This thesis describes a structure activity relationship (SAR) study on the recently discovered small molecule tool blebbistatin (S)-21 with particular emphasis on the development of novel synthetic protocols suitable for the rapid synthesis of libraries of blebbistatin analogues. These analogues are potentially of use as novel myosin inhibitors Chapter 1 introduces the concept of chemical biology with particular emphasis on chemical genetics. This approach has rekindled the search for new chemical tools for the investigation of biological systems. The success of blebbistatin (S)-21, which was identified in a chemical genetic study, as a research tool was also discussed. The link between several myosin classes and genetic diseases such as coeliac disease, Crohn’s disease, deafness, dermatitis, familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, Griscelli disease and ulcerative colitis indicate that potent inhibitors which show selectivity towards specific myosin isoforms may be of great value as tools for the study of these conditions. The plan for the SAR study around (S)-21 was outlined. Chapter 2 describes the studies undertaken to develop an efficient synthetic route to N1-alkyl analogues of (S)-21 suitable for the parallel synthesis of chemical collections. These studies culminated in the synthesis of an intermediate (S)-66 from which novel N1-alkyl analogues were synthesised. The biological evaluation of these N1-alkyl analogues was discussed. Chapter 3 describes the development of a protocol suitable for the parallel synthesis of collections of N1-aryl analogues of (S)-21 via the intermediate 66. The application of this protocol to the synthesis of a collection of racemic N1-aryl and heteroaryl analogues of (S)-21 and their biological evaluation was presented. Chapter 4 describes the successful rational design and synthesis of a novel fused thiophene ring containing inhibitor of myosin II. The structure of this compound was proposed by modelling of the existing co-crystal structure of (S)-21 bound to the metastable state of Dictyostelium discoideum myosin II (S1dC) and sought to optimise the π-π stacking interaction displayed by (S)-21 with the tyrosine 261 residue within its binding site. The biological evaluation of this novel analogue was discussed. In Chapter 5 the studies conducted to investigate the contribution of ring-C to the binding affinity of (S)-21 were described. The development of alternate routes to (S)-21, in an attempt to avoid difficulties experienced during the synthesis of some analogues of (S)-21, are described. The synthesis and biological investigation of the fluorescent dye PPBA whose binding site has been suggested to overlap with that of (S)-21 was also reported.

The thesis entitled “Studies on the Ring-opening Reactions of Vinylcyclopropanes, Vinylcyclobutanes, and other Small-ring Systems” is divided into four chapters. Chapter 1: Part A: Bromenium Catalyzed Tandem Ring-opening/Cyclization of Vinylcyclopropanes and Vinylcyclobutanes: A [3+2+1]/[4+2+1] Cascade for the Synthesis of Chiral Amidines. In this part of the Chapter, we discuss our serendipitous results in the reaction of vinylcyclopropanes (VCPs), like Δ2-carene under Sharpless aziridination conditions using chloramine-T and phenyltrimethylammonium tribromide (PTAB) as catalyst in acetonitrile. The reaction follows a [3+2+1] cascade pathway involving acetonitrile (Ritter-type reaction) to give chiral bicyclic amidines in very good yield. The reaction was found to be tolerant to hydroxyl- and keto-functionalities. . existence of a tight-carbocation intermediate. Our attempts to access bridged bicyclic amidines from vinylcyclobutanes like α-pinene resulted in the formation of bicyclo[4.3.1]pyrimidines successfully in moderate yields. Partial racemization of the product was observed and this observation was rationalized through competing cyclization pathways. Vinylcyclopropanes and Vinylcyclobutanes towards the Synthesis of Chiral Amidines. In this part of the chapter, we discuss our computational results obtained from modeling the reaction pathway in gas-phase and solvent dielectrics (acetonitrile). Initially, we modeled the ring-opening process, to visualize the geometrical features and the orbital interactions present in the tight-carbocation intermediate. We also modeled the competing cyclization pathways to justify the racemization observed in the case of α-pinene. Our calculations show that, the free energy of activation for the allylic substitution and the direct substitution pathways are nearly equal. Thus, the formation of both the enantiomers is feasible kinetically. the proposed cascade pathway. Chapter 2: Electrophile-Induced Indirect Activation of C-C Bond of Vinylcyclopropanes: A Masked Donor-Acceptor Strategy for the Synthesis of Z-Alkylidenetetrahydrofurans. In Chapter 2, we discuss the results of introducing VCPs as masked donor-acceptor systems under electrophilic conditions. Our aim was to activate the VCPs with in situ generated bromine electrophile to give a tight-carbocation as discussed in Chapter 1. Further, the tight-carbocation can be used to access novel heterocycles. formation of Z-alkylidienetetrahydrofurans with high stereoselectivity across the exocyclic double bond. An interesting reactivity of benzofuran derived VCPs was observed, where the ring-opening occurred concurrently adjacent to the heteroatom and at the benzylic position to give both cis- and trans-furofuran. methyl group on VCP as a chiral marker. Under our standard reaction conditions, cyclization resulted in the retention of configuration at the phenyl center. The retention of configuration results through a directed attack of hydroxyl group on the tight-carbocation. functionalized tetrahydrofurans Chapter 3: σ-Ferrier Rearrangement of Carbohydrate Derived Vinylcyclopropanes: A Facile Approach to Oxepane Analogs In the present chapter, we have presented the idea of a tight-carbocation through an electrophile-mediated activation of VCPs on carbohydrate derived VCPs through a σ-Ferrier rearrangement. We expected high stereoselectivity at the anomeric center assuming the existence of a tight carbocation intermediate. Reaction of glucose-derived VCPs resulted in the ring-expansion to oxepane analogues, but with poor diastereoselectivity. Similar selectivity was observed even in the case of galacto- derived VCPs. intermediate. The planar oxonium intermediate is a more stable intermediate but reacts with poor facial selectivity. With water as nucleophile, the reaction led to a diene aldehyde through a complete ring-opening of the oxepane formed, followed by the elimination of hydrogen bromide. the unsaturated oxepanes with facial diastereoselectivity. Chapter 4: One-Pot Synthesis of β-Amino/β-Hydroxyselenides and Sulfides from Aziridines and Epoxides. In this chapter, we present details of the reductive cleavage of aromatic disulfide and diselenide bonds mediated by Rongalite. The reagent reacts with disulfides to generate thiolate anion through a two-electron transfer mechanism. The thiolate anion was further utilized for nucleophile-mediated ring-opening of small-ring systems. The reaction of aziridines with aryl disulfides mediated by Rongalite, resulted in regioselective ring-opening to from β-aminosulfides. In the case of trisubstituted aziridines, the reaction led to a regioisomeric mixture of products. The reaction was found to be efficient for the ring-opening of epoxides as well. diselenides and Rongalite, successfully underwent cleavage of diselenide bond followed by ring-opening to give β-aminoselenides. The reaction was successful with epoxides as starting material to yield β-hydroxyselenides

In the first part of this work, a convenient and high yielding synthetic strategy was developed to approach highly electrophilic fluorophosphonium cations as triflate salts. Through in situ electrophilic fluorination of phosphanes with commercially available bench-stable N-fluorobenzenesulfonimide (NFSI), followed by subsequent methylation of the [N(PhSO2)2]- anion with MeOTf, a library of mono-, di- and tri- cationic fluorophosphonium triflates were obtained in excellent yields. The Lewis acidities of all synthesized fluorophosphonium triflates salts were evaluated by both theoretical and experimental methods. These fluorophosphonium triflates have been develop as catalysts for the conversation of formamides into N-sulfonyl formamidines. CHAPTER II of this work focus on developing electrophilic fluorophosphonium cation as Lewis acid pedant in both inter- and intra- molecular FLP systems, as well as exploring their application in small molecular activation and functionalization, such as reversible CO2 sequestration and binding of carbonyls, nitriles and acetylenes. CHAPTER III of this thesis reports on the reaction of electrophilic fluorophosphonium triflates with trimethylsilyl nucleophiles (Me3SiX, X = CN, N3), which selectively yields either pseudohalo-substituted flurophosphoranes or pseudohalo-substituted phosphonium cations.:1. Introduction 1 1.1. Frustrated Lewis Pair chemistry 2 1.2. Phosphorus derivatives as strong Lewis acids 6 2. Objective 11 3. CHAPTER I: Synthesis of fluorophosphonium triflate salts and application as catalyst 15 3.1. Electrophilic fluorination of phosphanes: a convenient approach to electrophilic fluorophosphonium cations 15 3.2. Fluorophilicities and Lewis acidities of the obtained fluorophosphonium derivatives 23 3.2.1. Evaluation of fluorophilicities and Lewis acidities of the obtained fluorophosphonium cations 24 3.2.2. Reactions of fluorophosphonium salts with selected formamides. 27 3.2.3. Reactions of fluorophosphonium salts with selected urea derivatives 31 3.3. Transformation of formamides to N-sulfonyl formamidines using fluorophosphonium triflates as active catalysts 34 4. CHAPTER II: Bifunctional electrophilic fluorophosphonium triflates as intramolecular Frustrated Lewis Pairs 45 5. CHAPTER III: Reaction of fluorophosphonium triflate salts with trimethylsilyl nucleophiles 63 6. Summary 73 7. Perspective 77 8. Experimental section 80 8.1. Materials and methods 80 8.2. Experimental details for CHAPTER I 82 8.2.1. Preparation of imidazoliumyl-substituted phosphanes. 82 8.2.1.1. Preparation of [Ph2LcMeP][OTf] 82 8.2.1.2. Preparation of [Ph2LciPrP][OTf] 83 8.2.1.3. Preparation of [(C6F5)2LcMeP][OTf] 83 8.2.1.4. Preparation of [(C6F5)2LciPrP][OTf] 84 8.2.1.5. Preparation of [PhLcMe2P][OTf]2 85 8.2.1.6. Preparation of [PhLciPr2P][OTf]2 85 8.2.2. Preparation of fluorophosphonium bis(phenylsulfonyl)amide salts 86 8.2.2.1. Preparation of [36(NSI)]. 86 8.2.2.2. Preparation of 58a[NSI] 87 8.2.2.3. Preparation of 58b[N(SO2Ph)2] 88 8.2.3. Preparation of fluorophosphonium triflate salts 88 8.2.3.1. Preparation of 36[OTf] 89 8.2.3.2. Preparation of 36[H(OTf)2] 89 8.2.3.3. Preparation of 58a[OTf] 90 8.2.3.4. Preparation of 58b[OTf] 91 8.2.3.5. Preparation of 58c[OTf] 91 8.2.3.6. Preparation of 59a[OTf] 92 8.2.3.7. Preparation of 59b[OTf] 93 8.2.3.8. Preparation of 60Mea[OTf]2 94 8.2.3.9. Preparation of 60iPra[OTf]2 94 8.2.2.10. Preparation of 60Meb[OTf]2 95 8.2.3.11. Preparation of 60iPrb[OTf]2 96 8.2.3.12. Preparation of 61Me[OTf]3 97 8.2.3.13. Preparation of 61iPr[OTf]3 97 8.2.4. Reaction of fluorophosphonium triflate salts with nucleophiles 98 8.2.4.1. Preparation of 62a[OTf] 98 8.2.4.2. Preparation of 62b[OTf] 99 8.2.4.3. Preparation of 62c[OTf] 100 8.2.4.4. Preparation of 63 100 8.2.4.5. Preparation of 65 101 8.2.4.6. Preparation of 69a[OTf] 102 8.2.4.7. Preparation of 69b[OTf] 103 8.2.5. Synthesis of H[N(SO2R)(SO2Ph)] and corresponding sodium salt 103 8.2.5.1. General procedure for the formation of N-sulfonyl-sulfonamides 103 8.2.5.2. General procedure for the formation of sodium bis(sulfonyl)amides 104 8.2.5.3. Preparation of HN(SO2Ph)2, Na[N(SO2Ph)2] and [nBu4N][N(SO2Ph)2] 104 8.2.5.4. Preparation of 81a and 82a 105 8.2.5.5. Preparation of 81b and 82b 106 8.2.5.6. Preparation of 81c and 82c 106 8.2.5.7. Preparation of 81d and 82d 107 8.2.5.8. Preparation of 81e and 82e 108 8.2.5.9. Preparation of 81f and 82f 108 8.2.5.10. Preparation of 81g and 82g 109 8.2.5.11. Preparation of 81h and 82h 109 8.2.6. Synthesis of N-sulfonyl amidines 110 8.2.6.1. General procedure for the catalytic formation of N-sulfonyl amidines 110 8.2.6.2. Preparation of 64 110 8.2.6.3. Preparation of 72 111 8.2.6.4. Preparation of 73 112 8.2.6.5. Preparation of 74 112 8.2.6.6. Preparation of 75 113 8.2.6.7. Preparation of 76 114 8.2.6.8. Preparation of 77 114 8.2.6.9. Preparation of 78 115 8.2.6.10. Preparation of 79 116 8.2.6.11. Preparation of 80a,b 116 8.2.6.12. Preparation of 83b 117 8.2.6.13. Preparation of 83c 118 8.2.6.14. Preparation of 83d 119 8.2.6.15. Preparation of 83e 119 8.2.6.16. Preparation of 83f 120 8.2.6.17. Preparation of 83g 121 8.2.6.18. Preparation of 83h 122 8.3. Experimental details for CHAPTER II 123 8.3.1. Preparation of N-containing phosphanes 123 8.3.1.1. Preparation of 2-(bis(perfluorophenyl)phosphaneyl)pyridine 123 8.3.1.2. Preparation of 2-(bis(perfluorophenyl)phosphaneyl)-1-methylimidazole 124 8.3.1.3. Preparation of 2-(bis(perfluorophenyl)phosphaneyl)-N,N-dimethylaniline 124 8.3.2. Preparation of N/P Frustrated Lewis Pairs 125 8.3.2.1. General procedure for the synthesis of N/P-Frustrated Lewis pairs 125 8.3.2.2. Preparation of 85[OTf] 126 8.3.2.3. Preparation of 86[OTf] 126 8.3.2.4. Preparation of 87[OTf] 127 8.3.2.5. Preparation of 88[OTf] 128 8.3.2.6. Preparation of 89[OTf] 129 8.3.3. Synthesis of compound 84[OTf] 130 8.3.4. Reaction of N/P FLP with carbonyls, nitriles or acetylenes 131 8.3.4.1. General reaction conditions for the reaction of N/P FLP with carbonyls and nitriles 131 8.3.4.2. Preparation of 90[OTf] 131 8.3.4.3. Preparation of 91[OTf] 132 8.3.4.4. Preparation of 92[OTf] 133 8.3.4.5. Preparation of 93a[OTf] 134 8.3.4.6. Preparation of 93b[OTf] 134 8.3.4.7. Preparation of 94[OTf] 135 8.3.4.8. Preparation of 95[OTf] 136 8.3.4.9. Preparation of 96[OTf] 137 8.3.4.10. Preparation of 97a[OTf] 138 8.3.4.11. Preparation of 97b[OTf] 139 8.3.4.12. Preparation of 99a[OTf]2 140 8.3.4.13 Preparation of 100b[OTf] 141 8.3.5. Reaction of N/P FLPs with CO2 142 8.3.5.1 Reaction of 85[OTf] with CO2 142 8.3.5.2 Reaction of 86[OTf] with CO2 142 8.4. Experimental details for CHAPTER III 144 8.4.1 Synthesis of 105a,b[OTf] and 106c 144 8.4.1.1. General procedure for the reaction of fluorophosphonium triflate with Me3SiCN 144 8.4.1.2. Preparation of 105a[OTf] 144 8.4.1.3. Preparation of 105b[OTf] 145 8.4.1.4. Preparation of 106c 145 8.4.2. Reaction of fluorophosphonium triflate salt with Me3SiN3 146 8.4.2.1. General procedure for preparation of azidofluorophosphorane 146 8.4.2.2. General procedure for preparation of azidofluorophosphonium triflate salts 146 8.4.2.3. Preparation of 107a[OTf] 146 8.4.2.4. Preparation of 107b[OTf] 147 8.4.2.5. Preparation of 107c[OTf] 147 8.4.2.6. Preparation of 108c 148 8.4.2.7. Preparation of 109[OTf] 149 8.4.2.8. Preparation of 110[OTf]2 149 8.4.2.9. Preparation of 113[OTf]3 150 8.4.2.10. Preparation of 114[OTf] 151 8.4.2.11. Preparation of 115[OTf] 151 8.4.2.12. Preparation of 116[OTf] 152 8.4.3 Transformation of azido-fluorophosphorane under heating conditions 153 8.4.3.1 Preparation of 118 153 8.4.3.2 Preparation of 120a,b[OTf] 154 9. Crystallographic details 156 9.1. X-ray Diffraction refinements 156 9.2. Crystallographic details for CHAPTER I 157 9.3. Crystallographic details for CHAPTER II 169 9.4. Crystallographic details for CHAPTER III 176 10. Computational methods 179 11. Abbreviations 181 12. Nomenclature of compounds according to IUPAC recommendations 183 13. References 187 14. Acknowledgment 205 15. Publications and conference contributions 207 15.1. Peer-reviewed publication 207 15.2. Poster presentations 207 Versicherung 209 Erklärung 209

SUMMARY:<p>The bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-sensing machinery with the innate immune system receptor Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) at its centre has been the subject of extensive research but while TLR4 and myeloid differentiation factor 2 (MD2) were both shown to be essential, the role of other, so-called "accessory", molecules is much less clear. The co-receptor cluster of differentiation 14 (CD14) has been widely perceived as being a mere facilitator for the capture and transfer of LPS to TLR4, until recent studies suggested it might have a determining influence on which TLR4-dependent signaling cascades are triggered in response to LPS. The TLR4 receptor complex was shown to be specifically activated by diC14 amidine, a cationic lipid originally synthesized for its carrier properties. The lipid's immunostimulatory activity extends to both TLR4-dependent signaling cascades, the MyD88 and TRIF pathways.<p>The aim of this work was to gain more insight into how diC14 amidine is able to trigger these cascades and to contribute to the general understanding of the TLR4 machinery and its activation by non-LPS ligands. More precisely we were interested in the role of CD14 in the activation of both MyD88 and TRIF pathways by diC14-amidine and in potential consequences of possible divergent requirements of diC14 amidine and LPS for this co receptor.<p>Our study of the role of the membrane-associated and the soluble form of CD14 in the activation of the TLR4-dependent pathways by diC14 amidine revealed that – unlike LPS – the cationic lipid does not require CD14 to exercise its immunostimulatory activity, although the presence of the co receptor modulates the TLR4 activation and infrared spectroscopy experiments suggest a direct interaction.<p>In the case of sensing LPS, CD14 is required for the endocytosis of TLR4 and the subsequent activation of the TRIF pathway. By blocking the endocytosis mechanism at different stages we found that diC14-amidine generally enters the cell via endocytosis and that it activates – unlike LPS – both signaling cascades from inside endosomal vesicles, albeit at different stages of the endocytosis process.<p>Although the eventual immunological responses caused by diC14 amidine and LPS resemble each other or are even identical, our research revealed differences in the actual mechanism of activating TLR4, the receptor responsible for the corresponding innate immune response. These findings illustrate the uniqueness of diC14 amidine and the potential of further exploring its intriguing properties and mechanisms as a tool to decipher the TLR4 signaling machinery and with the perspective of designing new immunomodulators for vaccination and therapy.<p><p><p>RÉSUMÉ:<p>Le mécanisme de reconnaissance des lipopolysaccharides bactériens (LPS) par le récepteur de l'immunité innée Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) a fait l'objet d'une recherche intensive ces dernières années. Alors que TLR4 et son co-récepteur myeloid differentiation factor 2 (MD2) ont été démontrés comme étant essentiels pour la détection du LPS, le rôle des molécules dites "accessoires" est beaucoup moins évident. Le co-récepteur cluster of differentiation 14 (CD14) a largement été considéré comme un simple facilitateur pour la capture et le transfert des LPS à TLR4, mais des études récentes suggèrent qu'il pourrait avoir une influence déterminante sur les cascades de signalisation dépendantes de TLR4 induites en réponse au LPS. La diC14-amidine, un lipide cationique synthétisé initialement pour ses qualités en tant que vecteur de transfection, a révélé récemment une activité immunostimulatrice dépendante du récepteur TLR4, impliquant les deux cascades de signalisation dépendantes de TLR4, les voies MyD88 et TRIF.<p>Le but de ce travail était de mieux comprendre le mécanisme par lequel la diC14¬ amidine induit ces cascades et de contribuer à la compréhension générale du fonctionnement du complexe récepteur TLR4 et son activation par des ligands non-LPS. Plus précisément nous nous sommes intéressés au rôle de CD14 dans l'activation des voies MyD88 et TRIF par la diC14-amidine et des conséquences potentielles d’éventuelles divergences en termes d’exigence pour ce co-récepteur entre la diC14-amidine et le LPS. <p>Notre étude sur le rôle de la forme membranaire ou soluble de CD14 dans l'activation des voies dépendantes de TLR4 par la diC14-amidine a révélé que - contrairement au LPS - le lipide cationique ne nécessite pas de CD14 pour exercer son activité immunostimulatrice. Cependant, la présence du co-récepteur module l'activation de TLR4 et des expériences de spectroscopie infrarouge suggèrent une interaction directe entre le lipide et le CD14. <p>Dans le cas de la détection de LPS, le CD14 est nécessaire pour l'endocytose de TLR4 et l'activation subséquente de la voie TRIF. En bloquant le mécanisme d'endocytose à différents stades, nous avons montré que la diC14-amidine active - contrairement au LPS - les deux cascades de signalisation depuis l'intérieur des vésicules endosomiales, mais à des stades différents du processus d'endocytose.<p>En conclusion, bien que les réponses immunologiques causées par la diC14-amidine et le LPS se ressemblent, notre recherche a mis en évidence des différences substantielles dans leurs modes d'action. Ces différences illustrent le caractère unique de la diC14-amidine et son potentiel comme outil pour explorer la complexité du système de signalisation du TLR4 et en tirer des enseignements qui permettront de contribuer à la conception de nouveaux immunomodulateurs pour la vaccination et la thérapie. / Doctorat en Sciences / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished