provides interesting insight into the biological activity of this class of anionophores and is a promising first step toward their potential application in medicine.

To find out more see:

Anion transport by ortho-phenylene bis-ureas across cell and vesicle membranes
Christopher M. Dias, Hongyu Li, Hennie Valkenier, Louise E. Karagiannidis,  Philip A. Gale, David N. Sheppard and Anthony P. Davis 
DOI: 10.1039/C7OB02787G

Victoria Corless is currently completing her Ph.D. in organic chemistry with Prof. Andrei Yudin at the University of Toronto. Her research is centred on the synthesis of kinetically amphoteric building blocks which offer a versatile platform for the development of chemoselective transformations with particular emphasis on creating novel biologically active molecules.

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) is powerful technique for studying chemical species containing unpaired electrons. It has far reaching applications in a number of fields as it can be used to elucidate structural, electronic and conformational dynamic features in a given system. 

In biological settings, paramagnetic probes have been developed to ‘spin-label’ desired biomolecules using a technique called site-directed spin labelling (SDSL). In combination with other methods, EPR has emerged as an efficient means of studying proteins close to their native physiological states and can be used to glean information regarding the immediate environment of the spin-labeled side-chain as well as measure intra- and intermolecular distances within the protein. A challenge has been in developing rigid spin-labels to improve the accuracy of distance measurements as the most reliable information is attained if the distance between spin-labels is unchanged by conformational flexibility.

In their most recent OBC publication, Prof. Snorri Sigurdsson of the University of Iceland and Prof. Thomas Prisner of Goethe University describe the development of an enhanced isoindoline-nitroxide derivative of uridine (^ImUm), the first example of a conformationally constrained spin label for RNA.

Limited mobility of ^ImUM is a result of the nitroxide N-O bond lying in the same axis as the bond used to link it to the uridine base. As a result, bond rotation does not drastically alter the position of the nitroxide. Additionally, ^ImUm was shown to bind specifically and with high affinity to abasic sites in duplex RNAs. Here, rigidity is further enhanced through intramolecular hydrogen bonding between the nitroxide probe and the orphaned uracil base. ^ImUm is a promising label for EPR studies of RNA, providing highly useful and dynamic structural information unbiased by conformational flexibility.

To find out more see:

A semi-rigid isoindoline-derived nitroxide spin label for RNA
Dnyaneshwar B. Gophane,  Burkhard Endeward,  Thomas F. Prisner  and  Snorri Th. Sigurdsson 
DOI: 10.1039/C7OB02870A

Victoria Corless is currently completing her Ph.D. in organic chemistry with Prof. Andrei Yudin at the University of Toronto. Her research is centred on the synthesis of kinetically amphoteric building blocks which offer a versatile platform for the development of chemoselective transformations with particular emphasis on creating novel biologically active molecules.

According to statistics published by the World Health Organization (WHO), tuberculosis (TB) is globally one of the leading causes of death from a curable infectious disease. While antibiotics represent a major breakthrough for modern medicine, the spread of multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacterial strains, such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, have become a major threat to healthcare.

Encouragingly, renewed efforts in antibiotic research have resulted in the identification of new leads, some of which are currently in clinical trials. Even in light of these promising efforts, Dr. Ehmke Pohl of Durham University and collaborators from the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre and Institut Pasteur de Lille are emphasizing the need to optimize existing TB treatments as well as develop an efficient means of identifying novel therapeutics.

Structure-based drug discovery is an integral part of most industrial drug discovery programs and as a result, there is an ever-growing number of protein X-ray crystal structures available in databases such as the Protein Data Bank (PDB). Pohl and collaborators outline a robust and versatile strategy for an in silico screening protocol based on compounds in the ZINC database (a free resource of commercially available chemical compounds) and crystal structures in the PDB.

Their current OBC study focuses on the transcriptional regulator EthR which is involved in M. tuberculosis resistance. EthR has been shown to limit the efficacy of ethionamide-based drugs by downregulating the EthA enzyme involved in activation of ethionamide prodrugs. EthR has therefore been validated as a suitable target as its inhibition boosts ethionamide action.

Using tailored chemical and physicochemical descriptors (for example: compound volume) and a detailed knowledge of the EthR binding pocket, approximately 6 million compounds were evaluated for compatibility using KNIME pipeline software. 409 201 diverse compounds were identified for docking studies and surprisingly, only 6 compounds failed to produce feasible binding interactions. After a careful post-docking filter, 284 chemically diverse compounds were obtained and a visual analysis of all binding poses and ligand geometries in combination with computational analysis narrowed the screen down to 85 substrates. These in silico hits were then evaluated for their capability to bind to EthR using thermal protein stability studies which resulted in 20 new potential candidates for lead optimization with reasonable EC₅₀ values.

Given the ever-growing number of high resolution crystal structures in the PDB, in silico screening approaches can be tailored to any well-characterized protein structure and utilized as an efficient tool for identifying new active molecules.

To find out more see:

New active leads for tuberculosis booster drugs by structure-based drug discovery
Natalie J. Tatum, John W. Liebeschuetz,  Jason C. Cole,  Rosangela Frita,  Adrien Herledan, Alain R. Baulard, Nicolas Willand and Ehmke Pohl
DOI:10.1039/C7OB00910K

Victoria Corless is currently completing her Ph.D. in organic chemistry with Prof. Andrei Yudin at the University of Toronto. Her research is centred on the synthesis of kinetically amphoteric building blocks which offer a versatile platform for the development of chemoselective transformations with particular emphasis on creating novel biologically active molecules.

The reductive amination reaction between amines and carbonyls is a highly useful and versatile means of forming C-N bonds. Given the accessibility of starting materials and its modular nature, reductive aminations have found extensive application not only in organic synthesis but medicinal chemistry and the production of agro- and industrial chemicals.

Developing efficient and economical processes to access valuable materials is a priority in industry. One of the most fundamental ways of doing this is to adhere to the principle of atom economy which moves to minimize waste generated by a chemical reaction at the molecular level. While traditionally, chemists have focused on improving yield or minimizing the number of steps in a reaction sequence, atom economy aims to design reactions in which all atoms involved in a chemical process are present in the desired products.

An international team of researchers have recently published a novel iridium-catalyzed reductive amination using carbon monoxide (CO) as an alternative reductant. This process does not require an external hydrogen source as the hydride is abstracted by the catalyst/carbon monoxide complex from the hemiaminal intermediate, forming an iridium-hydride species. Essentially, the hydride is derived internally (from the amine) as a result of the deoxygenative potential of carbon monoxide. The reaction is also tolerant to a number of functional groups that are incompatible with other commonly employed reducing reagents.

This is a very interesting twist on the reductive amination reaction for which external sources of hydrogen are often required. While it could be called atomic economic from this standpoint, the fact that carbon dioxide is a major by product of the reaction detracts from this claim and could be problematic on an industrial level. Regardless, this work is a significant first step and demonstrates the importance of optimizing the efficiency of well-established protocols in organic synthesis for large scale purposes.

To find out more see:

Reductive amination catalyzed by iridium complexes using carbon monoxide as a reducing agent
Alexey P. Moskovets,  Dmitry L. Usanov,  Oleg I. Afanasyev,  Vasilii A. Fastovskiy,  Alexander P. Molotkov,  Karim M. Muratov,  Gleb L. Denisov,  Semen S. Zlotskii,  Alexander F. Smol’yakov, Dmitry A. Loginov and  Denis Chusov*
DOI:10.1039/C7OB01005B

Victoria Corless is currently completing her Ph.D. in organic chemistry with Prof. Andrei Yudin at the University of Toronto. Her research is centred on the synthesis of kinetically amphoteric building blocks which offer a versatile platform for the development of chemoselective transformations with particular emphasis on creating novel biologically active molecules.

Complex coacervation refers to a liquid-liquid phase separation that arises from the association of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes in water. It is a widely used laboratory technique and coacervate-based materials have extensive application in the food and cosmetic industries as well as drug delivery and the development of biomedical adhesives.

Under favourable conditions, the coalescence of coacervate droplets leads to a separation of a system into two liquid layers: a polymer-rich coacervate phase in equilibrium with a polymer poor supernatant. Coacervation is entropically driven and occurs through an initial electrostatic attraction between oppositely charged molecules followed by the release of counterions and rearrangement of water molecules. However, our understanding of factors that control self-assembly and stability at the molecular level remains limited.

In the past, many studies have focused on how the chemical nature of a polymer affects coacervation without considering the effect of polymer architecture. In a collaborative study recently published in OBC, Prof. Sarah Perry and Prof. Todd Emerick et al., of the University of Massachusetts Amherst investigate the effect of branching in polypeptide-based comb polymers on the self-assembly and stability of complex coacervates.

In comparison to branched copolymers, the interaction of oppositely charged linear copolymers to form charge-neutral coacervate complexes is understandably straightforward. However, the extent to which a mismatched polymer architecture would alter coalescence is relatively unclear and a question that Perry and Emerick sought to answer.

The self-assembly and stability of complex coacervates resulting from oppositely charged linear polymers, linear and comb polymer and two comb polymers (see Figure) were determined/compared through turbidity measurements, optical microscopy and Monte Carlo simulations. Ultimately, it was observed that the comb structure did not form coacervates as the branched structure prevents cooperative interactions between oppositely charged polymer pairs and releases fewer counterions, leading to a weaker driving force for coacervation.

This study provides insight to the role that polymer architecture plays on complex coacervation and highlights the need to develop a detailed and predictable understanding of molecular level effects of polymer chemistry and architecture in coacervate formation.

To find out more see:

The effect of comb architecture on complex coacervation
Brandon M. Johnston,  Cameron W. Johnston,  Rachel A. Letteri,  Tyler K. Lytle,  Charles E. Sing, Todd Emrick and Sarah L. Perry
DOI:10.1039/C7OB01314K

Victoria Corless is currently completing her Ph.D. in organic chemistry with Prof. Andrei Yudin at the University of Toronto. Her research is centred on the synthesis of kinetically amphoteric building blocks which offer a versatile platform for the development of chemoselective transformations with particular emphasis on creating novel biologically active molecules.