Synthesis and absolute configuration of cyclic synthetic cathinones derived from α-tetralone

The emergence of new synthetic cathinones continues to be a matter of public health concern. In fact, already known products (drugs) are being rapidly replaced by new structurally related alternatives, whereby modifications in the basic cathinone structure are used by manufacturers to circumvent the legislation. On the other hand, some derivatives of synthetic cathinones represent important pharmaceuticals with antidepressant properties. In the search for pharmaceutically relevant analogs, the main goal of the present study was to design and characterize novel cyclic α-tetralone-based derivatives of synthetic cathinones. We synthesized a series of derivatives and verified their chemical structure. Subsequently, chiral separation has been accomplished by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) equipped with a circular dichroism (CD) detector, which directly provided CD spectra of the enantiomers of the analyzed substances at 252 nm. Using density functional theory calculations, we have obtained stable conformers of selected enantiomers in solution and their relative abundances, which we used to simulate their spectra. The experimental and calculated data have been used to assign the absolute configuration of six as-yet unknown synthetic cathinones.

Enantioseparation and a comprehensive spectroscopic analysis of novel synthetic cathinones laterally substituted with a trifluoromethyl group

Recently, the number of structural modifications of synthetic cathinones has been growing making them the second largest group of new psychoactive substances in Europe. Although they are abused because of their various psychoactive effects, some compounds from this group also serve as pharmaceuticals. Since synthetic cathinones are chiral molecules with one chiral center, their biological, toxicological, and pharmacological properties may significantly differ according to their absolute configuration and enantiomeric excess. In this study, we have synthesized two substances bearing a pharmacologically interesting trifluoromethyl group and developed a chiral liquid chromatography method using a polysaccharide chiral stationary phase to separate the corresponding enantiomers of both these drugs. Subsequently, we utilized molecular spectroscopic methods including chiroptical (electronic circular dichroism and vibrational circular dichroism) and non-polarizable (infrared and ultraviolet absorption) spectroscopies. In combination with density functional theory calculations, we have obtained stable conformers of selected enantiomers in solution and their relative abundances, which we used to simulate their spectra. The experimental and calculated data have been used to elucidate the 3D structure of the enantiomerically pure compounds and assign the absolute configuration of all prepared compounds.

Synthesis, absolute configuration and in vitro cytotoxicity of deschloroketamine enantiomers: rediscovered and abused dissociative anaesthetic

Deschloroketamine has been synthesized, the absolute configuration of enantiomers elucidated and the in vitro cytotoxicity of the enantiomers determined using nine different cell lines.

Model-averaging of ab initio spectra for the absolute configuration assignment via vibrational circular dichroism

Unescapable errors of calculations are taken into account through a model-averaging technique, opening the way to a quantitative comparison with experiment.