Switchable stereocontrolled divergent synthesis induced by aza-Michael addition of deactivated primary amines under acid catalysis.

Switchable tandem intramolecular aza-Michael/Michael and double aza-Michael reactions allow the oriented synthesis of highly functionalised cyclic skeletons. Conjugate addition of deactivated anilines triggers chemo- and stereo-divergent ring-closure reaction pathways with a striking selectivity depending on reaction conditions.

A short synthesis of antimalarial peroxides.

A concise and efficient synthesis of two simplified diastereomeric analogues of a natural peroxide is presented. Both compounds could be isolated in high purity and fully identified. They exhibited moderate antimalarial activity.

New cyclohexadienone derivatives: preparation and chiral discrimination in high-pressure Diels-Alder cycloadditions.

A wide range of cyclohexadienones has been synthesised in order to study their reactivity and their regio- and stereoselectivity with the enantiopure diene 1 under high-pressure conditions. Computational investigations were used to point out some parameters which affect the reactivity in this high chiral discrimination process. In addition, the resulting [4+2] cycloadducts allowed the preparation of new polyfunctional cyclohexenone derivatives.

Total synthesis and conformational studies of hapalosin, N-desmethylhapalosin and 8-deoxyhapalosin.

Hapalosin (2), a 12-membered cyclic depsipeptide possessing MDR-reversing activity, and analogues (3) and (4) have been synthesized using macrolactamization as an important ring-forming step. Three building blocks: (2S,3R)-3-(tert-butyldimethylsilyloxy)-2-methyl-decanoic acid (13), benzyl (S)-2-hydroxy-3-methylbutanate (14), and (4S,3R)-4-(benzyloxycarbonyl-methylamino)-3-methoxymethoxy-5-pheny l-pentanoic acid (28) were prepared from Evans's chiral imide (9), L-valine, and L-N-Boc phenylalanine (17), respectively, and were assembled together by applying twice Yamaguchi's coupling methodology. A new and efficient selective N-methylation of gamma-hydroxy-beta-amino ester taking advantage of the vicinal amino alcohol function was uncovered in the course of this study. Thus, treatment of compound 19 with HCHO in the presence of catalytic amount of pTsOH followed by reduction (NaBH3CN, TFA, CH2Cl2) of the so-formed oxazolidine 24 gave the N-methylated product 25. Furthermore, a dual role of oxazolidine as protecting group of vicinal amino alcohol and latent N-methyl function was established which allowed synthesizing both hapalosin (2) and N-desmethylhapalosin (3) from the same linear precursor 32 in a step-efficient and atom economic way. In contrast to hapalosin (2) and N-desmethyl analogue (3), the amide bond of 8-deoxy hapalosin (4) exists at room temperature (CDCl3) exclusively in s-cis conformation as evidenced by NOE studies. This observation has been explained on the basis of computational studies. No significant MDR reversing activity of 8-deoxy hapalosin (4) was observed in K562 R and S/Adriblastine against human erythroleucemic cell lines indicating thus the important contribution of hydroxy group to the bioactivity of hapalosin.

Lack of clinical relevance in routine final subcultures of radiometrically negative BACTEC blood culture vials.

During a 38-month period, 10,106 blood specimens were received in the laboratory for culture. These were inoculated into 26,424 vials and processed using the BACTEC radiometric detection system. Of these vials, 1,914 were eventually found to be microbiologically positive. Isolates from 836 vials were judged to be contaminants. In the remaining 1,078 vials, growth was first detected visually or radiometrically in 1,062 and by final subculture in 16. Growth from these sixteen bottles represented 12 clinically significant bacteremic episodes in as many patients. In nine of these episodes, other culture vials from the same patient were positive radiometrically. Therefore, 358 of 361 (99.2%) bacteremic episodes were detected without the benefit of routine final subcultures. The three patients whose bacteremia was missed were diagnosed clinically and placed on appropriate therapy prior to the detection of the bacteremias by final subculture.