A versatile synthesis of substituted benzimidazolium salts by an amination/ring closure sequence.

[reaction: see text]. A new method to produce benzimidazolium salts based on a successive Buchwald-Hartwig amination and ring closure is reported. A variety of different benzimidazolium salts can be prepared using this procedure. Amines that bear an alpha-chiral group undergo the reaction to furnish chiral benzimidazolium salts. The salts that lack a C2 substituent on the heterocycle are readily deprotonated to give nucleophilic carbenes.

Expanded scope in ethylene-alkyne cross-metathesis: coordinating heteroatom functionality at the propargylic position.

The Grubbs 1,3-dimesityl-4,5-dihydroimidazol-2-ylidene-substituted ruthenium complex 1 catalyzed ethylene-alkyne cross-metathesis and was shown to tolerate free hydroxyl groups and coordinating functionality at the propargylic and homopropargylic positions. Hindered and enantiomerically enriched 1-substituted alkynes also react efficiently under the reported conditions.

Inducible gene expression and protein translocation using nontoxic ligands identified by a mammalian three-hybrid screen.

The natural product rapamycin has been used to provide temporal and quantitative control of gene expression in animals through its ability to interact with two proteins simultaneously. A shortcoming of this approach is that rapamycin is an inhibitor of cell proliferation, the result of binding to FKBP12-rapamycin-associated protein (FRAP). To overcome this limitation, nontoxic derivatives of rapamycin bearing bulky substituents at its C16-position were synthesized, each in a single step. The isosteric isopropoxy and methallyl substituents with the nonnatural C16-configuration abolish both binding to FRAP and inhibition of T cell proliferation. Binding proteins for these derivatives were identified from libraries of cDNAs encoding mutants of the FKBP12-rapamycin-binding (FRB) domain of FRAP by using a mammalian three-hybrid transcription assay. Targeting of the mutations was guided by the structure of the FKBP12-rapamycin-FRB ternary complex. Three compensatory mutations in the FRB domain, all along one face of an alpha-helix in a rapamycin-binding pocket, were identified that together restore binding of the rapamycin derivatives. Using this mutant FRB domain, one of the nontoxic rapamycin derivatives induced targeted gene expression in Jurkat T cells with an EC50 below 10 nM. Another derivative was used to recruit a cytosolic protein to the plasma membrane, mimicking a process involved in many signaling pathways.