Published papers

This study demonstrates the C-N coupling of tryptophan with azoles, promoted by an in situ-generated iodine-based oxidant. The protocol was successfully applied to the selective modification of tryptophan in nonprotected polypeptide bearing oxidatively sensitive residues in acidic aqueous media. The present method allows the attachment of reactive handles to polypeptides and the peptide stapling.

© 2019 The Royal Society of Chemistry. S-Arylation of cysteine residues is an increasingly powerful tool for site-specific modification of proteins, providing novel structure and electronic perturbation. The present work demonstrates an operationally-simple cysteine arylation reaction 2-nitro-substituted arylboronic acids, promoted by a simple nickel(ii) salt. The process exhibits strikingly fast reaction rates under physiological conditions in purely aqueous media with excellent selectivity toward cysteine residues. Cysteine arylation of natural proteins and peptides allows attachment of useful reactive handles for stapling, imaging, or further conjugation.

© 2020 Wiley-VCH GmbH Herein, we report a C−S cross-coupling reaction between alkyl thiols or aryl thiols and ortho-substituted arylboronic acids that proceeds in the presence of an inexpensive and ligand-free NiCl2 ⋅ 6H2O salt and N-methylmorpholine, a weak base, at 25 °C in air. The presence of coordinating and electron-withdrawing groups at the ortho-position of the arylboronic acids played a crucial role in determining the efficiency of the reaction. X-ray crystallographic analysis revealed that the [NiCl2(DMF)2(H2O)2] complex was formed in-situ. The complex is an excellent precursor of the active nickel species. The reaction offers an extremely mild and operationally convenient method to access a wide variety of alkyl aryl sulfides and diaryl sulfides without using expensive transition metals, such as palladium, gold, and rhodium, and specialized and expensive ligands.

© 2021 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH GmbH Dearomative heterocyclic [4+2] cycloaddition between the N-(2,4-dinitrophenyl)pyridinium ion of nicotinamide and an enol ether was analyzed by Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations. The calculation revealed that the reaction undergoes stepwise bond formation rather than occurring in a concerted manner. The experimental products were found to be both kinetically and thermodynamically favored. The calculated transition states and intermediate suggested that the high diastereoselectivity is derived from the electrostatic interaction between the 2-nitro group of the pyridinium ion and the hydrogen of the enol ether.

Caffeic acid β-phenethyl ester (CAPE), an antioxidative bioactive catechol isolated from propolis, was semisynthesized from chlorogenic acid and related compounds in an extract of raw (unroasted) Robusta coffee (Coffea canephora) beans in 5 steps and a total yield of 31%. Oxidative degradation of the intermediates and target molecule was prevented by alkaline hydrolysis of the chlorogenic acids in the presence of sodium dithionite (Na2S2O4) and deprotection of the catecholic diacetate precursor by Candida antarctica lipase B-mediated transesterification as the final step.

The metal-free thermal organocatalytic pinacol coupling of arylaldehydes has been developed. The intermolecular coupling of arylaldehydes catalyzed byt-butyl isonicotinate with bis(pinacolato)diboron as the co-reducing agent afforded 1,2-diphenylethane-1,2-diols. This reaction was also applicable to the intramolecular coupling of 1,1′-biphenyl-2,2′-dicarbaldehydes to afford 9,10-dihydrophenanthrene-9,10-diols. Various functional groups were tolerated under this coupling condition.

Prunetin (4',5-dihydroxy-7-methoxyisoflavone) was semisynthesized in 8 steps from readily available naringenin in 26% total yield. The key reaction was chemoenzymatic sequential deacetylation to 6'-acetoxy-2',4″-dihydroxy-4'-methoxychalcone, the in situ-formed precursor for thallium(III) nitrate-mediated oxidative rearrangement.

Metabolically stable C-glycosides are an essential family of compounds in bioactive natural products, therapeutic agents, and biological probes. For their application, development of synthetic methods by connecting glycosides and aglycons with strict stereocontrol at the anomeric carbon, as well as with high functional-group compatibility and environmental compatibility is a pivotal issue. Although Suzuki–Miyaura-type C(sp3)−C(sp2) cross-coupling using glycosyl boronates is a potential candidate for the construction of C-glycosides, neither the cross-coupling itself nor the facile synthesis of the coupling precursor, glycosyl boronates, have been achieved to date. Herein, it was succeeded to develop a copper-catalyzed stereoselective one-step borylation of glycosyl bromides to glycosyl boronates and palladium-catalyzed stereospecific cross-coupling of β-glycosyl borates with aryl bromides to give aryl β-C-glycosides, in which the β-configuration of the anomeric carbon of the glycosyl trifluoroborates is stereoretentively transferred to that of the resulting aryl C-glycosides.

We developed a one-step synthesis of acylborons from both readily available acyl chlorides and bis(pinacolato)diboron through copper(I)-catalyzed borylation. Under the reaction conditions using tBuOLi, polystyrene-supported triphenylphosphine as a copper ligand was found to promote the borylation of acyl chlorides while suppressing alcoholysis. This method enables the facile synthesis of potassium acyltrifluoroborates.

The chemical modification of proteins is an effective technique for manipulating the properties and functions of proteins, and for creating protein-based materials. The N-terminus is a promising target for single-site modification that provides modified proteins with uniform structures and properties. In this paper, a copper(II)-mediated aldol reaction with 2-pyridinecarboxaldehyde (2-PC) derivatives is proposed as an operationally simple method to selectively modify the N-terminus of peptides and proteins at room temperature and physiological pH. The copper(II) ion activates the N-terminal amino acids by complexation with an imine of the N-terminal amino acid and 2-PCs, realizing the selective formation of the nucleophilic intermediate at the N-terminus. This results in a stable carbon-carbon bond between the 2-PCs and the α-carbon of various N-terminal amino acids. The reaction is applied to four different proteins, including biopharmaceuticals such as filgrastim and trastuzumab. The modified trastuzumab retains the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 recognition activity.

1,1’,10,10’-Biphenothiazine and its S,S,S’,S’-tetroxide are diaza[5]helicenes with N−N linkages. Kinetic experiments on racemization together with DFT calculations revealed that they undergo inversion through the N−N bond breaking pathway rather than the general conformational pathway. In these diaza[5]helicenes with this inversion mechanism, the reduction of electronic repulsion in the N−N bond by modification of S to SO2 at the outer position of the helix led to a significantly higher inversion barrier, 35.3 kcal/mol, compared to [5]helicene. 1,1’,10,10’-Biphenothiazine S,S,S’,S’-tetroxide was highly resistant to acid-mediated N−N bond breaking and racemization under acidic conditions.

The biomimetic two-phase strategy employing polyene cyclization and subsequent oxidation/substitution is an effective approach for divergent syntheses of [6-6-6]-tricyclic diterpenes. However, this strategy requires lengthy sequences for syntheses of oxygenated tricyclic aromatic abietane/podocarpane diterpenes owing to the many linear oxidation/substitution steps after cyclization. Here, we present a new synthetic route based on a convergent reverse two-phase strategy employing a reverse radical cyclization approach, which enabled the unified short syntheses of four aromatic abietane/podocarpane diterpenes and the divergent short syntheses of other related diterpenes. Oxygenated and substituted precursors for cyclization were convergently prepared through Friedel-Crafts acylation and rhodium-catalyzed site-selective iodination. Radical redox cyclization using an iridium photoredox catalyst involving neophyl rearrangement furnished the thermodynamically favored 6-membered ring preferentially. (±)-5,6-Dehydrosugiol, salvinolone, crossogumerin A, and Δ5-nimbidiol were synthesized in only 8 steps. An oxygenated cyclized intermediate was also useful for divergent derivatization to sugiol, ferruginol, saprorthoquinone, cryptomeriololide, and salvinolone.

Photophysical properties of benzil (1,2-diphenylethane-1,2-dione) and its derivatives in the crystal state have recently attracted much attention. However, the study of substituted benzils has mostly been limited to para-substituted derivatives, which did not induce a significant effect on the emission wavelength compared to pristine benzil. The effects of ortho- and meta-substituents on the photophysical properties in the crystal state have not been investigated so far. Our recently developed organocatalytic pinacol coupling of substituted benzaldehydes allowed us to prepare various ortho-, meta-, and para-substituted benzil derivatives and to investigate their luminescence properties. Ortho- and meta-substituents affected the electronic states of benzils in the crystal state, resulting in differences in their luminescence properties. The luminescence wavelength and type, i.e., phosphorescence or fluorescence, were altered by these substituents. Fast self-recovering phosphorescence-to-phosphorescence mechanochromism by the para-CF3 substituent at room temperature was also discovered.

Maleimide derivatives are privileged reagents for chemically modifying proteins through the Michael addition reaction with cysteine due to their selectivity, operational simplicity, and commercial availability. However, since accessible free cysteine is rarely found in natural proteins, it is highly desirable to find alternative targets to enable direct bioconjugation of proteins with maleimides. In this study, we have developed an operationally simple and straightforward method for the N-terminal modification of proteins without the need for mutagenesis via a copper(II)-mediated [3+2] cycloaddition reaction with maleimides and 2-pyridinecarboxaldehyde (2-PCA) derivatives under non-denaturing conditions at pH 6 and 37 °C in aqueous media. Our method utilizes commercially available maleimides to attach diverse functionalities to various N-terminal amino acids. We demonstrate the preparation of a ternary protein complex cross-linked at the N-termini and dually modified trastuzumab equipped with monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE), a cytotoxic agent, and a Cy5 fluorophore (MMAE-Cy5-trastuzumab). MMAE-Cy5-trastuzumab retained human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) recognition activity and exerted cytotoxicity against HER2-positive cells. Furthermore, MMAE-Cy5-trastuzumab allowed successful visualization of HER2-positive cancer cells in mouse tumors. This straightforward method will expand the accessibility of protein conjugates with well-defined structures in a wide range of research fields.

This study presents the development of a novel metal–organic framework (MOF) denoted as APF-80, suitable for the structural analysis of nucleophilic compounds that have traditionally been challenging to analyze using the crystalline sponge method. It was synthesized using a new mixed-substituent hexaazaphenalene ligand (344-TPHAP) featuring both 3-pyridyl and 4-pyridyl groups. This framework demonstrated remarkable stability toward nucleophilic molecules, which could be captured inside the pores through a synergistic combination of coordination and hydrogen-bonding interactions. APF-80 was successfully applied to determine the structures of 12 bioactive molecules, including naturally occurring alkaloids and pharmaceutical compounds. The host–guest interaction modes observed inside the resulting structures were classified into five distinct types. Binding energy calculations revealed that the guest site energies positively correlated with the crystallographic occupancies and the corresponding interaction types. This multimodal capture mechanism enabled the precise structural analysis of nucleophilic compounds under mild conditions, expanding the scope of molecules that can be analyzed by the crystalline sponge method.

Elaborated conditions for lipase-catalyzed preferential monoacetylation enabled the large-scale preparation of hydroquinone monoacetate. This product was then applied to the synthesis of tournefolin B, a highly oxygenated prenylated hydroquinone of plant origin (Tournefortia sarmentosa Lam.). During the course of the synthetic transformations, lipase-catalyzed deacetylation under mild conditions was demonstrated.