Stephen G. DiMagno

The Polar Hydrophobicity of Fluorinated Compounds

Fluorine substitution is a powerful tool in bioorganic and medicinal chemistry. The chemical inertness and relatively small size of fluorine 6] coupled with the short C F bond length have made C F substitution attractive for the replacement of a number of functional groups, including C OH, C H, and C=O. Fluorine incorporation into biologically active compounds can alter drug metabolism or enzyme substrate recognition. The hydrophobic nature of fluorinated compounds is also cited for improved transport across the blood± brain barrier. Improved oral bioavailability is seen in some systems where fluorine substitution leads to improved hydrolytic stability. 23±26] Furthermore, replacement of sensitive or reactive groups with fluorinated substituents has led to mechanism-based inhibitors for a wide variety of diseases and to chemotherapeutic drugs. 27±31] Review articles appear regularly on these subjects; some recent examples are given in refs. [9, 27, 32±37].

Regiospecific reductive elimination from diaryliodonium salts

StereoElectronic Control of Unidirectional Reductive Elimination (SECURE) is provided by the cyclophane substituent on iodine(III). Computational and experimental studies demonstrate that out of plane steric bulk strongly destabilizes the reductive elimination transition state, and leads to regiochemical control. This approach should be general for high valent main group and transition metal ions.

The strength of weak interactions: Aromatic fluorine in drug design

Selective aromatic fluorine substitution can increase the affinity of a molecule for a macromolecular recognition site through non-covalent interactions. These effects are evaluated most accurately by direct comparison of binding affinities of selectively fluorinated compounds with their corresponding hydrocarbons. In cases where structural data confirm similar binding geometries for the fluorocarbon and hydrocarbon analogues, reliable estimates for the impact of fluorination upon arene-pi...X and C-F...X interaction energies are possible. Existing studies show that fluorinations impact on any individual molecular interaction is quite modest. Upon binding to a protein receptor, cumulative fluorinated aromatic quadrupolar and C-F...X dipolar interaction energies rarely differ from those the corresponding hydrocarbons by more than 1.3 kcal/mol, and most individual interactions appear to be in the 0.1-0.4 kcal/mol range. Similarly, non-ideal selective fluorination is rarely associated with a dramatic decrease in affinity, because the impact of weak repulsive interactions in the bound state is counterbalanced by increased lipophilicity.

Reactivities of vinyl azides and their recent applications in nitrogen heterocycle synthesis.

Nitrogen heterocycles are abundant in natural products and pharmaceuticals. An emerging interest among synthetic chemists is to apply vinyl azides as a pivotal three-atom synthon for the construction of structurally complex and diverse N-heterocyclic skeletons. The unique features of the azide group connected to an alkene moiety permit vinyl azides to function as electrophiles, nucleophiles, or radical acceptors; their access to diverse reaction pathways provides great opportunities to generate highly reactive intermediates with often unusual or unconventional reactivities. This tutorial review will systematically illustrate the reactivities of vinyl azides and describe recent breakthroughs in the development of new transformations that create N-heterocycles.

Unprecedented directing group ability of cyclophanes in arene fluorinations with diaryliodonium salts

For the first time it is shown that exceptionally electron-rich arene rings can be fluorinated exclusively during the reductive elimination reactions of diaryliodonium fluorides. The 5-methoxy[2.2]paracyclophan-4-yl directing group simultaneously reduces unproductive aryne chemistry and eliminates ligand exchange reactions by a combination of steric and electronic effects. Use of the cyclophane directing group permits an unprecedented degree of control in fluorination reactions of diaryliodonium salts.

A Method for Detecting Water in Organic Solvents

The potent dehydrating ability of difluoro(aryl)-lambda (3)-iodanes is exploited to develop a convenient (19)F-NMR-based aquametry method that is more sensitive than coulometric Karl Fischer titration. The key difluoro(aryl)-lambda (3)-iodane reagents are synthesized readily from commercially available and inexpensive precursors.

In Vivo Biodistribution of No-Carrier-Added 6-18F-Fluoro-3,4-Dihydroxy-l-Phenylalanine (18F-DOPA), Produced by a New Nucleophilic Substitution Approach, Compared with Carrier-Added 18F-DOPA, Prepared by Conventional Electrophilic Substitution

A novel synthetic approach to 6-18F-fluoro-3,4-dihydroxy-l-phenylalanine (18F-DOPA), involving the nucleophilic substitution of a diaryliodonium salt precursor with non-carrier-added 18F-fluoride, yielded a product with a specific activity that was 3 orders of magnitude higher than the product of the conventional synthesis method, involving an electrophilic substitution of a trialkylstannane precursor with 18F2. We performed a direct comparison of high- and low-specific-activity 18F-DOPA in a neuroendocrine tumor model to determine whether this difference in specific activity has implications for the biologic behavior and imaging properties of 18F-DOPA. Methods: 18F-DOPA was produced via the novel synthesis method, yielding 18F-DOPA-H with a high specific activity (35,050 ± 4,000 GBq/mmol). This product was compared in several experiments with conventional 18F-DOPA-L with a low specific activity (11 ± 2 GBq/mmol). In vitro accumulation experiments with the human pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor cell line BON-1 were performed at both 0°C and 37°C and at 37°C in the presence of pharmacologic inhibitors of proteins involved in the uptake mechanism of 18F-DOPA. Small-animal PET experiments were performed in athymic nude mice bearing a BON-1 tumor xenograft. Results: At 37°C, the uptake of both 18F-DOPA-H and 18F-DOPA-L did not differ significantly during a 60-min accumulation experiment in BON-1 cells. At 0°C, the uptake of 18F-DOPA-L was significantly decreased, whereas the lower temperature did not alter the uptake of 18F-DOPA-H. The pharmacologic inhibitors carbidopa and tetrabenazine also revealed differential effects between the 2 types of 18F-DOPA in the 60-min accumulation experiment. The small-animal PET experiments did not show any significant differences in distribution and metabolism of 18F-DOPA-H and 18F-DOPA-L in carbidopa-pretreated mice. Conclusion: The advantages of the novel synthesis of 18F-DOPA, which relies on nucleophilic fluorination of a diaryliodonium salt precursor, lie in the simplicity of the synthesis method, compared with the conventional, electrophilic approach and in the reduced mass of administered, pharmacologically active 19F-DOPA. 18F-DOPA-H demonstrated comparable imaging properties in an in vivo model for neuroendocrine tumors, despite the fact that the injected mass of material was 3 orders of magnitude less than 18F-DOPA-L.

An Alternative to the Sandmeyer Approach to Aryl Iodides

Iodoarenes are important synthons for a wide range of organic transformations. Here we report a general strategy to prepare singly iodinated electron-rich aromatic compounds through the intermediacy of diaryliodonium salts. This process, which incorporates a phase separation that greatly simplifies product purification, is an attractive replacement for the Sandmeyer approach to iodoarenes that are otherwise difficult to access.

Efficient automated syntheses of high specific activity 6-[18F]fluorodopamine using a diaryliodonium salt precursor.

6-[(18)F]Fluorodopamine (6-[(18) F]F-DA) is a positron emission tomography radiopharmaceutical used to image sympathetic cardiac innervation and neuroendocrine tumors. Imaging with 6-[(18)F]F-DA is constrained, in part, by the bioactivity and neurotoxicity of 6-[(19)F]fluorodopamine. Furthermore, routine access to this radiotracer is limited by the inherent difficulty of incorporation of [(18)F]fluoride into electron-rich aromatic substrates. We describe the simple and direct preparation of high specific activity (SA) 6-[(18)F]F-DA from no-carrier-added (n.c.a.) [(18)F]fluoride. Incorporation of n.c.a. [(18)F]fluoride into a diaryliodonium salt precursor was achieved in 50-75% radiochemical yields (decay corrected to end of bombardment). Synthesis of 6-[(18)F]F-DA on the IBA Synthera® and GE TRACERlab FX-FN automated platforms gave 6-[(18)F]F-DA in >99% chemical and radiochemical purities after HPLC purification. The final non-corrected yields of 6-[(18)F]F-DA were 25 ± 4% (n = 4, 65 min) and 31 ± 6% (n = 3, 75 min) using the Synthera and TRACERlab modules, respectively. Efficient access to high SA 6-[(18)F]F-DA from a diaryliodonium salt precursor and n.c.a. [(18)F]fluoride is provided by a relatively subtle change in reaction conditions - replacement of a polar aprotic solvent (acetonitrile) with a relatively nonpolar solvent (toluene) during the critical radiofluorination reaction. Implementation of this process on common radiochemistry platforms should make 6-[(18)F]F-DA readily available to the wider imaging community.

Differential substituent effects of β-halogens in water-soluble porphyrins

The first water-soluble β-octafluorinated porphyrins, 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4-sulfonatophenyl)-2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18-octafluoroporphyrin, 1, and 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(2,6-difluoro-3-sulfonatophenyl)-2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18-octafluoroporphyrin, 2, have been prepared and their aqueous aggregation, acid–base, and optical properties have been characterized. The porphyrins are tetraanionic at neutral pH (at pH = 3–11 for 1 and pH = 0–9 for 2). Semiempirical (AM1) calculations provide evidence that somewhat unusual acidity characteristics of the fluorinated compounds (with respect to similar brominated porphyrins) can be rationalized solely on the basis of chemical hardness and electronegativity arguments. These results indicate that the large conformational differences seen in the structures of brominated and fluorinated water-soluble porphyrins have little impact upon N–H acidity. Metalation of 1 and 2 with ZnCl2 yielded the zinc complexes, which were characterized by optical spectroscopy and electrochemistry.