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

One-step synthesis of imidazoles from Asmic (anisylsulfanylmethyl isocyanide)

• Louis G. Mueller,
• Allen Chao,
• Embarek AlWedi and
• Fraser F. Fleming

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1499–1502, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.106

• etomidate [4] and the antileukemia agent nilotinib [5]. The outstanding and diverse bioactivity of imidazole-containing pharmaceuticals [6], as well as their role as ligands for transition metals [7], and organocatalysis [8], has stimulated an array of creative syntheses [9][10]. Among the numerous routes

Analogs of the carotane antibiotic fulvoferruginin from submerged cultures of a Thai Marasmius sp.

• Birthe Sandargo,
• Leon Kaysan,
• Rémy B. Teponno,
• Christian Richter,
• Benjarong Thongbai,
• Frank Surup and
• Marc Stadler

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1385–1391, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.97

• antibiotic fulvoferruginin (1), fulvoferruginins B–F (2–6). The structures of these sesquiterpenoids were elucidated using HRESIMS, 1D and 2D NMR, as well as CD spectroscopy. Assessing the bioactivity, fulvoferruginin emerged as a potent cytotoxic agent of potential pharmaceutical interest. Keywords

• like hercynolactone. However, NMR data analysis disclosed that the position C-9 (δC 70.8) is hydroxylated. The ROESY spectrum indicates H-9 (δH 4.88) to be cofacial with H-5 and H-13. Thus, fulvoferruginin F could also be named 9-hydroxyhercynolactone [9]. Assessing the bioactivity of the

• for other cell lines) [8], which led us to assess its cytotoxicity further against different carcinoma cell lines. The IC50 values of compound 1 range from 0.06–0.7 µg/mL for all tested cell lines (Table S2 in Supporting Information File 1). Discussion The lack of bioactivity for metabolites 2–6 can

Icilio Guareschi and his amazing “1897 reaction”

• Gian Cesare Tron,
• Alberto Minassi,
• Giovanni Sorba,
• Mara Fausone and
• Giovanni Appendino

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1335–1351, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.93

• ]. Guareschi imides have been extensively investigated because of their bioactivity profile, the use as building blocks to access other classes of heterocycles as well as quaternary centres, and their remarkable chemistry [54]. By far, the most intriguing reaction of these is the so-called “1897 reaction

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

• × 105 M−1) [16] is a bit higher, whereas the binding constants towards ct DNA are somewhat lower (1a: Kb = 9.7 × 104 M−1) [54]. Hence the affinity of the ligands 5a–e to duplex and quadruplex DNA lies in a similar range as the one of 1a, so that the same DNA-targeted bioactivity of these substrates is

• compared to ct DNA. Since the ligands show essentially the same DNA binding properties as the parent berberine (1a), they have the potential to exhibit a similar DNA-targeted bioactivity. The latter may even be improved due to the higher lipophilicity and thus more balanced bioavailability of the ligands

Application of the Meerwein reaction of 1,4-benzoquinone to a metal-free synthesis of benzofuropyridine analogues

• Rashmi Singh,
• Tomas Horsten,
• Rashmi Prakash,
• Swapan Dey and
• Wim Dehaen

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 977–982, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.79

• dibenzofuran have been less explored, although they may have significant bioactivity. Introducing nitrogen to the dibenzofuran system is expected to increase the water solubility and potential bioavailability due to enhanced hydrogen bonding. Figure 2 presents a few examples of azadibenzofuran molecules. One

• we plan to expand this chemistry and carry out a bioactivity study in due course. Biologically relevant 2-oxydibenzofuran-containing structures 1–6. Representative bioactive structures containing benzofuro-fused pyridine analogues 7–9. Strategy for metal-free access to benzofuropyridine 13

Amino- and polyaminophthalazin-1(2H)-ones: synthesis, coordination properties, and biological activity

• Zbigniew Malinowski,
• Emilia Fornal,
• Agata Sumara,
• Renata Kontek,
• Karol Bukowski,
• Beata Pasternak,
• Dariusz Sroczyński,
• Joachim Kusz,
• Magdalena Małecka and
• Monika Nowak

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 558–568, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.50

• platinum disc electrode suggested that the [(L3)Cu(II)Cl2]/[(L3)Cu(I)Cl2] redox couple was formed. For more details, see Supporting Information File 2. Bioactivity Cytotoxicity analysis – MTT assay We used the MTT assay to evaluate compounds 5c, 5d, 5f, 5g, 6b, and 6d for their potential activity on

The synthesis of chiral β-naphthyl-β-sulfanyl ketones via enantioselective sulfa-Michael reaction in the presence of a bifunctional cinchona/sulfonamide organocatalyst

• Deniz Tözendemir and
• Cihangir Tanyeli

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 494–503, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.43

• order to enhance the potential bioactivity of the obtained enantioenriched products, selected SMA adducts (β-naphthyl-β-sulfanyl ketones) were subjected to oxidation with m-CPBA (Table 6) [45]. During the oxidation reaction, it was seen that the enantioenriched sulfa-Michael adducts undergo retro-sulfa

An atom-economical addition of methyl azaarenes with aromatic aldehydes via benzylic C(sp³)–H bond functionalization under solvent- and catalyst-free conditions

• Divya Rohini Yennamaneni,
• Vasu Amrutham,
• Krishna Sai Gajula,
• Rammurthy Banothu,
• Murali Boosa and
• Narender Nama

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 3093–3103, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.259

• diversity, these compounds constitute a motif in various natural alkaloid products, such as chimanine and those derived from lobelia, sedum, etc. These compounds act as anti-HIV and anti-asthma drugs [9][10][11]. Mainly, 2-substituted quinolines and their analogues exhibits magnificent bioactivity [12][13

Secondary metabolites of Bacillus subtilis impact the assembly of soil-derived semisynthetic bacterial communities

• Heiko T. Kiesewalter,
• Carlos N. Lozano-Andrade,
• Mikael L. Strube and
• Ákos T. Kovács

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2983–2998, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.248

• surfactin bioactivity is specifically evoked by the surfactant activity triggering cell lysis due to penetration of the bacterial lipid bilayer membranes and the formation of ion-conducting channels [40][41][42]. The bioactivity of surfactin was shown against Listeria spp. and Legionella monocytogenes [43

• from both the NRP-deficient strain sfp and the surfactin-deficient strain srfAC had the lowest impact on the growth of L. fusiformis. In addition, the spent media of ∆ppsC and ∆pksL maintained the bioactivity at low concentrations, whereas the effect of WT was already strongly reduced at this level of

• peptides of B. subtilis P5_B1 have only a minor impact on the overall structure of soil-derived semisynthetic bacterial mock communities but suppress the genera Lysinibacillus and Viridibacillus significantly. Furthermore, it highlights the bioactivity of surfactin against L. fusiformis M5. Experimental

Access to highly substituted oxazoles by the reaction of α-azidochalcone with potassium thiocyanate

• Mysore Bhyrappa Harisha,
• Pandi Dhanalakshmi,
• Rajendran Suresh,
• Raju Ranjith Kumar and
• Shanmugam Muthusubramanian

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2108–2118, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.178

• with a highly substituted oxazole skeleton with a thiol group is expected to have potential synergetic bioactivity [70]. During the exploration of the reactivity of azidochalcones with thiocyanate in the presence of the oxidizing agent, 1i was chosen as the model α-azidochalcone to react with potassium

The biomimetic synthesis of balsaminone A and ellagic acid via oxidative dimerization

• Sharna-kay Daley and
• Nadale Downer-Riley

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2026–2031, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.169

• dimerization to the dimeric polyphenolic acid 11, followed by intramolecular cyclization to yield ellagic acid (5, Scheme 2) [20]. Because of the bioactivity of both natural products, there have been previous investigations of the synthesis of balsaminone A (4) [21][22] and ellagic acid (5) [23]. In our

Three new O-isocrotonyl-3-hydroxybutyric acid congeners produced by a sea anemone-derived marine bacterium of the genus Vibrio

• Dandan Li,
• Enjuro Harunari,
• Tao Zhou,
• Naoya Oku and
• Yasuhiro Igarashi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1869–1874, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.154

• describe the isolation, structure elucidation, including the absolute configuration, and bioactivity of 1–4. Results and Discussion The producing strain was cultured in a sea water-based medium and then extracted with n-BuOH. The extract was successively fractionated by silica gel chromatography using a

Antibacterial scalarane from Doriprismatica stellata nudibranchs (Gastropoda, Nudibranchia), egg ribbons, and their dietary sponge Spongia cf. agaricina (Demospongiae, Dictyoceratida)

• Cora Hertzer,
• Stefan Kehraus,
• Nils Böhringer,
• Fontje Kaligis,
• Robert Bara,
• Dirk Erpenbeck,
• Gert Wörheide,
• Till F. Schäberle,
• Heike Wägele and
• Gabriele M. König

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1596–1605, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.132

• accumulate 12-deacetoxy-4-demethyl-11,24-diacetoxy-3,4-methylenedeoxoscalarin from Spongia cf. agaricina, but to pass it on to the egg ribbons as well. This, in addition to its bioactivity, might suggest a biological role, either as protection against predation, fouling, or in the reproductive cycle, as

Anthelmintic drug discovery: target identification, screening methods and the role of open science

• Frederick A. Partridge,
• Ruth Forman,
• Carole J. R. Bataille,
• Graham M. Wynne,
• Marina Nick,
• Angela J. Russell,
• Kathryn J. Else and
• David B. Sattelle

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1203–1224, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.105

• ) and PubChem (NIH). Both focus on characterising drug-like molecules and providing information to the public domain. The former is a manually curated database of bioactive molecules, which aims to bring together chemical, bioactivity and genomic data to aid the translation of genomic information into

Fabclavine diversity in Xenorhabdus bacteria

• Sebastian L. Wenski,
• Harun Cimen,
• Natalie Berghaus,
• Sebastian W. Fuchs,
• Selcuk Hazir and
• Helge B. Bode

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 956–965, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.84

• for bioactive compounds are required, such as the bacterial genera Xenorhabdus or Photorhabdus. In these strains, fabclavines are widely distributed SMs with a broad-spectrum bioactivity. Fabclavines are hybrid SMs derived from nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS), polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA

• . budapestensis and X. szentirmaii, and a 50 kb biosynthesis gene cluster (BGC) was identified to be responsible for their formation (Figure 1) [20]. These compounds were of special interest because of their broad-spectrum bioactivity against Gram-positive and -negative bacteria, fungi, and protozoa [20][21

• zeae [23][24]. They also exhibit broad-spectrum bioactivity, but their biosynthesis includes an additional processing step, executed by an acylpeptide hydrolase, which could not be detected in the fabclavine BGC [20][25]. To date, 10 full-length fabclavines could be identified, and the structure of

Combining enyne metathesis with long-established organic transformations: a powerful strategy for the sustainable synthesis of bioactive molecules

• Valerian Dragutan,
• Ileana Dragutan,
• Albert Demonceau and
• Lionel Delaude

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 738–755, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.68

• other memory impairments, namely (−)-galanthamine (13), has attracted great interest for its structural complexity and specific bioactivity. The total synthesis of compound 13, described by Brown et al. [81], involved an enyne ring-closing metathesis and a Heck cross-coupling as the key reactions for

Opening up connectivity between documents, structures and bioactivity

• Christopher Southan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 596–606, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.54

• “D“ where a bioactivity “A” with a quantitative result “R” (e.g., an IC50) is reported for chemical structure “C” that modulates (e.g., inhibits) a protein target “P”. A useful shorthand for this connectivity thus becomes DARCP. The problem at the core of this article is that the community has spent

• accelerate the progress and impact of medicinal chemistry. To achieve this the community needs to increase the outward flow of experimental results locked-up in millions of published PDFs into structured open databases that explicitly capture the connectivity between structures, documents and bioactivity

• connectivity is out of scope for this article. Bioactivity: This covers a wide spectrum of assay read-outs but with a focus on in vitro, in cellulo, in vivo and in clinico. Ideally this should also include low or inactive analogues which are crucial for SAR elucidation but documents are (understandably) biased

Aerobic synthesis of N-sulfonylamidines mediated by N-heterocyclic carbene copper(I) catalysts

• Faïma Lazreg,
• Marie Vasseur,
• Alexandra M. Z. Slawin and
• Catherine S. J. Cazin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 482–491, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.43

• : catalysis; copper; copper catalysis; N-heterocyclic carbene; solvent-free; sulfonylamidines; Introduction Amide derivatives represent a ubiquitous molecular construct in chemistry [1][2][3]. This structural motif favours rearrangements that lead to high reactivity and associated bioactivity [4][5]. Indeed

Copper-promoted/copper-catalyzed trifluoromethylselenolation reactions

• Clément Ghiazza and
• Anis Tlili

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 305–316, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.30

• that the physicochemical properties remained widely unchanged. However, further studies must be undertaken in order to gain knowledge on the bioactivity of this SeCF3-containing analog. In situ synthesis of trifluoromethylselenolated compounds using copper complexes One-pot procedures that rely on the

Two antibacterial and PPARα/γ-agonistic unsaturated keto fatty acids from a coral-associated actinomycete of the genus Micrococcus

• Amit Raj Sharma,
• Enjuro Harunari,
• Naoya Oku,
• Nobuyasu Matsuura,
• Agus Trianto and
• Yasuhiro Igarashi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 297–304, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.29

• [18]. Herein, we report the fermentation, isolation, structure determination, and bioactivity of two new keto fatty acids, (6E,8Z)-5-oxo-6,8-tetradecadienoic acid (1) and its (6E,8E)-isomer 2, from a coral-associated actinomycete Micrococcus sp. C5-9. Results and Discussion The producing strain C5-9

Potent hemithioindigo-based antimitotics photocontrol the microtubule cytoskeleton in cellulo

• Alexander Sailer,
• Franziska Ermer,
• Yvonne Kraus,
• Rebekkah Bingham,
• Ferdinand H. Lutter,
• Julia Ahlfeld and
• Oliver Thorn-Seshold

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 125–134, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.14

• molecular photoswitch that has only recently been applied as a photoswitchable pharmacophore for control over bioactivity in cellulo. Uniquely, in contrast to other photoswitches that have been applied to biology, the pseudosymmetric hemithioindigo scaffold has allowed the creation of both dark-active and

• cytoskeleton research. Additionally, as the hemithioindigo scaffold allows photoswitchable bioactivity for substituent patterns inaccessible to the majority of current photopharmaceuticals, wider adoption of the hemithioindigo scaffold may significantly expand the scope of cellular and in vivo targets

• cellulo [18]. We showed for the first time that the pseudosymmetry of hemithioindigos can be used to enable a priori design of HTI-based pharmacophores for a single binding site, with higher bioactivity as either the lit-form E- or the dark-form Z-isomer, just by changing substituent patterns, and

Reversible photoswitching of the DNA-binding properties of styrylquinolizinium derivatives through photochromic [2 + 2] cycloaddition and cycloreversion

• Sarah Kölsch,
• Heiko Ihmels,
• Jochen Mattay,
• Norbert Sewald and
• Brian O. Patrick

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 111–124, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.13

• biological activity on and off due to the reversibility of the photoreaction [15]. Indeed, the application of light to induce and control bioactivity of pharmaceuticals or bio(macro)molecules has been convincingly demonstrated in the emerging field of photopharmacology [16][17][18]. Consequently, several

Terpenes

• Jeroen S. Dickschat

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2966–2967, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.292

• pheromones, but also have a long standing history as fragrances used by humans. The oxidised derivatives may be of high interest because of their bioactivity, with some of the most important drugs used in medical applications being of terpenoid origin. Two of the most fanous examples include the diterpenoid

• elucidation, total synthesis, biosynthetic studies, bioactivity and functionalisation for mode of action studies, and other applications of terpenes, e.g. as fragrances. I thank all colleagues who have participated in this issue for their contributions and the whole Beilstein team for the professional support

α,ß-Didehydrosuberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (DDSAHA) as precursor and possible analogue of the anticancer drug SAHA

• Shital K. Chattopadhyay,
• Subhankar Ghosh,
• Sarita Sarkar and
• Kakali Bhadra

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2524–2533, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.245

• useful level of bioactivity, α,ß-didehydro SAHA derivatives remain to be explored, to the best of our knowledge. Herein, we disclose two alternative synthetic routes to SAHA and preliminary biological evaluation of some α,ß-didehydro derivatives of SAHA. Results and Discussion Our synthesis of SAHA and α