No description available.

No description available.

<P> Fluorine-18 labeled 6-fluoro-3, 4-dihydroxy-phenyl-L-alanine (6-FDOPA) has been used in conjunction with Positron Emission Tomography (PET) to study the dopamine metabolism in the living human brain and also to monitor gastrointestinal carcinoid tumors. Elemental fluorination of L-DOPA in anhydrous HF (aHF) or aHF/BF3 has been shown to be an efficient method for the synthesis of 6-fluoro-L-DOPA. Utilization of aHF, however, is not desirable in a hospital environment owing to its hazardous nature. This work has consequently focused on the development of new methodologies for the direct electrophilic fluorination of aromatic amino acids, which circumvent the use of aHF. </p> <p> The present work has shown that the reactivity and selectivity of F2 towards L-DOPA in CF3S03H is comparable to that in aHF. The discovery and versatility of this new synthetic procedure has led to the production of 6-[18F]fluoro-L-DOPA, 6[18F]fluoro-D-DOPA, 4-[18F]fluoro-L-m-tyrosine (4-FMT) and 6-(8F]fluoro-L-m-tyrosine (6-FMT) in high radiochemical yields that are not only suitable for small animal imaging, but are also suitable for clinical use in human subjects. Because of the low volatility of CF3S03H, its removal from the reaction mixture was accomplished by use of an anion exchange resin in acetate form. The syntheses of2-, 4-and 6-FMT were also achieved by the direct fluorination of m-tyrosine (MT) in H20. The effect of temperature on the fluorination of MT was investigated and it was shown that, unlike CF3S03H, optimal conditions in H20 were attained at elevated reaction temperatures. </p> <p> There have been several reports relating to the formation of [18F]OF2 as a major byproduct (up to 20%) in the gas phase nuclear reaction, 180(p,n)18F. This reaction is used for the routine production of [18F]F2 which, in tum, is utilized for the syntheses of PET tracers such as radiofluorinated aromatic amino acids. Because the reactivity of OF2 has been reported to be similar to that of F2, its selectivity as a fluorinating agent towards aromatic amino acids was investigated. The effect of solvent acidity on the fluorination of MT using OF2 was studied and it was shown that, in contrast with the reactivity of F2 in superacids, OF2 is a more efficient fluorinating agent in less acidic solvent media. The use of H20 as the solvent medium for fluorination ofMT resulted in the formation of 19FFMT isomers in 4.35 ±0.04% yield. Consequently, the potential use of OF2 as a fluorinating agent for aromatic amino acids was also investigated for L-phenylalanine, 3nitro-L-tyrosine, 4-nitro-DL-phenylalanine, L-DOPA, 3-0-methyl-L-DOPA, 3,4dimethoxy-L-phenylalanine, m-, p-and a-tyrosine. In these studies, the only aromatic system fluorinated by OF2 was MT, indicating that the presence of [18F]OF2 as a byproduct resulting from the nuclear reaction, 180(p,n)18F, does not have a significant impact on the syntheses of radio fluorinated aromatic amino acids that have applications in PET imaging. </p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Steroid sulfatase (STS) catalyzes the desulfation of sulfated steroids such as estrone sulfate to the corresponding steroid such as estrone. Inhibitors of STS are believed to have potential for treating estrogen-dependent breast cancer. A new class of potential irreversible suicide inhibitors of STS, based on aryl sulfates bearing a monofluoromethyl or difluoromethyl group ortho to the sulfate group, was synthesized. Key to the success of these syntheses was the use of new sulfation methodology recently developed in the Taylor group. A new and efficient route to 4-formyl estrone, a time-dependent, irreversible STS inhibitor, is also reported. Several new classes of potential, reversible STS inhibitors were synthesized. These compounds are analogs of known STS substrates in which the sulfate group is replaced with an ???,??????-difluoromethylenesulfonamide group, a boronic acid group or a sulfinic acid group. We also report the synthesis of estrone sulfate analogs that bear a carboxylate moiety at the 17-position and a sulfate surrogate at the 3-position. It is anticipated that these compounds will inhibit STS by interacting with Arg98 which lies at the periphery of the active site. Key to the success of this synthesis was the use of the t-butyl group as a protecting group for the 2-position of estrone. Finally, our preliminary investigations into the synthesis of a new class of chiral electrophilic fluorinating agents are presented. These reagents are based on a chiral binaphthyl sulfonimide scaffold and are expected to be capable of performing enantioselective electrophilic fluorinations. Such reagents may be useful in synthesizing organofluorines of biological significance including STS inhibitors.

No description available.

<p>The wide presence of C-N bonds in biologically and pharmaceutically important compounds continues to drive the development of new C-N bond-forming transformations. Among the different strategies, electrophilic amination is an important synthetic approach for the direct formation of C-N bonds. Compared to electrophilic amination of organometallic reagents, direct amination of C-H bonds will provide a potentially more effective route towards C-N bond formation. Towards this, we proposed an electrophilic amination of C-H bonds via their reactive organometallic surrogate intermediates. Specifically, we are interested in organozinc intermediates and their in situ formation from C-H bonds. </p><p>This dissertation reports our development of direct amination of various C-H bonds using a H-Zn exchange/electrophilic amination strategy as a rapid and powerful way to access a variety of functionalized amines. We were able to achieve C-H zincation using strong and non-nucleophilic bases Zn(tmp)2 or tmpZnCl*LiCl and subsequent electrophilic amination of the corresponding zinc carbanions with copper as a catalyst and O-benzoylhydroxylamines as the electrophilic nitrogen source. With such a one-pot procedure, the synthesis of various amines from C-H bonds has been achieved, including alpha-amination of esters, amides, and phosphonates. Direct amination of heteroaromatic and aromatic C-H bonds has also been developed in good to high yields. It is important to note that mild reactivity of organozinc reagents offers a good compatibility with different functional groups, such as esters, amides, and halides. </p><p>Success in developing direct and efficient syntheses of these various amines is highly valuable. These new amination methods will greatly expand the chemical diversity and space of available amine skeletons, and will contribute to future advances in material science, medicinal chemistry and drug discovery.</p> / Dissertation

This thesis has focussed on three main projects, all concerning electrophilic fluorination and fluorocyclization methodology. To begin with we considered the development of a novel fluoro-carbocyclization reaction, which combined the use of substrates of relatively low reactivity and rarely used carbon nucleophiles. Two major and common problems with electrophilic fluorination are the choice of a suitable reaction solvent and an appropriate fluorine source. These challenges were encountered and overcome to furnish a large library of cyclized products in excellent yields starting from indene and dihydronaphthalene class substrates. Our attempts to extend this methodology to an asymmetric variant using literature protocol for asymmetric fluorination were unsuccessful due to insufficient reactivity, which prompted us to investigate a new class of chiral reagents. Using the structural core of the widely used achiral reagent Selectfluor™, we prepared a variety of novel reagents which displayed greater fluorinating power than what is currently available in the literature. Finally, by combining the methodology for fluoro-carbocyclization with our selection of chiral reagents we were able to successfully achieve an unprecedented metal-free asymmetric fluoro-carbocyclization.

No description available.

Steroid sulfatase (STS) catalyzes the desulfation of sulfated steroids such as estrone sulfate to the corresponding steroid such as estrone. Inhibitors of STS are believed to have potential for treating estrogen-dependent breast cancer. A new class of potential irreversible suicide inhibitors of STS, based on aryl sulfates bearing a monofluoromethyl or difluoromethyl group ortho to the sulfate group, was synthesized. Key to the success of these syntheses was the use of new sulfation methodology recently developed in the Taylor group. A new and efficient route to 4-formyl estrone, a time-dependent, irreversible STS inhibitor, is also reported. Several new classes of potential, reversible STS inhibitors were synthesized. These compounds are analogs of known STS substrates in which the sulfate group is replaced with an ,-difluoromethylenesulfonamide group, a boronic acid group or a sulfinic acid group. We also report the synthesis of estrone sulfate analogs that bear a carboxylate moiety at the 17-position and a sulfate surrogate at the 3-position. It is anticipated that these compounds will inhibit STS by interacting with Arg98 which lies at the periphery of the active site. Key to the success of this synthesis was the use of the t-butyl group as a protecting group for the 2-position of estrone. Finally, our preliminary investigations into the synthesis of a new class of chiral electrophilic fluorinating agents are presented. These reagents are based on a chiral binaphthyl sulfonimide scaffold and are expected to be capable of performing enantioselective electrophilic fluorinations. Such reagents may be useful in synthesizing organofluorines of biological significance including STS inhibitors.

Pyrazoles have been intensely studied in the design and synthesis of biologically active agents because they display considerable medicinal activities. Recent studies have shown that integration of a ferrocenyl unit with structural features of pyrazoles can result in the formation of the new products with enhanced or/and unexpected biological activity since several ferrocene derivatives have already been illustrated to be active against a number of tumors. Therefore, we have investigated the electrophilic cyclizations of the hydrazones to afford 5-ferrocenyl-4-((4-nitrophenyl)sulfenyl)-substituted pyrazole derivatives. First, the requisite hydrazone derivatives were synthesized by the reactions of ferrocenyl propargyl aldehydes or ketones with a series of hydrazines. Then electrophilic cyclizations of these hydrazones were investigated by treating with 4-(nitrophenyl)sulfenyl chloride as electrophile. By employing these electrophilic cyclizations, a series of 5-ferrocenyl-4-((4-nitrophenyl)sulfenyl)-1H-pyrazoles, 5-ferrocenyl-4-((4-nitrophenyl) sulfenyl)-3-methyl-1H-pyrazoles and 5-ferrocenyl-4-((4-nitrophenyl)sulfenyl)-3-phenyl-1H-pyrazoles have been synthesized in moderate to good yields.