Conformational analysis of difluoromethylornithine: factors influencing its gas-phase and bioactive conformations

• Matheus P. Freitas

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2026, 22, 237–243, doi:10.3762/bjoc.22.17

• intermolecular interactions in biological environments. This study clarifies the electronic origin of DFMO’s gauche effect and provides insight into how local electronic factors determine the structure of fluorinated amino acid derivatives. Keywords: conformational analysis; difluoromethylornithine; gauche

• balance shifts, since strong intermolecular interactions – especially hydrogen bonding with amino acid residues – favor a type-II geometry as the predominant bioconformation. Nevertheless, when different conformers engage in comparable intermolecular interactions, intramolecular effects such as the gauche

• amino acid residues and water molecules, while the ligand is delineated by a contour line to distinguish it from the binding cavity. Lowest-energy type-I, type-II, and type-III conformers of the zwitterionic form of (S)-DFMO. Color labels: H = blue, C = pink, N = orange, O = red, F = yellow. DFT

Screwing the helical chirality through terminal peri-functionalization

• Devesh Chandra,
• Sachin and
• Upendra Sharma

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2026, 22, 205–212, doi:10.3762/bjoc.22.14

• helical chiral entities was reported by Wang and co-workers. They reported an organocatalyzed asymmetric synthesis of phosphorus-containing chiral helicenes enabled by dynamic kinetic resolution using copper and peptide-mimetic phosphonium salts, i.e. amino acid-derived phosphonium iodide and bromide as

Asymmetric Mannich reaction of aromatic imines with malonates in the presence of multifunctional catalysts

• Kadri Kriis,
• Harry Martõnov,
• Annette Miller,
• Mia Peterson,
• Ivar Järving and
• Tõnis Kanger

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2026, 22, 151–157, doi:10.3762/bjoc.22.8

• synthesized and screened in asymmetric Mannich reaction. The reaction of aromatic imines with malonates in the presence of amino acid-derived catalysts gave Mannich adducts in very high enantiomeric purities (up to 98% ee). It is proposed that a network of hydrogen and halogen bonds with Lewis bases, together

• between the catalyst and the reagents. The chirality of the catalysts is derived from either amino acid or amino alcohols (including cinchona alkaloid derivatives). There are three exceptional structures: catalysts A-H and E-H, which are the hydrogen analogues of the corresponding iodine-containing

• % ee, Table 1, entry 6). Aminoindane-based catalysts C and D were inefficient and stereomeric purity of the products were not determined (Table 1, entries 7 and 8). The next group of catalysts consists of amino acid derivatives. The most selective was tert-leucine-based catalyst E affording the Mannich

Total synthesis of asperdinones B, C, D, E and terezine D

• Ravi Devarajappa and
• Stephen Hanessian

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2730–2738, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.210

• conditions that would be incompatible with the presence of an amino acid appendage at C-3. 7-Prenylindole has been prepared from N-Boc-indoline in the presence of sec-BuLi, TMEDA, and prenyl bromide at −78 °C, followed by oxidation with MnO2 [51]. We deemed it necessary to explore alternative synthetic

• amino acid reagent that could be removed under non-acidic conditions after the cross-coupling reaction. To this end, we prepared iodo N-Fmoc-ᴅ-alanyl anthranilamide methyl ester 29 from ᴅ-serine. Treatment of prenylindoles 14–17 with iodine and KOH followed by acetylation afforded the corresponding

Efficient solid-phase synthesis and structural characterization of segetalins A–H, J and K

• Liangyu Liu,
• Wanqiu Lu,
• Quanping Guo and
• Zhaoqing Xu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2612–2617, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.202

• (Caryophyllaceae), are head-to-tail cyclic oligopeptides comprising 5–9 amino acid residues [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. These natural products exhibit a significant diversity of pharmacological activities [14][15][16], including estrogen-like activity (1, 2, 7, 8), antitumor effects (5), and antimicrobial

• electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HRESIMS) data for all compounds matched the calculated exact masses for their respective molecular formulas. NMR spectroscopic analysis in appropriate deuterated solvents (e.g., DMSO-d6, D2O) fully corroborated the amino acid sequence and cyclic connectivity

Comparative analysis of complanadine A total syntheses

• Reem Al-Ahmad and
• Mingji Dai

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2334–2344, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.178

• -oxidized analog and complanadines D and E are partially reduced analogs. In addition, natural analogs such as lycoplatyrine A (6), isolated as a mixture of diastereomers, were discovered as derivatives of lycodine and an amino acid [11]. Biosynthetically, lysine was proposed to be the starting point of

Research towards selective inhibition of the CLK3 kinase

• Vinay Kumar Singh,
• Frédéric Justaud,
• Dabbugoddu Brahmaiah,
• Nangunoori Sampath Kumar,
• Blandine Baratte,
• Thomas Robert,
• Stéphane Bach,
• Chada Raji Reddy,
• Nicolas Levoin and
• René L. Grée

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2250–2259, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.172

• [22]. But because our goal is to enhance activity for CLK3, we cannot take advantage of this amino acid variation, and we had to investigate for other differences between CLKs. Here, we report our strategy and first efforts towards this end, starting from compound DB18 which is highly potent and

• , examination of the structure of CLK3 shows that this key lysine 241 is very close to the entry of the ATP binding site (Figure 1B). Lysine 241 could be considered as an opportunity to design new molecules with an improved affinity to CLK3, by adding specific interactions with this amino acid bearing a primary

A m-quaterphenyl probe for absolute configurational assignments of primary and secondary amines

• Yuka Takeuchi,
• Mutsumi Kobayashi,
• Yuuka Gotoh,
• Mari Ikeda,
• Yoichi Habata,
• Tomohiko Shirai and
• Shunsuke Kuwahara

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2211–2219, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.168

• Shibazono, Narashino, Chiba 275-0023, Japan Research Center for Materials with Integrated Properties, Toho University, 2-2-1 Miyama, Funabashi, Chiba 274-8510, Japan 10.3762/bjoc.21.168 Abstract We report a method for determining the absolute configurations of chiral amino alcohols, amino acid esters, and

• amines. In this work, we report that the method was applied to chiral amino alcohols and amino acid esters. We also applied the method to chiral secondary amines, for which it is generally difficult to determine the absolute configuration due to the conformational complexity of their derivatives [33]. By

• comparing the observed and calculated sign of the CD Cotton effect, their absolute configurations were determined. Results and Discussion The probe 1 was prepared as described previously [41]. Probe 1–primary amine conjugates 2a–e were prepared by the reaction of 1 with chiral amino alcohols and amino acid

C2 to C6 biobased carbonyl platforms for fine chemistry

• Jingjing Jiang,
• Muhammad Noman Haider Tariq,
• Florence Popowycz,
• Yanlong Gu and
• Yves Queneau

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2103–2172, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.165

Further elaboration of the stereodivergent approach to chaetominine-type alkaloids: synthesis of the reported structures of aspera chaetominines A and B and revised structure of aspera chaetominine B

• Jin-Fang Lü,
• Jiang-Feng Wu,
• Jian-Liang Ye and
• Pei-Qiang Huang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2072–2081, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.162

• compound 14, an intermediate in our synthesis of (–)-isochaetominine A (4) [63]. Indeed, EDCI/HOBt-mediated lactamization of 14 derived amino acid (not shown) via debenzylation increased the yield of (–)-isochaetominine A (4) from 75% to 91% (Scheme 1). Thus, overall yield of the total synthesis of

• (–)-isochaetominine A (4) increased to 30.8% over five steps. Similarly, EDCI/HOBt-mediated lactamization of amino acid (not shown) derived from 15 [63] via debenzylation produced the known (–)-2,3,14-tris-epi-isochaetominine C (16) with a significantly increased 92% yield. The epoxidation-triggered stereodivergent

Rhodium-catalysed connective synthesis of diverse reactive probes bearing S(VI) electrophilic warheads

• Scott Rice,
• Julian Chesti,
• William R. T. Mosedale,
• Megan H. Wright,
• Stephen P. Marsden,
• Terry K. Smith and
• Adam Nelson

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1924–1931, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.150

• ][3]. Established sets of reactive probes are typically armed with electrophilic warheads that have the potential to target nucleophilic amino acid side chains. Most reactive probe sets bear cysteine-directed warheads [3][4][5][6][7], although sets have also been designed to target a wider range of

Synthesis, biological and electrochemical evaluation of glycidyl esters of phosphorus acids as potential anticancer drugs

• Almaz A. Zagidullin,
• Emil R. Bulatov,
• Mikhail N. Khrizanforov,
• Damir R. Davletshin,
• Elvina M. Gilyazova,
• Ivan A. Strelkov and
• Vasily A. Miluykov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1909–1916, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.148

• oxidation of amide and other amino acid side‐chain fragments. By tracking changes in this oxidation signal upon addition of an alkylating agent, we can infer whether the agent has effectively reacted with (and thus structurally altered) the protein. As illustrated by the black trace in the LSV plot, pure

• . When these agents alkylate the HSA amino acid residues (particularly reactive sites like lysine, cysteine, serine NH2, SH, OH-side chains, and possibly other nucleophilic groups), the resulting covalent modification can disrupt the electroactive centers responsible for the protein’s oxidation peaks

Systematic pore lipophilization to enhance the efficiency of an amine-based MOF catalyst in the solvent-free Knoevenagel reaction

• Pricilla Matseketsa,
• Margret Kumbirayi Ruwimbo Pagare and
• Tendai Gadzikwa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1854–1863, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.144

• efficiency. Keywords: metal-organic frameworks; post-synthesis modification; supramolecular catalysis; Introduction Most enzymatic reactions take place in multifunctional cavities in which multiple amino acid residues work cooperatively to orient and activate reactants [1][2][3]. These residues may also

• by increasing the binding affinity for the lipophilic reactants and by decreasing the energy required to desolvate acid/base amino acid catalysts [34][35]. Lipophilicity has also been found to be beneficial in condensation reactions as the removed water molecules are repelled by the hydrophobic

Photoswitches beyond azobenzene: a beginner’s guide

• Michela Marcon,
• Christoph Haag and
• Burkhard König

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1808–1853, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.143

N-Salicyl-amino acid derivatives with antiparasitic activity from Pseudomonas sp. UIAU-6B

• Joy E. Rajakulendran,
• Emmanuel Tope Oluwabusola,
• Michela Cerone,
• Terry K. Smith,
• Olusoji O. Adebisi,
• Adefolalu Adedotun,
• Gagan Preet,
• Sylvia Soldatou,
• Hai Deng,
• Rainer Ebel and
• Marcel Jaspars

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1388–1396, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.103

• by HPLC with a wavelength monitored at 340 nm of the derivatized amino acid residuals in the hydrolysate and threonine standards (see Supporting Information File 1, Figure S24). Compound 3 was isolated as a yellow oil. Its molecular formula of C11H11NO4 (Δ: −0.3 ppm, calcd. for C11H10NO4, 220.0615

Oxetanes: formation, reactivity and total syntheses of natural products

• Peter Gabko,
• Martin Kalník and
• Maroš Bella

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1324–1373, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.101

A versatile route towards 6-arylpipecolic acids

• Erich Gebel,
• Cornelia Göcke,
• Carolin Gruner and
• Norbert Sewald

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1104–1115, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.88

• Erich Gebel Cornelia Gocke Carolin Gruner Norbert Sewald Department of Chemistry, Organic and Bioorganic Chemistry, Bielefeld University, Universitätsstraße 25, D-33615 Bielefeld, Germany 10.3762/bjoc.21.88 Abstract Pipecolic acid is known as a non-proteinogenic amino acid with a secondary amine

• aryl modifications in C6 position by utilising the chiral pool of a non-proteinogenic amino acid in combination with transition metal-catalysed cross-coupling reactions. Moreover, we present an in-depth NMR analysis of the key intermediate steps, which illustrates the conformational constraints in

Recent advances in controllable/divergent synthesis

• Jilei Cao,
• Leiyang Bai and
• Xuefeng Jiang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 890–914, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.73

• influence of steric and electronic effects during the hydrometallation process, simultaneously achieving the synthesis of chiral α-quaternary carbon amino acid derivatives 26 and α-chiral β-amino acid derivatives 27. Using a copper catalyst, the chiral α-quaternary carbon amino acid derivatives 26 were

• obtained with exclusive regioselectivity and excellent enantioselectivity. Employing a nickel catalyst, α-chiral β-amino acid derivatives 27 were synthesized with single regioselectivity and outstanding enantioselectivity. In the same year, Rong and co-workers reported a highly efficient catalyst

Origami with small molecules: exploiting the C–F bond as a conformational tool

• Patrick Ryan,
• Ramsha Iftikhar and
• Luke Hunter

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 680–716, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.54

Asymmetric synthesis of fluorinated derivatives of aromatic and γ-branched amino acids via a chiral Ni(II) complex

• Maurizio Iannuzzi,
• Thomas Hohmann,
• Michael Dyrks,
• Kilian Haoues,
• Katarzyna Salamon-Krokosz and
• Beate Koksch

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 659–669, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.52

• diastereomerically pure γ‑branched fluorinated amino acids. This work further underlines the importance of chiral Ni(II) complexes in the synthesis of fluorinated amino acids. Keywords: chiral nickel complexes; fluorinated amino acids; gram-scale amino acid synthesis; stereoselective synthesis; Introduction Non

• -natural amino acids are pivotal in protein engineering and drug development. Over 30% of approved small‑molecule drugs today contain non‑canonical amino acid building blocks [1][2]. In peptide and protein engineering, non‑natural amino acids significantly increase the respective range of tools used to

• -trifluoromethylphenylalanine ([2.3.5.6F]TfMePhe, 2) and bis(trifluoromethyl)phenylalanine (bisTfMePhe, 3) (Scheme 1). Neither amino acid has, to our knowledge, been described in the context of peptide chemistry yet. In general, fluorinated aromatic amino acids are essential building blocks that allow a modification of

Entry to 2-aminoprolines via electrochemical decarboxylative amidation of N‑acetylamino malonic acid monoesters

• Olesja Koleda,
• Janis Sadauskis,
• Darja Antonenko,
• Edvards Janis Treijs,
• Raivis Davis Steberis and
• Edgars Suna

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 630–638, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.50

• -disubstituted piperidine-containing amino acid subunits. Likewise, a cyano-substituted cyclic aminal is a core structural unit of the fibroblast activation protein inhibitor 5 [3] (Figure 1). The widespread use of non-proteinogenic cyclic amino acids in drug discovery justifies both the design of new analogs

• tetrahydropyran-containing amino acid derivatives via anodic decarboxylation of N-acetylamino malonic acid monoesters to generate a stabilized carbocation (Hofer–Moest conditions), which were then reacted with a tethered oxygen nucleophile [4]. In this follow-up study, we demonstrate that N-protected amines are

• , NaOAc) did not improve the efficiency of the anodic decarboxylation/cyclization reaction (Table 1, entries 2–4). Even though the amount of hemiaminal 10a was slightly reduced, the formation of amino acid ester 11a as side product was observed in the crude reaction mixture (Table 1, entries 2–4). The

Photocatalyzed elaboration of antibody-based bioconjugates

• Marine Le Stum,
• Eugénie Romero and
• Gary A. Molander

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 616–629, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.49

• different molecules, such as a drug and a targeting moiety. This technique has been shown to be useful in applications such as cell labeling, protein–protein interactions, and photoradiosynthesis of bioconjugates, but the most important challenge remains the lack of specificity to target one amino acid, and

• structures [38][39]. In 2021, Bottecchia and Noël reported the utility of photoredox catalysis for the functionalization of amino acid side chains, paving the way for tailored modifications in biotherapeutics [40]. More recently, Sato et al. have reviewed photochemical strategies enabled by a range of

• selectivity and the preservation of sensitive biological structures when appropriate redox potentials of photocatalysts are applied to the targeted amino acid. Additional advantages of photoinduced reactions include the ability to perform the reactions rapidly (typically <15 minutes). It was only in the late

Sequential two-step, one-pot microwave-assisted Urech synthesis of 5-monosubstituted hydantoins from L-amino acids in water

• Wei-Jin Chang,
• Sook Yee Liew,
• Thomas Kurz and
• Siow-Ping Tan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 596–600, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.46

• Discussion As the first step of Urech hydantoin synthesis involved the N-carbamylation of amino acids, we carried out the microwave-assisted synthesis of urea derivatives in water, utilizing ʟ-phenylaniline as the representative amino acid. The optimal conditions for the N-carbamylation of ʟ-phenylaniline

• amino acid. The hydantoins were found to be optically active (except for H2d), suggesting that enantiomeric information was preserved during the reaction (see Supporting Information File 1). Hydantoin yields (34–89%) are generally comparable to previously reported methods [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14

• -phenylalanine with the corresponding amino acid to obtain H2b,c and H2e,f. General procedure for the synthesis of (S)-5-((2,5-dioxoimidazolidin-4-yl)methyl)-1H-imidazol-3-ium chloride (H2d) A 30 mL microwave reactor vial was charged with ʟ-histidine (5 mmol), distilled water (7 mL), and potassium cyanate (25

Formaldehyde surrogates in multicomponent reactions

• Cecilia I. Attorresi,
• Javier A. Ramírez and
• Bernhard Westermann

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 564–595, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.45

• that the isocyanide component decomposes to an arylimine, which undergoes a cycloaddition with another isocyanide molecule to this byproduct. However, if an amino acid is exchanged for an amino ester, the reaction affords the corresponding product 43e (Scheme 40) as an amino acid derivative

Binding of tryptophan and tryptophan-containing peptides in water by a glucose naphtho crown ether

• Gianpaolo Gallo and
• Bartosz Lewandowski

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 541–546, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.42

• peptides [4][5]. Tryptophan also serves as a substrate to produce hormones such as serotonin or melatonin [6][7]. Due to the biological relevance of tryptophan synthetic receptors for this amino acid are highly sought after [8]. From a biological perspective it is especially desirable to achieve selective

• binding of tryptophan in water [9]. However, the development of selective amino acid receptors in aqueous environments is challenging since it requires a combination of hydrophobic and polar interactions for binding [10][11][12]. As a result, the number of reported selective receptors for tryptophan in

• aqueous media is limited (Figure 1a–c) [13][14][15][16][17][18]. In particular, receptors which bind tryptophan residues in peptides are rare [19][20]. Recently, we developed a glucose-based naphtho crown ether 1 (Figure 1d) which binds amino acid methyl esters with aromatic side chains chemoselectively