Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry Blog

Ivan Jabin and collaborators in Belgium and France have designed a novel Calix[6]crypturea receptor with unique binding properties that are acid-base controllable.

This external stimulus is used to modulate the flexibility of the calixarene, allowing it to bind either neutral molecules, anions, primary/secondary ammonium ions, quaternary ammonium ions, with remarkable selectivity.

Interested? Why not read the article now and let us know what you think by leaving a comment below!

Acid–base modulation of a versatile heteroditopic calix[6]arene based receptor Damien Cornut, Jérôme Marrot, Johan Wouters and Ivan Jabin
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1OB05759F, Paper

This OBC paper has been selected as a Hot Article and will be FREE to access to all for a period of 4 weeks.

While retinoids are essential in many biological processes such as vision or cell differentiation and can be found in many of our favorite cosmetic products, both phototoxicity and photocarcinogenicity have been reported for retinol. Professor Fukuzumi and Dr. El-Agamey at Ozaka University (Japan) are shedding light on the roles of retinol in phototoxicity and free radical initiated oxidative stress: using Laser Flash Photolysis, the scientists have successfully generated the retinol radical cation , which was found to be reactive towards bases and other carotinoids inducing pro-oxidant effects.

Wish to find out more? Why not read this OBC paper today!

Laser flash photolysis study on the retinol radical cation in polar solvents
Ali El-Agamey and Shunichi Fukuzumi
Org. Biomol. Chem.., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1OB05814B, Paper

This Hot Article will be FREE to access to all for a period of 4 weeks.

Haifeng Du and colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Beijing University of Chemical Technology (Beijing, PR China) have used a simple one-step condensation of a α,β-unsaturated ketones and readily available (R)-tert-butanesulfinamide to synthesise a variety of chiral olefin/sulfinimide hybrid ligands. Highly efficient in rhodium-catalyzed asymmetric 1,4-additions, these novel ligands lead to high yields with excellent ee’s (up to 98%) , and could find wide application as a useful asymmetric synthetic methodology.

Interested in asymmetric 1,4-additions? Why not read this OBC communication now!

Chiral N-tert-butanesulfinyl α,β-unsaturated ketimine: a simple and highly effective olefin/sulfinimide hybrid ligand for asymmetric 1,4-additions
Xiangqing Feng, Beibei Wei, Jing Yang and Haifeng Du
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2011, 9, 5927-5929
DOI: 10.1039/C1OB05971H

This OBC communication will be FREE to access to all for a period of 4 weeks

Supplying an organism with modified precursor materials for biosynthesis is a great way of hijacking the synthetic machinery of an organism to make the compounds you want. In this paper Cormac Murphy and colleagues from University College Dublin and Ecole Normale Superieure demonstrate that precursor-directed biosynthesis is a convenient way to create analogs of rumbrin with tunable potency and selectivity, also showing that the 3-chloropyrrole moiety is not absolutely essential for biological activity in this class of polyenes. One of the compounds prepared showed dramatically improved activity against lung cancer cells.

Interested? Read this article in OBC, it is free to access for the next four weeks!

Production of anticancer polyenes through precursor-directed biosynthesis
Benjamin R. Clark, Stephen O’Connor, Deirdre Fox, Jacques Leroy and Cormac D. Murphy
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2011, Advance Article

DOI: 10.1039/C1OB05667K

The enormous success of antibiotics is seriously threatened by the development of resistance to many drugs available on the market. So the search for new antibiotics that are less prone to resistance is on.

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are a possible solution that has attracted considerable attention but they have some drawbacks including high cost of manufacturing. Now Steven Firestine and colleagues at Wayne State University in the US have examined the potential of a new class of benzophenone-based membrane targeted antibiotics (BPMTAs).

Firestine shows that these agents release potassium ions from treated bacteria which  results in disruption of the bacterial membrane potential. This membrane-targeted disruption means that BPMTAs have excellent activity against antibiotic-resistant strains like MRSA and VRSA.

The team have demonstrated the promising potential of these agents by using them to cure mice of a lethal MRSA infection. They were also unable to develop a mutant resistant to the agents.

Interested? Read the article in OBC that is free to access for the next four weeks!

Examination of a synthetic benzophenone membrane-targeted antibiotic
Sunil K. Vooturi, Mahender B. Dewal and Steven M. Firestine
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1OB05643C