A novel strategy of dehydrogenative Heck reaction controlled by redox process of ferrocene has been developed. Commercially available chiral amino acid as ligand realized asymmetric dehydrogenative Heck reaction, leading to planar-chiral ferrocene derivatives with excellent enantioselectivity and in good to excellent yields (up to 99% ee and 98% yield).Scheme 1 Palladium-catalyzed direct alkenylation of N,N-dimethylaminomethylferrocene.

An efficient and concise one-pot protocol to synthesize sulfonylated quinoline N-oxides via copper-catalyzed C-H bond activation has been developed. Commercially available and less expensive aryl sulfonyl chlorides were used as the sulfonylation reagents. Various 2-aryl sulfonyl quinolines were obtained in up to 91% yields in chemo- and regioselective manners.

An efficient and concise one-pot strategy for the direct alkylation of quinoline N-oxides via palladium-catalyzed dual C À H bonds activation has been developed. This methodology provides quinoline-containing heterocyclic molecules in moderate to excellent yields.

Background: 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) is one of the most commonly used first-line anticancer drugs to treat gastric cancer in clinical practice. However, severe adverse events such as gastrointestinal toxicity and bone marrow suppression limit its clinical application. Combination chemotherapy to combine two or more anticancer drugs with different mechanistic action is an effective anticancer strategy against gastric cancer. Therefore, we studied the anticancer effect of the combination of 5-FU with curcumin against gastric cancer MKN45 and AGS cells (normal gastric mucosal GES-1 cells as control) and associated molecular mechanisms.Methods: Cytotoxicity of 5-FU and curcumin alone or in combination was evaluated in MKN45, AGS and GES cells by MTT assay. The protein expressions of COX-2 and NF-κB were evaluated in MKN45 cells by Western blotting analysis. In addition, antitumor activity of 5-FU and curcumin alone or in combination was evaluated in nude mice bearing MKN45 tumor xenografts in vivo.Results: The combination of 5-FU and curcumin (2:1, mol/mol) showed 2.2-, 3.5-fold and 2.3-, 3.9-fold enhanced cytotoxic effect compared to 5-FU or curcumin alone and generated synergistic effect at the concentration of 5-FU (>4.09 and >5.71 μmol/l) and curcumin (>2.05 and > 2.86 μmol/l) in MKN45 cells for 48 h and 72 h exposures, respectively. The combination of 5-FU and curcumin also potentiated cytotoxicity in AGS cells compared to 5-FU or curcumin alone but the effect was moderate. However, the cytotoxicity of 5-FU and curcumin alone or in combination was much less in GES-1 cells. Furthermore, the protein expressions of COX-2 and NF-κB in MKN45 cells were decreased by 44.79% and 37.67%, 47.17% and 48.21%, 60.21% and 62.44%, respectively, after treatment of curcumin (25 μmol/l) and 5-FU (50 μmol/l) alone or in combination for 48 h. Curcumin also enhanced the anticancer activity of 5-FU without increasing toxicity in nude mice bearing MKN45 tumor xenografts in vivo.Conclusions: Curcumin enhances the anticancer effect of 5-FU against gastric cancer in vitro and in vivo. The possible molecular mechanism may be, at least in part, related to down-regulation of COX-2 and NF-κB pathways.

The first catalytic and enantioselective C-H direct acylation of ferrocene derivatives has been developed. A series of 2-acyl-1-dimethylaminomethylferrocenes with planar chirality were provided under highly efficient and concise one-pot conditions with up to 85% yield and 98% ee. The products obtained could be easily converted to various chiral ligands via diverse transformations.

A highly efficient and practical procedure to acylazobenzene via Pd-catalyzed oxidative C-H bond activation from toluene has been developed. Various mono- and diacylazobenzene were afforded simultaneously in moderate to excellent yields for 33 examples. Toluene and its derivatives were served as potential and ideal acylation reagents. The mono- and diacylated products could be controlled by the oxidant loading.

A novel synthesis of 3-nitrosoindoles starting from easily available N-nitrosoanilines and sulfoxonium ylides via Rh­(III)-catalyzed acylmethylation and trifluoroacetic acid (TFA)-mediated nitroso transfer/cyclization cascade reaction in one pot has been developed. The N-nitroso group plays a dual role as a versatile directing group and internal nitrosation reagent. Rh­(III)-catalyzed C–H activation/C–C bond formation and TFA-mediated N–N bond cleavage/formation of two C–N bonds are involved in this reaction. This process is scalable and avoids external oxidation. DMSO and H2O are produced as byproducts. Moreover, further chemical transformations of the desired products enhance its synthetic value.

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