The Symbiotic Relationship Between Drug Discovery and Organic Chemistry.

All pharmaceutical products contain organic molecules; the source may be a natural product or a fully synthetic molecule, or a combination of both. Thus, it follows that organic chemistry underpins both existing and upcoming pharmaceutical products. The reverse relationship has also affected organic synthesis, changing its landscape towards increasingly complex targets.

Evolution of commercially available compounds for HTS.

Over recent years, an industry of compound suppliers has grown to provide drug discovery with screening compounds: it is estimated that there are over 16 million compounds available from these sources. Here, we review the chemical space covered by suppliers' compound libraries (SCL) in terms of compound physicochemical properties, novelty, diversity, and quality. We examine the feasibility of compiling high-quality vendor-based libraries avoiding complicated, expensive compound management activity, and compare the resulting libraries to the ChEMBL data set.

Trichlorophenol (TCP) sulfonate esters: a selective alternative to pentafluorophenol (PFP) esters and sulfonyl chlorides for the preparation of sulfonamides.

2,4,6-Trichlorophenol (TCP) sulfonate esters undergo effective aminolysis under conventional heating and microwave irradiation; the reactivity of these species is such that chemoselective transformations of PFP sulfonate esters can be achieved.

Observations on the reactivity of pentafluorophenyl sulfonate esters.

Studies on displacement reactions of alkyl pentafluorophenyl (PFP) sulfonates with amines are consistent with a mechanism involving an elimination-addition pathway; comparisons between the reactivity of PFP-sulfonates with sulfonyl chlorides and PFP-sulfonates with PFP-esters are also presented.

Pentafluorophenyl sulfonate ester as a protecting group for the preparation of biaryl- and heterobiaryl sulfonate esters.

The use of the pentafluorophenyl (PFP) group as a sulfonic acid protecting group has allowed the synthesis of new biaryl- and heterobiaryl-PFP-sulfonate esters by use of the Suzuki-Miyaura reaction. The successful employment of a novel inorganic base, anhydrous sodium tetraborate, was crucial to give the products in excellent yields. The PFP-sulfonate ester has been previously shown to be an excellent alternative to sulfonyl chlorides in the synthesis of sulfonamides.

Evidence for the presence of three distinct binding sites for the thioflavin T class of Alzheimer's disease PET imaging agents on beta-amyloid peptide fibrils.

Imaging the progression of Alzheimer's disease would greatly facilitate the discovery of therapeutics, and a wide range of ligands are currently under development for the detection of beta-amyloid peptide (Abeta)-containing plaques by using positron emission tomography. Here we report an in-depth characterization of the binding of seven previously described ligands to in vitro generated Abeta-(1-40) polymers. All of the compounds were derived from the benzothiazole compound thioflavin T and include 2-[4'-(methylamino)phenyl]benzothiazole and 2-(4'-dimethylamino-)phenyl-imidazo[1,2-a]-pyridine derivatives, 2-[4'-(dimethylamino)phenyl]-6-iodobenzothiazole and 2-[4'-(4''-methylpiperazin-1-yl)phenyl]-6-iodobenzothiazole, and a benzofuran compound (5-bromo-2-(4-dimethylaminophenyl)benzofuran).

Direct synthesis of sulfonamides and activated sulfonate esters from sulfonic acids.

A general new method for the preparation of sulfonamides and activated sulfonate esters by the direct coupling of sulfonic acid salts with amines and alcohols using the reagent triphenylphosphine ditriflate is described. A new reusable polymer-supported reagent for these transformations under heterogeneous conditions is also described. These methods provide a fundamentally new approach to making small molecules containing the sulfonamide functional group.

A new route to sulfonamides via intermolecular radical addition to pentafluorophenyl vinylsulfonate and subsequent aminolysis.

[reaction: see text] Various radical species generated from either the corresponding iodo- or bromo- compounds and tri-n-butyltin hydride were added in an intermolecular fashion to the activated acceptor pentafluorophenyl vinylsulfonate. The products of each reaction were then subjected to aminolysis with a variety of different amines.