(9H-fluoren-9-yl)methyl 2-oxoethylcarbamate

The title compound, C(29)H(35)NO(6).0.334C(3)H(8)O, a novel chiral N-(fluoren-9-yl-methyl-oxyxcarbon-yl) precursor, crystallizes with two independent carbamate (M) mol-ecules and propan-2-ol solvent mol-ecules in the unit cell. Its crystal structure has been determined from barely adequate data obtained from a multi-fragment needle crystal. In the crystal, N-H⋯O hydrogen bonds link M mol-ecules related by translation along the a axis into two independent chains. The ordered solvent mol-ecule, having a partial occupancy of 0.334, is attached to one independent M mol-ecule through O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds. The crystal packing exhibits weak inter-molecular C-H⋯O inter-actions and voids of 270 Å(3) filled with randomly disordered solvent mol-ecules which were handled using the SQUEEZE methodology.

In this investigation, we searched for novel MAO-A inhibitors using a 3-benzylquinoxaline scaffold based on our earlier findings. Series of N'-(3-benzylquinoxalin-2-yl)acetohydrazide, 4a, N'-(3-benzylquinoxalin-2-yl)benzohydrazide derivatives 4b-f, N'-[2-(3-benzyl-2-oxoquinoxalin-1(2H)-yl)acetyl]benzohydrazide derivatives 7a-d, (9H-fluoren-9-yl)methyl 1-[2-(2-(3-benzyl-2-oxoquinoxalin-1(2H)-yl)acetyl)-hydrazinyl]-2-ylcarbamate derivatives 8a-c, 2-(3-benzyl-2-oxoquinoxalin-1(2H)-yl)-N'-benzylidene acetohydrazide derivatives 9a-h, and ethyl 2-(3-benzyl-2-oxoquinoxalin-1(2H)-yl)acetate derivatives 10a-e were synthesized and evaluated in vitro as inhibitors of the two monoamine oxidase isoforms, MAO-A and MAO-B. Most of the compounds showed a selective MAO-A inhibitory activity in the nanomolar or low micromolar range. Compounds 4e and 9g were the most potent derivatives with high MAO-A selectivity and their molecular docking studies were performed in order to rationalize the obtained biological result.

Four pairs of positional isomers of ureidopeptides, FmocNH-CH(R(1))-ϕ(NH-CO-NH)-CH(R(2))-OY and FmocNH-CH(R(2))-ϕ(NH-CO-NH)-CH(R(1))-OY (Fmoc = [(9-fluorenyl methyl)oxy]carbonyl; R(1) = H, alkyl; R(2) = alkyl, H and Y = CH(3)/H), have been characterized and differentiated by both positive and negative ion electrospray ionization (ESI) ion-trap tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). The major fragmentation noticed in MS/MS of all these compounds is due to --N--CH(R)--N--bond cleavage to form the characteristic N- and C-terminus fragment ions. The protonated ureidopeptide acids derived from glycine at the N-terminus form protonated (9H-fluoren-9-yl)methyl carbamate ion at m/z 240 which is absent for the corresponding esters. Another interesting fragmentation noticed in ureidopeptides derived from glycine at the N-terminus is an unusual loss of 61 units from an intermediate fragment ion FmocNH = CH(2) (+) (m/z 252). A mechanism involving an ion-neutral complex and a direct loss of NH(3) and CO(2) is proposed for this process. Whereas ureidopeptides derived from alanine, leucine and phenylalanine at the N-terminus eliminate CO(2) followed by corresponding imine to form (9H-fluoren-9-yl)methyl cation (C(14)H(11) (+)) from FmocNH = CHR(+). In addition, characteristic immonium ions are also observed. The deprotonated ureidopeptide acids dissociate differently from the protonated ureidopeptides. The [M - H](-) ions of ureidopeptide acids undergo a McLafferty-type rearrangement followed by the loss of CO(2) to form an abundant [M - H - Fmoc + H](-) which is absent for protonated ureidopeptides. Thus, the present study provides information on mass spectral characterization of ureidopeptides and distinguishes the positional isomers.