A pilot-plant scale desymmetrization of the cyclic meso-epoxide 4b, using a chiral lithium amide prepared from symmetrical diamine 17, was designed and implemented to provide allylic alcohol 3b in ...high yield and greater than 99% ee. This chiral alcohol was converted to ketone 2b, a key intermediate in a new asymmetric synthesis of LY459477. Chiral diamine 17 was prepared from a readily available chiral precursor, (R)-α-methylbenzylamine, and could be recovered from the reaction mixture and reused. Studies performed to probe the mechanism of the rearrangement reaction of epoxide 4b showed that diamine 17 provided an optimal combination of selectivity and scaleability for this process.
Vascular tone control is essential in blood pressure regulation, shock, ischemia-reperfusion, inflammation, vessel injury/repair, wound healing, temperature regulation, digestion, exercise ...physiology, and metabolism. Here we show that a well-known growth factor, FGF2, long thought to be involved in many developmental and homeostatic processes, including growth of the tissue layers of vessel walls, functions in vascular tone control. Fgf2 knockout mice are morphologically normal and display decreased vascular smooth muscle contractility, low blood pressure and thrombocytosis. Following intra-arterial mechanical injury, FGF2-deficient vessels undergo a normal hyperplastic response. These results force us to reconsider the function of FGF2 in vascular development and homeostasis in terms of vascular tone control.
Nine matched pairs of cephalosporins and their 1-carba-1-dethiacephalosporin analogues have been compared with regard to microbiological activity, beta-lactam carbonyl infrared absorption, and ...aqueous stability. In general the microbiological activity of the pairs of compounds were very similar across a broad range of bacteria. The infrared absorption bands for the beta-lactam carbonyls of the pairs indicated a general trend for the 1-carba-1-dethiacephalosporins to absorb at lower frequencies than the corresponding cephalosporins. All of the 1-carba-1-dethiacephalosporins did however present a striking stability enhancement over their cephalosporin counterparts at pH = 10 or 11 in water. This marked contrast of MIC similarity with the observed differences in chemical reactivity clearly demonstrates hydroxide ion catalyzed hydrolysis is not a good model for transpeptidase activity unless the compounds comprise a limited domain of structural type.
Exploration of the effects of "minor" structural differences on the antitumor activity and toxicity of dimeric Catharanthus alkaloids resulted in the preparation of deacetylvinblastine amide ...(vindesine, VDS) from either vinblastine (VLB) or deacetylvinblastine. Adequate amounts of vindesine for biological testing were prepared by preferential hydrazinolysis of the C23-ester in the vindoline moiety of VLB, followed by hydrogenolysis of the resulting deacetylvinblastine hydrazide. Vindesine in its activity spectrum against rodent tumor systems resembles vincristine (VCR) rather than its parent VLB, while its neurotoxic potential appears to be less than that of VCR. The experimental models developed to estimate this potential include in vitro measurements of axoplasmic transport effects in the cat sciatic nerve and the estimation of neuromuscular disturbances in chickens and monkeys by vindesine in comparison with VCR. A radioimmunoassay for VLB, VCR, and VDS, developed by means of deacetylvinblastine acid azide, has been used to study the pharmacokinetics of vindesine in man. The clinical investigation of vindesine is in progress. Deacetylvinblastine, in contrast to earlier reports, showed activity against several murine tumor systems.
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