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

Cu(OTf)₂-catalyzed multicomponent reactions

• Sara Colombo,
• Camilla Loro,
• Egle M. Beccalli,
• Gianluigi Broggini and
• Marta Papis

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 122–145, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.7

• ] cycloaddition reaction with the nitroalkene produces the pyrrolidine XXVII, which then aromatizes by extrusion of HNO2 (Scheme 21) [38]. Substituted pyrrolidines 30 were achieved in an enantioselective form starting from amino acid esters, electron-poor olefins and 4-substituted-2-picolinaldehydes or 4

Recent advances in organocatalytic atroposelective reactions

• Henrich Szabados and
• Radovan Šebesta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 55–121, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.6

Non-covalent organocatalyzed enantioselective cyclization reactions of α,β-unsaturated imines

• Sergio Torres-Oya and
• Mercedes Zurro

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3221–3255, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.268

• furnish the cycloaddition product 13a. In 2019, Xu’s group published a bifunctional squaramide-catalyzed inverse electron demand aza-Diels–Alder reaction of saccharin-derived 1-azadienes 14 and azlactones 15 [27]. This methodology enables chiral tricyclic derivatives 16 bearing a quaternary amino acid

Synthesis of extended fluorinated tripeptides based on the tetrahydropyridazine scaffold

• Thierry Milcent,
• Pascal Retailleau,
• Benoit Crousse and
• Sandrine Ongeri

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3174–3181, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.262

• than half a century [20]. In this context and in our ongoing effort to synthesize fluorinated non-proteinogenic linear or cyclic β-amino acids [21][22], it appeared attractive to build fluorinated β-analogs of dehydropiperazic acid (Figure 3). This novel fluorinated amino acid 1 will combine the

• could easily be synthesized under the same reaction conditions starting from the corresponding hydrazide amino acid. Compounds 3e and 3f were obtained as a mixture of conformers (1:1 ratio) which is often observed with N-acylhydrazones [29][30][31]. Indeed, in theory, N-acylhydrazones can exhibit four

• can be noticed that the presence of an amino acid is compatible with the conditions of the reaction and did not interfere or significantly decrease the yield of the reaction (Scheme 3). Then, the N-carboxylate hydrazides 5a–d were firstly oxidized with iodine in the presence of potassium carbonate to

Multicomponent reactions driving the discovery and optimization of agents targeting central nervous system pathologies

• Lucía Campos-Prieto,
• Aitor García-Rey,
• Eddy Sotelo and
• Ana Mallo-Abreu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3151–3173, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.261

• this study, they employed the Bucherer–Bergs reaction, a versatile multicomponent reaction which enables the formation of a hydantoin that represents a masked amino acid functionality (Scheme 21). After subsequent saponification and acidification, the desired compound crystallizes along with impurities

Hypervalent iodine-mediated intramolecular alkene halocyclisation

• Charu Bansal,
• Oliver Ruggles,
• Albert C. Rowett and
• Alastair J. J. Lennox

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3113–3133, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.258

• of a range of N-allyl carboxamides 31 with PhI(OAc)2 and TMSBr formed 5-bromomethyl-2-oxazolines 71 in excellent yields. In 2015, Wang and co-workers reported the bromocyclisation of allylamino alcohols 72 to give chiral morpholines 73 (Scheme 38) [56]. Using an amino acid-derived chiral HVI reagent

• formed a range of 5-iodomethyl-2-aryloxazolines 84 in good yields (Scheme 45). In addition to the synthesis of brominated morpholines, Wang and co-workers reported the synthesis of chiral iodinated morpholines 85 (Scheme 46) [56]. Using an amino acid-derived chiral iodine(III) reagent with KI and NaOAc

• . Iodoetherification of 2,2-diphenyl-4-penten-1-carboxylic acid (47’) and 2,2-diphenyl-4-penten-1-ol (47). Synthesis of 5-iodomethyl-2-oxazolines. Synthesis of chiral iodinated morpholines. aFrom the ʟ-form of the amino acid starting material. The dr values were determined by 1H NMR given in parentheses

Advances in the use of metal-free tetrapyrrolic macrocycles as catalysts

• Mandeep K. Chahal

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3085–3112, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.257

• other binding sites required for substrate binding and/or promotion of the catalytic activity. Past studies have shown that modifying the porphyrin core with urea functionalities and amino acid substituents leads to the formation of ureaporphyrins, which significantly enhance sugar binding in non-polar

Chemical structure metagenomics of microbial natural products: surveying nonribosomal peptides and beyond

• Thomas Ma and
• John Chu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3050–3060, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.253

• identity of the amino acid BB it recognizes and activates, can be predicted based on its gene sequence alone [40]. Numerous prediction algorithms of this kind have been reported since [40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49]. The A domains are highly conserved in terms of both structure and sequence [41

• , respectively. Based on the position of the nucleophile, a NRP can be cyclized head-to-tail, via an amino acid side-chain, a nucleophilic heteroatom on the N-terminal fatty acyl chain, or as a multimer of repeating sub-structures (Figure 5b). The ring size, ratio of ʟ- and ᴅ-amino acids, etc. may also be the

• studies, because translating their modular biosynthetic logic into a chemical synthetic scheme is rather straightforward [86]. Aside from constructing the core molecular scaffold of these natural products, further modifications may be installed either before or after the assembly of the amino acid or

gem-Difluorovinyl and trifluorovinyl Michael acceptors in the synthesis of α,β-unsaturated fluorinated and nonfluorinated amides

• Monika Bilska-Markowska,
• Marcin Kaźmierczak,
• Wojciech Jankowski and
• Marcin Hoffmann

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2946–2953, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.247

• remarkable stereoselectivity, a finding elucidated by DFT analysis. These results mark significant progress toward the synthesis of novel fluorinated building blocks. Our team is currently exploring the application of this methodology to amino acid substrates, aiming to contribute further to the burgeoning

Recent advances in transition-metal-free arylation reactions involving hypervalent iodine salts

• Ritu Mamgain,
• Kokila Sakthivel and
• Fateh V. Singh

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2891–2920, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.243

• factors like steric hindrance. The ring opening proceeded smoothly when nucleophiles with higher nucleophilicity are used yielding up to 99% of the desired products 43. The N-arylation of amino acid esters 44 was established with the utility of substituted phenyl(anisyl)iodonium triflate salts 45 (Scheme

N-Glycosides of indigo, indirubin, and isoindigo: blue, red, and yellow sugars and their cancerostatic activity

• Peter Langer

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2840–2869, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.240

• , and Parkinson's disease, cardiovascular diseases, inflammation, AIDS and others have their origin in context with the activities of protein kinases, such as glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3β) and cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK’s). The phosphorylation of the amino acid moieties of several enzymes is

Synthesis and antimycotic activity of new derivatives of imidazo[1,2-a]pyrimidines

• Dmitriy Yu. Vandyshev,
• Daria A. Mangusheva,
• Khidmet S. Shikhaliev,
• Kirill A. Scherbakov,
• Oleg N. Burov,
• Alexander D. Zagrebaev,
• Tatiana N. Khmelevskaya,
• Alexey S. Trenin and
• Fedor I. Zubkov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2806–2817, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.236

• ) Superposition of docked compounds 4a–e and 5e in a CYP51 ACb. aThe amino acid residues of the protein are colored green, compound 4e is colored gold and the haem is colored grey. The heterocyclic nitrogen of compound 5e appears to be orientated towards iron and is located 2.8 Å away from it, which may indicate

Applications of microscopy and small angle scattering techniques for the characterisation of supramolecular gels

• Connor R. M. MacDonald and
• Emily R. Draper

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2608–2634, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.220

• structures formed by the self-assembly of amino acid-appended perylene bisimides (PBIs) [83]. They found that the average fibre length was a critical nanostructural feature for affording a desirable mechanoresponsive property, that is the change in conductivity under a bending force, in PBI films. Therefore

A review of recent advances in electrochemical and photoelectrochemical late-stage functionalization classified by anodic oxidation, cathodic reduction, and paired electrolysis

• Nian Li,
• Ruzal Sitdikov,
• Ajit Prabhakar Kale,
• Joost Steverlynck,
• Bo Li and
• Magnus Rueping

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2500–2566, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.214

Tandem diazotization/cyclization approach for the synthesis of a fused 1,2,3-triazinone-furazan/furoxan heterocyclic system

• Yuri A. Sidunets,
• Valeriya G. Melekhina and
• Leonid L. Fershtat

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2342–2348, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.200

• , furoxancarboxamides 2f–h bearing aliphatic substituents or amino acid residues also smoothly underwent the studied tandem protocol and the corresponding biheterocyclic compounds 1f–h were obtained in yields of 45–77%. After having developed a general method for the synthesis of target furoxanotriazinones 1a–h, we

• found to be suitable for the preparation of a library of new biheterocyclic molecules bearing aromatic and aliphatic substituents as well as incorporating amino acid residues. The obtained furoxanotriazinones have demonstrated a moderate NO-releasing ability across a wide range of concentrations under

Improved deconvolution of natural products’ protein targets using diagnostic ions from chemical proteomics linkers

• Andreas Wiest and
• Pavel Kielkowski

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2323–2341, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.199

• and amino acid remain unknown. In contrast, the peptide-level identification is focused on the characterization of the actual probe-modified peptides. It might be more challenging as a larger protein amount to start with is necessary and the fragments of the probe-modified peptides may not be trivial

• , in this case, the cysteine thiols were derivatized and the cysteine C–S bond was previously described to be susceptible to fragmentation, the fragments containing the thiol provide the information on the structure of the modified amino acid side chain [107][108]. Although the study was focused on the

Stereoselective mechanochemical synthesis of thiomalonate Michael adducts via iminium catalysis by chiral primary amines

• Michał Błauciak,
• Dominika Andrzejczyk,
• Błażej Dziuk and
• Rafał Kowalczyk

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2313–2322, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.198

• planetary mill. Further variations of system A concerned the acid’s role. However, no impact of the acid was noted while using the amino acid derivative AC-2, but the dramatic loss of selectivity was observed in the case of chiral phosphoric acid’s application AC-3. Thus, it is rather unlikely the iminium

Deuterated reagents in multicomponent reactions to afford deuterium-labeled products

• Kevin Schofield,
• Shayna Maddern,
• Yueteng Zhang,
• Grace E. Mastin,
• Rachel Knight,
• Wei Wang,
• James Galligan and
• Christopher Hulme

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2270–2279, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.195

• Strecker reaction [44][45] where a cyanide, aldehyde, and amine react to afford α-aminonitriles. Compound 5c was converted to the deuterated amino acid 5d under acidic conditions. This finding opens up the possibility of scale-production of deuterium-labeled α-amino acids. Deuterated Strecker products are

Cell-free protein synthesis with technical additives – expanding the parameter space of in vitro gene expression

• Tabea Bartsch,
• Stephan Lütz and
• Katrin Rosenthal

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2242–2253, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.192

• used to establish a reference CFPS synthesis under standard conditions containing 2% PEG-8000. A concentration of 1.77 mg/mL sfGFP was obtained after 4 hours. The calculated fractional yield of 114% based on the added amino acid concentration is higher than expected, which can be explained either by

Computational toolbox for the analysis of protein–glycan interactions

• Ferran Nieto-Fabregat,
• Maria Pia Lenza,
• Angela Marseglia,
• Cristina Di Carluccio,
• Antonio Molinaro,
• Alba Silipo and
• Roberta Marchetti

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2084–2107, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.180

• -translational modifications, including glycosylation, in which a carbohydrate chain is directly attached to a specific amino acid to generate glycoproteins and proteoglycans [27]. Based on the amino acid involved in the link with the carbohydrates chain, it is possible to classify different types of

• its amino acid sequence and the structure of a related protein that is already known. However, also template-free PSP has obtained significant progress recently via machine learning and search-based optimisation approaches [87]. There are several software programs and tools available for homology

• effective drug design. Moreover, ab initio prediction of a protein's structure only from its amino acid sequence remains unsolved. Accessing Rosetta molecular modelling software tools (https://www.rosettacommons.org/software) has traditionally required expertise in the Unix command line environment

Negishi-coupling-enabled synthesis of α-heteroaryl-α-amino acid building blocks for DNA-encoded chemical library applications

• Matteo Gasparetto,
• Balázs Fődi and
• Gellért Sipos

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1922–1932, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.168

• applicable to a broad range of substrates, however, it utilizes a catalyst that is not commercially available and small heteroaromatic rings are underrepresented in the scope. Recognizing the importance of small heteroaromatic rings and the amino acid motif in medicinal chemistry [30][31][32][33], and aiming

Access to 2-oxoazetidine-3-carboxylic acid derivatives via thermal microwave-assisted Wolff rearrangement of 3-diazotetramic acids in the presence of nucleophiles

• Ivan Lyutin,
• Vasilisa Krivovicheva,
• Grigory Kantin and
• Dmitry Dar’in

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1894–1899, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.164

• derivatives (mainly amides) exhibit various types of biological activity, among which the following can be highlighted: inhibition of β-lactamases [4][5], antitubercular properties [6], antiproliferative and antibacterial activity [7], herbicidal properties [8][9], inhibition of neutral amino acid transporter

2-Heteroarylethylamines in medicinal chemistry: a review of 2-phenethylamine satellite chemical space

• Carlos Nieto,
• Alejandro Manchado,
• Ángel García-González,
• David Díez and
• Narciso M. Garrido

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1880–1893, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.163

• -heteroarylethylamine chemical space is constituted by the biogenic amine histamine (43). In a similar fashion as dopamine and epinephrine produced from ʟ-phenylalanine along the catecholamine pathway, histamine is generated from the amino acid ʟ-histidine (42) via enzymatic decarboxylation promoted by ʟ-histidine

• diffusion features related to these changes. The amino acid ʟ-histidine has attracted the attention of the medicinal chemistry community due to its properties not only in the aforementioned histaminergic system, but also as metal-ion chelator, proton buffering modulator, and antioxidant. Considering the

• originally synthesized by Palazzo et al. [76] and several other derivatives were developed based on ethylamine-chain homologation [77]. Triazoles: Hall and co-workers [78] developed 1,2,3-triazolyl analogues 111 of ʟ-histidine for ʟ-type amino acid transporter 1 (LAT1) activity, a sodium-independent membrane

The Groebke–Blackburn–Bienaymé reaction in its maturity: innovation and improvements since its 21st birthday (2019–2023)

• Cristina Martini,
• Muhammad Idham Darussalam Mardjan and
• Andrea Basso

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1839–1879, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.162