Signaling natural products

Research interests include synthetic organic chemistry, especially asymmetric synthesis and the use of enzymes in organic synthesis, with special reference to biologically active compounds such as insect pheromones and related chemical signals natural products chemistry wood chemistry. 

A more recent experimental technique employs C as the isotopic label Instead of locating the position of a label by a laborious degradation procedure the NMR spectrum of the natural product is recorded The signals for the carbons that are enriched m are far more intense than those corresponding to carbons m which IS present only at the natural abundance level... 

The umbelliferone ether structure 1 was suggested for a natural product which was isolated from galbanum resin Does this structure fit the NMR results 48 Is it possible to give a complete spectral assignment despite lack of resolution of the proton signals at 200 MHz What statements can be made about the relative configuration ... 

Woodward achieved his first signal success of a lifetime devoted to the preparation of increasingly complex natural products by total synthesis by the successful preparation of quinine. Despite its elegance, this synthesis did not provide a commercially viable alternative to isolation of the drug from chincona bark. A rather short synthesis for this drug from readily available starting materials has been only recently developed by the group at Hoffmann-LaRoche. (The economics of this synthesis are,... 

KONG A N, YU R, CHEN c, MANDLEKAR s and PRIMIANO T (2000) Signal transduction events elicited by natural products role of M APK and caspase pathways in homeostatic response and induction of apoptosis . Arch Pharm Res, 23 1-16. 

When the natural product source contains racemic mixtures (of isomeric forms), then clearly the assignment of signal value to either or both variants of a compound needs to be determined. Alterations in receptor detection of chirality can change sensitivity to the geometrically alternate compound over the range 101 to 106. Of the lactones passed into urine and deposited on tarsal hairs of Black-tailed deer (Odocoileus... 

Further examination of the extracts of A. cannabina revealed axisonitrile-4 (7), axisothiocyanate-4 (8) and axamide-4 (9) [33], A vinylic isonitrile function was supported by H NMR signals at <51.67 and 1.89, which were assigned to the two isopropylidene methyls of 7. Difficulty in isolating the natural product 9 was circumvented, when isonitrile 7 was transformed to 9, mp 81-84 °C, by acetic acid in anhydrous ether. The absolute configurations of both axanes 1 and 7 and their analogs were later established [31] by studies including X-ray diffraction of the p-bromoaniline derivative of 2 and by CD data of ( + )-10-methyldecalone-l obtained from ozonolysis of the reduction (Na/NH3) product of 1 [1]. 

Although the mass spectra of aged diterpenoid resins are generally not characteristic enough for a clear identification, some natural products show characteristic peaks above m/z 325. These signals can be explained by particular constituents of the respective resins, so-called biomarkers. For example, copaiba balsam shows an intense peak at m/z 385, which can be attributed to 3-acetoxy-copaiferic acid [51] (see Figure 5.11). Another... 

Probably the best-studied communication behavior in ants is chemical communication, but other sensory modalities, such as mechanical cues, also play an important role in the formation of multicomponent signals in ant communication. Chemical releasers are produced in a variety of exocrine glands, and considerable progress has been made in chemically identifying many of these glandular secretions (for reviews see refs. 1 and 2). In this essay I will not emphasize, however, the natural product chemistry of ant pheromones, but rather concentrate on the proposition that communication in ant societies is often based on multicomponent signals, on nested levels of variation in chemical and other cues, which feature both anonymous and specific characteristics (3). 

SIGNAL TRANSDUCTION IN T CEILS AND THE ROLE OF NATURAL PRODUCTS... 

Koehn FE, Therapeutic potential of natural product signal transduction agents, Curr Opin Biotechnol 17 631-637, 2006. 

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