The acetylation of tert-butanol with acetic anhydride catalyzed by 4-(dimethylamino)pyridine (DMAP) has been studied at the Becke3 LYP/6-311 + G(d,p)//Becke3 LYP/6-31G(d) level of theory. Solvent effects have been estimated through single-point calculations with the PCM/UAHF solvation model. The energetically most favorable pathway proceeds through nucleophilic attack of DMAP at the anhydride carbonyl group and subsequent formation of the corresponding acetylpyridinium/acetate ion pair. Reaction of this ion pair with the alcohol substrate yields the final product, tert-butylacetate. The competing base-catalyzed reaction pathway can either proceed in a concerted or in a stepwise manner. In both cases the reaction barrier far exceeds that of the nucleophilic catalysis mechanism. The reaction mechanism has also been studied experimentally in dichloromethane through analysis of the reaction kinetics for the acetylation of cyclohexanol with acetic anhydride, in the presence of DMAP as catalyst and triethylamine as the auxiliary base. The reaction is found to be first-order with respect to acetic anhydride, cyclohexanol, and DMAP, and zero-order with respect to triethyl amine. Both the theoretical as well as the experimental studies strongly support the nucleophilic catalysis pathway.
A simple general synthetic concept to build dendritic core-shell architectures with pH-labile linkers based on hyperbranched PEI cores and biocompatible PEG shells is presented. Using these dendritic core-shell architectures as nanocarriers, the encapsulation and transport of polar dyes of different sizes is studied. The results show that the acid-labile nanocarriers exhibit much higher transport capacities for dyes than unfunctionalized hyperbranched PEI. The cleavage of imine bonds and controlled release of the polar dyes revealed that weak acidic condition (pH approximately 5.0) could cleave the imine bonds linker and release the dyes up to five times faster than neutral conditions (pH = 7.4).
The kinetics of the reaction of several alcohols (benzyl alcohol, ethanol, 1-phenylethanol, cyclohexanol, and 1-methyl-1-phenylethanol) with a selection of anhydrides (acetic anyhydride, propionic anhydride, isobutyric anhydride, isovaleric anhydride, and pivalic anhydride) as catalyzed by 4-(N,N-dimethylamino)pyridine (DMAP)/triethyl amine have been studied in CH(2)Cl(2) at 20 degrees C. In all cases the reaction kinetics can be described by rate laws containing a DMAP-catalyzed term and an uncatalyzed (background) term. The rate constants for the background reaction respond sensitively to changes in the steric demand of the alcohol and the anhydride substrates, making the reaction of cyclohexanol with acetic anhydride 526 times faster than the reaction with pivalic anhydride. Steric effects are even larger for the catalyzed reaction and the reactivity difference between acetic and pivalic anhydride exceeds a factor of 8000 for the reaction of cyclohexanol. There is, however, no linear correlation between the steric effects on the catalyzed and the uncatalyzed part. As a consequence there are substrate combinations with dominating catalytic terms (such as the reaction of benzyl alcohol with isobutyric anhydride), while other substrate combinations (such as the reaction of cyclohexanol with pivalic anhydride) are characterized through a dominating background process. The implications of these findings for the kinetic resolution of alcohols are discussed.
Studies in animals have reported that normalized or elevated Cu levels can inhibit or even remove Alzheimer's disease-related pathological plaques and exert a desirable amyloid-modifying effect. We tested engineered nanocarriers composed of diverse core-shell architectures to modulate Cu levels under physiological conditions through bypassing the cellular Cu uptake systems. Two different nanocarrier systems were able to transport Cu across the plasma membrane of yeast or higher eukaryotic cells, CS-NPs (core-shell nanoparticles) and CMS-NPs (core-multishell nanoparticles). Intracellular Cu levels could be increased up to 3-fold above normal with a sublethal dose of carriers. Both types of carriers released their bound guest molecules into the cytosolic compartment where they were accessible for the Cu-dependent enzyme SOD1. In particular, CS-NPs reduced Abeta levels and targeted intracellular organelles more efficiently than CMS-NPs. Fluorescently labeled CMS-NPs unraveled a cellular uptake mechanism, which depended on clathrin-mediated endocytosis in an energy-dependent manner. In contrast, the transport of CS-NPs was most likely driven by a concentration gradient. Overall, nanocarriers depending on the nature of the surrounding shell functioned by mediating import of Cu across cellular membranes, increased levels of bioavailable Cu, and affected Abeta turnover. Our studies illustrate that Cu-charged nanocarriers can achieve a reasonable metal ion specificity and represent an alternative to metal-complexing agents. The results demonstrate that carrier strategies have potential for the treatment of metal ion deficiency disorders.
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