Hydrogen bonding interactions have been applied to the synthesis of chiral vicinal diamines and the generation of helical chirality. A stereospecific synthesis of vicinal diamines was developed by using the diaza-Cope rearrangement reaction driven by resonance-assisted hydrogen bonds (RAHBs). This process for making a wide variety of chiral diamines requires only a single starting chiral diamine, 1,2-bis(2-hydroxyphenyl)-1,2-diaminoethane (HPEN) and aldehydes. Experimental and computational studies reveal that this process provides one of the simplest and most versatile approaches to preparing chiral vicinal diamines including not only C2 symmetric diaryl and dialkyl diamines but also unsymmetrical alkyl-aryl and aryl-aryl diamines with excellent yields and enantiopurities. Weak forces affecting kinetics and thermodynamics of the diaza-Cope rearrangement were systematically studied by combining experimental and computational approaches. These forces include hydrogen bonding effects, electronic effects, steric effects, and oxyanion effects. As an example of tuning diamine catalysts, a vicinal diamine-catalyzed synthesis of warfarin is described. Detailed mechanistic studies lead to a new mechanism involving diimine intermediates. Decreasing the NCCN dihedral angle by varying the diamine structure results in an increase of the enantioselectivity up to 92% ee. Hydrogen bonds have been used to generate helical chirality in a highly stereospecific manner with a single amino acid and 2,2′-dihydroxybenzophenone. DFT computational and experimental data including circular dichroism (CD), X-ray crystallography and 1H NMR data provide insight into the origin of the stereospecificity. A signalling dizao group can be attached to the receptor for general sensing of amino acid enantiopurity.

Previous studies have indicated the level of total sulfur amino acids (TSAA) (methionine + cystine) is most limiting in practical diet formulations for hybrid striped bass (HSB), especially if animal feedstuffs are replaced with plant feedstuffs. Reduction of costly animal feedstuffs such as fish meal while maintaining adequate dietary levels of TSAA may enhance cost effectiveness of production. Therefore, this study, consisting of four separate feeding trials, investigated three different aspects of sulfur amino acid nutrition of HSB including: (1) the efficacy of crystalline methionine hydroxy analog (MHA) and liquid MHA (AlimetTM) relative to L-methionine in meeting the requirement for TSAA; (2) the cystine sparing value for methionine; and, (3) the influence of various sulfur amino acid supplements on ammonia excretion. During the feeding trials, juvenile HSB were fed various diets including a basal diet deficient in TSAA (0.33 or 0.51% of diet), and experimental diets supplemented on an equalsulfur basis with different levels of either L-methionine, AlimetTM or crystalline MHA. Diets containing TSAA at 1% of diet and different ratios of cystine to methionine (60:40, 55:45, 50:50, and 45:55) also were fed to re-evaluate sparing effects of cystine on methionine. During the ammonia excretion trial, HSB were fed diets containing either L-methionine,AlimetTM or crystalline MHA after which total ammonia nitrogen (TAN) excretion was determined 4 h postprandial. In trial 1, AlimetTM was 73% as effective in promoting growth as L-methionine at the same concentration while MHA was 83% as effective. In trial 3, fish fed AlimetTM at 1.25% of diet displayed similar growth performance as those fed TSAA at 1.0% of diet while weight gain of fish fed AlimetTM at 1% was only 58% of that displayed by fish fed TSAA at 1.0%. No significant differences in weight gain, feed utilization or survival were observed among fish fed diets containing various ratios of cystine to methionine although the diet with 60:40 cystine to methionine supported the lowest responses. Inclusion of MHA or AlimetTM did not affect TAN excretion of HSB. These findings will aid in refining diet formulations for HSB to ensure adequate sulfur amino acid nutrition.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2008. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xii, 102 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 92-102).

Thesis (Honors)--College of William and Mary, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 53-54). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Recent research suggests that amino acids, such as leucine and isoleucine, can improve glucose tolerance in vivo and in vitro animal models by accelerating glucose uptake in peripheral tissues and stimulate glycogen synthesis in vitro in the absence of insulin. Our laboratory recently found that gavaging normal Sprague-Dawley rats with an amino acid mixture, composed of isoleucine, leucine, cystine, methionine, and valine, improved blood glucose response during an oral glucose challenge without an increase in the plasma insulin response. The blood glucose-lowering effect of the amino acid mixture was due to an increase in skeletal muscle glucose uptake. These results suggest that this amino acid supplement acutely improves muscle insulin sensitivity and blood glucose homeostasis. However, the effect of this amino acid mixture on glucose tolerance and muscle glycogen synthesis in humans has not been investigated. Some studies have also shown that daily supplementation or acute ingestion of amino acids may prevent muscle damage that occurs as a result of a prolonged, intense endurance exercise or strength training and therefore improves force production and exercise performance. However, the effects of the addition of an amino acid mixture to carbohydrate supplement on muscle damage after a prolonged endurance exercise, as well as on the subsequent anaerobic exercise performance, have not been characterized. Therefore, in this series of two studies, the effects of an amino acid mixture, composed of isoleucine, leucine, cyctine, methionine, and valine, on glucose tolerance, muscle glycogen resynthesis, muscle damage, and anaerobic exercise performance were investigated. Study 1 demonstrated that our amino acid mixture lowered the glucose response to an OGTT in healthy overweight/obese subjects in an insulin-independent manner. Study 2 demonstrated that both high and low dosages of amino acid mixture were effective in lowering blood glucose response to a carbohydrate bolus in athletes postexercise. High dosage of amino acid mixture was more potent in glucose regulation by providing a higher insulin response and amino acid effect. However, our amino acid mixture had no effects on post exercise muscle glycogen synthesis, exercise-induced muscle damage or subsequent anaerobic performance. Taken together, the results of this research series suggest that an amino acid mixture, composed of isoleucine and 4 additional amino acids, attenuates the glucose response to a glucose bolus in an insulin-independent manner, but does not enhance muscle glycogen restoration following exercise or prevent exercise-induced muscle damage. / text

published_or_final_version / Medical Sciences / Master / Master of Medical Sciences

α-Isopropylmalate synthase (α-IPMS) is responsible for catalysing the first committed step in leucine biosynthesis. This pathway is found in plants and microorganisms, including pathogenic bacteria such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Neisseria meningitidis. α-IPMS catalyses a Claisen condensation reaction between α-ketoisovalerate (KIV) and acetyl coenzyme A (AcCoA) to form the product α-isopropylmalate (IPM). This enzyme undergoes feedback inhibition by the end product of the pathway, leucine. This regulation allows the control of the rate leucine biosynthesis. This project focuses on the α-IPMS enzymes from M. tuberculosis and N. meningitidis (MtuIPMS and NmeIPMS). These α-IPMS enzymes are homodimeric in structure. Each monomer consists of a catalytic domain which comprises of a (β/α)8 barrel fold, two subdomains and a regulatory domain, to which the allosteric binding of the natural inhibitor leucine occurs. The mechanism by which the allosteric binding of leucine leads to a decrease in enzymatic activity is not yet fully understood. Citramalate synthase (CMS) is responsible for catalysing the first committed step of threonine-independent isoleucine biosynthesis. This enzyme is extremely similar to α-IPMS in both the reaction which it catalyses and the catalytic and regulatory domain structure. CMS catalyses a Claisen condensation reaction between pyruvate and AcCoA to produce citramalate (CM). CMS is also feedback inhibited by the end product of its pathway, isoleucine. The similarity between α-IPMS and CMS enzymes resulted in and examination of the inhibitor selectivity of MtuIPMS. Amino acids in the leucine binding site were altered to their counterparts in the isoleucine binding site of the CMS enzyme to see if the selectivity of the leucine binding site could be interchanged. Results from this study show that it is possible to change inhibitor selectivity with a single amino acid substitution. However, changing the selectivity from leucine to isoleucine was unsuccessful. Instead, one of the MtuIPMS variants displayed significantly increased sensitivity to an alternative amino acid, norvaline. The MtuIPMS variants were expressed and purified using immobilised metal affinity chromatography and size-exclusion chromatography. These variants were then kinetically characterised and displayed similar binding affinities and turnover rates for the natural substrates to the wild-type enzyme. As expected changes to the leucine binding pocket had drastic effects on the sensitivity of the enzyme to its natural inhibitor. This work is described in Chapter 2 of this thesis. The mechanism by which the regulatory signal is transferred from the allosteric leucine binding site to the catalytic site in α-IPMS is not fully understood. NmeIPMS variants were created based on preliminary molecular dynamic simulations which indicated that significant changes in residue contacts were associated with leucine binding. Chapter 3 describes studies that explore the effect of single amino acid substitutions of NmeIPMS. The NmeIPMS variants were expressed and purified similarly to MtuIPMS, using immobilised metal affinity chromatography and size-exclusion chromatography. Variants were subsequently characterised via mass spectrometry, differential scanning fluorimetry and kinetic assays. It was found that each variant generated retained sensitivity to leucine but displayed significant differences in the catalytic efficiencies with AcCoA. One of the generated variants also displayed a significant increase in thermal stability. Results are drawn together in Chapter 4 along with future directions of this research. This chapter details knowledge gained into protein structure and allosteric mechanisms in this thesis.

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This thesis reports a study of polydentate amino acid complexes of cobalt(III). The complexes prepared during this project have been characterized by a range of techniques, including ¹³C{¹H} and ¹H NMR spectroscopy, UV-visible spectroscopy, infra-red spectroscopy, elemental analysis and single crystal X-ray structure determination. A total of seven single crystal X-ray structure determinations have been performed during these studies. The imino acid polydentate complex, [Co(Aim₂trien)]₂[ZnCl₄], was reduced to the corresponding amino acid complex, [Co(A₂trien)]Cl, where as many as ten diastereoisomers could be formed due to the formation of new stereogenic centres. The crude product of these reactions was a mixture of isomers, according to ¹³C{¹H} NMR data. These isomers were separated using ion-exchange chromatography. The major isomer (I1), a minor isomer (I2a) and a half reduced complex (I4a) from the [Co(A₂trien)]Cl reduction and separation experiment were characterised. The predominant isomers produced were found to have had the proton on the α-carbon atoms positioned on the amine face of each amino acid ligand fragment. To investigate the ratio of the isomers formed by the initial borohydride reduction, an isomerisation study of the major isomer of the [Co(A₂trien)]⁺ complex (I1) was performed. This study hoped to establish the degree to which the distribution of isomers was a result of dynamic equilibrium. Experiments on a small scale showed the initial isomer distribution to be similar to that obtained from the borohydride reduction reaction. However, prolonged exposure to the carbonate buffer (≈ two weeks) resulted in isomers not previously seen. Experiments on a large scale were performed to establish whether the results were consistent. The materials from both the two hour and two week experiments were mixtures of isomers by ¹³C{¹H} NMR spectroscopy and were separated using ion-exchange chromatography. ¹H NMR data of the two hour experiment showed only epimerisation of the amine proton adjacent to the α-carbon atom. Therefore the isomers produced from the isomerisation of I1 have the same configuration of the proton on the α-carbon atoms, which is on the amine face of each amino acid chelate ring. ¹H NMR data from the two week experiment resulted in new isomers not previously seen as both the amine proton and the proton on the α-carbon atom have been epimerised. The polyamine wrapping around the central metal ion may also have changed in some cases. It would appear, from the ¹H NMR data that the methyl group signals of these isomers fall in two distinct clusters; a cluster at δ 1.50-1.65 ppm and a cluster at δ 1.40-1.49 ppm. From these results, and the results of Chapter Two, it has been calculated that there is at least 92% facial selectivity for the amine face of the molecule during the initial borohydride reduction reactions. This may be due to a di-hydrogen bonding interaction between an adjacent amine proton and a hydride of the borohydride, which directs the attack. Following on from this study, a new range of imino and amino acid complexes were synthesised using different tetraamine and pentaamine cobalt(III) complexes. X-ray quality crystals of [Co(Aim₂2,2,3-tet)][ClO₄] and [Co(Aim₂2,3,2-tet)][ClO₄] were obtained and solved with assistance from Dr. Chris Fitchett and Dr. Jennifer Burgess. Borohydride reductions were performed on the [Co(Aim₂2,2,3-tet)]⁺ and [Co(Aim₂2,3,2-tet)]⁺ systems. The products were a mixture of isomers according to 1H and ¹³C{¹H} NMR spectroscopy. The results from the ¹H NMR experiments showed similarity between the [Co(A₂2,3,2-tet)]⁺ and [Co(A₂trien)]⁺ systems, where three major stereoisomers were present in solution. Analogous results for the asymmetric [Co(A₂2,2,3-tet)]⁺ system were also observed. Preliminary attempts have been made to separate these isomers using ion-exchange chromatography.