John C. Lukesh

A Potent, Versatile Disulfide-Reducing Agent from Aspartic Acid

Dithiothreitol (DTT) is the standard reagent for reducing disulfide bonds between and within biological molecules. At neutral pH, however, >99% of DTT thiol groups are protonated and thus unreactive. Herein, we report on (2S)-2-amino-1,4-dimercaptobutane (dithiobutylamine or DTBA), a dithiol that can be synthesized from l-aspartic acid in a few high-yielding steps that are amenable to a large-scale process. DTBA has thiol pKa values that are ∼1 unit lower than those of DTT and forms a disulfide with a similar E°′ value. DTBA reduces disulfide bonds in both small molecules and proteins faster than does DTT. The amino group of DTBA enables its isolation by cation-exchange and facilitates its conjugation. These attributes indicate that DTBA is a superior reagent for reducing disulfide bonds in aqueous solution.

Synthesis of a Potent Vinblastine: Rationally Designed Added Benign Complexity

Many natural products, including vinblastine, have not been easily subjected to simplifications in their structures by synthetic means or modifications by late-stage semisynthetic derivatization in ways that enhance their biological potency. Herein, we detail a synthetic vinblastine that incorporates added benign complexity (ABC), which improves activity 10-fold, and is now accessible as a result of advances in the total synthesis of the natural product. The compound incorporates designed added molecular complexity but no new functional groups and maintains all existing structural and conformational features of the natural product. It constitutes a member of an analogue class presently inaccessible by semisynthetic derivatization of the natural product, by its late-stage functionalization, or by biosynthetic means. Rather, it was accessed by synthetic means, using an appropriately modified powerful penultimate single-step vindoline-catharanthine coupling strategy that proceeds with a higher diastereoselectivity than found for the natural product itself.

Thiols and selenols as electron-relay catalysts for disulfide-bond reduction.

Pass them on! Dithiobutylamine immobilized on a resin is a useful reagent for the reduction of disulfide bonds. Its ability to reduce a disulfide bond in a protein is enhanced greatly if used along with a soluble strained cyclic disulfide or mixed diselenide that relays electrons from the resin to the protein. This electron-relay catalysis system provides distinct advantages over the use of excess soluble reducing agent alone.

Sub-picomolar Inhibition of HIV-1 Protease with a Boronic Acid

Boronic acids have been typecast as moieties for covalent complexation and are employed only rarely as agents for non-covalent recognition. By exploiting the profuse ability of a boronic acid group to form hydrogen bonds, we have developed an inhibitor of HIV-1 protease with extraordinary affinity. Specifically, we find that replacing an aniline moiety in darunavir with a phenylboronic acid leads to 20-fold greater affinity for the protease. X-ray crystallography demonstrates that the boronic acid group participates in three hydrogen bonds, more than the amino group of darunavir or any other analog. Importantly, the boronic acid maintains its hydrogen bonds and its affinity for the drug-resistant D30N variant of HIV-1 protease. The BOH···OC hydrogen bonds between the boronic acid hydroxy group and Asp30 (or Asn30) of the protease are short ( rO···O = 2.2 Å), and density functional theory analysis reveals a high degree of covalency. These data highlight the utility of boronic acids as versatile functional groups in the design of small-molecule ligands.