Enhancing trigger sensitivity of nanocarriers through organocatalytic oxidant activation

The redox balance in tumor and diseased cells often leads to the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Many ROS-responsive materials based on sulfur oxidation have been reported with the goal of achieving controlled delivery at the tumor. However, these materials often lack responsiveness to low ROS concentrations present in the tumor...

On-Demand Release of Secondary Amine Bases for the Activation of Catalysts and Crosslinkers

Dynamic covalent (DCv) ureas have been used abundantly to design self-healing materials. We demonstrate that apart from self-healing materials, the species present in the equilibrium of DCv ureas can be employed as responsive organocatalysts. Easily controllable stimuli like heat or addition of water shift the equilibrium towards isocyanate...

Tuneable Control of Organocatalytic Activity through Host–Guest Chemistry

Dynamic regulation of chemical reactivity is important in many complex chemical reaction networks, such as cascade reactions and signal transduction processes. Signal responsive catalysts could play a crucial role in regulating these reaction pathways. Recently, supramolecular encapsulation was reported to regulate the activities of...

Organocatalytic Control over a Fuel-Driven Transient-Esterification Network

Signal transduction in living systems is the conversion of information into a chemical change, and is the principal process by which cells communicate. In nature, these functions are encoded in non-equilibrium (bio)chemical reaction networks (CRNs) controlled by enzymes. However, man-made catalytically controlled networks are rare. We...

Selective Photooxidation Reactions using Water-Soluble Anthraquinone Photocatalysts

The aerobic organocatalytic oxidation of alcohols was achieved by using water-soluble sodium anthraquinone sulfonate. Under visible-light activation, this catalyst mediated the aerobic oxidation of alcohols to aldehydes and ketones. The photo-oxyfunctionalization of alkanes was also possible under these conditions.

Open questions in origin of life: Experimental studies on the origin of nucleic acids and proteins with specific and functional sequences by a chemical synthetic biology approach

In this mini-review we present some experimental approaches to the important issue in the origin of life, namely the origin of nucleic acids and proteins with specific and functional sequences. The formation of macromolecules on prebiotic Earth faces practical and conceptual difficulties. From the chemical viewpoint, macromolecules are formed by...

On the Michael Addition of Water to ?,?-Unsaturated Ketones Using Amino Acids

The use of water as a nucleophile for Michael additions is still a challenge in organic chemistry. In this report we describe the use of amino acids as catalysts for the Michael addition of water to ?,?-unsaturated ketones. All 20 proteinogenic amino acids were screened and L-lysine was identified as the best candidate. To obtain a better...