Aspergillomarasmine A

Gerald Wright and co-workers from McMaster University in Canada have reported in Nature on aspergillomarasmine A being a good inhibitor for the New Dehli Metallo beta-lactamase 1 (NDM-1) enzyme.

 

Nature paper

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Cyanobacteriochromes

Clark Lagarias and co-workers at UC Davis have reported in UC Davis on the study of cyanobacteriochromes, proteins that sense light.

Biochemistry paper

Proline coupling

Danishefsky and co-workers have reported in JACS on a proline cross-linking reaction that involves a diselenide precursor.

JACS paper

Sudden Unexpected Death now explained

Ji-Kai Liu and co-workers have reported in ACIEE on toxic amino acids found in a mushroom.

ACIEE paper

Pleurocybellaziridine

First things first:  Merry Christmas!  Happy holidays!

Toshiyuki Kan and co-workers from the University of Shizuoka have published in ACIEE on the evidence of an aziridine containing amino acid in a fungus called Angel’s wing.  They did some detective work because the aziridine containing amino acid dubbed pleurocybellaziridine is not stable enough for observation.  The carboxylic acid was not stable so they derivitized the natural product to the methyl ester form, which was more stable.  They also synthesized the aziridine containing amino acid to confirm the structures through spectral data.  The aziridine was synthesized via Mitsunobu conditions.  Interestingly the carboxylic acid form is more cytotoxic (87 micromolar, strong activity) compared to the methyl ester (233 micromolar, weak activity).  Pleurocybellaziridine damages the oligodendrocytes, which makes up the myelin sheath in the brain.

ACIEE paper