Dieter Seebach

The history of discovery byRosetta Reuschof oligo‐ and poly‐β‐hydroxybutyrates (OHBs and PHBs) consisting of less thanca. 150 HB units is described. These ‘short‐chain’ biopolymers can be detected in all living organisms and have numerous physiological activities of fundamental importance for the chemistry of life. The largest are components of ion channels such as Ca²⁺‐polyphosphate‐PHB (Ca‐PPi‐PHB) in genetically competentE. coliand in mammalian mitochondria. Sequences with chain lengths <ca. 30 occur covalently attached to proteins (post‐translational PHBylation), and methyl esters of the dimer and trimer are used by certain bacteria as highly efficient antioxidants. With synthetic monodisperse OHBs (up to 128mer) our group has contributed structural investigations, and we have shown that OHBs≥16 alone make phospholipid bilayer vesicles permeable to Ca ions. An extensive biochemical analysis of the TRPM8 protein channel, responsible for the sense of heat in our skin, proved to be fully active only when PHBylated. Reasons for the difficulty of detecting OHBs and PHBs are discussed: the polyester chain is highly flexible, and there is ester cleavage by base, acid, nucleophiles,Lewisacids, and heat – in stark contrast to peptides. PHBs may be called a ubiquitous butfleetingspecies in the chemistry of life – worth being appreciated and studied much more intensively in the future! A speculation about PHB's possible role in prebiotic compartmentalization is presented, and recent uses of compartmentalization in organic synthesis are briefly mentioned.Portions of the figures used herein were presented in a lecture at the International Symposium on Biopolymers on September 13, 2022, in Sion (Switzerland).

There are widely unknown enantiopure building blocks and non‐conventional transformations described in this old work that could become useful in today's diversity‐oriented organic synthesis world. Coupling and mixed couplings of functionalized CF₃‐substituted chiral radicals by Kolbe electrolysis of carboxylic acids lead to hexafluoro‐hexane‐2,5‐diol and to butyro‐ and valerolactone derivatives with functional‐group relationships that normally require components with reactivity umpolung. Oxidative decarboxylation of amino‐acid and peptide derivatives by Hofer‐Moest electrolyses provide entry into the synthetic use of chiral acyliminium‐ion intermediates. Chiral oxazoline and thioazoline building blocks (from serine, threonine, and cysteine) are accessible for substitutions and cycloadditions. The stereochemical course of oxidative CO₂H replacement in serine by nucleophilically introduced groups with retention of configuration is discussed.

Teruaki Mukaiyama, formerly Professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo University, and Tokyo University of Science passed away on November 17, 2018. As one of the most productive organic chemists he has enriched the field of synthetic organic chemistry in 60 years of research. His most important contributions are reviewed herein by a close friend.

Oligo‐arginines are thoroughly studied cell‐penetrating peptides (CPPs, Figures 1 and 2). Previous in‐vitro investigations with the octaarginine salt of the phosphonate fosmidomycin (herbicide and anti‐malaria drug) have shown a 40‐fold parasitaemia inhibition with P. falciparum, compared to fosmidomycin alone (Figure 3). We have now tested this salt, as well as the corresponding phosphinate salt of the herbicide glufosinate, for herbicidal activity with whole plants by spray application, hoping for increased activities, i.e. decreased doses. However, both salts showed low herbicidal activity, indicating poor foliar uptake (Table 1). Another pronounced difference between in‐vitro and in‐vivo activity was demonstrated with various cell‐penetrating octaarginine salts of fosmidomycin: intravenous injection to mice caused exitus of the animals within minutes, even at doses as low as 1.4 μmol/kg (Table 2). The results show that use of CPPs for drug delivery, for instance to cancer cells and tissues, must be considered with due care. The biopolymer cyanophycin is a poly‐aspartic acid containing argininylated side chains (Figure 4); its building block is the dipeptide H‐βAsp‐αArg‐OH (H‐Adp‐OH). To test and compare the biological properties with those of octaarginines we synthesized Adp₈‐derivatives (Figure 5). Intravenouse injection of H‐Adp₈‐NH₂ into the tail vein of mice with doses as high as 45 μmol/kg causes no symptoms whatsoever (Table 3), but H‐Adp₈‐NH₂ is not cell penetrating (HEK293 and MCF‐7 cells, Figure 6). On the other hand, the fluorescently labeled octamers FAM‐(Adp(OMe))₈‐NH₂ and FAM‐(Adp(NMe₂))₈‐NH₂ with ester and amide groups in the side chains exhibit mediocre to high cell‐wall permeability (Figure 6), and are toxic (Table 3). Possible reasons for this behavior are discussed (Figure 7) and corresponding NMR spectra are presented (Figure 8).

A quantitative analysis by confocal fluorescence microscopy of the entry into HEK293 and MCF‐7 cells by fluorescein‐labeled octaarginine (1) and by three octa‐Adp derivatives (2 – 4, octamers of the β‐Asp‐Arg‐dipeptide, derived from the biopolymer cyanophycin) is described, including the effects of the membrane dye R18 and of DMSO on cell penetration.

^§ This author did all the experiments Novel guanidinium-rich oligopeptide derivatives R-[Adp(X)]₈-NH₂ are described, which consist of an octa-aspartic acid backbone with argininylated side chains that are derived from the biopolymer cyanophycin [H-(Adp)_n-OH]. The Fmoc-Adp(X,Pbf)-OH building blocks for solid-state peptide synthesis (SSPS) of Adp octamers were prepared from Fmoc-Arg(Pbf)-OH and Fmoc-Asp-OAll. Coupling on PAL resin provided four octamers with and without N-terminal fluorescent groups (FAM) and C-terminal amide groups. Milligram quantities of Adp-octamers were isolated after preparative HPLC purification. The structure of the novel guanidinium-rich oligomers is unique insofar as the side chains of the Asp₈-backbone include both a guanidino and a carboxylic acid group, the influence of which will be tested with the corresponding ester and amide derivatives that were synthesized in parallel. Unusual cell-penetrating properties of the Adp-octamers are expected.

We have shown for the first time that a natural protein (human insulin) can be acylated at the N‐terminus with a β‐amino acid (H‐β³hAla‐), in a process catalyzed by the β‐peptidyl aminopeptidase 3‐2W4‐BapA. This selective modification, which could also be applied for protein labeling and tagging, should be generally useful, also to protect peptides and proteins from attack by common aminopeptidases.

It has been suggested that the origin of regio‐ and stereoselectivity in Michael additions of pyrrolidine enamines is achieved by thermodynamic rather than kinetic control through distinct conformational preferences of the enamines. We assess this proposal by elaboration of a computational protocol that warrants sufficient accuracy. The small energy differences between the conformers necessitate a high accuracy of the electronic structure method which, in addition, must allow for computationally feasible calculations of a large number of conformers. Our protocol is based on density functional theory which we validated against explicitly correlated coupled cluster theory. The results are in agreement with the available experimental data, but illustrate that conformational preferences determined for one enamine are not readily transferable to other types of enamines. We found that an appropriate conformational sampling is inevitable to arrive at meaningful conclusions. Most prominently, s‐cis and s‐trans conformers are similarly stable for aldehyde‐ and ketone‐derived enamines. The regio‐ and stereoselectivity in Michael additions of pyrrolidine‐derived enamines can not be explained by pronounced stability differences of the enamine isomers and conformers in general, disproving the thermodynamic‐control hypothesis. The elucidation of the origin of regio‐ and stereoselectivity requires further theoretical investigations of the elementary steps of Michael additions.

In the formation of amyloid fibrils from small peptides, the appearance of superhelices of (P)‐ or (M)‐helicity has been observed for the first time; high concentrations of the peptides and extended periods of incubation at physiological pH appear to be important for this phenomenon. In view of the general importance of peptide and protein aggregation, we give a brief overview with selected examples for demonstration.