Reagent carbene-nitrene generating

Aziridines can be prepared directly from double-bond compounds by photolysis or thermolysis of a mixture of the substrate and an azide. The reaction has been carried out with R = aryl, cyano, EtOOC, and RSO2, as well as other groups. The reaction can take place by at least two pathways. In one, the azide is converted to a nitrene, which adds to the double bond in a manner analogous to that of carbene addition (15-62). Reaction of NsONHC02Et/ CuO [Ns = A(/7-toluenesulfonyl-inimo)] and a conjugated ketone, for example, leads to the A-carboethoxy aziridine derivative.Calcium oxide has also been used to generate the nitrene.Other specialized reagents have also been used." ... 

Despite the fact that they can be much more reactive than nitrenes, carbene derivatives are less frequently cited in reports on photoaffinity labels. Two such derivatives of thyroid hormone have been described in which the amino group of the alanine side chain of 3,5,3 -triiodo-L-thyronine or 3,5,3, 5 -tetraiodo-L-thyronine was derivatized with 2-diazo-3,3,3-trifluoropropionate (246). Irradiation at 254 nm of these compounds with several cell lines yielded low incorporation of reagent (0.5-13.5%) into two forms of thyroid hormone receptor proteins. Low incorporation was also characteristic of early reports of photoaffinity labeling (e.g., 247) in which 0 -ethyl-2-diazomalonyl-cAMP and A, C)2. (ji(ethyl-2-diazomalonyl)-cAMP were used to generate carbenes which modify rabbit muscle phosphofructokinase. Similarly, only 3-14% of the potential sites of lactate dehydrogenase were labeled by the carbene derived from 3-(3//-diazirino)pyridine adenine dinucleotide (248). 

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