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Sulfatases hydrolyze sulfated metabolites to their corresponding alcohols and are present in all domains of life. These enzymes have found major application in metabolic investigation of drugs, doping control analysis and recently in metabolomics. Interest in sulfatases has increased due to a link between metabolic processes involving sulfated metabolites and pathophysiological conditions in humans. Herein, we present the first comprehensive substrate specificity and kinetic analysis of the most commonly used arylsulfatase extracted from the snail Helix pomatia. In the past, this enzyme has been used in the form of a crude mixture of enzymes, however, recently we have purified this sulfatase for a new application in metabolomics-driven discovery of sulfated metabolites. To evaluate the substrate specificity of this promiscuous sulfatase, we have synthesized a series of new sulfated metabolites of diverse structure and employed a mass spectrometric assay for kinetic substrate hydrolysis evaluation. Our analysis of the purified enzyme revealed that the sulfatase has a strong preference for metabolites with a bi- or tricyclic aromatic scaffold and to a lesser extent for monocyclic aromatic phenols. This metabolite library and mass spectrometric method can be applied for the characterization of other sulfatases from humans and gut microbiota to investigate their involvement in disease development.

We report here the synthesis of isoquebecol, an unprecedented constitutional isomer of quebecol, a polyphenolic compound discovered in maple syrup. The methodology used to prepare isoquebecol involves, as key steps, the formation of a dibromoalkene from an α-ketoester precursor, followed by a double Suzuki-Miyaura reaction. The anti-inflammatory activity of isoquebecol was studied on macrophage cells by monitoring its ability to inhibit LPS-induced IL-6 secretion. Results show that this new compound has an improved bioactivity over that of its natural isomer. Precursors and derivatives of quebecol, isoquebecol and model analog 2,3,3-triphenylpropanol were also prepared and tested in this study. Comparison between the three series of compounds led to establishing new SARs concerning the aryl ring substitution pattern on the triarylpropanol scaffold and substructure functionalization.

High yields of potential glycol metabolites of p-synephrine, epinephrine, octopamine, and normacromerine can be obtained from the readily available monosubstituted and disubstituted acetophenones. The general procedure involves alpha-bromination followed by displacement with acetate ion and reduction with lithium aluminum hydride. Yields ranged from 46 to 91%. Furthermore, the procedure minimizes some problems inherent in aromatic glycol synthesis which include dimerization and pinacol-pinacolone rearrangement.

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