The Mitsunobu reaction is renowned for its mild reaction conditions and broad substrate tolerance, but has limited utility in process chemistry and industrial applications due to poor atom economy ...and the generation of stoichiometric phosphine oxide and hydrazine by‐products that complicate purification. A catalytic Mitsunobu reaction using innocuous reagents to recycle these by‐products would overcome both of these shortcomings. Herein we report a protocol that is catalytic in phosphine (1‐phenylphospholane) employing phenylsilane to recycle the catalyst. Integration of this phosphine catalytic cycle with Taniguchi’s azocarboxylate catalytic system provided the first fully catalytic Mitsunobu reaction.
Make it catalytic: A catalytic Mitsunobu reaction using innocuous reagents to recycle the stoichiometric phosphine oxide and hydrazine by‐products was developed. The reported method is catalytic in 1‐phenylphospholane and uses phenylsilane to recycle the catalyst. Integration of this phosphine catalytic cycle with Taniguchi’s azocarboxylate catalytic system provided the first fully catalytic Mitsunobu reaction.
Imidazolium salts are shown to catalyze the rapid room temperature reaction of indoles or naphthol with aldehydes to provide bis(indolyl)methanes or bis(naphthol)methane in excellent yields and the ...reaction proceeds optimally in dichloromethane with no base additives. The reaction exhibits a broad substrate tolerance and occurs through nucleophilic activation of the indoles and naphthols through a cation-π interaction.
Many important natural products are produced by multidomain non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs). During synthesis, intermediates are covalently bound to integrated carrier domains and ...transported to neighbouring catalytic domains in an assembly line fashion. Understanding the structural basis for catalysis with non-ribosomal peptide synthetases will facilitate bioengineering to create novel products. Here we describe the structures of two different holo-non-ribosomal peptide synthetase modules, each revealing a distinct step in the catalytic cycle. One structure depicts the carrier domain cofactor bound to the peptide bond-forming condensation domain, whereas a second structure captures the installation of the amino acid onto the cofactor within the adenylation domain. These structures demonstrate that a conformational change within the adenylation domain guides transfer of intermediates between domains. Furthermore, one structure shows that the condensation and adenylation domains simultaneously adopt their catalytic conformations, increasing the overall efficiency in a revised structural cycle. These structures and the single-particle electron microscopy analysis demonstrate a highly dynamic domain architecture and provide the foundation for understanding the structural mechanisms that could enable engineering of novel non-ribosomal peptide synthetases.
Trimethoprim (TMP)-sulfamethoxazole (SMX) is a widely used synergistic antimicrobial combination to treat a variety of bacterial and certain fungal infections. These drugs act by targeting sequential ...steps in the biosynthetic pathway for tetrahydrofolate (THF), where SMX inhibits production of the THF precursor dihydropteroate, and TMP inhibits conversion of dihydrofolate (DHF) to THF. Consequently, SMX potentiates TMP by limiting de novo DHF production and this mono-potentiation mechanism is the current explanation for their synergistic action. Here, we demonstrate that this model is insufficient to explain the potent synergy of TMP-SMX. Using genetic and biochemical approaches, we characterize a metabolic feedback loop in which THF is critical for production of the folate precursor dihydropterin pyrophosphate (DHPPP). We reveal that TMP potentiates SMX activity through inhibition of DHPPP synthesis. Our study demonstrates that the TMP-SMX synergy is driven by mutual potentiation of the action of each drug on the other.
Nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) produce a wide variety of peptide natural products. During synthesis, the multidomain NRPSs act as an assembly line, passing the growing product from one ...module to the next. Each module generally consists of an integrated peptidyl carrier protein, an amino acid-loading adenylation domain, and a condensation domain that catalyzes peptide bond formation. Some adenylation domains interact with small partner proteins called MbtH-like proteins (MLPs) that enhance solubility or activity. A structure of an MLP bound to an adenylation domain has been previously reported using a truncated adenylation domain, precluding any insight that might be derived from understanding the influence of the MLP on the intact adenylation domain or on the dynamics of the entire NRPS module. Here, we present the structures of the full-length NRPS EntF bound to the MLPs from Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. These new structures, along with biochemical and bioinformatics support, further elaborate the residues that define the MLP-adenylation domain interface. Additionally, the structures highlight the dynamic behavior of NRPS modules, including the module core formed by the adenylation and condensation domains as well as the orientation of the mobile thioesterase domain.
Reduction of phosphine oxides to the corresponding phosphines represents the most straightforward method to prepare these valuable reagents. However, existing methods to reduce phosphine oxides ...suffer from inadequate chemoselectivity due to the strength of the P=O bond and/or poor atom economy. Herein, we report the discovery of the most powerful chemoselective reductant for this transformation to date, 1,3‐diphenyl‐disiloxane (DPDS). Additive‐free DPDS selectively reduces both secondary and tertiary phosphine oxides with retention of configuration even in the presence of aldehyde, nitro, ester, α,β‐unsaturated carbonyls, azocarboxylates, and cyano functional groups. Arrhenius analysis indicates that the activation barrier for reduction by DPDS is significantly lower than any previously calculated silane reduction system. Inclusion of a catalytic Brønsted acid further reduced the activation barrier and led to the first silane‐mediated reduction of acyclic phosphine oxides at room temperature.
Simple and clean: We report the discovery of the most powerful chemoselective reductant for the reduction of phosphine oxides to the corresponding phosphines to date, 1,3‐diphenyl‐disiloxane (DPDS). DPDS could be deployed alone to afford high yields of phosphines from secondary and tertiary phosphine oxides very rapidly or used in tandem with the Brønsted acid bis‐(p‐nitrophenyl)phosphoric acid (BNPA) in reductions of acyclic phosphine oxides at ambient temperature.
In the search for new drug targets, we evaluated the biotin synthetic pathway of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and constructed an Mtb mutant lacking the biotin biosynthetic enzyme ...7,8-diaminopelargonic acid synthase, BioA. In biotin-free synthetic media, ΔbioA did not produce wild-type levels of biotinylated proteins, and therefore did not grow and lost viability. ΔbioA was also unable to establish infection in mice. Conditionally-regulated knockdown strains of Mtb similarly exhibited impaired bacterial growth and viability in vitro and in mice, irrespective of the timing of transcriptional silencing. Biochemical studies further showed that BioA activity has to be reduced by approximately 99% to prevent growth. These studies thus establish that de novo biotin synthesis is essential for Mtb to establish and maintain a chronic infection in a murine model of TB. Moreover, these studies provide an experimental strategy to systematically rank the in vivo value of potential drug targets in Mtb and other pathogens.
Several key antituberculosis drugs, including pyrazinamide, with a molecular mass of 123.1 g/mol, are smaller than the usual drug-like molecules. Current drug discovery efforts focus on the screening ...of larger compounds with molecular masses centered around 400 to 500 g/mol. Fragment (molecular mass < 300 g/mol) libraries have not been systematically explored for antitubercular activity. Here we screened a collection of 1,000 fragments, present in the Maybridge Ro3 library, for whole-cell activity against
Twenty-nine primary hits showed dose-dependent growth inhibition equal to or better than that of pyrazinamide. The most potent hit, indole propionic acid IPA; 3-(1
-indol-3-yl)propanoic acid, a metabolite produced by the gut microbiota, was profiled
The molecule was well tolerated in mice and showed adequate pharmacokinetic properties. In a mouse model of acute
infection, IPA reduced the bacterial load in the spleen 7-fold. Our results suggest that IPA should be evaluated as an add-on to current regimens and that fragment libraries should be further explored to identify antimycobacterial lead candidates.
8-Nitrobenzothiazinones (BTZs) typified by the second-generation analogue PBTZ169 are a new class of antitubercular agents. The activity of BTZs and lipophilicity are tightly coupled since the ...molecular target DprE1 is located in the mycobacterial cell envelope. A series of analogues was designed to address the notorious insolubility of the BTZs while preserving the required lipophilicity. This was accomplished by decreasing the molecular planarity and symmetry through bioisosteric replacement of the piperazine moiety of PBTZ169 with spirocyclic and bicyclic diamines. Several promising compounds with improved aqueous solubilities were identified with potent antitubercular activity. Compound 5 was identified as the most promising candidate based on its excellent antitubercular activity (MIC of 32 nM), more than 1000-fold improvement in solubility, 2-fold lower clearance in mouse and human microsomes relative to PBTZ169, and promising pharmacokinetic parameters.
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