Isomerism biological compounds

Kingston EE, Beynon JH, Newton RP, Liehr JG. 1985. The differentiation of isomeric biological compounds using collision-induced dissociation of two ions generated by fast atom bombardment. Biomed Mass Spectrom 12 525-534. 

Irreversible processes are mainly appHed for the separation of heavy stable isotopes, where the separation factors of the more reversible methods, eg, distillation, absorption, or chemical exchange, are so low that the diffusion separation methods become economically more attractive. Although appHcation of these processes is presented in terms of isotope separation, the results are equally vaUd for the description of separation processes for any ideal mixture of very similar constituents such as close-cut petroleum fractions, members of a homologous series of organic compounds, isomeric chemical compounds, or biological materials. 

In the case of open-chain biological compounds, one only needs to consider sc and ap conformations. The conformations approaching the eclipsed cases, namely sp and ac, are to be taken as high-energy transition states and occur only as shortlived intermediates in rotational isomerizations. 

The compounds of this article, ie, ftve-membered heterocycles containing two adjacent nitrogen atoms, can best be discussed according to the number of double bonds present. Pyrazoles contain two double bonds within the nucleus, imparting an aromatic character to these molecules. They are stable compounds and can display the isomeric forms, (1) and (2), when properly substituted. Pyrazoles are scarce ia nature when compared to the imidazoles (3), which are widespread and have a central role ia many biological processes. 

The present work involves the study of methyl glycosides and O-isopropylidene ketals of various isomeric deoxy sugars by mass spectrometry. Several of the compounds selected for the present study have free hydroxyl groups, and interpretation of their mass spectra shows the scope of the study of these and related deoxy sugar derivatives by mass spectrometry without prior substitution of all hydroxyl groups. Some of the candidates (compounds 4, 7, 8 and 10) are structurally related to biologically-derived deoxy sugars. 

In the case of chiral molecules that are biologically active the desired activity almost always resides in only one of the enantiomers. The other enantiomer constitutes isomeric ballast that does not contribute towards the desired activity and may even exhibit unwanted side effects. Hence, there is a marked trend in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and flavours and fragrances towards the marketing of products as enantiomerically pure compounds. This, in turn, has generated a demand for economical methods for the synthesis of pure enantiomers (Sheldon, 1993a). 

Carotenoids are a class of lipophilic compounds with a polyisoprenoid structure. Most carotenoids contain a series of conjugated double bonds, which are sensitive to oxidative modification and cis-trans isomerization. There are six major carotenoids (ji-carotenc, a-carotene, lycopene, P-cryptoxanthin, lutein, and zeaxanthin) that can be routinely found in human plasma and tissues. Among them, p-carotene has been the most extensively studied. More recently, lycopene has attracted considerable attention due to its association with a decreased risk of certain chronic diseases, including cancers. Considerable efforts have been expended in order to identify its biological and physiochemical properties. Relative to P-carotene, lycopene has the same molecular mass and chemical formula, yet lycopene is an open-polyene chain lacking the P-ionone ring structure. While the metabolism of P-carotene has been extensively studied, the metabolism of lycopene remains poorly understood. 

The existence of isomeric polycyclic aromatic diol epoxide compounds provides rich opportunities for attempting to correlate biological activities with the physico-chemical reaction mechanisms, and conformational and biochemical properties of the covalent DNA adduct8 which are formed. 

The most widely used route to l-benzazepin-2-ones involves the Beckmann or Schmidt reaction of the easily accessible 1-tetralones. Many biologically active compounds described in this review have been prepared on the basis of these reactions they have been fully reviewed [2], In the Beckmann reaction of 1-tetralone oximes, polyphosphoric acid is used as a catalyst-solvent in most instances. Aryl migration generally takes precedence over alkyl migration under these reaction conditions, and various 1-tetralone oximes substituted on the aromatic and/or aliphatic rings can be converted to the appropriate 2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-l//-l-benzazepin-2-ones (51) [5, 20-23, 36, 59, 65, 80, 107-112]. Both courses of the rearrangement occur in some instances, yielding l-benzazepin-2-ones (51) and the isomeric 2-benzazepine-l-ones, probably due to electronic effects of the substituents [90, 113, 114]. 

Molecular complexation is a precondition for receptor functions such as substrate selection, substrate transportation, isomeric differentiation, and stereoselective catalysis. Although the investigation of such functions with synthetically derived compounds is a relatively new development in chemistry, they are well known and extensively studied functions in the biological domain. Evolution, gene expression, cell division, DNA replication, protein synthesis, immunological response, hormonal control, ion transportation, and enzymic catalysis are only some of the many examples where molecular complexation is a prerequisite for observing a biological process. 

Rare or unnatural monosaccharides have many useful applications as nonnutritive sweeteners, glycosidase inhibitors and so on. For example, L-glucose and L-fructose are known to be low-calorie sweeteners. In addition, rare or unnatural monosaccharides are potentially useful as chiral building blocks for the synthesis of biologically active compounds. Therefore, these compounds have been important targets for the development of enzymatic synthesis based in the use of DHAP-dependent aldolases alone or in combination with isomerases. Fessner et al. showed that rare ketose-1-phosphates could be reached not only by aldol addition catalyzed by DHAP-dependent aldolases, but by enzymatic isomerization/ phosphorylation of aldoses [35]. Thus, for example, L-fructose can be prepared... 

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