Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) exhibits promising protective effects in many (patho)physiological processes, as evidenced by recent reports using synthetic H2S donors in different biological models. Herein, ...we report the design and evaluation of compounds denoted PeroxyTCM, which are the first class of reactive oxygen species (ROS)‐triggered H2S donors. These donors are engineered to release carbonyl sulfide (COS) upon activation, which is quickly hydrolyzed to H2S by the ubiquitous enzyme carbonic anhydrase (CA). The donors are stable in aqueous solution and do not release H2S until triggered by ROS, such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), superoxide (O2−), and peroxynitrite (ONOO−). We demonstrate ROS‐triggered H2S donation in live cells and also demonstrate that PeroxyTCM‐1 provides protection against H2O2‐induced oxidative damage, suggesting potential future applications of PeroxyTCM and similar scaffolds in H2S‐related therapies.
Release and protection: H2S is an important biomolecule, and H2S donors are valuable research and pharmacological tools. An H2S donor is prepared that is stable in aqueous solution and is triggered to release H2S on exposure to reactive oxygen species (ROS), such as hydrogen peroxide. It also provides protection for live cells against H2O2‐induced oxidative damage.
Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is now recognized as an important biological regulator and signaling agent that is active in many physiological processes and diseases. Understanding the important roles of ...this emerging signaling molecule has remained challenging, in part due to the limited methods available for detecting endogenous H2S. Here we report two reaction-based ChemiLuminescent Sulfide Sensors, CLSS-1 and CLSS-2, with strong luminescence responses toward H2S (128- and 48-fold, respectively) and H2S detection limits (0.7 ± 0.3, 4.6 ± 2.0 μM, respectively) compatible with biological H2S levels. CLSS-2 is highly selective for H2S over other reactive sulfur, nitrogen, and oxygen species (RSONS) including GSH, Cys, Hcy, S2O3 2–, NO2 –, HNO, ONOO–, and NO. Despite its similar chemical structure, CLSS-1 displays lower selectivity toward amino acid-derived thiols than CLSS-2. The origin of this differential selectivity was investigated using both computational DFT studies and NMR experiments. Our results suggest a model in which amino acid binding to the hydrazide moiety of the luminol-derived probes provides differential access to the reactive azide in CLSS-1 and CLSS-2, thus eroding the selectivity of CLSS-1 for H2S over Cys and GSH. On the basis of its high selectivity for H2S, we used CLSS-2 to detect enzymatically produced H2S from isolated cystathionine γ-lyase (CSE) enzymes (p < 0.001) and also from C6 cells expressing CSE (p < 0.001). CLSS-2 can readily differentiate between H2S production in active CSE and CSE inhibited with β-cyanoalanine (BCA) in both isolated CSE enzymes (p < 0.005) and in C6 cells (p < 0.005). In addition to providing a highly sensitive and selective reaction-based tool for chemiluminescent H2S detection and quantification, the insights into substrate–probe interactions controlling the selectivity for H2S over biologically relevant thiols may guide the design of other selective H2S detection scaffolds.
Synthetic supramolecular host assemblies can impart unique reactivity to encapsulated guest molecules. Synthetic host molecules have been developed to carry out complex reactions within their ...cavities, despite the fact that they lack the type of specifically tailored functional groups normally located in the analogous active sites of enzymes. Over the past decade, the Raymond group has developed a series of self-assembled supramolecules and the Bergman group has developed and studied a number of catalytic transformations. In this Account, we detail recent collaborative work between these two groups, focusing on chemical catalysis stemming from the encapsulation of protonated guests and expanding to acid catalysis in basic solution. We initially investigated the ability of a water-soluble, self-assembled supramolecular host molecule to encapsulate protonated guests in its hydrophobic core. Our study of encapsulated protonated amines revealed rich host−guest chemistry. We established that self-exchange (that is, in−out guest movement) rates of protonated amines were dependent on the steric bulk of the amine rather than its basicity. The host molecule has purely rotational tetrahedral (T) symmetry, so guests with geminal N-methyl groups (and their attendant mirror plane) were effectively desymmetrized; this allowed for the observation and quantification of the barriers for nitrogen inversion followed by bond rotation. Furthermore, small nitrogen heterocycles, such as N-alkylaziridines, N-alkylazetidines, and N-alkylpyrrolidines, were found to be encapsulated as proton-bound homodimers or homotrimers. We further investigated the thermodynamic stabilization of protonated amines, showing that encapsulation makes the amines more basic in the cavity. Encapsulation raises the effective basicity of protonated amines by up to 4.5 pK a units, a difference almost as large as that between the moderate and strong bases carbonate and hydroxide. The thermodynamic stabilization of protonated guests was translated into chemical catalysis by taking advantage of the potential for accelerating reactions that take place via positively charged transition states, which could be potentially stabilized by encapsulation. Orthoformates, generally stable in neutral or basic solution, were found to be suitable substrates for catalytic hydrolysis by the assembly. Orthoformates small enough to undergo encapsulation were readily hydrolyzed by the assembly in basic solution, with rate acceleration factors up to 3900 compared with those of the corresponding uncatalyzed reactions. Furthering the analogy to enzymes that obey Michaelis−Menten kinetics, we observed competitive inhibition with the inhibitor NPr4 +, thereby confirming that the interior cavity of the assembly was the active site for catalysis. Mechanistic studies revealed that the assembly is required for catalysis and that the rate-limiting step of the reaction involves proton transfer from hydronium to the encapsulated substrate. Encapsulation in the assembly changes the orthoformate hydrolysis from an A-1 mechanism (in which decomposition of the protonated substrate is the rate-limiting step) to an A-SE2 mechanism (in which proton transfer is the rate-limiting step). The study of hydrolysis in the assembly was next extended to acetals, which were also catalytically hydrolyzed by the assembly in basic solution. Acetal hydrolysis changed from the A-1 mechanism in solution to an A-2 mechanism inside the assembly, where attack of water on the protonated substrate is rate limiting. This work provides rare examples of assembly-catalyzed reactions that proceed with substantial rate accelerations despite the absence of functional groups in the cavity and with mechanisms fully elucidated by quantitative kinetic studies.
Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is an important biological signaling molecule, and chemical tools for H2S delivery and detection have emerged as important investigative methods. Key challenges in these fields ...include developing donors that are triggered to release H2S in response to stimuli and developing probes that do not irreversibly consume H2S. Here we report a new strategy for H2S donation based on self-immolation of benzyl thiocarbamates to release carbonyl sulfide, which is rapidly converted to H2S by carbonic anhydrase. We leverage this chemistry to develop easily modifiable donors that can be triggered to release H2S. We also demonstrate that this approach can be coupled with common H2S-sensing motifs to generate scaffolds which, upon reaction with H2S, generate a fluorescence response and also release caged H2S, thus addressing challenges of analyte homeostasis in reaction-based probes.
Hydrogen sulfide (H
S) is an important biomolecule with high therapeutic potential. Here we leverage the inverse-electron demand Diels-Alder (IEDDA) click reaction between a ...thiocarbamate-functionalized trans-cyclooctene and a tetrazine to deliver carbonyl sulfide (COS), which is quickly converted to H
S by the uniquitous enzyme carbonic anhydrase (CA), thus providing a new strategy for bio-orthogonal COS/H
S donation.
Native chemical ligation (NCL) is a simple, widely used, and powerful synthetic tool to ligate N-terminal cysteine residues and C-terminal α-thioesters via a thermodynamically stable amide bond. ...Building on this well-established reactivity, as well as advancing our interests in the chemical biology of reactive sulfur species including hydrogen sulfide (H2S), we hypothesized that thionoesters, which are constitutional isomers of thioesters, would undergo a similar NCL reaction in the presence of cysteine to release H2S under physiological conditions. Herein, we report mechanistic and kinetic investigations into cysteine-mediated H2S release from thionoesters. We found that this reaction proceeds with high H2S-releasing efficiency (∼80%) and with a rate constant (9.1 ± 0.3 M–1 s–1) comparable to that for copper-catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloadditions (CuAAC). Additionally, we found that the final product of the reaction of cysteine with thionoesters results in the formation of a stable dihydrothiazole, which is an iron-binding motif commonly found in siderophores produced by bacteria during periods of nutrient deprivation.
The water-soluble, self-assembled, tetrahedral assembly K12Ga4L6 (L = 1,5-biscatecholamidenaphthalene) catalyzes the Nazarov cyclization of 1,3-pentadienols with extremely high levels of efficiency. ...The catalyzed reaction proceeds over a million times faster than the background reaction, an increase comparable to those observed in some enzymatic systems. This catalysis operates under aqueous conditions at mild temperatures and pH, and the reaction is halted by the addition of an appropriate inhibitor. This unprecedented rate enhancement is attributed to both the stabilization of protonated reaction intermediates and the effect of constrictive binding on the bound guest.
Although many enzymes can promote chemical reactions by tuning substrate properties purely through the electrostatic environment of a docking cavity, this strategy has proven challenging to mimic in ...synthetic host-guest systems. Here, we report a highly charged, water-soluble, metal-ligand assembly with a hydrophobic interior cavity that thermodynamically stabilizes protonated substrates and consequently catalyzes the normally acidic hydrolysis of orthoformates in basic solution, with rate accelerations of up to 890-fold. The catalysis reaction obeys Michaelis-Menten kinetics and exhibits competitive inhibition, and the substrate scope displays size selectivity, consistent with the constrained binding environment of the molecular host.
Biological mobile zinc and nitric oxide (NO) are two prominent examples of inorganic compounds involved in numerous signaling pathways in living systems. In the past decade, a synergy of regulation, ...signaling, and translocation of these two species has emerged in several areas of human physiology, providing additional incentive for developing adequate detection systems for Zn(II) ions and NO in biological specimens. Fluorescent probes for both of these bioinorganic analytes provide excellent tools for their detection, with high spatial and temporal resolution. We review the most widely used fluorescent sensors for biological zinc and nitric oxide, together with promising new developments and unmet needs of contemporary Zn(II) and NO biological imaging. The interplay between zinc and nitric oxide in the nervous, cardiovascular, and immune systems is highlighted to illustrate the contributions of selective fluorescent probes to the study of these two important bioinorganic analytes.
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