Tomaž Kotnik, Antoine Debuigne, Julien De Winter, Matej Huš, Albin Pintar, Sebastijan Kovačič
{"title":"Unlocking the potential of azide-phosphine Staudinger reaction for the synthesis of poly(arylene iminophosphorane)s and materials therefrom.","authors":"Tomaž Kotnik, Antoine Debuigne, Julien De Winter, Matej Huš, Albin Pintar, Sebastijan Kovačič","doi":"10.1038/s42004-024-01362-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42004-024-01362-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Iminophosphoranes with the general formula (R<sub>3</sub>P═NR') have great potential in synthetic chemistry as valuable precursors/intermediates in organic synthesis or as building blocks for various organic compounds. However, the synthetic approaches and conditions to prepare iminophosphoranes are still poorly understood, limiting the utility of this chemistry for organic materials. In this article, a simple and efficient synthesis of previously unattainable poly(arylene iminophosphoranes) is reported. The azide-phosphine Staudinger polycondensation is used, and the reaction conditions are carefully studied, including consideration of light and air, the influence of solvent and temperature, and investigation of the electronic and steric effects of multiazides. The newly defined reaction conditions appear to be highly versatile, allowing the use of both electron-rich and electron-deficient arylazides for reaction with phosphines to synthesize a library of poly(arylene iminophosphorane) networks that exhibit exceptional thermal and oxidative stability. Interestingly, despite the ylidic-form of the iminophosphorane linkage as shown by theoretical calculations, these newly developed poly(arylene-iminophosphorane) networks exhibit semiconducting properties, such as absorption band edges up to 800 nm and optical band gaps in the range of 1.70 to 2.40 eV. Finally, we demonstrate the broad applicability of these polymers by processing them into glassy films, creating foam-like structures and synthesizing metallo-polymer hybrids.</p>","PeriodicalId":10529,"journal":{"name":"Communications Chemistry","volume":"8 1","pages":"15"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11739626/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143001401","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Discovery of bicyclic borane molecule B<sub>14</sub>H<sub>26</sub>.","authors":"Xiaoni Zhang, Tomoko Fujino, Yasunobu Ando, Yuki Tsujikawa, Tianle Wang, Takeru Nakashima, Haruto Sakurai, Kazuki Yamaguchi, Masafumi Horio, Hatsumi Mori, Jun Yoshinobu, Takahiro Kondo, Iwao Matsuda","doi":"10.1038/s42004-025-01409-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42004-025-01409-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The discovery of fullerene following the synthesis of graphene marked a paradigm shift in chemistry. Here, we report the discovery of biycycloborane, arising from the synthesis of borophane (hydrogen boride). Uniquely, this synthesis method involves a decomposition mechanism rather than traditional atom-by-atom assembly, marking an unique approach to constructing complex borane structures. The mass spectrometry unveiled that the stable molecule has a mass of 178 in atomic mass unit with a stoichiometry of B<sub>14</sub>H<sub>26</sub>. Optical spectra and simulations further evidenced its bicyclic structure, featuring fulvene-like heptagons or octagons. This borane molecule, analogous to cyclic hydrocarbons, adopts a unit configuration with a three-center two-electron (3c-2e) bonding, akin to diborane. The B<sub>14</sub>H<sub>26</sub> molecule has been historically anticipated as a distant descendant of the dodecahedron borane, but it was born from the hydrogen boride sheet with a non-symmorphic symmetry. The discovery of biycycloborane expands the frontiers of boron chemistry, promising advancements in boron-based nanomaterials and beyond.</p>","PeriodicalId":10529,"journal":{"name":"Communications Chemistry","volume":"8 1","pages":"14"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11739403/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143001430","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Manuel David Peris-Díaz, Artur Krężel, Perdita Barran
{"title":"Deciphering the safeguarding role of cysteine residues in p53 against H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub>-induced oxidation using high-resolution native mass spectrometry.","authors":"Manuel David Peris-Díaz, Artur Krężel, Perdita Barran","doi":"10.1038/s42004-024-01395-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42004-024-01395-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The transcription factor p53 is exquisitely sensitive and selective to a broad variety of cellular environments. Several studies have reported that oxidative stress weakens the p53-DNA binding affinity for certain promoters depending on the oxidation mechanism. Despite this body of work, the precise mechanisms by which the physiologically relevant DNA-p53 tetramer complex senses cellular stresses caused by H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> are still unknown. Here, we employed native mass spectrometry (MS) and ion mobility (IM)-MS coupled to chemical labelling and H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub>-induced oxidation to examine the mechanism of redox regulation of the p53-p21 complex. Our approach has found that two reactive cysteines in p53 protect against H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub>-induced oxidation by forming reversible sulfenates.</p>","PeriodicalId":10529,"journal":{"name":"Communications Chemistry","volume":"8 1","pages":"13"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11736120/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143001415","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Aini Vuorinen, Cassandra R Kennedy, Katherine A McPhie, William McCarthy, Jonathan Pettinger, J Mark Skehel, David House, Jacob T Bush, Katrin Rittinger
{"title":"Enantioselective OTUD7B fragment discovery through chemoproteomics screening and high-throughput optimisation.","authors":"Aini Vuorinen, Cassandra R Kennedy, Katherine A McPhie, William McCarthy, Jonathan Pettinger, J Mark Skehel, David House, Jacob T Bush, Katrin Rittinger","doi":"10.1038/s42004-025-01410-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42004-025-01410-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs) are key regulators of cellular homoeostasis, and their dysregulation is associated with several human diseases. The ovarian tumour protease (OTU) family of DUBs are biochemically well-characterised and of therapeutic interest, yet only a few tool compounds exist to study their cellular function and therapeutic potential. Here we present a chemoproteomics fragment screening platform for identifying novel DUB-specific hit matter, that combines activity-based protein profiling with high-throughput chemistry direct-to-biology optimisation to enable rapid elaboration of initial fragment hits against OTU DUBs. Applying these approaches, we identify an enantioselective covalent fragment for OTUD7B, and validate it using chemoproteomics and biochemical DUB activity assays.</p>","PeriodicalId":10529,"journal":{"name":"Communications Chemistry","volume":"8 1","pages":"12"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11732987/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142982896","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Human interpretable structure-property relationships in chemistry using explainable machine learning and large language models.","authors":"Geemi P Wellawatte, Philippe Schwaller","doi":"10.1038/s42004-024-01393-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42004-024-01393-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) is an emerging field in AI that aims to address the opaque nature of machine learning models. Furthermore, it has been shown that XAI can be used to extract input-output relationships, making them a useful tool in chemistry to understand structure-property relationships. However, one of the main limitations of XAI methods is that they are developed for technically oriented users. We propose the XpertAI framework that integrates XAI methods with large language models (LLMs) accessing scientific literature to generate accessible natural language explanations of raw chemical data automatically. We conducted 5 case studies to evaluate the performance of XpertAI. Our results show that XpertAI combines the strengths of LLMs and XAI tools in generating specific, scientific, and interpretable explanations.</p>","PeriodicalId":10529,"journal":{"name":"Communications Chemistry","volume":"8 1","pages":"11"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11733140/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142982973","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Local structure of amorphous sulfur in carbon-sulfur composites for all-solid-state lithium-sulfur batteries.","authors":"Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Yu Ishihara, Yamato Haniu, Atsushi Sakuda, Akitoshi Hayashi, Kentaro Kobayashi, Satoshi Hiroi, Hiroki Yamada, Jo-Chi Tseng, Seiya Shimono, Koji Ohara","doi":"10.1038/s42004-025-01408-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42004-025-01408-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>All-solid-state (ASS) batteries are a promising solution to achieve carbon neutrality. ASS lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries stand out due to their improved safety, achieved by replacing organic solvents, which are prone to leakage and fire, with solid electrolytes. In addition, these batteries offer the benefits of higher capacity and the absence of rare metals. However, the low electronic conductivity of sulfur poses a major challenge for ASS Li-S batteries. To address this challenge, sulfur is often combined with porous carbon. Despite this standard practice, the local structure of sulfur in these composites remains unclear. Based on small-angle X-ray scattering and pair distribution function analysis, we discovered that sulfur in carbon-sulfur composites formed via melt diffusion is amorphous and primarily comprises S<sub>8</sub> ring-shaped structures. The carbon-sulfur composite demonstrated a high specific capacity of 1625 mAh g<sup>-1</sup> (97% of the theoretical specific capacity of sulfur). This remarkable performance is attributed to the extensive contact area between carbon and sulfur, which results in an excellent interface formed through melt diffusion. The insights gained into the local structure of sulfur and the analytical approaches employed enhanced our understanding of electrochemical reactions in ASS Li-S batteries, thereby aiding in the optimization of material design.</p>","PeriodicalId":10529,"journal":{"name":"Communications Chemistry","volume":"8 1","pages":"10"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11733239/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142982976","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Biosynthesis of lactacystin as a proteasome inhibitor.","authors":"Takeshi Tsunoda, Shunkichi Furumura, Haruka Yamazaki, Chitose Maruyama, Yoshimitsu Hamano, Yasushi Ogasawara, Tohru Dairi","doi":"10.1038/s42004-025-01406-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42004-025-01406-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Lactacystin is an irreversible proteasome inhibitor isolated from Streptomyces lactacystinicus. Despite its importance for its biological activity, the biosynthesis of lactacystin remains unknown. In this study, we identified the lactacystin biosynthetic gene cluster by gene disruption and heterologous expression experiments. We also examined the functions of the genes encoding a PKS/NRPS hybrid protein (LctA), NRPS (LctB), ketosynthase-like cyclase (LctC), cytochrome P450 (LctD), MbtH-like protein (LctE), and formyltransferase (LctF) by in vivo and in vitro experiments. In particular, we demonstrated that LctF directly transferred the formyl group of 10-N-formyl tetrahydrofolate to CoA. The formyl group of formyl-CoA was then transferred to ACP1 by LctA_AT1 to form formyl-ACP1. This is the first example of an AT domain recognizing a formyl group. The formyl group is perhaps transferred to methylmalonate tethered on LctA_ACP2 to yield methylmalonyl-semialdehyde-ACP2. Then, it would be condensed with leucine bound to PCP in LctB by the C domain in LctA. Using a mimic compound, we confirmed that LctC catalyzed the formation of the cyclic α,α-disubstituted amino acid structure with concomitant release of the product from PCP. Thus, we figured out the overall biosynthesis of lactacystin including a novel role of a formyl group in a secondary metabolite.</p>","PeriodicalId":10529,"journal":{"name":"Communications Chemistry","volume":"8 1","pages":"9"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11730586/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142977960","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Malcolm Garrow, Lauren Bertram, Abi Winter, Andrew W Prentice, Stuart W Crane, Paul D Lane, Stuart J Greaves, Martin J Paterson, Adam Kirrander, Dave Townsend
{"title":"Excited state dynamics of azanaphthalenes reveal opportunities for the rational design of photoactive molecules.","authors":"Malcolm Garrow, Lauren Bertram, Abi Winter, Andrew W Prentice, Stuart W Crane, Paul D Lane, Stuart J Greaves, Martin J Paterson, Adam Kirrander, Dave Townsend","doi":"10.1038/s42004-024-01403-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42004-024-01403-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Various photoactive molecules contain motifs built on aza-aromatic heterocycles, although a detailed understanding of the excited state photophysics and photochemistry in such systems is not fully developed. To help address this issue, the non-adiabatic dynamics operating in azanaphthalenes under hexane solvation was studied following 267 nm excitation using ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy. Specifically, the species quinoline, isoquinoline, quinazoline, quinoxaline, 1,6-naphthyridine, and 1,8-naphthyridine were investigated, providing a systematic variation in the relative positioning of nitrogen heteroatom centres within a bicyclic aromatic structure. Our results indicate considerable differences in excited state lifetimes, and in the propensity for intersystem crossing vs internal conversion across the molecular series. The overall pattern of behaviour can be explained in terms of potential energy barriers and spin-orbit coupling effects, as demonstrated by extensive quantum chemistry calculations undertaken at the SCS-ADC(2) level of theory. The fact that quantum chemistry calculations can achieve such detailed and nuanced agreement with experimental data across a full set of six molecules exhibiting subtle variations in their composition provides an excellent example of the current state-of-the-art and is indicative of future opportunities for rational design of photoactive molecules.</p>","PeriodicalId":10529,"journal":{"name":"Communications Chemistry","volume":"8 1","pages":"7"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11717923/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142945906","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Govind Ummethala, Ravi Jada, Shourya Dutta-Gupta, Junbeom Park, Amir H Tavabi, Shibabrata Basak, Robert Hooley, Hongyu Sun, H Hugo Pérez Garza, Rüdiger-A Eichel, Rafal E Dunin-Borkowski, Sai Rama Krishna Malladi
{"title":"Real-time visualisation of fast nanoscale processes during liquid reagent mixing by liquid cell transmission electron microscopy.","authors":"Govind Ummethala, Ravi Jada, Shourya Dutta-Gupta, Junbeom Park, Amir H Tavabi, Shibabrata Basak, Robert Hooley, Hongyu Sun, H Hugo Pérez Garza, Rüdiger-A Eichel, Rafal E Dunin-Borkowski, Sai Rama Krishna Malladi","doi":"10.1038/s42004-025-01407-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42004-025-01407-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Liquid cell transmission electron microscopy (LCTEM) is a powerful technique for investigating crystallisation dynamics with nanometre spatial resolution. However, probing phenomena occurring in liquids while mixing two precursor solutions has proven extremely challenging, requiring sophisticated liquid cell designs. Here, we demonstrate that introducing and withdrawing solvents in sequence makes it possible to maintain optimal imaging conditions while mixing liquids in a commercial liquid cell. We succeeded in visualising a fast nanoscale crystallisation mechanism when an organic molecule of R-BINOL-CN dissolved in chloroform interacts with methanol. The scanning transmission electron microscopy images recorded in real-time during the interaction of the two volatile solvents reveal the formation of chain-like structures of R-BINOL-CN particles, whereas they coalesce to form single large particles when methanol is absent. Our approach of mixing liquids establishes a platform for novel LCTEM studies of a wide range of electron-beam-sensitive materials, including drug molecules, polymers and molecular amphiphiles.</p>","PeriodicalId":10529,"journal":{"name":"Communications Chemistry","volume":"8 1","pages":"8"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11718259/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142945912","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Julien Orlans, Samuel L Rose, Gavin Ferguson, Marcus Oscarsson, Alejandro Homs Puron, Antonia Beteva, Samuel Debionne, Pascal Theveneau, Nicolas Coquelle, Jerome Kieffer, Paolo Busca, Jeremy Sinoir, Victor Armijo, Marcos Lopez Marrero, Franck Felisaz, Gergely Papp, Herve Gonzalez, Hugo Caserotto, Fabien Dobias, Jonathan Gigmes, Guillaume Lebon, Shibom Basu, Daniele de Sanctis
{"title":"Advancing macromolecular structure determination with microsecond X-ray pulses at a 4th generation synchrotron.","authors":"Julien Orlans, Samuel L Rose, Gavin Ferguson, Marcus Oscarsson, Alejandro Homs Puron, Antonia Beteva, Samuel Debionne, Pascal Theveneau, Nicolas Coquelle, Jerome Kieffer, Paolo Busca, Jeremy Sinoir, Victor Armijo, Marcos Lopez Marrero, Franck Felisaz, Gergely Papp, Herve Gonzalez, Hugo Caserotto, Fabien Dobias, Jonathan Gigmes, Guillaume Lebon, Shibom Basu, Daniele de Sanctis","doi":"10.1038/s42004-024-01404-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s42004-024-01404-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Serial macromolecular crystallography has become a powerful method to reveal room temperature structures of biological macromolecules and perform time-resolved studies. ID29, a flagship beamline of the ESRF 4th generation synchrotron, is the first synchrotron beamline in the world capable of delivering high brilliance microsecond X-ray pulses at high repetition rate for the structure determination of biological macromolecules at room temperature. The cardinal combination of microsecond exposure times, innovative beam characteristics and adaptable sample environment provides high quality complete data, even from an exceptionally small amount of crystalline material, enabling what we collectively term serial microsecond crystallography (SµX). After validating the use of different sample delivery methods with various model systems, we applied SµX to an integral membrane receptor, where only a few thousands diffraction images were sufficient to obtain a fully interpretable electron density map for the antagonist istradefylline-bound A<sub>2A</sub> receptor conformation, providing access to the antagonist binding mode. SµX, as demonstrated at ID29, will quickly find its broad applicability at upcoming 4th generation synchrotron sources worldwide and opens a new frontier in time-resolved SµX.</p>","PeriodicalId":10529,"journal":{"name":"Communications Chemistry","volume":"8 1","pages":"6"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11707155/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142945903","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}