Studying specificity in protein–glycosaminoglycan recognition with umbrella sampling

• Mateusz Marcisz,
• Sebastian Anila,
• Margrethe Gaardløs,
• Martin Zacharias and
• Sergey A. Samsonov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1933–1946, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.144

• proteins or nucleic acids, GAGs are constantly altered by processing enzymes and thus they vary greatly in molecular mass, disaccharide unit composition, and sulfation. Based on their core structure they are categorized into six different classes, viz. heparan sulfate (HS), heparin (HP), hyaluronic acid

Insight into oral amphiphilic cyclodextrin nanoparticles for colorectal cancer: comprehensive mathematical model of drug release kinetic studies and antitumoral efficacy in 3D spheroid colon tumors

• Sedat Ünal,
• Gamze Varan,
• Juan M. Benito,
• Yeşim Aktaş and
• Erem Bilensoy

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 139–157, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.14

• the ability to self-assemble into NPs amenable for encapsulation of an array of therapeutics (from small molecule drugs to nucleic acids) [19]. Moreover, their dense ammonium functional display furnishes their NPs with an overall positive charge and large buffering capabilities [19] at physiological

Improving the accuracy of ³¹P NMR chemical shift calculations by use of scaling methods

• William H. Hersh and
• Tsz-Yeung Chan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 36–56, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.4

• basis sets such as the IGLO-III [25][26] and pcS-n [27][28] basis sets with a focus on improved calculation of NMR shielding constants. Some theoretical work has been carried out on specialized phosphorus compounds that cover only a small range of chemical shifts, including nucleic acids [29][30][31][32

Ferrocenoyl-adenines: substituent effects on regioselective acylation

• Mateja Toma,
• Gabrijel Zubčić,
• Jasmina Lapić,
• Senka Djaković,
• Davor Šakić and
• Valerije Vrček

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1270–1277, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.133

• ], or structural motifs in xeno nucleic acids [18]. In continuation of our work on ferrocenoyl-substituted pyrimidine nucleobases [19], we report herewith a combined theoretical and experimental work on purine series. The novelty of these compounds is the carbonyl linker which connects the

Menadione: a platform and a target to valuable compounds synthesis

• Acácio S. de Souza,
• Ruan Carlos B. Ribeiro,
• Dora C. S. Costa,
• Fernanda P. Pauli,
• David R. Pinho,
• Matheus G. de Moraes,
• Fernando de C. da Silva,
• Luana da S. M. Forezi and
• Vitor F. Ferreira

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 381–419, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.43

• ][41]. The quinone–hydroquinone and quinone–semiquinone interconversions, with ROS generation, are responsible for the wide range of biological activities of menadione and its derivatives. An excess of ROS in the intracellular environment can cause harmful effects on structures such as nucleic acids

Synthesis and bioactivity of pyrrole-conjugated phosphopeptides

• Qiuxin Zhang,
• Weiyi Tan and
• Bing Xu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 159–166, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.17

• multiple pyrroles to phosphopeptides. In addition, pyrrole has yet to be incorporated in peptides for EISA, though oligomeric pyrroles have been extensively explored for binding nucleic acids [68]. Based on a naphthyl-capped phosphopeptide (Nap-ffpy, 1), we conjugated heteroaromatic dipyrrole or tripyrrole

Stepwise PEG synthesis featuring deprotection and coupling in one pot

• Logan Mikesell,
• Dhananjani N. A. M. Eriyagama,
• Yipeng Yin,
• Bao-Yuan Lu and
• Shiyue Fang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2976–2982, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.207

• peptides, proteins and nucleic acids and to evade undesired immune responses, monodisperse PEGs are required or highly desired [12][13]. To meet the needs of monodisperse PEGs, significant efforts have been made to develop stepwise methods for their synthesis [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25

Synthetic strategies toward 1,3-oxathiolane nucleoside analogues

• Umesh P. Aher,
• Dhananjai Srivastava,
• Girij P. Singh and
• Jayashree B. S

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2680–2715, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.182

• ; separation of racemic nucleosides; stereoselectivity; Introduction Among all the biomolecules in an organism, nucleic acids, namely DNA and RNA, have the unique role of storing the genetic code – the nucleotide sequence that specifies the amino acid sequence of proteins that is essential for life on Earth

Progress and challenges in the synthesis of sequence controlled polysaccharides

• Giulio Fittolani,
• Theodore Tyrikos-Ergas,
• Denisa Vargová,
• Manishkumar A. Chaube and
• Martina Delbianco

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1981–2025, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.129

• called “heparin crisis” in 2008 [4]. In addition, the heterogeneity of naturally sourced samples poses a severe bottleneck to the molecular characterization of polysaccharides that dwarfs in comparison to other biomolecules like peptides and nucleic acids. Establishing structure–property correlations is

Cationic oligonucleotide derivatives and conjugates: A favorable approach for enhanced DNA and RNA targeting oligonucleotides

• Mathias B. Danielsen and
• Jesper Wengel

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1828–1848, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.125

• relative to the control ON [101]. Cationic amine-functionalized group functionalities as internucleoside linkage Although previous research has highlighted the relevance of the phosphodiester-linked backbone in the overall function of nucleic acids [102][103], many researchers have still sought to change

Volatile emission and biosynthesis in endophytic fungi colonizing black poplar leaves

• Christin Walther,
• Pamela Baumann,
• Katrin Luck,
• Beate Rothe,
• Peter H. W. Biedermann,
• Jonathan Gershenzon,
• Tobias G. Köllner and
• Sybille B. Unsicker

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1698–1711, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.118

• mixture was incubated for 1 h at 60 °C. For separation of polysaccharides, 180 µL 5 M NaCl and 80 µL 10% CTAB were added and the mixture incubated further for 10 min at 65 °C. To extract nucleic acids by phase separation, 860 µL chloroform/isoamyl alcohol (24:1) was added and incubated on ice for 30 min

Chemical approaches to discover the full potential of peptide nucleic acids in biomedical applications

• Nikita Brodyagin,
• Martins Katkevics,
• Venubabu Kotikam,
• Christopher A. Ryan and
• Eriks Rozners

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1641–1688, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.116

• modifications and various applications, to the current state of the field. We also seek insights into the key question of why PNA, despite its impressive biophysical properties, has still not entered clinical trials. The most significant difference between PNA and the natural nucleic acids is the lack of

• negative charge on PNA’s backbone. Electrostatic repulsion of the negatively charged phosphates dominates the conformational properties and structure of nucleic acids. In contrast to proteins that prefer to fold in compact structures, DNA and RNA inherently prefer extended conformations that minimize the

• ., magnesium ions), and achieve remarkably complex folded structures. Nevertheless, the electrostatic repulsion is the main force that disfavors folding and association of nucleic acids. With this consideration in mind, neutral PNA was expected to have superior binding to negatively charged nucleic acids due

Double-headed nucleosides: Synthesis and applications

• Vineet Verma,
• Jyotirmoy Maity,
• Vipin K. Maikhuri,
• Ritika Sharma,
• Himal K. Ganguly and
• Ashok K. Prasad

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1392–1439, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.98

• monomeric units polymerize to construct nucleic acids (DNA or RNA). These macromolecules preserve and express genetic information in all living cells and viruses. Modified nucleosides are a class of organic compounds which are unnatural and have an altered/substituted nucleobase and/or a modified pentose

• terminal carbons only. Double-headed nucleosides are synthetically derived nucleoside scaffolds that are known to impact significantly secondary structures in nucleic acids [29]. Some oligonucleotides containing a particular double-headed nucleotide monomer have been found to form a three-way junction

Synthesis of 10-O-aryl-substituted berberine derivatives by Chan–Evans–Lam coupling and investigation of their DNA-binding properties

• Peter Jonas Wickhorst,
• Mathilda Blachnik,
• Denisa Lagumdzija and
• Heiko Ihmels

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 991–1000, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.81

• -DNA by terminal stacking. Keywords: berberine alkaloids; Cu-mediated coupling reactions; DNA recognition; nucleic acids; quadruplex DNA; Introduction Berberine (1a) is the most prominent member of the protoberberine family, i.e., a group of tetracyclic isoquinolinium alkaloids [1]. Like many members

Beyond ribose and phosphate: Selected nucleic acid modifications for structure–function investigations and therapeutic applications

• Christopher Liczner,
• Kieran Duke,
• Gabrielle Juneau,
• Martin Egli and
• Christopher J. Wilds

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 908–931, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.76

• oligonucleotides that have been explored for gene silencing. Keywords: antisense; chemically modified oligonucleotides; crystallography; siRNA; structure; Introduction The natural nucleic acids sugar-phosphate backbone comes in two flavors, 2'-deoxyribose in DNA and ribose in RNA. However, this relative

• , replication, splicing and other fundamental processes in biological information transfer. More specifically, they can affect chemical and thermodynamic stability, folding, secondary and tertiary structure, activity and interactions between nucleic acids, proteins and receptors. Particularly, as far as

• moieties, such as a tetrose (ʟ-α-threofuranose, TNA [48]), and hexoses (e.g., hexitol, HNA [49]; altritol AtNA [50]; xylol XyNA [51]), or cyclohexene (CeNA [52]), a morpholino moiety (PMO [53]), and an acyclic, chiral glycol linker (GNA [54]), to generate so-called xeno nucleic acids (XNAs [55][56]). In

Microwave-assisted multicomponent reactions in heterocyclic chemistry and mechanistic aspects

• Shivani Gulati,
• Stephy Elza John and
• Nagula Shankaraiah

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 819–865, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.71

• furnished the desired products 105 in good to moderate yields. 7 Purines Purines are categorized as heterocyclic aromatic compounds, consisting of a pyrimidine ring fused to an imidazole ring. Adenine and guanine are purine nitrogenous bases found in nucleic acids. Utilizing purine analogs as isosteres are

Synthetic reactions driven by electron-donor–acceptor (EDA) complexes

• Zhonglie Yang,
• Yutong Liu,
• Kun Cao,
• Xiaobin Zhang,
• Hezhong Jiang and
• Jiahong Li

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 771–799, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.67

• construction of C–S bonds C–S bonds are commonly present in amino acids, proteins, glycosides, nucleic acids, and other biological macromolecules. In recent years, photocatalyst- and transition-metal strategies have been employed to construct C–S bonds [66][67][68][69]. The C–S bond synthesis via EDA-complex

DNA with zwitterionic and negatively charged phosphate modifications: Formation of DNA triplexes, duplexes and cell uptake studies

• Yongdong Su,
• Maitsetseg Bayarjargal,
• Tracy K. Hale and
• Vyacheslav V. Filichev

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 749–761, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.65

• of natural ONs, such as peptide nucleic acids (PNA) [20], locked nucleic acids [21] (LNA, also known as bridged nucleic acids (BNA) [22]) and phosphorothioate (PS) ONs [23][24] have been evaluated for antigene/antisense applications, however, each of the analogues did not meet all the requirements

Synthesis and properties of oligonucleotides modified with an N-methylguanidine-bridged nucleic acid (GuNA[Me]) bearing adenine, guanine, or 5-methylcytosine nucleobases

• Naohiro Horie,
• Takao Yamaguchi,
• Shinji Kumagai and
• Satoshi Obika

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 622–629, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.54

• hepatotoxicity have been confirmed to be effective for gene regulations in vivo [10][11]. We previously developed amido-bridged nucleic acids (AmNA[R]s) (Figure 1), in which the N-alkyl substituent groups were found to modulate nuclease resistance and hepatic distributions [12]. Wengel’s group reported the

Valorisation of plastic waste via metal-catalysed depolymerisation

• Francesca Liguori,
• Carmen Moreno-Marrodán and
• Pierluigi Barbaro

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 589–621, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.53

• oxidation, cross-linkage, bond cleavage). The term “biodegradation” indicates a “degradation caused by enzymatic processes resulting from the action of cells”. Although commonly used, also for artificial polymers, the term “biodegradable” specifically refers to biorelated polymers (i.e., proteins, nucleic

• acids, polysaccharides), which are "susceptible to degradation by biological activity by lowering of the molar masses of macromolecules". Therefore, in this situation, “chain cleavage” and “degradation” are used interchangeably. To avoid confusion, instead of “(bio)degradation”, in the present review

Biochemistry of fluoroprolines: the prospect of making fluorine a bioelement

• Vladimir Kubyshkin,
• Rebecca Davis and
• Nediljko Budisa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 439–460, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.40

¹⁹F NMR as a tool in chemical biology

• Diana Gimenez,
• Aoife Phelan,
• Cormac D. Murphy and
• Steven L. Cobb

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 293–318, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.28

• fluorinated probes and their incorporation into macromolecules, the application of 19F NMR to monitor protein–protein interactions, protein–ligand interactions, physiologically relevant ions and in the structural analysis of proteins and nucleic acids. The continued relevance of the technique to investigate

• labelling 19F NMR offers an attractive option for investigating the interactions between proteins and other biomolecules such as nucleic acids. Many of the advantages of 19F NMR have already been discussed but it is worth highlighting that it is a particularly useful technique to study large proteins that

• nucleic acids [89]. Following early advances by Micura and co-workers in the late 2000s that investigated the suitability of 19F NMR for the conformational analysis of single and double helix RNA strands [90][91][92][93] 19F NMR has found a particularly rich niche of applications in the conformational

Molecular basis for protein–protein interactions

• Brandon Charles Seychell and
• Tobias Beck

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1–10, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.1

• can only be fully exploited via interactions, either in the form of PPIs or with other metabolites and biomolecules, such as nucleic acids. Thus, the identification of the molecular binding partners that proteins interact with is an interesting avenue to facilitate the discovery of the protein

• initial capsid formation is limited due to the time required for an intermediate steady state for the consequent assembly. These mathematical calculations and generalisations, however, do not take into consideration biological scaffolds, such as nucleic acids, which can facilitate or disrupt the capsid

• more complicated systems, such as in cowpea chlorotic mottle virus (CCMV), the viral capsid is made up of different assembly units. In vivo, viral nucleic acids may serve as biological scaffold to attract free assembly units [84] and organise on the surface [85]. Assembly with viral RNA present can be

Selected peptide-based fluorescent probes for biological applications

• Debabrata Maity

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2971–2982, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.247

• to perform FRET in vitro and in vivo, particularly in living cells [30]. FRET-based peptide probes are heavily used for ratiometric fluorescence detection of biomolecules. Pyrene-functionalized oligonucleotides and locked nucleic acids (LNAs) are considerably used for targeting nucleic acids [31

• detection The genetic information carrier nucleic acids are present in nearly all living organisms. Fluorescence monitoring of nucleic acids has become increasingly important in medical diagnosis, drug discovery, environmental monitoring, food safety etc. [40][41]. Schmuck et al. reported several

• fluorescent probes for nucleic acids detection. The first probe 2 is a pyrene-based peptide beacon containing two Trp–Thr–Lys tripeptide arms attached to a central lysine spacer (Figure 3A) [34]. Unbound peptide beacon 2 in folded form exhibits typical pyrene excimer emission at 490 nm. Peptide beacon 2

Regioselective synthesis of heterocyclic N-sulfonyl amidines from heteroaromatic thioamides and sulfonyl azides

• Vladimir Ilkin,
• Vera Berseneva,
• Tetyana Beryozkina,
• Tatiana Glukhareva,
• Lidia Dianova,
• Wim Dehaen,
• Eugenia Seliverstova and
• Vasiliy Bakulev

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2937–2947, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.243

• , rich chemistry and technically useful properties of heterocyclic compounds have made them a focal point of science and industry over the years. Heterocyclic compounds including azoles and azines have been found in natural products, and they are included in the structures of nucleic acids, vitamins