Activation diazirines

Work on diazirine synthesis during the last 10 years has not led to fundamentally new ways either of diaziridine formation or of diaziridine dehydrogenation, in spite of the remarkable volume of synthetic activity, for example, in the search for biologically active diazirines. 

First order decomposition was established for dimethyldiazirine (215) and ethylmethyl-diazirine (216). The activation energy is 139 kJ moF for (215) the half life at 100 °C is 97 h. On decomposition of (216) the products formed and their respective yields are as indicated. The products correspond qualitatively and quantitatively with the results of thermal decomposition of 2-diazobutane formed in situ in aprotic solvents. Analogous comparisons of decomposition products of diethyldiazirine, isopropylmethyldiazirine, n-butyl- and t-butyl-diazirine agree equally well 66TL1733). 

Synthesis of steroidal diazirines has led to some biologically active compounds (65JA2665). The observation that diazirines and their parent ketones are identical in smell (B-67MI50800), points to the possibility that a diazirine group may stand for a keto group vis-d-vis a receptor. 

The second intermediate s identity has been debated since the mid-1980s. In 1984, Liu and Tomioka suggested that it was a carbene-alkenc complex (CAC).17 Similar complexes had been previously postulated to rationalize the negative activation energies observed in certain carbene-alkene addition reactions.11,30 A second intermediate is not limited to the CAC, however. In fact any other intermediate, in addition to the carbene, will satisfy the kinetic observations i.e., that a correlation of addn/rearr vs. [alkene] is curved, whereas the double reciprocal plot is linear.31 Proposed second intermediates include the CAC,17 an excited carbene,31 a diazo compound,23 or an excited diazirine.22,26 We will consider the last three proposals collectively below as rearrangements in the excited state (RIES). 

Three possibilities were considered to account for the curved Arrhenius plots and unusual KIEs (a) the 1,2-H shift might feature a variational transition state due to the low activation energy (4.9 kcal/mol60) and quite negative activation entropy (b) MeCCl could react by two or more competing pathways, each with a different activation energy (e.g., 1,2-H shift and azine formation by reaction with the diazirine precursor) (c) QMT could occur.60 The first possibility was discounted because calculations by Storer and Houk indicated that the 1,2-H shift was adequately described by conventional transition state theory.63 Option (b) was excluded because the Arrhenius curvature persisted after correction of the 1,2-H shift rate constants for the formation of minor side products (azine).60... 

The Arrhenius curvature could be attributed to the occurrence of two competing reactions with different activation energies. However, photolysis of 9a at —80°C afforded only p-chlorostyrenes 11a and 12a no carbene-solvent insertion product was detected, and reaction of the carbene with diazirine to give azine was considered unimportant at the diazirine concentrations employed. 

It has been found that the catalytic activity of PKC is enhanced by a lipid component of the cell membrane, namely phosphatidylserine. This activity is further stimulated by sn-1,2-diacylglycerol. Oleic acid also activates the enzyme in the presence of 1,2-diacylglycerol, and thus it is presumed to mimic phosphatidylserine. In order to identify that modulating binding site for oleic acid on PKC, a photoaffinity analogue was devised. A carbene generating photophore, diazirine was placed in the apolar terminus of the unsaturated fatty acid ligand (30, Fig. 12). The synthesis and the photochemical activation properties were reported by Ruhmann and Wentrup [113]. 

FVP treatment of both isolated samples 300 and 301 resulted in a mixture containing 300 + 301 this finding revealed that these two compounds can be mutually transformed into each other under forced conditions. Upon some kinetic measurements (determination of a negative activation entropy), the authors concluded that the ring transformation probably proceeds via a concerted sigmatropic shift to an antiaromatic diazirine intermediate. 

Kinetic analysis of the rearrangement of benzylfluorocarbene, generated by laser flash photolysis of the corresponding diazirine, gave a rate constant of 9.2 x 106 s 1 at 26 °C with activation entropy —17.2 eu and activation energy 3.25 0.34 kcal mol-1, very similar to the values for the chlorocarbene.80 A product analysis study of the thermolysis and photolysis of the diazirine (73) in the presence of tetramethylethylene showed tiiat die ring-expanded cyclobutene and the cyclopropanation products do not arise via a common intermediate.81 The ring expansion was proposed to occur by loss of N2 from the diradical intermediate (74). 

Methylhydroxycarbene, MeC(OH), has been generated in one of the three reaction pathways of the collision-induced dissociation of protonated butane-2,3-dione.13 Its enthalpy of formation was found to be 16 4 kcalmol-1. Fluorophenoxycarbene (PhOCF) has been generated inside a hydrophobic hemicarcerand (1) by irradiation of the corresponding confined diazirine.14 Its reactivity (especially dimerization and reaction with water) was significantly lowered by the incarceration, allowing its persistence for days at room temperature. New (amino)(silyl)carbenes (2) have been generated and their structure-activity relationship studied. They showed behaviour similar to those of previously reported (amino)(alkyl)carbene.15... 

Fig. 4 Examples of A/BPs containing the diazirine moiety used to study active metalloenzymes...

Another direct comparison between the photophores, although not in an activity-based setting, was reported by Tate and coworkers [87]. They synthesized dUTP analogs containing four different photoreactive moieties 84a-d (Fig. 9a) and incorporated them enzymatically into DNA constructs. With these, the DNA PAL of yeast RNA polymerase III transcription complexes was studied. It was shown that photolabeling with the diazirine construct (84d) rendered many protein-DNA contacts, whereas labeling with the other three photoreactive moieties (84a-c) proved only marginal. 

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