Discovery and substrate specificity engineering of nucleotide halogenases.

C2'-halogenation has been recognized as an essential modification to enhance the drug-like properties of nucleotide analogs. The direct C2'-halogenation of the nucleotide 2'-deoxyadenosine-5'-monophosphate (dAMP) has recently been achieved using the Fe(II)/α-ketoglutarate-dependent nucleotide halogenase AdaV. However, the limited substrate scope of this enzyme hampers its broader applications. In this study, we report two halogenases capable of halogenating 2'-deoxyguanosine monophosphate (dGMP), thereby expanding the family of nucleotide halogenases. Computational studies reveal that nucleotide specificity is regulated by the binding pose of the phosphate group. Based on these findings, we successfully engineered the substrate specificity of these halogenases by mutating second-sphere residues. This work expands the toolbox of nucleotide halogenases and provides insights into the regulation mechanism of nucleotide specificity.

Mechanical-Force-Induced Non-spontaneous Dehalogenative Deuteration of Aromatic Iodides Enabled by Using Piezoelectric Materials as a Redox Catalyst.

The development of green and efficient deuteration methods is of great significance for various fields such as organic synthesis, analytical chemistry, and medicinal chemistry. Herein, we have developed a dehalogenative deuteration strategy using piezoelectric materials as catalysts in a solid-phase system under ball-milling conditions. This non-spontaneous reaction is induced by mechanical force. D2O can serve as both a deuterium source and an electron donor in the transformation, eliminating the need for additional stoichiometric exogenous reductants. A series of (hetero)aryl iodides can be transformed into deuterated products with high deuterium incorporation. This method not only effectively overcomes existing synthetic challenges but can also be used for deuterium labelling of drug molecules and derivatives. Bioactivity experiments with deuterated drug molecule suggest that the D-ipriflavone enhances the inhibitory effects on osteoclast differentiation of BMDMs in vitro.

Identifying Residues for Substrate Recognition in Human GPAT4 by Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

Glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase (GPAT) catalyzes the first step in triacylglycerol synthesis. Understanding its substrate recognition mechanism may help to design drugs to regulate the production of glycerol lipids in cells. In this work, we investigate how the native substrate, glycerol-3-phosphate (G3P), and palmitoyl-coenzyme A (CoA) bind to the human GPAT isoform GPAT4 via molecular dynamics simulations (MD). As no experimentally resolved GPAT4 structure is available, the AlphaFold model is employed to construct the GPAT4-substrate complex model. Using another isoform, GPAT1, we demonstrate that once the ligand binding is properly addressed, the AlphaFold complex model can deliver similar results to the experimentally resolved structure in MD simulations. Following the validated protocol of complex construction, we perform MD simulations using the GPAT4-substrate complex. Our simulations reveal that R427 is an important residue in recognizing G3P via a stable salt bridge, but its motion can bring the ligand to different binding hotspots on GPAT4. Such high flexibility can be attributed to the flexible region that exists only on GPAT4 and not on GPAT1. Our study reveals the substrate recognition mechanism of GPAT4 and hence paves the way towards designing GPAT4 inhibitors.

Catalytic Asymmetric Cascade Dearomatization of Indoles via a Photoinduced Pd-Catalyzed 1,2-Bisfunctionalization of Butadienes.

Photoinduced Pd-catalyzed bisfunctionalization of butadienes with a readily available organic halide and a nucleophile represents an emerging and attractive method to assemble versatile alkenes bearing various functional groups at the allylic position. However, enantiocontrol and/or diastereocontrol in the C-C or C-X bond-formation step have not been solved due to the open-shell process. Herein, we present a cascade asymmetric dearomatization reaction of indoles via photoexcited Pd-catalyzed 1,2-biscarbonfunctionalization of 1,3-butadienes, wherein asymmetric control on both the nucleophile and electrophile part is achieved for the first time in photoinduced bisfunctionalization of butadienes. This method delivers structurally novel chiral spiroindolenines bearing two contiguous stereogenic centers with high diastereomeric ratios (up to >20 : 1 dr) and good to excellent enantiomeric ratios (up to 97 : 3 er). Experimental and computational studies of the mechanism have confirmed a radical pathway involving excited-state palladium catalysis. The alignment and non-covalent interactions between the substrate and the catalyst were found to be essential for stereocontrol.

Insights into the Inhibitory Mechanisms of the Covalent Drugs for DNMT3A.

The perturbations of DNA methyltransferase 3 alpha (DNMT3A) may cause uncontrolled gene expression, resulting in cancers and tumors. The DNMT inhibitors Azacytidine (AZA) and Zebularine (ZEB) inhibit the DNMT family with no specificities, and consequently would bring side effects during the treatment. Therefore, it is vital to understand the inhibitory mechanisms in DNMT3A to inform the new inhibitor design for DNMTs. Herein, we carried out molecular dynamics (MD) and quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) simulations to investigate the inhibitory mechanisms of the AZA and ZEB. The results were compared to the methyl transfer of cytosine. We showed how the AZA might stop the methyl transfer process, whereas the ZEB might be stuck in a methyl-transferred intermediate (IM3). The IM3 state then fails the elimination due to the unique protein dynamics that result in missing the catalytic water chain. Our results brought atomic-level insights into the mechanisms of the two drugs in DNMT3A, which could benefit the new generation of drug design for the DNMTs.

Palladium-Catalyzed Alkyne Hydrocyanation toward Ligand-Controlled Stereodivergent Synthesis of (E)- and (Z)-Trisubstituted Acrylonitriles.

We herein describe a palladium-catalyzed hydrocyanation of propiolamides for the stereodivergent synthesis of trisubstituted acrylonitriles. This synthetic method tolerated various primary, secondary and tertiary propiolamides. The cautious selection of a suitable ligand is essential to the success of this stereodivergent process. Control experiments indicate the intermediacy of E-acrylonitriles, which lead to Z-acrylonitriles via isomerization. The density functional theory calculations suggests that the bidentate ligand L2 enables a feasible cyclometallation/isomerization pathway for the E to Z isomerization, while the monodentate ligand L1 inhibits the isomerization, leading to divergent stereoselectivity. The usefulness of this method can be demonstrated by the readily derivatization of products to give various E- and Z-trisubstituted alkenes. In addition, the E- and Z-acrylonitrile products have also been successfully employed in cycloaddition reactions.

Unveiling the methyl transfer mechanisms in the epigenetic machinery DNMT3A-3 L: A comprehensive study integrating assembly dynamics with catalytic reactions.

In epigenetic mechanisms, DNA methyltransferase 3 alpha (DNMT3A) acts as an initiator for DNA methylation and prevents the downstream genes from expressing. Perturbations of DNMT3A functions may cause uncontrolled gene expression, resulting in pathogenic consequences such as cancers. It is, therefore, vitally important to understand the catalytic process of DNMT3A in its biological macromolecule assembly, viz., heterotetramer: (DNMT3A-3 L)dimer. In this study, we utilized molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, Markov State Models (MSM), and quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics simulations (QM/MM) to investigate the de novo methyl transfer process. We identified the dynamics of the key residues relevant to the insertion of the target cytosine (dC) into the catalytic domain of DNMT3A, and the detailed potential energy surface of the seven-step reaction referring to methyl transfer. Our calculated potential energy barrier (22.51 kcal/mol) approximates the former experimental data (23.12 kcal/mol). The conformational change of the 5-methyl-cytosine (5mC) intermediate was found necessary in forming a four-water chain for the elimination step, which is unique to the other DNMTs. The biological assembly facilitates the creation of such a water chain, and the elimination occurs in an asynchronized mechanism in the two catalytic pockets. We anticipate the findings can enable a better understanding of the general mechanisms of the de novo methyl transfer for fulfilling the key enzymatic functions in epigenetics. And the unique elimination of DNMT3A might ignite novel methods for designing anti-cancer and tumor inhibitors of DNMTs.

Mechanistic insights into reductive deamination with hydrosilanes catalyzed by B(C6F5)3: A DFT study.

Selective defunctionalization of synthetic intermediates is a valuable approach in organic synthesis. Here, we present a theoretical study on the recently developed B(C6F5)3/hydrosilane-mediated reductive deamination reaction of primary amines. Our computational results provide important insights into the reaction mechanism, including the active intermediate, the competing reactions of the active intermediate, the role of excess hydrosilane, and the origin of chemoselectivity. Moreover, the study on the substituent effect of hydrosilane indicated a potential way to improve the efficiency of the reductive deamination reaction.

Organocatalytic stereoselective cyanosilylation of small ketones.

Enzymatic stereoselectivity has typically been unrivalled by most chemical catalysts, especially in the conversion of small substrates. According to the 'lock-and-key theory'1,2, enzymes have confined active sites to accommodate their specific reacting substrates, a feature that is typically absent from chemical catalysts. An interesting case in this context is the formation of cyanohydrins from ketones and HCN, as this reaction can be catalysed by various classes of catalysts, including biological, inorganic and organic ones3-7. We now report the development of broadly applicable confined organocatalysts for the highly enantioselective cyanosilylation of aromatic and aliphatic ketones, including the challenging 2-butanone. The selectivity (98:2 enantiomeric ratio (e.r.)) obtained towards its pharmaceutically relevant product is unmatched by any other catalyst class, including engineered biocatalysts. Our results indicate that confined chemical catalysts can be designed that are as selective as enzymes in converting small, unbiased substrates, while still providing a broad scope.

DFT Mechanistic Insights into Aldehyde Deformylations with Biomimetic Metal-Dioxygen Complexes: Distinct Mechanisms and Reaction Rules.

Aldehyde deformylations occurring in organisms are catalyzed by metalloenzymes through metal-dioxygen active cores, attracting great interest to study small-molecule metal-dioxygen complexes for understanding relevant biological processes and developing biomimetic catalysts for aerobic transformations. As the known deformylation mechanisms, including nucleophilic attack, aldehyde α-H-atom abstraction, and aldehyde hydrogen atom abstraction, undergo outer-sphere pathways, we herein report a distinct inner-sphere mechanism based on density functional theory (DFT) mechanistic studies of aldehyde deformylations with a copper (II)-superoxo complex. The inner-sphere mechanism proceeds via a sequence mainly including aldehyde end-on coordination, homolytic aldehyde C-C bond cleavage, and dioxygen O-O bond cleavage, among which the C-C bond cleavage is the rate-determining step with a barrier substantially lower than those of outer-sphere pathways. The aldehyde C-C bond cleavage, enabled through the activation of the dioxygen ligand radical in a second-order nucleophilic substitution (SN2)-like fashion, leads to an alkyl radical and facilitates the subsequent dioxygen O-O bond cleavage. Furthermore, we deduced the rules for the reactions of metal-dioxygen complexes with aldehydes and nitriles via the inner-sphere mechanism. Expectedly, our proposed inner-sphere mechanisms and the reaction rules offer another perspective to understand relevant biological processes involving metal-dioxygen cores and to discover metal-dioxygen catalysts for aerobic transformations.

Stretchable Hydrogels with Low Hysteresis and High Fracture Toughness for Flexible Electronics.

Stretchable materials, especially hydrogels, are emerging in various fields recently. Many applications demand low hysteresis and high fracture toughness of the materials to be used under dynamic mechanical loads. Herein, the authors report a hydrogel with high fracture toughness and low hysteresis through using a strong metal coordination bond and relatively high crosslinking density. This design allows the sacrificial bond to remain intact under normal operation, while fracturing to dissipate mechanical energy in the fracture zone to prevent propagation of the cracks. The obtained hydrogel exhibits a low hysteresis (≈1.5%) and a high fracture toughness (≈2,164 J m-2 ). Moreover, the hydrogel possesses a high fatigue threshold of ≈141 J m-2 and a reasonable conductivity. This study provides a worth-adopted approach to synthesize hydrogels with low hysteresis and high fracture toughness.

miRTarBase update 2022: an informative resource for experimentally validated miRNA-target interactions.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are noncoding RNAs with 18-26 nucleotides; they pair with target mRNAs to regulate gene expression and produce significant changes in various physiological and pathological processes. In recent years, the interaction between miRNAs and their target genes has become one of the mainstream directions for drug development. As a large-scale biological database that mainly provides miRNA-target interactions (MTIs) verified by biological experiments, miRTarBase has undergone five revisions and enhancements. The database has accumulated >2 200 449 verified MTIs from 13 389 manually curated articles and CLIP-seq data. An optimized scoring system is adopted to enhance this update's critical recognition of MTI-related articles and corresponding disease information. In addition, single-nucleotide polymorphisms and disease-related variants related to the binding efficiency of miRNA and target were characterized in miRNAs and gene 3' untranslated regions. miRNA expression profiles across extracellular vesicles, blood and different tissues, including exosomal miRNAs and tissue-specific miRNAs, were integrated to explore miRNA functions and biomarkers. For the user interface, we have classified attributes, including RNA expression, specific interaction, protein expression and biological function, for various validation experiments related to the role of miRNA. We also used seed sequence information to evaluate the binding sites of miRNA. In summary, these enhancements render miRTarBase as one of the most research-amicable MTI databases that contain comprehensive and experimentally verified annotations. The newly updated version of miRTarBase is now available at https://miRTarBase.cuhk.edu.cn/.

All-Solid-State Self-Healing Ionic Conductors Enabled by Ion-Dipole Interactions within Fluorinated Poly(Ionic Liquid) Copolymers.

Self-healing ionic conductors in all solid state without evaporation or leakage offers great potential for the next-generation soft ionotronics. However, it remains challenging to endow ionic conductors with all solid state while keeping their essential features. In this study, an intrinsically conducting polymer is developed as all-solid-state self-healing ionic conductors based on ion-dipole interactions within a fluorinated poly(ionic liquid) copolymer. This unique material possesses good self-healing ability at room temperature (96% of healing efficiency in 24 h), large strain (1800%), optical transparency (96%), and ionic conductivity (1.62 × 10-6 S/cm). The self-healing polymer itself is intrinsically conductive without any additives or fillers, thus it is almost free of evaporation or leaking issues of traditional conducting gels. An alternating-current electroluminescent device with self-healing performance is demonstrated. It is anticipated that this strategy would provide new opportunities for the development of novel self-healing ionotronics.

Ligand-Controlled Regiodivergent Nickel-Catalyzed Hydrocyanation of Silyl-Substituted 1,3-Diynes.

A regiodivergent nickel-catalyzed hydrocyanation of 1-aryl-4-silyl-1,3-diynes is reported. When appropriate bisphosphine and phosphine-phosphite ligands are applied, the same starting materials can be converted into two different enynyl nitriles with good yields and high regioselectivities. The DFT calculations unveiled that the structural features of different ligands bring divergent alkyne insertion modes, which in turn lead to different regioselectivities. Moreover, the synthetic value of the cyano-containing 1,3-enynes has been demonstrated with several downstream transformations.

Computational exploration of copper catalyzed vinylogous aerobic oxidation of unsaturated compounds.

Selective oxidation is one of the most important and challenging transformations in both academic research and chemical industry. Recently, a highly selective and efficient way to synthesize biologically active γ-hydroxy-α,ß-unsaturated molecules from Cu-catalyzed vinylogous aerobic oxidation of α,ß- and ß,γ-unsaturated compounds has been developed. However, the detailed reaction mechanism remains elusive. Herein, we report a density functional theory study on this Cu-catalyzed vinylogous aerobic oxidation of γ,γ-disubstituted α,ß- and ß,γ-unsaturated isomers. Our computational study unveils detailed mechanism for each elementary step, i.e. deprotonation, O2 activation, and reduction. Besides, the origin of regioselectivity, divergent reactivities of substrates as well as reducing agents, and the byproduct generation have also been investigated. Notably, the copper catalyst retains the + 2 oxidation state through the whole catalytic cycle and plays essential roles in multiple steps. These findings would provide hints on mechanistic studies and future development of transition metal-catalyzed aerobic oxidation reactions.

Ni-Catalyzed Isomerization-Hydrocyanation Tandem Reactions: Access to Linear Nitriles from Aliphatic Internal Olefins.

A highly regioselective nickel-based catalyst system for the isomerization/hydrocyanation of aliphatic internal olefins is described. This benign tandem reaction provides facile access to a wide variety of aliphatic nitriles in good yields with excellent regioselectivities. Thanks to Lewis acid-free conditions, the protocol features board functional groups tolerance, including secondary amine and unprotected alcohol groups.

Nickel-Catalyzed Migratory Hydrocyanation of Internal Alkenes: Unexpected Diastereomeric-Ligand-Controlled Regiodivergence.

A regiodivergent nickel-catalyzed hydrocyanation of a broad range of internal alkenes involving a chain-walking process is reported. When appropriate diastereomeric biaryl diphosphite ligands are applied, the same starting materials can be converted to either linear or branched nitriles with good yields and high regioselectivities. DFT calculations suggested that the catalyst architecture determines the regioselectivity by modulating electronic and steric interactions. In addition, moderate enantioselectivities were observed when branched nitriles were produced.

Mechanism for the reactivation of the peroxidase activity of human cyclooxygenases: investigation using phenol as a reducing cosubstrate.

It has been known for many years that the peroxidase activity of cyclooxygenase 1 and 2 (COX-1 and COX-2) can be reactivated in vitro by the presence of phenol, which serves as a reducing compound, but the underlying mechanism is still poorly understood. In the present study, we use phenol as a model compound to investigate the mechanism by which the peroxidase activity of human COXs is reactivated after each catalytic cycle. Molecular docking and quantum mechanics calculations are carried out to probe the interaction of phenol with the peroxidase site of COXs and the reactivation mechanism. It is found that the oxygen atom associated with the Fe ion in the heme group (i.e., the complex of Fe ion and porphyrin) of COXs can be removed by addition of two protons. Following its removal, phenol can readily bind inside the peroxidase active sites of the COX enzymes, and directly interact with Fe in heme to facilitate electron transfer from phenol to heme. This investigation provides theoretical evidence for several intermediates formed in the COX peroxidase reactivation cycle, thereby unveiling mechanistic details that would aid in future rational design of drugs that target the peroxidase site.

Directing-Group-Based Strategy Enabling Intermolecular Heck-Type Reaction of Cycloketone Oxime Esters and Unactivated Alkenes.

A new type of coupling between unactivated olefins and nonstabilized alkyl radicals was achieved, which enabled the first intermolecular Heck-type reaction of cycloketone oxime esters and unactivated alkenes. This directing-group-based strategy was compatible with various unactivated alkenes and cyclobutanone-, cyclopentanone-, and cyclohexanone-derived oxime esters. Density functional theory calculations showed that both excellent regioselectivities and good diastereoselectivities could be ascribed to the 2-butanol-assisted concerted H-OBz elimination of the conformationally strained metallacyclic transition state.

Highly Regio- and Stereoselective Ni-Catalyzed Hydrocyanation of 1,3-Enynes.

A highly regio- and stereoselective hydrocyanation of 1,3-enynes was implemented by nickel/diphosphine catalysts. A wide range of highly regio- and stereoselective alkenyl nitriles were efficiently prepared. In this transformation, both the tethered alkene and the ligand play key roles in the reactivity and selectivity. The origin of regioselectivity was understood preliminarily by DFT studies.