Current Bioactive Compounds - Volume 5, Issue 4, 2009

Forty-three years ago, Swiatoslaw Trofimenko in a truthfully seminal paper introduced the “Boron-Pyrazole Chemistry”. It is likely that even Trofimenko could not have foreseen the true immensity of the field that was to spring from his pioneering discovery of the poly(pyrazolyl)borates or “scorpionates” ligands. In fact, tris(pyrazolyl)borates are a very useful class of monoanionic, nitrogen-based, auxiliary ligands in coordin Read More

The bioinorganic relevance of copper is made evident by its involvement in many crucial biological functions, which include: (1) dioxygen activation (copper oxidases and oxygenases) and transport (hemocyanin), (2) electron transfer (cupredoxins), and (3) nitrite reduction to nitric oxide (copper nitrite reductases). As metalloprotein chemistry is governed by the environment close to the metal center(s), a fertile field of investigati Read More

Interest in the biomimetic properties of soft scorpionates based on methimazole commenced shortly after the reported synthesis of the hydrotris(methimazolyl)borate anion (TmMe) in 1996. These ligands are thione based and are thus not subject to facile oxidation and disulfide formation (c.f. thiolates). This allows these species to participate in an extensive coordination chemistry with a wide variety of metals. Th Read More

The review starts with a brief summary on pharmaceutical relevant mononuclear zinc and non heme iron enzymes, with a main focus on zincins such as the angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE). Different approaches to classify such enzymes will be discussed. Especially, the main features of the metal binding motifs are highlighted. Recent advances in coordination chemistry with the purpose to mimic these features by small Read More

This review presents an overview of the active site structure for manganese redox proteins and their model compounds. This includes manganese (II/III) complexes with pyrazoles, pyrazolylborates and biological activity of some complexes. The active site structure of native protein, synthesis, crystal structure and catalytic activity of these complexes are reviewed. The plan of the review is: 1. Introduction 2. Synthetic and struct Read More

The structural and functional properties of group 6 metal complexes with scorpionate ligands, used as synthetic analogues for the binding sites of the molybdenum and tungsten enzymes, are the subject of the present review. The group 6 elements molybdenum and tungsten are the only second and third row transition metals essential to all forms of life on Earth. Molybdenum is found at the active sites of nitrogenase and Read More