Objective: To review the place in therapy of isavuconazole, the active metabolite of isavuconazonium sulfate, via a review of the available literature on drug chemistry, spectrum of activity, pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic profile and trials assessing clinical efficacy and safety. Methods: Relevant data, original research articles and reviews, were gathered primarily through the use of a PubMed database search. The search was conducted without date restrictions in order to collect both historical and recent data regarding isavuconazole. Key findings: Isavuconazole is a triazole currently approved not only for use in invasive aspergillosis and mucormycosis but also has demonstrable activity against Candida species and other common fungal pathogens. This drug has features which make it more clinically appealing compared to other azoles with similar indications. In specific, isavuconazole does not require a cyclodextrin vehicle due to its water solubility, and at present, does not require therapeutic drug monitoring. Moreover, isavuconazole has displayed improved safety and tolerability compared to voriconazole. Available data from Phase III clinical trials shows isavuconazole to be a possible therapeutic option to currently available therapies for which it is approved; however, clinical conclusions should be reserved until results have been published and more data from clinical use is reported. Conclusions: Isavuconazole is a new triazole with broad‐spectrum antifungal activity including invasive aspergillosis and mucormycosis.

The pawhuskins and schweinfurthins are two classes of stilbene natural product compounds that exhibit interesting biological activity, and because of this they have been studied extensively in our lab through synthetic means. The pawhuskins are a class of small molecule non-nitrogenous opioid receptor modulators that differ significantly in structure from the classical opioid receptor ligands. Some of the natural schweinfurnthins show strong and differential antiproliferative behavior towards a variety of human cancer cell lines. Prior to this research, a significant structure-activity relationship study conducted in our lab has produced a large library of analogues of both classes of compounds. The most potent of theses analogues have served as lead compounds in this study where the stilbene motif present in both classes was substituted with either an amide or triazole linkage. For the new pawhuskin analogues, three of the amide isomers and a triazole isomer synthesized showed antagonist activity for the opioid growth factor (OGF)/opioid growth factor receptor (OGFR) axis which is involved in cellular and organ growth control. This cellular signaling mechanism is targeted by “low-dose” naltrexone therapy which is being tested clinically for multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, cancer, and wound healing disorders. The compounds described here are the first selective small molecule ligands for the OGF/OGFR system and will serve as important leads and probes for further study. For the new schweinfurthins analogues, all compounds synthesized retained antiproliferative activity against similar cancer cell lines to that of the natural compounds. The new amide analogues were produced in pairs only differing in the orientation of the amide linkage replacement for the stilbene motif. Signifigantly greater activity was seen for one orientation of the amide over the other. The synthetic efforts towards all of these analogues will be described herein along with their intriguing biological properties.

<p>This thesis deals with the peroxyoxalate chemiluminescence (POCL) reaction and its application as a detection technique in flow systems for chemical analysis. Particularly, miniaturized flow systems aimed for separation of molecules. In such systems, a high light intensity and a rapid development of the emission are the desired reaction characteristics, for reasons discussed in this text. The work tries to develop an understanding of the chemical processes involved in POCL, with special emphasis to the species favoring or hindering a rapid light evolution. Hence, is the focus placed on the nature of catalysis and the desired properties of substances acting as catalysts in this reaction. Consequently, the scientific papers on which this work is founded includes both systematic stopped-flow studies of catalyst candidates and of the causes for diminished light emission. In addition, multivariate strategies for reaction optimization in practical analysis situations are treated, and the application of the POCL technique to detection of serum-extracted neuroactive steroids, derivatized with fluorescent moieties, is presented.</p><p>From the experiments in this thesis it is clear nucleophilic catalysts are the most efficient enhancing compounds, which means that they must possess a carefully balanced characteristics of nucleophilicity, leaving group ability, and basicity. The investigations also conclude that the feature of basicity efficiently can be delegated to a non-nucleophilic co-catalyst, which allow the use of nucleophilic catalysts that need to be deprotonated to be active. This thesis also shows the importance of minimizing the amount of competing nucleophiles at the site of reaction to maintain the emission. This implies that also solvents and buffer substances should be carefully chosen not to interfere with the emission process.</p><p>The most promising combination of catalysts found in this work was 4,5- dichloroimidazole together with 1,2,2,6,6-pentamethylpiperidne. This arrangement was capable of speeding the reaction more than tenfold while increasing the maximum emission intensity by about the same factor.</p>

Over the last decade, the domain of click chemistry has grown exponentially and has significantly impacted the fields of organic synthesis, medicinal chemistry, molecular biology, and materials science. The ideal model of a click reaction has become the copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC). Inherent limitations of CuAAC, including high temperatures, long reaction times, and difficult purifications, have been minimized by the development of nitrogen-based ligands. Herein, we present a novel application of 1,2,4-triazines by investigating their use as accelerants for CuAAC. A diverse library of 1,2,4-triazines were synthesized in order to examine the molecular determinants of their catalytic activity. These ligands were found to be potent accelerants, at catalytic concentrations, in the presence of both copper(I) and copper(II) salts. Remarkably, these catalyzed reactions proceeded at room temperature, generating high isolated yields, in both polar and nonpolar solvents. 5,6-Diphenyl-3-(pyridin-2-yl)1,2,4-triazine was the most active ligand studied, producing an 89% yield in a model click reaction within one hour. Additional experiments with an array of azides and alkynes yielded similar results, defining a broad substrate scope for 1,2,4-triazines as catalysts for click chemistry. Heterogeneous 1,2,4-triazines were designed using different solid supports and different sites of attachment with respect to the 1,2,4-triazine ligand. The primary advantages offered by these immobilized catalysts are the prevention of metal contamination in 1,2,3-triazole products and the recyclability of the catalyst. Results indicated that 1,2,4-triazine-functionalized silica was a more effective accelerant of CuAAC, whereas polystyrene-supported 1,2,4-triazines displayed modest activity. In coordination with copper(II), 1,2,4-triazines appended onto silica generated isolated yields greater than 90% after four consecutive reaction cycles with minimal copper leaching. Further research will utilize both homogeneous and heterogeneous 1,2,4-triazine-accelerated CuAAC in the derivatization of solid supports for energy-related chemical processes and in the synthesis of novel enzyme inhibitors.

This thesis deals with the peroxyoxalate chemiluminescence (POCL) reaction and its application as a detection technique in flow systems for chemical analysis. Particularly, miniaturized flow systems aimed for separation of molecules. In such systems, a high light intensity and a rapid development of the emission are the desired reaction characteristics, for reasons discussed in this text. The work tries to develop an understanding of the chemical processes involved in POCL, with special emphasis to the species favoring or hindering a rapid light evolution. Hence, is the focus placed on the nature of catalysis and the desired properties of substances acting as catalysts in this reaction. Consequently, the scientific papers on which this work is founded includes both systematic stopped-flow studies of catalyst candidates and of the causes for diminished light emission. In addition, multivariate strategies for reaction optimization in practical analysis situations are treated, and the application of the POCL technique to detection of serum-extracted neuroactive steroids, derivatized with fluorescent moieties, is presented. From the experiments in this thesis it is clear nucleophilic catalysts are the most efficient enhancing compounds, which means that they must possess a carefully balanced characteristics of nucleophilicity, leaving group ability, and basicity. The investigations also conclude that the feature of basicity efficiently can be delegated to a non-nucleophilic co-catalyst, which allow the use of nucleophilic catalysts that need to be deprotonated to be active. This thesis also shows the importance of minimizing the amount of competing nucleophiles at the site of reaction to maintain the emission. This implies that also solvents and buffer substances should be carefully chosen not to interfere with the emission process. The most promising combination of catalysts found in this work was 4,5- dichloroimidazole together with 1,2,2,6,6-pentamethylpiperidne. This arrangement was capable of speeding the reaction more than tenfold while increasing the maximum emission intensity by about the same factor.

Protein translocation is essential for bacterial survival and the most important translocation mechanism in bacteria is the secretion (Sec) pathway. Thus targeting Sec pathway is a promising strategy for developing novel antibacterial therapeutics. We report the design, syntheses, mechanistic studies and structure-activity relationship studies using HQSAR and 3-D QSAR Topomer CoMFA analyses of 4-oxo-5-cyano thiouracil derivatives. In summary, introduction of polar group such as –N3 and linker groups such as –CH2-O- enhanced the potency as well as logP and logS several fold. We also report the discovery, optimization and structure-activity relationship study of 1,2,4-triazole containing pyrimidines as novel, highly potent antimicrobial agents. A number of inhibitors have been found to inhibit microbial growth at high nanomolar concentrations.

A major sweet potato leaf-type catalase was detected and identified from fullyexpandedmature leaves using in-gel activity staining assay with native- andSDS-PAGEs. The putative catalase activity band was inhibited by a catalaseinhibitor 3-amino-1,2,4-triazole. The major leaf-type catalase activity wasoptimal over 8, and was significantly repressed by £]-mercaptoethanol. However,its activity was much less affected by temperature within the range of 5 to 450C.Temporal and spatial expression showed that it was specifically detected inleaves, but not in roots and stems. Its activity increased from the immature L2leaves, and reached the maximal at the fully-expanded mature L3 leaves, thenslightly decreased in partial yellowing senescent L4 leaves, and was almost notdetected in completely yellowing L5 leaves similar to folding unopenedimmature L1 leaves. The catalase level showed approximately inversecorrelation with the H2O2 amounts in leaves of different developmental stages.Dark and ethephon, an ethylene-releasing compound, also temporarily enhancedthe catalase activities from 6 h to 24 h, however, the enhanced activitydecreased from 24 h to 48 h in detached leaves after treatment. The catalaselevel also showed approximately negative correlation with the H2O2 amounts intreated leaves. The major leaf-type catalase activity was repressed by EGTA,and the repression can be reversed by exogenous CaCl2. The major leaf-typecatalase activity was also repressed by calmodulin inhibitor chlorpromazine,and the repression can be reversed by exogenous purified SPCAM calmodulinfusion protein. Chlorpromazine-treated leaves also elevated H2O2 amount.Based on these data we conclude that a major leaf-type catalase with maximalactivity in L3 leaf was identified in sweet potato. Its activity was temporarilyenhanced by dark and ethephon, and was modulated by external calcium ion(Ca2+) and calmodulin. A possible physiological role and function in associationwith cellular H2O2 homeostasis in cope with developmental and environmentalcues in sweet potato leaves is suggested.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird die Verwendbarkeit verschiedener Alkine bzw. organischer Azide für die katalysierte 1,3-dipolare Cycloaddition dokumentiert. Es wird gezeigt, dass Popargylazid eine Sonderstellung bezüglich dieser katalysierten Cycloaddition einnimmt, da es diese zu inhibieren vermag. Der Hauptschwerpunkt der Arbeit liegt in der Synthese makrocyclischer Triazolsysteme unter Verwendung der Cu(I)-katalysierten 1,3-dipolaren Cycloaddition. Durch die Entwicklung einer mehrstufigen Synthese gelingt die Darstellung eines makrocylischen Triazolsystems, das formal als cyclisches Tetramer von Propargylazid aufgefasst werden kann. Durch Übertragung des Syntheseprinzips auf andere Fünfring-Heterocyclen (Tetrazole, Imidazole), wird eine große Anzahl an makrocyclischen Verbindungen als potentielle Komplexliganden erzeugt. Der Vergleich der Zielprodukte liefert Aussagen über deren Eigenschaften, vor allem deren Löslichkeitsverhalten und deren Reaktivität. Anhand einer Kristallstruktur wird gezeigt, dass es sich um nichtplanare Verbindungen handelt, was aus den NMR-Messungen bei Raumtemperatur nicht hervorgeht. Des weiteren werden aus den Nebenprodukten des Syntheseweges ebenfalls neue heterocyclische Systeme gewonnen, die den Makrocyclen ähnliche Eigenschaften aufweisen. Ferner gelingt die Synthese einer neuartigen Käfigverbindung aus einem der erstmalig erzeugten Makrocyclen, deren Struktur kristallographisch belegt werden kann.

Protein-protein interactions are central to most biological processes. Although in the field of drug discovery there is a great interest in targeting protein-protein interactions, the discovery and development of small-molecules, which effect these interactions has been challenging. The purpose of this project is to determine if in situ click chemistry is a practical approach towards testing whether Bcl-XL is capable of assembling it's own inhibitory compounds. Abbott laboratories developed compound ABT-737, which binds with high affinity (Ki < 1 nM) to the binding sites of Bcl-XL.³⁶ Based on ABT-737, two acetylene anchor molecules AM3 and AM4 have been synthesized. These anchor molecules are distinguished by the reactivity of the their carbon-carbon triple bond. Compound AM3 contains an electron withdrawing carbonyl in the alpha-position to the acetylene resulting in an activating effect towards the [1,3]-dipolar cycloaddition compared to compound AM4. To determine the reactivity of the activated system, ¹ H-NMR kinetic studies were performed to compare the relative rates of these two systems by reacting model alkynes 1,2,3, and 4 with azide AZ7. It was shown that the activated systems, 1 and 3, produce triazoles in an accelerated rate compared to the unactivated systems 2 and 3. To test for the self-assembly of inhibitory triazoles, the acetylenes AM3 and AM4 were incubated with Bcl-XL and 14 azide building blocks (AZ1-AZ12) for 12 hours at 37 degrees C. Subjecting these mixtures to LC/MS-SIM led to the discovery of two hit compounds, 35 and 36, of which 35 has been chemically synthesized confirming the hit. Future work includes the synthesis of all hit compounds. Since hit triazoles can be syn or anti, both need to be synthesized for each hit to investigate which regioisomer Bcl-XL generates. Tests to confirm if hit compounds are actually modulating Bcl-XL activity will be done using conventional bio-assays. This will validate that Bcl-XL is capable of assembling its own inhibitor via the in situ click chemistry approach to drug discovery.

This work deals with the synthesis and photophysical study of fluorescent molecules, aiming to construct new chemical sensors for the selective detection of environmentally or biologically important metal ions. A series of fluoroionophores consisting of triazole moiety and different fluorophores was utilized to investigate the functions of triazole group in chemosensors. Our comprehensively photophysical and complexing studies of these ligands demonstrated that triazole groups could contribute as part of conjugated fluorophores, as metal binding sites or linkers. Several selective chemosensors were successively developed for the detection of Cu2+ or Hg2+. By incorporating dansyl fluorophore into calix[4]bisazacrown, a new potassium chemosensor was constructed. A sulfonate fluorescent calix[4]bisazacrown was created for the selective and ratiometric detection of Al3+ in lutidine buffer solution at pH 6.0 with a satisfying sensitivity. Finally, we aim to realize modulation of cation binding through the photoinduced charge redistribution in the excited state. Two binding motifs based on fullerene and betaine pyridinium were designed for this purpose. Preliminary results demonstrated that PET in fullerene might be not suitable but pydinium betaine hold great potential in the cation translocations.