Jesús H. Busto

Investigations of La Rioja terroir for wine production using 1H NMR metabolomics.

In this study, La Rioja wine terroir was investigated by the use of (1)H NMR metabolomics on must and wine samples. Rioja is a small wine region in central northern Spain which can geographically be divided into three subareas (Rioja Alta, Rioja Baja, and Rioja Alavesa). The winemaking process from must, through alcoholic and malolactic fermentation, was followed by NMR metabolomics and chemometrics of nine wineries in the Rioja subareas (terroirs). Application of interval extended canonical variate analysis (iECVA) showed discriminative power between wineries which are geographically very close. Isopentanol and isobutanol compounds were found to be key biomarkers for this differentiation.

A thorough study on the use of quantitative 1H NMR in Rioja red wine fermentation processes.

In this study, we focused our attention on monitoring the levels of important metabolites of wine during the alcoholic and malolactic fermentation processes by quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance (qNMR). Therefore, using (1)H NMR, the method allows the simultaneous quantification of ethanol, acetic, malic, lactic, and succinic acids, and the amino acids proline and alanine, besides the ratio proline/arginine through fermentation of must of grapes corresponding to the Tempranillo variety. Each (1)H NMR spectrum gives direct and visual information concerning these metabolites, and the effectiveness of each process was assessed and compared by carrying out analyses using infrared spectroscopy to ethanol and acetic acid. The quantitative data were explained with the aid of chemometric algorithms.

New synthesis of 7-azabicyclo[2.2.1]heptane-1-carboxylic acid

Abstract This report describes a new synthetic route to 7-azabicyclo[2.2.1]heptane-1-carboxylic acid (Ahc), a constrained proline analogue, in which the key step is the Diels–Alder reaction using methyl 2-benzamidoacrylate as dienophile.

Reactivity of (Z)-4-arylidene-5(4H)-oxazolones: [4+2] cycloaddition versus [4+3] cycloaddition/nucleophilic trapping

Abstract The use of different aluminum derivatives in the reaction between cyclopentadiene and ( Z )-2-phenyl-4-arylidene-5(4 H )-oxazolones, and in particular the use of different equivalents of the reagent, allows the modulation of the synthesis of the norbornane skeleton by a [4+2] cycloaddition or the more interesting bicyclo[3.2.1]octane framework by a [4+3] cycloaddition followed by nucleophilic trapping of the ionic dipole cycloadduct with cyclopentadiene.

Deciphering the Non-Equivalence of Serine and Threonine O-Glycosylation Points: Implications for Molecular Recognition of the Tn Antigen by an Anti-Muc1 Antibody.

The structural features of MUC1-like glycopeptides bearing the Tn antigen (α-O-GalNAc-Ser/Thr) in complex with an anti MUC-1 antibody are reported at atomic resolution. For the α-O-GalNAc-Ser derivative, the glycosidic linkage adopts a high-energy conformation, barely populated in the free state. This unusual structure (also observed in an α-S-GalNAc-Cys mimic) is stabilized by hydrogen bonds between the peptidic fragment and the sugar. The selection of a particular peptide structure by the antibody is thus propagated to the carbohydrate through carbohydrate/peptide contacts, which force a change in the orientation of the sugar moiety. This seems to be unfeasible in the α-O-GalNAc-Thr glycopeptide owing to the more limited flexibility of the side chain imposed by the methyl group. Our data demonstrate the non-equivalence of Ser and Thr O-glycosylation points in molecular recognition processes. These features provide insight into the occurrence in nature of the APDTRP epitope for anti-MUC1 antibodies.

Detection of Tumor-Associated Glycopeptides by Lectins: The Peptide Context Modulates Carbohydrate Recognition

Tn antigen (α-O-GalNAc-Ser/Thr) is a convenient cancer biomarker that is recognized by antibodies and lectins. This work yields remarkable results for two plant lectins in terms of epitope recognition and reveals that these receptors show higher affinity for Tn antigen when it is incorporated in the Pro-Asp-Thr-Arg (PDTR) peptide region of mucin MUC1. In contrast, a significant affinity loss is observed when Tn antigen is located in the Ala-His-Gly-Val-Thr-Ser-Ala (AHGVTSA) or Ala-Pro-Gly-Ser-Thr-Ala-Pro (APGSTAP) fragments. Our data indicate that the charged residues, Arg and Asp, present in the PDTR sequence establish noteworthy fundamental interactions with the lectin surface as well as fix the conformation of the peptide backbone, favoring the presentation of the sugar moiety toward the lectin. These results may help to better understand glycopeptide-lectin interactions and may contribute to engineer new binding sites, allowing novel glycosensors for Tn antigen detection to be designed.

The Nature and Sequence of the Amino Acid Aglycone Strongly Modulates the Conformation and Dynamics Effects of Tn Antigen´s Clusters

Synthetic oligosaccharide vaccines based on carbohydrate epitopes are currently being evaluated as potential immunotherapeutics in the treatment of cancer. In an effort to study the role that the amino acid moiety (L-serine and/or L-threonine residues) plays on the global shape of the resulting glycopeptides and on the dynamics of the carbohydrate moiety, diverse glycopeptides based on the Tn antigen have been synthesized and studied in aqueous solution by combining NMR spectroscopic experiments and molecular dynamics simulations. Our results demonstrate that although the effect of the clustering of Tn on the peptide backbone is not remarkable, it substantially modifies the dynamics, and thus, the presentation features of the carbohydrate moiety. In fact, the selected sequence has a crucial influence on both the orientation and flexibility of the sugar region. Thus, although a serine-threonine pair shows a well-defined spatial disposition of the Tn epitopes, its analogue sequence threonine-serine allows a certain degree of mobility that could favor the interaction with a diversity of receptors without a major energy penalty. These features can be explained by attending to the different conformational behavior of the glycosidic linkage of threonine-containing glycopeptides when compared with those of the serine analogues. On this basis, and taking into account that these carbohydrates interact with components of the immune system, these findings could have implications for further design of new cancer vaccines.

S-Michael Additions to Chiral Dehydroalanines as an Entry to Glycosylated Cysteines and a Sulfa-Tn Antigen Mimic

Stereoselective sulfa-Michael addition of appropriately protected thiocarbohydrates to chiral dehydroalanines has been developed as a key step in the synthesis of biologically important cysteine derivatives, such as S-(β-D-glucopyranosyl)-D-cysteine, which has not been synthesized to date, and S-(2-acetamido-2-deoxy-α-D-galactopyranosyl)-L-cysteine, which could be considered as a mimic of Tn antigen. The corresponding diamide derivative was also synthesized and analyzed from a conformational viewpoint, and its bound state with a lectin was studied.

Engineering O-glycosylation points in non-extended peptides: implications for the molecular recognition of short tumor-associated glycopeptides.

The ties that bind: The incorporation of non-natural residues in the peptide backbone allows the design of O-glycosylation points in helical segments. This strategy could help to modulate the binding properties between glycopeptides and their protein receptors, such as lectins and antibodies.

Cyclobutane amino acid analogues of furanomycin obtained by a formal [2 + 2] cycloaddition strategy promoted by methylaluminoxane.

The synthesis and conformational analysis of a new type of conformationally restricted alpha-amino acid analogue of the amino acid antibiotic furanomycin is presented. The restriction involves the cis-fused cyclobutane and tetrahydrofuran units, generating the unusual 2-oxabicyclo[3.2.0]heptane core, which is found in a great number of biologically active natural products. The synthetic strategy is based on a formal [2 + 2] cycloaddition between 2-(acylamino)acrylates as acceptor alkenes and 2,3-dihydrofuran as a donor alkene, promoted by bulky aluminum-derived Lewis acids, particularly by methylaluminoxane (MAO). Additionally, following the same strategy, the synthesis of furanomycin analogues incorporating the 2-oxabicyclo[4.2.0]octane is reported.