Introduction of a difluoromethyl (CF2H) unit into organic molecules is of specific interest in medicinal chemistry and chemical biology, as compounds with a CF2H moiety can act as an isostere to molecules having a methanol (CH2OH) unit with improved lipophilicity. Among several strategies for the synthesis of CF2H compounds available, a late-stage difluoromethylation using easy-to-handle reagen...

Many structurally diverse chemicals (e.g., acrylamide, 2,4dithiobiuret, methylmercury) are electrophiles and cause synaptic dysfunction by unknown mechanisms. The purpose of this Forum review is to discuss the possibility that highly nucleophilic cysteine thiolate groups within catalytic triads of synaptic proteins represent specific and necessary targets for electrophilic neurotoxicants. Most ...

The electrophilic lipid 15-deoxy-Delta12,14-prostaglandin J2 (15d-PGJ2) is known to allow adaptation to oxidative stress in cells at low concentrations and apoptosis at high levels. The mechanisms leading to adaptation involve the covalent modification of regulatory proteins, such as Keap1, and augmentation of antioxidant defences in the cell. The targets leading to apoptosis are less well defi...

The metabolic activation of a drug to an electrophilic reactive metabolite and its covalent binding to cellular macromolecules is considered to be involved in the occurrence of idiosyncratic drug toxicity (IDT). As a cellular defense system against oxidative and electrophilic stress, phase II enzymes are known to be induced through a Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1/nuclear factor E2-related...