Phospholipid chlorohydrins as chlorine exposure biomarkers in a large animal model.

Chlorine is a toxic industrial chemical that has been used as a chemical weapon in recent armed conflicts. Confirming human exposure to chlorine has proven challenging, and there is currently no established method for analyzing human biomedical samples to unambiguously verify chlorine exposure. In this study, two chlorine-specific biomarkers: palmitoyl-oleoyl phosphatidylglycerol chlorohydrin (POPG-HOCl) and the lipid derivative oleoyl ethanolamide chlorohydrin (OEA-HOCl) are shown in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) samples from spontaneously breathing pigs after chlorine exposure. These biomarkers are formed by the chemical reaction of chlorine with unsaturated phospholipids found in the pulmonary surfactant, which is present at the gas-liquid interface within the lung alveoli. Our results strongly suggest that lipid chlorohydrins are promising candidate biomarkers in the development of a verification method for chlorine exposure. The establishment of verified methods capable of confirming the illicit use of toxic industrial chemicals is crucial for upholding the principles of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and enforcing the ban on chemical weapons. This study represents the first published dataset in BALF revealing chlorine biomarkers detected in a large animal. Furthermore, these biomarkers are distinct in that they originate from molecular chlorine rather than hypochlorous acid.

Synthesis of Difluorinated Halohydrins by the Chemoselective Addition of Difluoroenolates to α-Haloketones.

α-Haloketones are valuable intermediates in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and natural products because they display two electrophiles. Although chemoselective additions to each of these functional groups are known, the use of fluorinated nucleophiles has not been characterized, except for the dimerization of fluorohalomethyl ketones. Our studies demonstrate the use of difluoroenolates to create difluorinated bromohydrins and chlorohydrins from α-haloketones without any cyclization or rearrangement due to the mild conditions.

Simulation of Ligand Transport in Receptors Using CaverDock.

Interactions between enzymes and small molecules lie in the center of many fundamental biochemical processes. Their analysis using molecular dynamics simulations have high computational demands, geometric approaches fail to consider chemical forces, and molecular docking offers only static information. Recently, we proposed to combine molecular docking and geometric approaches in an application called CaverDock. CaverDock is discretizing enzyme tunnel into discs, iteratively docking with restraints into one disc after another and searching for a trajectory of the ligand passing through the tunnel. Here, we focus on the practical side of its usage describing the whole method: from getting the application, and processing the data through a workflow, to interpreting the results. Moreover, we shared the best practices, recommended how to solve the most common issues, and demonstrated its application on three use cases.

Preparation and Uses of Chlorinated Glycerol Derivatives.

Crude glycerol (C3H8O3) is a major by-product of biodiesel production from vegetable oils and animal fats. The increased biodiesel production in the last two decades has forced glycerol production up and prices down. However, crude glycerol from biodiesel production is not of adequate purity for industrial uses, including food, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. The purification process of crude glycerol to reach the quality standards required by industry is expensive and dificult. Novel uses for crude glycerol can reduce the price of biodiesel and make it an economical alternative to diesel. Moreover, novel uses may improve environmental impact, since crude glycerol disposal is expensive and dificult. Glycerol is a versatile molecule with many potential applications in fermentation processes and synthetic chemistry. It serves as a glucose substitute in microbial growth media and as a precursor in the synthesis of a number of commercial intermediates or fine chemicals. Chlorinated derivatives of glycerol are an important class of such chemicals. The main focus of this review is the conversion of glycerol to chlorinated derivatives, such as epichlorohydrin and chlorohydrins, and their further use in the synthesis of additional downstream products. Downstream products include non-cyclic compounds with allyl, nitrile, azide and other functional groups, as well as oxazolidinones and triazoles, which are cyclic compounds derived from ephichlorohydrin and chlorohydrins. The polymers and ionic liquids, which use glycerol as an initial building block, are highlighted, as well.

Single-molecule insights into the temperature and pressure dependent conformational dynamics of nucleic acids in the presence of crowders and osmolytes.

In this review we discuss results from temperature and pressure dependent single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer (smFRET) studies on nucleic acids in the presence of macromolecular crowders and organic osmolytes. As representative examples, we have chosen fragments of both DNAs and RNAs, i.e., a synthetic DNA hairpin, a human telomeric G-quadruplex and the microROSE RNA hairpin. To mimic the effects of intracellular components, our studies include the macromolecular crowding agent Ficoll, a copolymer of sucrose and epichlorohydrin, and the organic osmolytes trimethylamine N-oxide, urea and glycine as well as natural occurring osmolyte mixtures from deep sea organisms. Furthermore, the impact of mutations in an RNA sequence on the conformational dynamics is examined. Different from proteins, the effects of the osmolytes and crowding agents seem to strongly dependent on the structure and chemical make-up of the nucleic acid.

Efficient conversion of alkenes to chlorohydrins by a Ru-based artificial enzyme.

Artificial enzymes are required to catalyse non-natural reactions. Here, a hybrid catalyst was developed by embedding a novel Ru complex in the transport protein NikA. The protein scaffold activates the bound Ru complex to produce a catalyst with high regio- and stereo-selectivity. The hybrid efficiently and stably produced α-hydroxy-ß-chloro chlorohydrins from alkenes (up to 180 TON with a TOF of 1050 h-1).

Synthesis of Natural O-Linked Carba-Disaccharides, (+)- and (-)-Pericosine E, and Their Analogues as α-Glucosidase Inhibitors.

Pericosine E (6), a metabolite of Periconia byssoides OUPS-N133 was originally isolated from the sea hare Aplysia kurodai, which exists as an enantiomeric mixture in nature. The enantiospecific syntheses of both enantiomers of Periconia byssoides OUPS-N133 has been achieved, along with six stereoisomers, using a common simple synthetic strategy. For these efficient syntheses, highly regio- and steroselective processes for the preparation of bromohydrin and anti-epoxide intermediates were applied. In order to access the unique O-linked carbadisaccharide structure, coupling of chlorohydrin as a donor and anti-epoxide as an acceptor was achieved using catalytic BF3·Et2O. Most of the synthesized compounds exhibited selectively significant inhibitory activity against α-glycosidase derived from yeast. The strongest analog showed almost 50 times the activity of the positive control, deoxynojirimycin.

Potential roles of myeloperoxidase and hypochlorous acid in metabolism and toxicity of alkene hydrocarbons and drug molecules containing olefinic moieties.

INTRODUCTION: Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) pose a significant health problem and are generally attributed to reactive metabolites. Olefinic moieties in drugs can undergo cytochrome P450-mediated bioactivation to produce reactive metabolites but myeloperoxidase (MPO)-mediated bioactivation of these moieties has not been reported. Thus, small molecules of alkene hydrocarbons are used as model compounds to characterize the MPO-mediated metabolism. Areas covered: The authors focus on MPO-mediated metabolism of alkene hydrocarbons to form chlorohydrins and the potential role of chlorohydrins in alkene toxicity and carcinogenicity. A case study is presented, in which a carcinogenic alkene, 1,3-butadiene, is demonstrated to form 1-chloro-2-hydroxy-3-butene (CHB) through the MPO-mediated pathway. Further bioactivation of CHB yields a cross-linking metabolite, 1-chloro-3-buten-2-one (CBO), which is highly reactive toward glutathione, proteins, nucleosides, and DNA. Toxicity and mutagenicity of CHB and CBO are also presented. Expert opinion: Alkene hydrocarbons readily undergo MPO-mediated bioactivation to form chlorohydrins, which can further be biotransformed into proteins/DNA-modifying reactive metabolites. Therefore, chlorohydrin formation may play an important role in alkene toxicity and carcinogenicity. Olefinic moieties in drugs are expected to undergo similar bioactivation, which may contribute to ADRs. Studies to investigate the roles of MPO and chlorohydrin formation in ADRs are thus warranted.

Unexpected products of the hypochlorous acid-induced oxidation of oleic acid: A study using high performance thin-layer chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) play important physiological roles and are of particular relevance in the pathogenesis of inflammatory diseases. At inflammatory conditions, the enzyme myeloperoxidase generates hypochlorous acid (HOCl) which adds to the double bonds of fatty acyl residues of (phospho)lipids under the formation of chlorohydrins. This may lead to the development of many inflammatory diseases, such as atherosclerosis or arthritis, if the ROS generation exceeds a certain extent. Using oleic acid as the simplest unsaturated fatty acid which contains just a single double bond, as a model system, we investigated all products - including the chlorohydrin - after its reaction with HOCl by a combination of thin-layer chromatography and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. Unlike the general acceptance, the reaction of oleic acid and HOCl leads not exclusively to the formation of chlorohydrin (isomers) but is much more complex: there are also considerable amounts of dimeric and (to a minor extent) trimeric products which can be assigned to isomeric ethers and esters. The obtained products after oleic acid chlorination were also compared with the reaction products of 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-phosphatidylcholine (POPC) and HOCl. The reasons why different products are obtained will be discussed and the involvement of the carboxylic acid emphasized.

Mollenynes B-E from the marine sponge Spirastrella mollis. Band-selective heteronuclear single quantum coherence for discrimination of bromo-chloro regioisomerism in natural products.

Four new chlorobromohydrins, mollenynes B-E, were isolated from the marine sponge Spirastrella mollis collected from Hogsty Reef, Bahamas. Their structures were elucidated by integrated analysis of NMR, MS, and computational methods. A high-resolution band-selective HSQC experiment was developed to identify (13)C NMR signals in samples at the nanomole-scale that arise from Cl-substituted (13)C by exploiting the (35)Cl/(37)Cl isotope shift.

Synthetic Studies on the Preparation of Alanyl Epoxysulfones as Cathepsin Cysteine Protease Electrophilic Traps.

A Darzens reaction between tert-butoxycarbonyl alaninal and chloromethyl phenyl sulfone afforded chlorohydrins, which were converted into epoxysulfones by reaction with sodium tert-butoxide. Epoxysulfone 10 and chloroketone 14 derived from chlorohydrins by oxidation proved to be inhibitors of cathepsins H, S, and C as determined by competitive activity-based protein profiling.

Chiral Selective Chemistry Induced by Natural Selection of Spin-Polarized Electrons.

The search to understand the origin of homochirality in nature has been ongoing since the time of Pasteur. Previous work has shown that DNA can act as a spin filter for low-energy electrons and that spin-polarized secondary electrons produced by X-ray irradiation of a magnetic substrate can induce chiral selective chemistry. In the present work it is demonstrated that secondary electrons from a substrate that are transmitted through a chiral overlayer cause enantiomeric selective chemistry in an adsorbed adlayer. We determine the quantum yields (QYs) for dissociation of (R)- or (S)-epichlorohydrin adsorbed on a chiral self-assembled layer of DNA on gold and on bare gold (for control). The results show that there is a significant difference in the QYs between the two enantiomers when adsorbed on DNA, but none when they are adsorbed on bare Au. We propose that the effect results from natural spin filtering effects cause by the chiral monolayer.

Biocatalytic synthesis of C3 chiral building blocks by chloroperoxidase-catalyzed enantioselective halo-hydroxylation and epoxidation in the presence of ionic liquids.

The optically active C3 synthetic blocks are remarkably versatile intermediates for the synthesis of numerous pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. This work provides a simple and efficient enzymatic synthetic route for the environment-friendly synthesis of C3 chiral building blocks. Chloroperoxidase (CPO)-catalyzed enantioselective halo-hydroxylation and epoxidation of chloropropene and allyl alcohol was employed to prepare C3 chiral building blocks in this work, including (R)-2,3-dichloro-1-propanol (DCP*), (R)-2,3-epoxy-1-propanol (GLD*), and (R)-3-chloro-1-2-propanediol (CPD*). The ee values of the formed C3 chiral building blocks DCP*, CPD*, and glycidol were 98.1, 97.5, and 96.7%, respectively. Moreover, the use of small amount of imidazolium ionic liquid enhanced the yield efficiently due to the increase of solubility of hydrophobic organic substrates in aqueous reaction media, as well as the improvement of affinity and selectivity of CPO to substrate.

HOCl-modified phosphatidylcholines induce apoptosis and redox imbalance in HUVEC-ST cells.

Electrophilic attack of hypochlorous acid on unsaturated bonds of fatty acyl chains is known to result mostly in chlorinated products that show cytotoxicity to some cell lines and were found in biological systems exposed to HOCl. This study aimed to investigate more deeply the products and the mechanism underlying cytotoxicity of phospholipid-HOCl oxidation products, synthesized by the reaction of HOCl with 1-stearoyl-2-oleoyl-, 1-stearoyl-2-linoleoyl-, and 1-stearoyl-2-arachidonyl-phosphatidylcholine. Phospholipid chlorohydrins were found to be the most abundant among obtained products. HOCl-modified lipids were cytotoxic towards HUVEC-ST (endothelial cells), leading to a decrease of mitochondrial potential and an increase in the number of apoptotic cells. These effects were accompanied by an increase of the level of active caspase-3 and caspase-7, while the caspase-3/-7 inhibitor Ac-DEVD-CHO dramatically decreased the number of apoptotic cells. Phospholipid-HOCl oxidation products were shown to affect cell proliferation by a concentration-dependent cell cycle arrest in the G0/G1 phase and activating redox sensitive p38 kinase. The redox imbalance observed in HUVEC-ST cells exposed to modified phosphatidylcholines was accompanied by an increase in ROS level, and a decrease in glutathione content and antioxidant capacity of cell extracts.

Total synthesis and structural revision of laurefurenynes A and B.

Structural reassignment: A total synthesis of the proposed structure of (-)-laurefurenyne A has been accomplished that relies on organocatalytic aldehyde α-chlorination and a flexible chlorohydrin-based strategy for stereocontrolled access to the bis-tetrahydrofuran core of the natural product. Analysis of incongruities between the (1) H NMR spectra of synthetic and natural material led to a configurational reassignment for the natural product, which was also confirmed by total synthesis.

Regioselective monochloro substitution in carbohydrates and non-sugar alcohols via Mitsunobu reaction: applications in the synthesis of reboxetine.

A regioselective high yielding monochloro substitution (chlorohydrin formation) via Mitsunobu reaction is reported. In carbohydrates and sterically hindered non-sugars, only the primary hydroxyl group is chlorinated, whereas in the non-sugar 1,2- and 1,3-alcohols, predominantly the secondary chloride substitution occurs. The versatile methodology provides indirect access to epoxides with the retention of configuration, as against conventional Mitsunobu reaction which generates epoxides with inversion. The methodology was successfully used as a key step in the synthesis of optically active diastereoisomers of the antidepressant drug reboxetine from (R)-2,3-O-cyclohexylidene-d-glyceraldehyde in ∼43% overall yields.

An androgen receptor N-terminal domain antagonist for treating prostate cancer.

Hormone therapies for advanced prostate cancer target the androgen receptor (AR) ligand-binding domain (LBD), but these ultimately fail and the disease progresses to lethal castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). The mechanisms that drive CRPC are incompletely understood, but may involve constitutively active AR splice variants that lack the LBD. The AR N-terminal domain (NTD) is essential for AR activity, but targeting this domain with small-molecule inhibitors is complicated by its intrinsic disorder. Here we investigated EPI-001, a small-molecule antagonist of AR NTD that inhibits protein-protein interactions necessary for AR transcriptional activity. We found that EPI analogs covalently bound the NTD to block transcriptional activity of AR and its splice variants and reduced the growth of CRPC xenografts. These findings suggest that the development of small-molecule inhibitors that bind covalently to intrinsically disordered proteins is a promising strategy for development of specific and effective anticancer agents.

Rapid and selective determination of free chlorine in aqueous solution using electrophilic addition to styrene by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry.

We developed a rapid and selective method for determination of free chlorine in aqueous solution by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry for the first time. Free chlorine was converted to styrene chlorohydrin using electrophilic addition to styrene in sodium acetate buffer solution (pH 5). The chlorine derivative obtained was extracted with chloroform, and then analyzed by GC/MS. The calibration curve showed good linearity from 0.2-100 µg/mL (as available chlorine). The detection limit was 0.1 µg/mL, and the intra- and interday accuracy were measured at concentrations of 10, 50, and 75 µg/mL to be -1.3 to 6.9% (intraday) and 3.8-8.0% (interday) as % Bias. The precision was between 1.4 and 4.5% as % RSD. These results indicate that this method is a superior technique for the identification of free chlorine. This method was successfully applied to quantification in commercial samples and in samples of a criminal case.

Ultrasound irradiation promoted enzymatic transesterification of (R/S)-1-chloro-3-(1-naphthyloxy)-2-propanol.

(R)-1-Chloro-3-(1-naphthyloxy)-2-propanol, which is the key intermediate of (S)-propranolol, was successfully prepared via enantioselective transesterification catalyzed by lipase under ultrasound irradiation. Compared with conventional shaking, the enzyme activity and enantioselectivity were dramatically increased under ultrasound exposure. Effects of various reaction conditions on the synthetic activity of enzyme as well as enantioselectivity, including the type of enzyme, ultrasound power, solvent, acyl donor, temperature and substrate molar ratio, were investigated. Pseudomonas sp. lipase (PSL) showed an excellent catalytic performance under optimum conditions (enzyme activity: 78.3 ± 3.2 µmol·g⁻¹·min⁻¹, E value: 98 ± 6).

Directed evolution strategies for enantiocomplementary haloalkane dehalogenases: from chemical waste to enantiopure building blocks.

We used directed evolution to obtain enantiocomplementary haloalkane dehalogenase variants that convert the toxic waste compound 1,2,3-trichloropropane (TCP) into highly enantioenriched (R)- or (S)-2,3-dichloropropan-1-ol, which can easily be converted into optically active epichlorohydrins-attractive intermediates for the synthesis of enantiopure fine chemicals. A dehalogenase with improved catalytic activity but very low enantioselectivity was used as the starting point. A strategy that made optimal use of the limited capacity of the screening assay, which was based on chiral gas chromatography, was developed. We used pair-wise site-saturation mutagenesis (SSM) of all 16 noncatalytic active-site residues during the initial two rounds of evolution. The resulting best R- and S-enantioselective variants were further improved in two rounds of site-restricted mutagenesis (SRM), with incorporation of carefully selected sets of amino acids at a larger number of positions, including sites that are more distant from the active site. Finally, the most promising mutations and positions were promoted to a combinatorial library by using a multi-site mutagenesis protocol with restricted codon sets. To guide the design of partly undefined (ambiguous) codon sets for these restricted libraries we employed structural information, the results of multiple sequence alignments, and knowledge from earlier rounds. After five rounds of evolution with screening of only 5500 clones, we obtained two strongly diverged haloalkane dehalogenase variants that give access to (R)-epichlorohydrin with 90 % ee and to (S)-epichlorohydrin with 97 % ee, containing 13 and 17 mutations, respectively, around their active sites.