Pteridines substituent

Studies on covalent hydration of N-heterocycles (67AG(E)919,76AHC(20)117) have revealed the diagnostic value of alkyl substituents in structural assignments due to their steric hindrance effects in addition reactions. C-Methyl substituents are therefore also considered as molecular probes to solve fine-structural problems in the pteridine field. The derivatives... 

The tendency for pteridines with hydrogen-bonding substituents to have higher melting points is also in agreement with abnormally strong crystal-lattice forces (Table 1). 

AT-Oxidation is very sensitive to steric effects, since 1-substituted lumazines and pterins give only 5-oxides and the presence of bulky substituents at position 7 also directs oxidation to N-5. The pteridine 5-oxide (52) and 8-oxide (53) and the 5,8-dioxide (55) contain the AT-oxide groups as such, even when the possibility of AT-hydroxy tautomers exists, as in (53) i(54). 

At the present time, the greatest importance of covalent hydration in biology seems to lie in the direction of understanding the action of enzymes. In this connection, the enzyme known as xanthine oxidase has been extensively investigated.This enzyme catalyzes the oxidation of aldehydes to acids, purines to hydroxypurines, and pteridines to hydroxypteridines. The only structural feature which these three substituents have in common is a secondary alcoholic group present in the covalently hydrated forms. Therefore it was logical to conceive of this group as the point of attack by the enzyme. 

Reactivity in this ring system is sufficient for facile hydrolysis (20°, 2 hr or 100°, 1 min) of the 2-, 4-, 6-, and 7-methoxypteridines in high yield and for easy substitution (75-90% yields) of the 7-methylthio group with methanolic hydrazine hydrate (65°, 15 min), dimethylamine (65°, 30 min), and ethanolic ammonia (125°, 6 hr). The 7-acyloxy intermediate in thionation of 7-oxopteridine with phosphorus pentasulfide is readily substituted (80°) to form pteridine-7-thione. The chloro group in 6-aryl-2,4-diamino-7-chloro-pteridine still reacts readily with hydrazine (100°, several minutes) in spite of the two deactivating amino substituents. 

Pterins — These are pigments derived from pteridine skeletons. All natural pterins are 2-amino-4-hydroxypteridines bearing various substituents at Cg and C7 and having different oxidation states of N5 and Ng. 

In another study, 4-methylpteridine (6) and 4-trifluoromethyl pteridine (7) showed that substituents can, in some instances, not only change the extent of hydration but also the preferred site of hydration (Figure 5).17 Experimental results indicate that the 4-trifluoromethyl analogue hydrates initially across the 5,6- and 7,8-double bonds to form the dihydrate. Over... 

As can be expected from the results mentioned in Section IV,B,2,b, the Dimroth rearrangements in pteridines are facilitated by the presence of electron-withdrawing groups. This can be exemplified by the observed lower rate of the rearrangement of the dianion of 2-imino-3-j8-carboxyethyl-2,3-dihydro-4-oxopteridine compared to that of the compound containing a carbalkoxy substituent in position 6 (9 hours vs 4 hours for complete conversion) (Scheme IV.28) (60JCS539). 

A novel method to introduce carbon substituents into the pteridine skeleton has been described <99H117>. Tlie Wittig reaction has been applied to 6-formylpterin and 6-formyl-... 

The introduction of substituents into position 7 of a 2,4-disubstituted pteridine can be effected very cleanly by the use of acyl radicals typically and has been known for many years. Treatment of aldehydes with /-butyl hydroperoxide and iron(ll) generates acyl radicals which add selectively to the 7-position. A recent exploitation of this chemistry has provided a large number of new examples including both aryl and alkyl acyl radicals as reagents <2004PTR129> pA , data have been compiled (Section 10.18.4) and many nucleophilic substitution reactions of the 7-acylated pteridines and functional group modifications have been described (Section 10.18.7.2). 

The importance of the dihydro and tetrahydro oxidation states of pterins in biology has stimulated interest in the study of the chemical properties of these compounds, especially with respect to electron-transfer and radical reactions. It has become apparent, perhaps unsurprisingly, that the stability and reactivity of these oxidation states are very sensitive to substituent effects and the much greater stability of the fully conjugated pteridines is most evident. The oxidation of tetrahydropterins and the reduction of dihydropterins have become especially important in the chemistry of nitric oxide production in nature and in oxidative stress but the accumulation of relevant facts has not led so far to a detailed understanding of the chemical property relationships. Relevant information is summarized in the following section. 

This problem may, however, be a special case because the oxidation of pteridine alkenes in the presence of sensitive substituents such as alkylthio was shown to be possible using ligand-assisted catalysis with osmium tetraoxide or DMDO (Scheme 10). In the case of pteridine 65, a clean series of transformations to afford the pterin 66 was possible <20030BC664, 2005PTR53004/04>. However, if oxidation was carried out under moist conditions, the corresponding 2-oxopteridine (lumazine) was always obtained as illustrated by the conversion of 67 into the epoxide 68. 

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