Role of a Preorganized Scaffold Presenting Four Residues of a GM-3 Lactone Mimetic on Melanoma Progression.

Two tetravalent architectures, the glycocalix 7 and the RAFT 9, presenting four residues of a GM-3 ganglioside lactone mimetic, target the host compartment of melanoma and significantly abrogate the effect induced by cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) contact + hypoxia in the motility and invasiveness of tumor cells. The data reported support the involvement of glycosphingolipids (GSLs) in hypoxia and show an interesting role played by compound 9 in targeting melanoma cells thereby interfering with melanoma progression. The unprecedented findings reported for the glycocluster 9 may contribute to the understanding of the critical and complex interactions between tumor cells and their local environment paving the way for new therapeutic agents.

Conversion of bis(trichloromethyl) carbonate to phosgene and reactivity of triphosgene, diphosgene, and phosgene with methanol(1)

Triphosgene was decomposed quantitatively to phosgene by chloride ion. The reaction course was monitored by IR spectroscopy (React-IR), showing that diphosgene was an intermediate. The methanolysis of triphosgene in deuterated chloroform, monitored by proton NMR spectroscopy, gave methyl chloroformate and methyl 1,1, 1-trichloromethyl carbonate in about a 1:1 ratio, as primary products. The reaction carried out in the presence of large excess of methanol (0.3 M, 30 equiv) was a pseudo-first-order process with a k(obs) of 1.0 x 10(-)(4) s(-)(1). Under the same conditions, values of k(obs) of 0.9 x 10(-)(3) s(-)(1) and 1.7 x 10(-)(2) s(-)(1) for the methanolysis of diphosgene and phosgene, respectively, were determined. The experimental data suggest that, under these conditions, the maximum concentration of phosgene during the methanolysis of triphosgene and diphosgene was lower than 1 x 10(-)(5) M. Methyl 1,1,1-trichloromethyl carbonate was synthesized and characterized also by the APCI-MS technique.

X-ray structures and anionotropic rearrangements of Di-tert-butyl-substituted thiiranium and thiirenium ions. A structure-reactivity relationship

The X-ray structures of c-2,t-3-di-tert-butyl-r-1-methylthiiranium 8 BF(4)(-), t-2,t-3-di-tert-butyl-r-1-methylthiiranium ion 10 BF(4)(-), and 2,3-di-tert-butyl-1-methylthiirenium 11 BF(4)(-) have been determined. The DeltaG()(298) values for the rearrangements from the cis and the trans tert-butyl groups of 8 SbCl(6)(-) to thietanium ion (two intramolecular S(N)2 displacements) and for the rearrangement of 11 SbCl(6)(-) to thietium ion (an intramolecular S(N)2-Vin displacement) are linearly correlated with the strengths of the C-S breaking bonds, suggesting that the two mechanisms are, in the absence of steric hindrance, uniquely governed by the nucleofugality of the sulfonium leaving group.