Discovering, Making and Exploiting New Families of Atropisomers

发现、制造和利用新的阻转异构体家族

• 批准号: EP/D055911/1
• 负责人: Jonathan Clayden
• 金额: $ 26万
• 依托单位: University of Manchester
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2006 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FD055911%2F1
• 关键词: Discovering; Making; Exploiting; New; Families

The molecules which make up drugs, fragrances, flavours, dyes and materials all have properties determined by their shape. Some molecules are fairly rigid - many drug molecules have a degree of rigidity which assists their binding to receptors in the body. Others are flexible - the polymers which make plastics for example. In both cases achieving control over the shape of molecules is one of the challenges which faces chemists. In our research we aim to discover new types of molecules falling somewhere between the extremes of rigidity and flexibility - molecules which have some useful flexibility but only within limits: these molecules are known as atropisomeric, from the Greek for can't twist or turn . Atropisomers are found as important biological compounds with medicinal properties, and also form an important part of many catalysts used for synthesising drugs and other products. However, only one or two types of atropisomers have been studied, even though many more almost certainly can exist. We want to discover these new families of atropisomeric molecules, and invent ways of making them with control over their shape. This will allow us chemists to make compounds related to atropisomeric compounds found in nature, with medicinal properties, and hence target them at particular disease. Or it could allow chemists to make new catalysts, improving the way existing compounds are made, making drugs or other valuable products cheaper and easier to make. Or it might even open up new architectural features which molecules may possess, and hence allow chemists to make materials with new properties and functions.

构成药物、香料、调味剂、染料和材料的分子都具有由其形状决定的性质。一些分子是相当刚性的-许多药物分子具有一定程度的刚性，这有助于它们与体内受体结合。其他的是柔性的--例如制造塑料的聚合物。在这两种情况下，控制分子的形状是化学家面临的挑战之一。在我们的研究中，我们的目标是发现介于刚性和柔性极端之间的新型分子-具有一些有用的柔性但仅在限度内的分子：这些分子被称为阻转异构分子，来自希腊语，意思是不能扭曲或转动。阻转异构体被发现是具有药用特性的重要生物化合物，并且也形成用于合成药物和其他产品的许多催化剂的重要部分。然而，仅研究了一种或两种类型的阻转异构体，尽管几乎可以肯定存在更多的阻转异构体。我们希望发现这些新的阻转异构分子家族，并发明控制它们形状的方法。这将使我们化学家能够制造出与自然界中发现的阻转异构体化合物相关的化合物，具有药用特性，从而将它们靶向于特定的疾病。或者它可以让化学家制造新的催化剂，改进现有化合物的制造方式，使药物或其他有价值的产品更便宜，更容易制造。或者，它甚至可能开辟分子可能拥有的新的结构特征，从而允许化学家制造具有新性质和功能的材料。