Pseudo-natural products (PNPs) combine natural product (NP) fragments in novel arrangements not accessible by current biosynthesis pathways. As such they can be regarded as non-biogenic fusions of NP-derived fragments. They inherit key biological characteristics the guiding product, chemical and physiological properties, yet define small molecule chemotypes with unprecedented or unexpected bioa...

A química combinatorial emergiu ao longo dos últimos anos como uma importante ferramenta na pesquisa de moléculas pioneiras para a modelagem de novos fármacos. Nesta perspectiva, a diversidade estrutural e a vasta gama de propriedades biológicas exibidas pelos metabolitos secundários, constituem um desafio à implementação de estratégias combinatórias na síntese e derivatização de produtos natur...

Amyloid fibrils, such as those found in Alzheimer's and the gelsolin amyloid diseases, result from the misassembly of peptides produced by either normal or aberrant intracellular proteolytic processing. A paper in this issue by Marks and colleagues (Berson et al., 2003) demonstrates that intra-melanosome fibrils are formed through normal biological proteolytic processing of an integral membrane...

Institute of Organic Chemistry, Romanian Academy, 202B Spl. Independentei, PO Box 35-108, 060023 Bucharest, Romania; E-mail: *[email protected]; **[email protected] “Metathesis in Natural Product Synthesis” subtitled ‘Strategies, Substrates and Catalysts’ benefits from a foreword by Robert H. Grubbs, joint recipient of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the development of the...