New advances in asymmetric organocatalysis

• Radovan Šebesta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 240–242, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.28

• early to stimulate greater developments. Things started to change in the late 1990s when short-chain peptides [3], carbohydrate-based ketones [4][5], and thioureas [6] were shown to catalyze enantioselective transformations. The real breakthrough came in the year 2000 when two teams independently

Synthesis and late stage modifications of Cyl derivatives

• Phil Servatius and
• Uli Kazmaier

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 174–181, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.19

• metabolites for self-defense in different microorganisms, peptidic natural products are assembled either by ribosomal synthesis or by non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS) [2]. Macrocyclic peptides are pervasive throughout this class of natural products and often show improved stability against proteolytic

• and Discussion Since a couple of years the focus of our research group is on the synthesis of unnatural amino acids and their incorporation into complex natural products. Many of these show interesting anticancer activities [26][27][28]. Some linear peptides, such as pretubulysin bind to tubulin [29

• the peptide can have a significant effect on the Claisen rearrangement and therefore we synthesized the Cbz- as well as the Boc-protected peptides 8a and 8b. The tripeptide building blocks were previously also used in the Cyl-1 synthesis. Glycine allyl ester 5 was Boc-deprotected to give amine 7 as

Synthesis and bioactivity of pyrrole-conjugated phosphopeptides

• Qiuxin Zhang,
• Weiyi Tan and
• Bing Xu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 159–166, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.17

• cells by a naphthyl-capped phosphopeptide (Nap-ffpy, 1), we conjugated the heteroaromatic dipyrrole or tripyrrole motif at the N-terminal of short peptides containing phosphotyrosine or phosphoserine and examined the bioactivity of the resulting phosphopeptides (2–10). Although most of the

• of 1. These results suggest that a heteroaromatic motif at the N-terminal of peptides likely disfavors the formation of extensive nanofibers or morphological changes during enzymatic self-assembly, thus provide useful insights for the development of phosphopeptides as substrates of phosphatases for

• controlling cell fate. Keywords: cells; enzyme; N-terminal; peptides; pyrroles; self-assembly; Introduction Biomacromolecular assemblies have received considerable attention recently in the field of biomaterials [1][2][3][4][5][6][7], among which peptides are of particular interest because of their unique

Tenacibactins K–M, cytotoxic siderophores from a coral-associated gliding bacterium of the genus Tenacibaculum

• Yasuhiro Igarashi,
• Yiwei Ge,
• Tao Zhou,
• Amit Raj Sharma,
• Enjuro Harunari,
• Naoya Oku and
• Agus Trianto

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 110–119, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.12

• from 2.5 to 7.9 Mbp, biosynthetic gene clusters for siderophores, terpenes, and non-ribosomal peptides were identified by genome mining [39], suggesting a high capability of secondary metabolism in this genus. Further investigation is underway to disclose the actual diversity of metabolites from the

Regioselective synthesis of methyl 5-(N-Boc-cycloaminyl)-1,2-oxazole-4-carboxylates as new amino acid-like building blocks

• Jolita Bruzgulienė,
• Greta Račkauskienė,
• Aurimas Bieliauskas,
• Vaida Milišiūnaitė,
• Miglė Dagilienė,
• Gita Matulevičiūtė,
• Vytas Martynaitis,
• Sonata Krikštolaitytė,
• Frank A. Sløk and
• Algirdas Šačkus

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 102–109, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.11

• widely used as building blocks to prepare various heterocyclic peptides [17][18][19][20][21][22]. In particular, 1,2-oxazole amino acid derivatives, such as compounds V [20], VI [21], and VII, VIII [22], can be easily synthesized and are suitable for insertion with the corresponding heterocycle into a

Efficient and regioselective synthesis of dihydroxy-substituted 2-aminocyclooctane-1-carboxylic acid and its bicyclic derivatives

• İlknur Polat,
• Selçuk Eşsiz,
• Uğur Bozkaya and
• Emine Salamci

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 77–85, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.7

• biological activities, especially applications in the field of medicinal chemistry. β-Amino acids (i.e., amino acids containing an extra methylene group in the backbone) occur naturally in peptidic structures [1][2][3][4][5] and have been used in peptide design to obtain mixed peptides that retain their

Peptide stapling by late-stage Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling

• Hendrik Gruß,
• Rebecca C. Feiner,
• Ridhiwan Mseya,
• David C. Schröder,
• Michał Jewgiński,
• Kristian M. Müller,
• Rafał Latajka,
• Antoine Marion and
• Norbert Sewald

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1–12, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.1

• stapling techniques to stabilise α-helical secondary structure motifs of peptides led to the design of modulators of protein–protein interactions, which had been considered undruggable for a long time. We disclose a novel approach towards peptide stapling utilising macrocyclisation by late-stage Suzuki

• –Miyaura cross-coupling of bromotryptophan-containing peptides of the catenin-binding domain of axin. Optimisation of the linker length in order to find a compromise between both sufficient linker rigidity and flexibility resulted in a peptide with an increased α-helicity and enhanced binding affinity to

• its native binding partner β-catenin. An increased proteolytic stability against proteinase K has been demonstrated. Keywords: accelerated molecular dynamics; halotryptophan; intrinsically disordered peptides; late-stage diversification; macrocyclisation; molecular dynamics; stapled peptides; Suzuki

Stepwise PEG synthesis featuring deprotection and coupling in one pot

• Logan Mikesell,
• Dhananjani N. A. M. Eriyagama,
• Yipeng Yin,
• Bao-Yuan Lu and
• Shiyue Fang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2976–2982, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.207

• peptides, proteins and nucleic acids and to evade undesired immune responses, monodisperse PEGs are required or highly desired [12][13]. To meet the needs of monodisperse PEGs, significant efforts have been made to develop stepwise methods for their synthesis [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25

• frequently adopted. For example, in peptide synthesis, peptides with acid-labile side chain protections can be selectively cleaved from the acid-labile 2-chlorotrityl resin with dilute TFA [34]. In RNA synthesis, the acid-sensitive 2'-TOM protecting groups can survive the acidic conditions for removing the 5

A photochemical C=C cleavage process: toward access to backbone N-formyl peptides

• Haopei Wang and
• Zachary T. Ball

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2932–2938, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.202

• Haopei Wang Zachary T. Ball Department of Chemistry, Rice University, Houston TX, USA 10.3762/bjoc.17.202 Abstract Photo-responsive modifications and photo-uncaging concepts are useful for spatiotemporal control of peptides structure and function. While side chain photo-responsive modifications

• ” amide products can and does occur under physiological conditions, the rates of this hydrolysis are slow for the simple models in this study. Within more complex peptides or proteins, selectivity in photocleavage pathways may differ significantly, depending on local chemical environment. It is also worth

First total synthesis of hoshinoamide A

• Haipin Zhou,
• Zihan Rui,
• Yiming Yang,
• Shengtao Xu,
• Yutian Shao and
• Long Liu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2924–2931, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.201

• cytotoxicity compared to hoshinoamide B. Herein, we report the initial progress on the total synthesis of hoshinomaide A. The key challenges for the total synthesis of hoshinoamide A are the coupling of highly methylated amino acids and the purification of hydrophobic peptides. Results and Discussion As shown

Total synthesis of the O-antigen repeating unit of Providencia stuartii O49 serotype through linear and one-pot assemblies

• Tanmoy Halder and
• Somnath Yadav

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2915–2921, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.199

• development [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. This objective has been proposed to be achieved by the synthesis of chemically homogeneous glycoconjugates bearing the O-antigen oligosaccharide conjugated to peptides for eliciting the desired immune response through vaccines [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19

GlycoBioinformatics

• Kiyoko F. Aoki-Kinoshita,
• Frédérique Lisacek,
• Niclas Karlsson,
• Daniel Kolarich and
• Nicolle H. Packer

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2726–2728, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.184

• posttranslational modifications of peptides in proteomics can be adapted to specifically identify glycopeptides. What is also obvious for glycobioinformatics is that it needs an own language that is understood by both computers and researchers to facilitate the exchange of glyco-specific information as well as the

• article by Barnett et al. [2] uses molecular dynamics to show that O-linked glycosylation alters peptide conformation, which influences the binding of the peptides to antibodies, despite the fact that glycans are not directly involved in the binding. Another molecular modeling article by Fogarty et al. [3

Cryogels: recent applications in 3D-bioprinting, injectable cryogels, drug delivery, and wound healing

• Luke O. Jones,
• Leah Williams,
• Tasmin Boam,
• Martin Kalmet,
• Chidubem Oguike and
• Fiona L. Hatton

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2553–2569, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.171

• cryogels include fertilizers for agrochemical applications [103], peptides [104], proteins [37], and growth factors [81][105][106]. For example, Lee et al. reported the use of a double cryogel structure for the delivery of growth factor for enhanced bone regeneration [105]. 5.4. Cryogels in wound healing

Post-functionalization of drug-loaded nanoparticles prepared by polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) with mitochondria targeting ligands

• Janina-Miriam Noy,
• Fan Chen and
• Martina Stenzel

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2302–2314, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.148

• peptides and proteins have been linked to nanotechnology. DQA and TPP are both cationic and lipophilic molecules and therefore able to easily pass the mitochondrial membrane [15][16][17][18][19]. TPP is the most-studied mitochondrial targeting agent and has shown to accumulate 1000 times more in the

• non-specific protein absorption. Su et al. [40] investigated the effects of a protein corona on active and passive targeting using 20 different types of PEGylated gold nanoparticles, which were decorated with cyclic RGD (arginylglycylaspartic acid) peptides. As a result, the active targeting

A study on selective transformation of norbornadiene into fluorinated cyclopentane-fused isoxazolines

• Zsanett Benke,
• Attila M. Remete and
• Loránd Kiss

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2051–2066, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.132

• of natural products (especially macrocycles) [12], alkaloids [13], amino acids and functionalized biomolecules such as peptides [14][15][16][17][18][19][20] or various drugs [21]. Due to the ring strain, bicyclic systems and derivatives, such as norbornadiene derivatives can easily be converted

Progress and challenges in the synthesis of sequence controlled polysaccharides

• Giulio Fittolani,
• Theodore Tyrikos-Ergas,
• Denisa Vargová,
• Manishkumar A. Chaube and
• Martina Delbianco

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1981–2025, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.129

• called “heparin crisis” in 2008 [4]. In addition, the heterogeneity of naturally sourced samples poses a severe bottleneck to the molecular characterization of polysaccharides that dwarfs in comparison to other biomolecules like peptides and nucleic acids. Establishing structure–property correlations is

On the application of 3d metals for C–H activation toward bioactive compounds: The key step for the synthesis of silver bullets

• Renato L. Carvalho,
• Amanda S. de Miranda,
• Mateus P. Nunes,
• Roberto S. Gomes,
• Guilherme A. M. Jardim and
• Eufrânio N. da Silva Júnior

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1849–1938, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.126

• the late-stage modification of amino acids and peptides in 2016 (Scheme 27A and B) [159]. The methodology facilitated the targeted C–H oxidative modifications in amino acids and peptides concomitant with the preservation of the α-center chirality in good yields and broad scope regarding the number of

• , several products were submitted to a subsequent metathesis mediated by Grubbs-II catalyst and a further palladium-catalyzed C=C reduction and DG-removal process, from which the desired macrocyclic peptides were obtained in good to excellent yields (Scheme 35C). Recently, again Ackermann and co-workers

Natural products in the predatory defence of the filamentous fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus

• Jana M. Boysen,
• Nauman Saeed and
• Falk Hillmann

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1814–1827, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.124

• ; non-ribosomal peptides; polyketides; secondary metabolism; virulence; Introduction To thrive in their natural habitats all organisms from bacteria and fungi to plants and animals need access to sufficient nutritional sources and have to defend themselves against both, competitors and predators

• molecules like non-ribosomal peptides (NRP), polyketides (PK), terpenes or indole alkaloids [10][11]. The vast majority of fungal BGCs is found in the genomes of members of the Basidiomycota and Ascomycota including the genus Penicillium in which the first BGC was identified in 1990 [12][13][14

Sustainable manganese catalysis for late-stage C–H functionalization of bioactive structural motifs

• Jongwoo Son

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1733–1751, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.122

• biologically active small molecules and complex peptides. Keywords: bioactive molecules; 3d transition metals; late-stage functionalization; manganese catalyst; sustainable catalysis; Introduction Manganese, a 3d transition metal, allows for a potentially ideal sustainable catalytic system because of the

• active molecules and complex peptides, which are of great importance to medicinal chemists and are categorized according to the transformations involved. Review Manganese-catalyzed late-stage C–H fluorination The fluorination of organic molecules [13][14][15][16], a highly valuable synthetic

• -economical approach to several tryptophan-containing peptides with significant potential for drug discovery and medicinal chemistry. Positional selectivity was observed at the C2 position due to the presence of the pyrimidine directing group. Interestingly, alkynylative conjugation of tryptophan to a steroid

A systems-based framework to computationally describe putative transcription factors and signaling pathways regulating glycan biosynthesis

• Theodore Groth,
• Rudiyanto Gunawan and
• Sriram Neelamegham

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1712–1724, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.119

• the addition of GlcNAc to processed N-linked glycan structures. These include all the MGAT enzymes. 7) GalNAc-type O-glycans: O-linked glycans are attached to serine (Ser) or threonine (Thr) on peptides, where GalNAc is the root carbohydrate. This is mediated by a family of about 20 Golgi-resident

Chemical approaches to discover the full potential of peptide nucleic acids in biomedical applications

• Nikita Brodyagin,
• Martins Katkevics,
• Venubabu Kotikam,
• Christopher A. Ryan and
• Eriks Rozners

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1641–1688, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.116

• , many research groups have worked on chemical modifications to the backbone and nucleobases of PNA, as well as conjugating PNA to other biomolecules (e.g., cell-penetrating peptides) [4]. The present review summarizes the most significant efforts and achievements in optimizing various aspects of PNA

• ][159][160]. Looking forward, conjugation of PNA with various delivery enhancing compounds, most notably cell-penetrating peptides (CPP) that deliver the conjugates mainly through endocytosis (Figure 11) has become one of the most promising approaches to improving cellular uptake of PNA [161][162

• covalent conjugation of PNA to delivery enhancing compounds. Cell-penetrating peptides derived from natural proteins: The initial success of PNA delivery involved PNA conjugates taken up by receptor-mediated endocytosis. Pardridge and co-workers successfully demonstrated in vivo delivery and blood-brain

Enhanced target cell specificity and uptake of lipid nanoparticles using RNA aptamers and peptides

• Roslyn M. Ray,
• Anders Højgaard Hansen,
• Maria Taskova,
• Bernhard Jandl,
• Jonas Hansen,
• Citra Soemardy,
• Kevin V. Morris and
• Kira Astakhova

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 891–907, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.75

• peptides, Tat and T7, did not increase BBB penetration above the aptamer-loaded LNPs alone. Moreover, we found that these targeted LNPs exhibit low immunogenic and low toxic profiles and that targeted LNPs can traverse the BBB to potentially deliver drugs into the target tissue. This approach highlights

• ) represent an effective platform for delivering small molecules, RNA, or DNA into target cells [1]. LNPs have been successfully deployed via different administration routes in vivo to distribute cargo into target tissues [2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. By changing lipid composition [6] and/or including short peptides

• of LNPs through the notoriously protective BBB is to use short positively charged peptides or receptor-specific ligands, both of which have shown to be effective at increasing transport of LNPs, nucleotides, and small molecules through the BBB [9][15][16][17]. For example, the short positively

Synthetic reactions driven by electron-donor–acceptor (EDA) complexes

• Zhonglie Yang,
• Yutong Liu,
• Kun Cao,
• Xiaobin Zhang,
• Hezhong Jiang and
• Jiahong Li

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 771–799, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.67

• absorption of EDA complex in the visible-light region. In 2020, Xu and colleagues [39] proposed a visible-light-promoted alkylation reaction using Katritzky salts such as 128 and glycine derivative 127 (or glycine segments in peptides) initiated by an EDA complex. This successfully realized the simple

• synthesis of unnatural α-amino acids 129 and precise alkylation modification of peptides in the later stage (Scheme 45). Even in the presence of other amino acid residues, this protocol has excellent regio- and chemoselectivity, providing a sequence of novel corresponding dipeptides with good yield. The

[2 + 1] Cycloaddition reactions of fullerene C₆₀ based on diazo compounds

• Yuliya N. Biglova

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 630–670, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.55

• diphenyldiazomethanes, available reagents carrying substituents on the phenyl rings. For example, covalent attachment of C60 to peptides is performed through a phenyl spacer, as it was demonstrated in a synthesis of fulleride 27 [89]. The latter compound was designed specifically for suppressing a HIV enzyme. The

• dimethoxymethanofullerene 7. Synthesis of fullerene monoesters and symmetric diesters 8–10 and 11–12, respectively. The synthetic route to the first fullerene–peptide conjugate 16. Synthesis of bioactive fullerene peptides 19 and 20. Synthesis of amino acid–fullerene derivatives 21 and 22. (BtOH is 1H-benzotriazol-1-ol

Synthesis and physicochemical evaluation of fluorinated lipopeptide precursors of ligands for microbubble targeting

• Masayori Hagimori,
• Estefanía E. Mendoza-Ortega and
• Marie Pierre Krafft

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 511–518, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.45

• , which involves the use of targeting ligands, such as monoclonal antibodies, antibody fragments, proteins, peptides, and other small molecules, including vitamins and carbohydrates [7][8]. The targeting ligands are coupled to the surface of the carrier to selectively target tumor cells that overexpress a

• safety [15][16][17]. Various effective receptor-binding peptides have been identified by the phage display technology [18]. The peptides can be readily prepared through solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS), a highly reproducible method with minimal side reactions. Many peptide–lipid conjugates

• penetrating properties, such as the transactivator of the transcription (TAT) peptide. Moreover, peptides being smaller than the antibodies generally induce a lower immunogenicity [15][16][17]. Micro- and nanocarriers are often covered by poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) stealth coatings that significantly enhance