Cationic oligonucleotide derivatives and conjugates: A favorable approach for enhanced DNA and RNA targeting oligonucleotides

• Mathias B. Danielsen and
• Jesper Wengel

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1828–1848, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.125

• moieties attached to the sugar scaffold The sugar moiety of ONs has been extensively studied with respect to the significance of structure and configurations of substituents, and the resulting conformations of the furanose ring, on the properties of ONs (including ASOs). The great variation at which

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

• negative charge on PNA’s backbone. Electrostatic repulsion of the negatively charged phosphates dominates the conformational properties and structure of nucleic acids. In contrast to proteins that prefer to fold in compact structures, DNA and RNA inherently prefer extended conformations that minimize the

• resembled the B- and A-form conformations of natural nucleic acids. The PNA–RNA duplex adopted a conformation very close to the standard A-form helix [40]. In contrast, the PNA–DNA duplex adopted an intermediate structure where positioning of the base pairs was A-like, while the backbone curvature, sugar

• -form helix" by the study authors [41]. Despite the much larger displacement of the bases from the helix axis, the base stacking in the P-form helix resembles that of an A-form DNA duplex. The sugars of a DNA strand adopt C3′-endo conformations with an average interphosphate distance of ≈6 Å, which is

Breaking paracyclophane: the unexpected formation of non-symmetric disubstituted nitro[2.2]metaparacyclophanes

• Suraj Patel,
• Tyson N. Dais,
• Paul G. Plieger and
• Gareth J. Rowlands

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1518–1526, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.109

• chains at non-adjacent carbon positions. Their constrained three-dimensional shapes enforce unusual conformations and interactions between the aromatic decks, all of which results in their unique properties [2][3][4][5]. The most studied cyclophane is [2.2]paracyclophane (1, Figure 1). Not only is it the

Structural effects of meso-halogenation on porphyrins

• Keith J. Flanagan,
• Maximilian Paradiz Dominguez,
• Zoi Melissari,
• Hans-Georg Eckhardt,
• René M. Williams,
• Dáire Gibbons,
• Caroline Prior,
• Gemma M. Locke,
• Alina Meindl,
• Aoife A. Ryan and
• Mathias O. Senge

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1149–1170, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.88

• data in the supporting information for completion. However, we were able to extract atom coordinates and NSD data which can be compared to the existing crystal structures (Supporting Information File 1, Figures S72–S74 and S75–S129) [28][45]. Series 1 In series 1 (Figure 22) the conformations of the

Synthesis of multiply fluorinated N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and D-galactosamine analogs via the corresponding deoxyfluorinated glucosazide and galactosazide phenyl thioglycosides

• Vojtěch Hamala,
• Lucie Červenková Šťastná,
• Martin Kurfiřt,
• Petra Cuřínová,
• Martin Dračínský and
• Jindřich Karban

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1086–1095, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.85

• exocyclic C5‒C6 bond in solution (3JH5-F6 = 24.6–27.1 Hz), whereas the corresponding ᴅ-galacto-configured analogs 60, 67, 69, and 72 adopted gauche,trans (gt) or trans,gauche (tg) conformations to a significant degree (3JH5-F6 = 12.7–14.6 Hz). These findings were in accordance with the previous reports by

Beyond ribose and phosphate: Selected nucleic acid modifications for structure–function investigations and therapeutic applications

• Christopher Liczner,
• Kieran Duke,
• Gabrielle Juneau,
• Martin Egli and
• Christopher J. Wilds

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 908–931, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.76

• ][105][106][107]. GNA duplexes possess only one large groove which corresponds to the canonical minor groove, the canonical major groove is a convex surface. Furthermore, the glycol backbone adopts two conformations alternating between gauche and anti conformations such that each base pair contains one

Menthyl esterification allows chiral resolution for the synthesis of artificial glutamate analogs

• Kenji Morokuma,
• Shuntaro Tsukamoto,
• Kyosuke Mori,
• Kei Miyako,
• Ryuichi Sakai,
• Raku Irie and
• Masato Oikawa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 540–550, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.48

• supported by taking into account the steric interactions between the heterotricycle and the menthyl ring, as follows. There are no major differences in the conformations of the heterotricycle and the menthyl rings in 10, 10*, 21, and 21*. It is reasonably speculated that 1) the four bonds between the rings

• Corporation), employing initial conformations generated by MM2 (ChemBio3D Ultra, Version 14.0.0.117). The calculations were basically independent from the initial conformations. A same set of conformers was obtained after CONFLEX calculations, starting with different conformers employed as initial conformers

Biochemistry of fluoroprolines: the prospect of making fluorine a bioelement

• Vladimir Kubyshkin,
• Rebecca Davis and
• Nediljko Budisa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 439–460, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.40

• residue that appear altered in fluoroprolines. The first one to mention is the conformation of the pyrrolidine ring, which exhibits a dynamic transition between several distinct states in a relatively fast kinetic mode (roughly on a GHz scale) [48][49]. For simplicity, two conformations are considered

• the conformations. However, R-Flp stabilizes the C4-exo-pucker, while S-Flp stabilizes the C4-endo system [51]. It is believed that Dfp has no conformational preference akin to proline [52]. The stabilization of the puckers is one of the most prominent features of fluoroprolines that justifies their

• use in protein engineering. The "freezing" of certain proline pucker conformations due to stereospecific fluorination has an effect on the packing within a protein structure as well as the backbone folding parameters (vide infra). 2.5 Thermodynamics of the amide rotation Another special feature of

Exploring the possibility of using fluorine-involved non-conjugated electron-withdrawing groups for thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitters by TD-DFT calculation

• Dongyang Chen and
• Eli Zysman-Colman

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 210–223, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.21

• the increased bulkiness of the SF5 group, the corresponding twist angle increased to 78.5o and 78.7o. These highly twisted conformations contribute to the spatial separation of the HOMO and LUMO. Figure 3 shows the energies of the HOMOs and LUMOs and the S1 and T1 states for the fluorinated acceptor

• intermediate excited triplet states to S1 thereby improving the rISC rate [22][24]. The presence of multiple donors, each possessing slightly different conformations, and thereby presenting slightly different electronic coupling with the central acceptor guarantees a dense population of excited states [22][24

Molecular basis for protein–protein interactions

• Brandon Charles Seychell and
• Tobias Beck

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1–10, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.1

• containers [90]. CCMV was the first icosahedral viral capsid to be disassembled and reassembled in vitro [91]. The CCMV capsid can be reassembled into empty capsids as well as into different conformations, such as disks, rods, tubes, and multiwalled capsids by using different scaffolds [92]. In these cases

Chiral anion recognition using calix[4]arene-based ureido receptors in a 1,3-alternate conformation

• Tereza Horáčková,
• Jan Budka,
• Vaclav Eigner,
• Wen-Sheng Chung,
• Petra Cuřínová and
• Pavel Lhoták

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2999–3007, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.249

• basic conformations (cone, partial cone, 1,3-alternate, and 1,2-alternate) offers the combination of a precisely defined 3D structure, with functional groups being introduced at exactly defined mutual positions. This makes calix[4]arenes an ideal molecular scaffold [25][26] for the construction of

• different conformations. Although the overwhelming majority of calixarene-based receptors makes use of the cone conformer A (Figure 1), the corresponding diureidocalix[4]arenes in the 1,3-alternate conformation B showed [42][43] surprisingly good complexation abilities towards selected anions. Especially

Naphthalonitriles featuring efficient emission in solution and in the solid state

• Sidharth Thulaseedharan Nair Sailaja,
• Iván Maisuls,
• Jutta Kösters,
• Alexander Hepp,
• Andreas Faust,
• Jens Voskuhl and
• Cristian A. Strassert

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2960–2970, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.246

• (AIE) [23][24][25][26][27]. They mentioned a series of silole derivatives with propeller-like conformations that show no emission in dilute solutions, but are highly luminescent when aggregated in the solid state. Their work has attracted major attention and quickly became one of the most sought-after

Ring-closing metathesis of prochiral oxaenediynes to racemic 4-alkenyl-2-alkynyl-3,6-dihydro-2H-pyrans

• Viola Kolaříková,
• Markéta Rybáčková,
• Martin Svoboda and
• Jaroslav Kvíčala

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2757–2768, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.226

• obtained two diastereoisomers, we decided to perform a short DFT study of the Diels–Alder reaction between dihydropyran 12b and maleimide 13. We started the study with the optimization of the starting compound. While the optimization of the rigid maleimide 13 was straightforward, 18 conformations had to be

• considered for the dihydropyran 12b, namely all combinations of equatorial or axial positions of the but-2-ynyl substituent, three staggered conformations of the prop-1-ynyl group with respect to the C–O bond of the ring, and three conformations of the dienyl system (s-trans and two tilted s-cis

• conformations) (Figure 5). Among the 18 conformations, the structure with an equatorial conformation of the but-2-ynyl group, an anti-arrangement of the O–C bond and the prop-1-ynyl group, and an s-trans conformation of the diene system proved to be the most stable by more than 7 kJ/mol (Figure 6). Of course

Enzyme-instructed morphological transition of the supramolecular assemblies of branched peptides

• Dongsik Yang,
• Hongjian He and
• Bing Xu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2709–2718, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.221

• the cleavage occurs depending on the acetylation of the N-terminal of the branch. Then, we conducted a time-dependent CD analysis to examine the change of the secondary structural conformations of 1 and 2 during the proteolysis catalyzed by proteinase K in Tris-HCl buffer at pH 7.0. As shown in Figure

• conformations than that of peptide 2. With increasing proteolysis time, the CD spectra indicate that the cleavage of 1 or 2 results in more assemblies that favor β-strand conformations (Figure 2D and Figure 2E). In addition, the ratio of the β-strand conformation resulted from the cleavage of 1 being slightly

Vicinal difluorination as a C=C surrogate: an analog of piperine with enhanced solubility, photostability, and acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity

• Yuvixza Lizarme-Salas,
• Alexandra Daryl Ariawan,
• Ranjala Ratnayake,
• Hendrik Luesch,
• Angela Finch and
• Luke Hunter

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2663–2670, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.216

• . Stereoselective fluorination is an emerging strategy for controlling the conformations of organic molecules. The highly polarized C–F bond tends to align in predictable ways with adjacent functional groups, due to a combination of hyperconjugative and/or dipolar interactions [18][19][20][21]. This knowledge led

• to different levels of flexibility within the enzyme active sites. A third possibility is that the analog 2 adopts different conformations upon binding to AChE vs BACE-1, since the microenvironments within the enzymes’ active sites could be different (e.g., more/less polar), the “correct” binding

• physicochemical properties of compound 2 were found to be superior to piperine (1) itself in two key respects, namely photostability and aqueous solubility. The conformational analysis of 2 by DFT and NMR spectroscopy revealed that the lowest-energy conformations 2a–c are imperfect mimics of 1 but that a somewhat

Comparative ligand structural analytics illustrated on variably glycosylated MUC1 antigen–antibody binding

• Christopher B. Barnett,
• Tharindu Senapathi and
• Kevin J. Naidoo

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2540–2550, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.206

• tools are applied to each of the simulation trajectories and this process was streamlined by using Galaxy workflows. The conformations of the antigens were analyzed using root-mean-square deviation, end-to-end distance, Ramachandran plots, and hydrogen bonding analysis. Additionally, RMSF and clustering

• analysis were carried out. These analyses were used to rapidly assess key features of the system, interrogate the dynamic structure of the ligand, and determine the role of glycosylation on the conformational equilibrium. The glycopeptide conformations in solution change relative to the peptide; thus a

• conformation of the peptide portion of the antigen and does not bind directly. Previous studies have shown that O-glycosylation may provide increased physical stability [20], rigid conformations for protein stability [21], induce the formation of stiff and extended peptide conformations [22], and may affect

Leveraging glycomics data in glycoprotein 3D structure validation with Privateer

• Haroldas Bagdonas,
• Daniel Ungar and
• Jon Agirre

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2523–2533, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.204

• stereochemistry [14], incorrect torsion [15][16], and unlikely high-energy ring conformations [17]. Early efforts in the validation of carbohydrate structures saw the introduction of online tools such as PDB-CARE [37] and CARP [16]; more recently, we released the Privateer software [24], which was the first

• intermediate interconversion library. A foundation for such interconversion libraries exists in the form of the carbohydrate validation software Privateer. The program is able to compute individual monosaccharide conformations from a glycoprotein model, check whether the modelled carbohydrates atomistic

• and the conformations can be elucidated; middle: A medium resolution example where the identification starts to become difficult; right: A low-resolution example for which all prior knowledge must be used. Despite coming from different glycoprotein structures, the glycan has the same composition, and

NMR Spectroscopy of supramolecular chemistry on protein surfaces

• Peter Bayer,
• Anja Matena and
• Christine Beuck

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2505–2522, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.203

• residues over others as well. The smallest calix[4]arene is confined to a bowl-shaped conformation and entraps mostly lysine side chains, however, occasionally an arginine residue is favored over lysine residues [80][82]. The larger calixarenes are more flexible, and different conformations have been found

Conformational preferences of fluorine-containing agrochemicals and their implications for lipophilicity prediction

• Daniela Rodrigues Silva,
• Joyce K. Daré and
• Matheus P. Freitas

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2469–2476, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.200

• conformational equilibrium of penoxsulam (I, Figure 1). This compound has a 1,2–disubstituted ethane motif that could adopt three main staggered conformations, namely Igg, Iag and Iga (g = gauche and a = anti; see Figure 1), thus we have explored the intramolecular interactions governing its conformational

• conformations along the 1,2-disubstituted ethane motif, the C–C(F) bond was rotated to additionally obtain conformers Igg and Iga, and the corresponding geometries were then optimized. The resulting geometries and relative conformational energies are summarized in Figure 2. At first, we observe that the overall

• of 2.8 kcal mol–1, see Table 1). Yet, conformer Igg is not the global energy minimum. This is surprising, because all-gauche conformations in fluoropropanediol are strongly preferred [21], while the double gauche effect in difluoroethylamine and its hydrochloride salt stabilizes the gg over ag

Computational tools for drawing, building and displaying carbohydrates: a visual guide

• Kanhaya Lal,
• Rafael Bermeo and
• Serge Perez

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2448–2468, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.199

• various force fields dedicated for carbohydrates. The accurately predicted oligosaccharide conformations are good starting points for further investigations. Of particular interest are the evaluations of the dynamics of glycans and their interactions with proteins which is a most significant concern in

• and the available utilities (codes) helps with the general problems in sampling, scoring, and nomenclature related to glycan modelling. It samples glycosidic bonds, ring forms, side-chain conformations, and utilises a glycan-specific term within its scoring function. The tool also consists of

• -builder.cermav.cnrs.fr/) with an interactive and more usable interface (Figure 10). The software translates a glycan sequence or polysaccharide repeat unit into the coordinate set of the corresponding tertiary structure, in one or several of its low energy conformations. The construction follows an intuitive scheme

Design and synthesis of a bis-macrocyclic host and guests as building blocks for small molecular knots

• Elizabeth A. Margolis,
• Rebecca J. Keyes,
• Stephen D. Lockey IV and
• Edward E. Fenlon

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2314–2321, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.192

• Information File 470: Conformations of host 1, TLC knot-forming scheme, experimental procedures and copies of 1H NMR spectra. Acknowledgements We thank Beth Buckwalter for the acquisition of the NMR spectra and Lisa Mertzman for her valuable assistance. We gratefully acknowledge helpful discussions with

Lipophilicity trends upon fluorination of isopropyl, cyclopropyl and 3-oxetanyl groups

• Benjamin Jeffries,
• Zhong Wang,
• Robert I. Troup,
• Anaïs Goupille,
• Jean-Yves Le Questel,
• Charlene Fallan,
• James S. Scott,
• Elisabetta Chiarparin,
• Jérôme Graton and
• Bruno Linclau

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2141–2150, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.182

• -fluoropropanol) [22], while for the higher alkanols, β-fluorination leads to more lipophilic compounds than γ-fluorination [28]. The higher logP of β-fluorinated alcohols has been explained both by the occurrence of conformations with opposing dipole moments of the C–F and C–O bonds, as well as the reduction of

• relates to the difference in Gibbs energy of the free ligand conformations of this solute in the respective solvents. Quantum chemistry calculations of Gibbs energies in octanol and water thus provide theoretical estimations of lipophilicities. Such estimations require systematic conformational analyses

• and geometry optimizations. Ho and co-worker showed that the use of the lowest-energy conformations as calculated in the respective solvents gave more accurate lipophilicities than the use of the lowest energy conformations in the gas phase [36]. Somewhat surprisingly, implicit solvent models proved

Isolation and structure determination of a tetrameric sulfonyl dilithio methandiide in solution based on crystal structure analysis and ⁶Li/¹³C NMR spectroscopic data

• Jürgen Vollhardt,
• Hans Jörg Lindner and
• Hans-Joachim Gais

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2057–2063, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.172

• , electrostatic interaction with and charge polarization by the positively charged sulfur atom [56] and silicon atom [57], and negative nC–σ*SPh hyperconjugation [56][58]. The anions of (2a)4·(THF)6 and (2a)6·Li2O·(THF)6 adopt conformations around the carbon sulfur bond, which would allow for stabilization by

How and why plants and human N-glycans are different: Insight from molecular dynamics into the “glycoblocks” architecture of complex carbohydrates

• Carl A. Fogarty,
• Aoife M. Harbison,
• Amy R. Dugdale and
• Elisa Fadda

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2046–2056, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.171

• , namely the three gg, gt and tg conformations for each 1-6 torsion. The topology file for each structure was obtained using tleap [31], with parameters from the GLYCAM06-j1 [32] for the carbohydrate atoms and with TIP3P for water molecules [33]. All calculations were run with the AMBER18 software package

• cpptraj [31] and visually analysed with the Visual Molecular Dynamics (VMD) software package [34]. Root mean square deviation (RMSD) and torsion angles values were measured using VMD. A density-based clustering method was used to calculate the populations of occupied conformations for each torsion angle

• the central xylose. As outcomes of the complex interaction the branched arms can establish, the equilibrium of the (1-6) arm is restrained in conformations previously not significantly populated, see Figure 4 and Supporting Information File 1, Table S7, and the GlcNAc-β(1-2)-Man linkage in both arms

pH- and concentration-dependent supramolecular self-assembly of a naturally occurring octapeptide

• Goutam Ghosh and
• Gustavo Fernández

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2017–2025, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.168

• 24 h, which suggested the formation of very stable conformations under the investigated conditions. Although the mechanism of transformation is not clear to us at this stage, we hypothesize that multiple intermolecular interactions may play an important role in the transformation. At high

• concentrations, peptide molecules can come into closer contact and experience strong intermolecular attractive forces to facilitate the β-sheet formation, whereas a low concentration may preferentially favor coiled or helical conformations by salt bridges between positively charged (Arg+) and negatively charged