No abstract

The presence of surfaces influences the kinetics of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide fibrillation. Although it has been generally recognized that the fibrillation process can be assisted or accelerated by surface chemistry, the impact of surface topography, i.e., roughness, on peptide fibrillation is relatively little understood. Here we study the role of surface roughness on surface-mediated fibrillation using polymer coatings of varying roughness as well as polymer microparticles. Using single-molecule tracking, atomic force microscopy, and the thioflavin T fluorescence technique, we show that a rough surface decelerates the two-dimensional (2D) diffusion of peptides and retards the surface-mediated fibrillation. A higher degree of roughness that presents an obstacle to peptide diffusion is found to inhibit the fibrillation process.

[reaction: see text] The Lattrell-Dax method of nitrite-mediated substitution of carbohydrate triflates is an efficient method to generate structures of inverse configuration. In the present study, epimerization of gluco- and galactopyranoside derivatives to the corresponding allo- and gulopyranoside structures by triflation/nitrite treatment has been investigated. It was found that a neighboring ester group was essential for the reactivity of the nitrite-mediated triflate inversion. Furthermore, a good inversion yield also depended on the relative configuration of the neighboring ester group to the triflate. Only with the ester group in the equatorial position, whatever the configuration of the triflate, did the reaction proceed smoothly, whereas a neighboring axial ester group proved largely inefficient. The results were subsequently used to predict the inversion of glucopyranoside derivatives to the mannopyranoside epimers.

Organosilicon-mediated, regioselective acetylation of vicinal- and 1,3-diols is presented. Methyl trimethoxysilane or dimethyl dimethoxysilane was first used to form cyclic 1,3,2-dioxasilolane or 1,3,2-dioxasilinane intermediates, and subsequent acetate-catalyzed monoacylation was efficiently performed by addition of acetic anhydride or acetyl chloride under mild conditions. The reaction exhibited high regioselectivity, resulting in the same protection pattern as in organotin-mediated schemes.

Organotin-mediated regioselective protection has been extensively used in organic synthesis for many years. However, the mechanistic origin of the resulting regioselectivity is still not clear. By the comparison of the steric and stereoelectronic effects controlling the geometry of five-membered rings formed from neighboring group participation, from intramolecular acyl group migration, or from orthoester transesterification on pyranoside rings, a theory on the pattern resulting from the reaction with dibutyltin oxide is presented. It is thus suggested that the regioselectivity of organotin-mediated protection is controlled by analogous steric and stereoelectronic effects as in neighboring group participation and acyl group migration, mainly dependent on the stereoelectronic effects of the pyranoside itself, and not related to complex stannylene structures. An organotin protection mechanism is also suggested, emanating from steric and stereoelectronic effects, nucleophilicity, and organotin acyl migration.