Molecular mechanistic probe

By using the hypersensitive molecular mechanistic probe 2-(2-methoxy-3-phenylcy-clopropyl)-5-methylhexa-2,4-diene in the 2 + 2-photocycloaddition of [60]fullerene, it was shown that the reaction proceeds via a biradical and not a dipolar intermediate.6 Zirconium-induced cyclodimerization of heteroaryl-substituted alkynes produces tetrasubstituted cyclobutenes with high regio- and stereo-selectivity.7 The ruthenium-... 

Pinene hydroperoxide (PHP) when compared with r-butyl hydroperoxide has been proposed as an excellent mechanistic probe in metal-catalysed oxidations. " If inter-molecular oxygen transfer from a peroxometal species to the substrate is rate limiting, the bulky PHP is unreactive, but for reaction of an oxometal species as the rate-limiting step, little or no difference is observed and only small differences in reactivity are observed when re-oxidation of the catalyst by ROOH to an active oxometal species is the rate-limiting step. 

There has recently been much activity in developing molecular spectroscopic probes of electrochemical interfaces, as for other types of heterogeneous systems. The ultimate objectives of these efforts include not only the characterization of adsorbate molecular structure interactions under equilibrium conditions, but also the extraction of mechanistic and kinetic information from spectral detection of reactive adsorbates. 

One of the main factors influencing the activation barrier in fast electron-transfer reactions is the change in the polarization of the immediate space surrounding the activated complex in solution. The more-well-known salt effects as well as the relatively new field of micellar effects can be used as mechanistic probes in this context. Since micelles have a hydrophobic as well as a hydrophilic part, this creates two different kinds of interfaces where electron transfer can occur if one of either the oxidant or reductant is contained or associated with these molecular aggregates. A futuristic approach could be that studies of this kind may serve as models for enzymatic reactions with complex bioaggregates such as membranes. 

Stereoisomerism and Connectivity 300 Total Synthesis of an Antibiotic with a Staggering Number of Stereocenters 303 The Descriptors for the Amino Acids Can Lead to Confusion 307 Chiral Shift Reagents 308 C2 Ligands in Asymmetric Synthesis 313 Enzymatic Reactions, Molecular Imprints, and Enantiotopic Discrimination 320 Biological Knots—DNA and Proteins 325 Polypropylene Structure and the Mass of the Universe 331 Controlling Polymer Tacticity—The Metallocenes 332 CD Used to Distinguish a-Helices from [3-Sheets 335 Creating Chiral Phosphates for Use as Mechanistic Probes 335... 

The analogy drawn between -stacked solids and duplex DNA has provided a useful starting point for experiments to probe and understand DNA-medi-ated CT. As with the -stacked solids, the DNA base pair array can provide an effective medium for long range CT. Mechanistically, however, the differences between DNA and these solid state materials may be even more important to consider. Duplex DNA, as a molecular -stacked structure, undergoes dynamical motion in solution. The time-dependent and sequence-dependent structures that arise serve to modulate and gate CT. Indeed in probing DNA CT as a function of sequence and sequence-dependent structure, we may better understand mechanistically how CT proceeds and how DNA CT may be utilized. 

Natural products continue to demonstrate their utility both as therapeutics and as molecular probes for the discovery and mechanistic deconvolution of various cellular processes. However, this utility is dampened by the inherent difficulties involved in isolating and characterizing new bioactive natural products, in... 

The molecular models can be used in computational simulations of functional mechanisms to generate and/or probe specific mechanistic hypotheses for structural changes involved in the various states of the receptors, both wild-type and mutant constructs. The structural context makes these hypotheses testable in collaborative experiments designed to probe specific predictions and refine functional insights (for comprehensive review, see ref. [5]). 

This approach offers two opportunities to discover clinically relevant compounds. The first is the compounds identified directly in the Cytection screens. Second, appreciating that these compounds have the desirable biological endpoints, they can be used as "molecular probes" to determine their putative mechanism(s) of action. This "reverse drug discovery"9 identifies "validated" targets that can be the basis for mechanistic screens that could lead to the discovery of additional compounds. 

Inspired by these Surface Science studies at the gas-solid interface, the field of electrochemical Surface Science ( Surface Electrochemistry ) has developed similar conceptual and experimental approaches to characterize electrochemical surface processes on the molecular level. Single-crystal electrode surfaces inside liquid electrolytes provide electrochemical interfaces of well-controlled structure and composition [2-9]. In addition, novel in situ surface characterization techniques, such as optical spectroscopies, X-ray scattering, and local probe imaging techniques, have become available and helped to understand electrochemical interfaces at the atomic or molecular level [10-18]. Today, Surface electrochemistry represents an important field of research that has recognized the study of chemical bonding at electrochemical interfaces as the basis for an understanding of structure-reactivity relationships and mechanistic reaction pathways. 

The in vitro screening approach measures direct mechanistic links between chemical interactions with key targets and the downstream effects of perturbing the related molecular pathways. By using current knowledge ofthe molecular basis of diseases, one can enrich an assay set to probe targets in key disease-related pathways and thereby develop predictive models in a more hypothesis-driven manner. 

In the context of computational toxicology, quantum chemical descriptors provide distinct probes to unravel mechanistic causes for the hazardous effects of chemical substances. At the same time, the level of theory employed may be crucial for the molecular property under analysis, which is particularly true for descriptors based on net atomic charges (that, in turn, are not physically observable, despite their intuitive meaning for charge-controlled intermolecular interactions). 

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