1. Electrophysiology Read-Out Tools for Brain-on-Chip Biotechnology
Csaba Forro, Davide Caron, Gian Nicola Angotzi, Vincenzo Gallo, Luca Berdondini, Francesca Santoro, Gemma Palazzolo, Gabriella Panuccio Micromachines (Basel). 2021 Jan 24;12(2):124. doi: 10.3390/mi12020124.
Brain-on-Chip (BoC) biotechnology is emerging as a promising tool for biomedical and pharmaceutical research applied to the neurosciences. At the convergence between lab-on-chip and cell biology, BoC couples in vitro three-dimensional brain-like systems to an engineered microfluidics platform designed to provide an in vivo-like extrinsic microenvironment with the aim of replicating tissue- or organ-level physiological functions. BoC therefore offers the advantage of an in vitro reproduction of brain structures that is more faithful to the native correlate than what is obtained with conventional cell culture techniques. As brain function ultimately results in the generation of electrical signals, electrophysiology techniques are paramount for studying brain activity in health and disease. However, as BoC is still in its infancy, the availability of combined BoC-electrophysiology platforms is still limited. Here, we summarize the available biological substrates for BoC, starting with a historical perspective. We then describe the available tools enabling BoC electrophysiology studies, detailing their fabrication process and technical features, along with their advantages and limitations. We discuss the current and future applications of BoC electrophysiology, also expanding to complementary approaches. We conclude with an evaluation of the potential translational applications and prospective technology developments.
2. Phosphonate-phosphinate rearrangement
Renzhe Qian, Alexander Roller, Friedrich Hammerschmidt J Org Chem. 2015 Jan 16;80(2):1082-91. doi: 10.1021/jo502567j.
LiTMP metalated dimethyl N-Boc-phosphoramidates derived from 1-phenylethylamine and 1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalen-1-ylamine highly selectively at the CH3O group to generate short-lived oxymethyllithiums. These isomerized to diastereomeric hydroxymethylphosphonamidates (phosphate-phosphonate rearrangement). However, s-BuLi converted the dimethyl N-Boc-phosphoramidate derived from 1-phenylethylamine to the N-Boc α-aminophosphonate preferentially. Only s-BuLi deprotonated dimethyl hydroxymethylphosphonamidates at the benzylic position and dimethyl N-Boc α-aminophosphonates at the CH3O group to induce phosphonate-phosphinate rearrangements. In the former case, the migration of the phosphorus substituent from the nitrogen to the carbon atom followed a retentive course with some racemization because of the involvement of a benzyllithium as an intermediate.
3. N-Boc-Amides in Cross-Coupling Reactions
Yann Bourne-Branchu, Corinne Gosmini, Grégory Danoun Chemistry. 2019 Feb 21;25(11):2663-2674. doi: 10.1002/chem.201802635. Epub 2018 Nov 26.
Since 2015, the use of amides as electrophilic partners in cross-coupling reactions has experienced exponential growth. Diverse amide derivatives have been studied and among them N-Boc-amides have shown good activities towards various cross-coupling reactions and presents, in our view, an important synthetic usefulness. This review describes the recent developments of these chemical transformations involving N-Boc-amides.
