1,2-Bis(dimethylphosphino)ethane has the connectivity . Chelation through both phosphorus donors contributes four electrons in ionic electron counting.
Brian D. Corbin 2026-11-05
Brian D. Corbin is the first-named author of a 2008 study of calprotectin and nutritional immunity. The work examined how a host protein's chelation of nutrient metals contributes to defense in infected tissue.[ref]
The study connected the location of calprotectin in tissue with evidence for restriction of manganese and zinc. Institutional reporting describes mass spectrometry imaging as a way of locating proteins within the affected tissue. Spatial localization and chemical binding address different parts of the biological explanation.[ref][ref]
An original spatial-averaging example shows why location matters. Suppose two equally sized regions have metal concentrations of and arbitrary units. Their average is . A different sample with concentrations and has the same average but a completely different local distribution. A bulk measurement of cannot distinguish these cases.
Furthermore, a total metal measurement does not determine how much is chemically accessible to a biological cell. Binding to a protein, spatial distribution and local concentration are separate properties. This is a measurement interpretation, not a culture protocol, a therapeutic dose or a numerical result from Corbin's study. The byline establishes joint scientific credit without assigning every technique to the first author.
Figure 1.
Brian D. Corbin, photograph by Neil Brake in Vanderbilt's account of the 2008 research
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Chelation 2026-10-20
Chelation binds multiple donor sites of one ligand to the same central atom, forming a chelate ring. It can retain a donor near a metal even when one attachment temporarily opens.
Gennadiy Moiseyev 2026-11-05
Gennadiy Moiseyev is a researcher in retinoid biochemistry and the visual cycle. He was first author of a 2005 study demonstrating RPE65-dependent conversion of all-trans-retinyl esters into 11-cis-retinol in an expression system.[ref]
A subsequent study tested the enzyme's metal requirement. Chelation inhibited the measured activity, and supplying ferrous iron restored it; the tested ferric-iron additions did not. The study also examined recombinant RPE65 and measured iron associated with purified protein.[ref]
The contrast illustrates why the relevant variable is more specific than “some iron is present.” Oxidation state, accessible metal and assay conditions can affect whether an enzyme functions. Inhibition followed by chemically specific restoration provides a stronger mechanistic test than a correlation between protein abundance and product amount. Those biochemical experiments concern a defined reaction system; they do not by themselves establish a treatment or explain every physiological consequence of altered retinoid metabolism.
Nutritional immunity 2026-11-05
Nutritional immunity is a host-defense strategy that limits the supply of nutrients available to a pathogen. Restricting access to needed metal ions is one example: a host protein can bind a metal so that its presence in tissue does not imply that invading bacteria can acquire it.
A concrete experimental example is calprotectin in Staphylococcus aureus abscesses. Brian D. Corbin and colleagues found that neutrophil-derived calprotectin inhibited bacterial growth through chelation of manganese and zinc. Abscesses in mice lacking calprotectin contained more metal and supported greater bacterial proliferation. The combination of growth inhibition and the comparison with deficient animals connects metal sequestration to a host defense, rather than merely showing that a binding protein is present at an infection site.[ref]
A simple two-pool model makes the distinction between total amount and accessibility explicit. Write the total metal concentration as . If and is bound, the free concentration is only : one hundredth of the value if all the metal were free. These are illustrative numbers, not measurements from the experiment. Actual microbial access also depends on whether a bacterium can obtain metal from the bound pool; total metal concentration alone therefore does not measure nutrient availability.
B is the major product: the newly formed OH is the dashed bond in the printed zigzag structure. Retain the existing solid-wedge OH and the configuration at the carbamate-bearing carbon.
zinc coordinates the ketone oxygen and the adjacent hydroxyl oxygen, forming a five-membered O–Zn–O chelate. This constrains rotation around the carbonyl–alpha-carbon bond. In the favored chelated conformation the bulky group shields one face of the ketone, while the alpha hydrogen leaves the other more accessible. hydride attacks from that less crowded face, the carbonyl bond opens onto oxygen, and aqueous work-up gives the second alcohol.
Mapping this Cram chelation model back onto the printed zigzag gives B, not A. Merely placing a new OH “on the same side” of an unrotated page drawing is not a valid chelation argument: the reactive chelate and that drawing use different conformations. Zinc-borohydride reductions of alpha-hydroxy ketones are experimentally known to favor the corresponding anti-1,2-diol family under chelation control.[ref]
The reagent combination can generate zinc borohydride and related zinc-associated reducing species. The stereochemical justification is coordination-controlled facial selectivity; it does not require identifying a unique solution aggregate from the reagent list. The quoted yield is not itself a measurement of a 95:5 diastereomeric ratio.
Use ionic electron counting, counting each ordinary donor atom once and keeping ligand charge distinct from denticity. A is 16-electron, B is 14-electron and C is 16-electron, so none is an 18-electron complex under this convention.
A contains a modified, monoanionic PNP pincer: the exocyclic double bond and altered pyridine-ring bond pattern in the drawing matter. Its two phosphines and its central N donor provide six electrons altogether, while neutral N provides two. Neutrality then gives Co(I), , and . Treating the modified pincer as a neutral intact pyridine ligand would incorrectly produce Co(0) and a 17-electron count. A four-coordinate approximately square planar molecular geometry in a complex can leave the strongly sigma-antibonding orbital empty and be stable at 16 electrons. The underlying modified-pincer chemistry has been examined using structure, spectroscopy and electronic-structure calculations.[ref]
B has a neutral tertiary amine donor at the centre of its tripod and three anionic amido arms. Their combined charge is , so Re is Re(III), . The four N donors give eight electrons and N gives two: . Such an electron count is not inherently unexpected in an amido-supported complex: strong amido pi donation and the imposed five-coordinate geometry alter the orbital energies, and the empty orbitals are not nine equivalent slots that must all be filled. Steric protection and chelation also help stabilize this coordinatively restricted structure. The 14-electron figure uses the usual two-electron ionic count for each amido donor; pi bonding should not be appended to it inconsistently.
C has an anionic acyl carbon donor and a neutral phosphine in the chelate, together with two neutral PMe donors. Thus Co(I), , receives ligand electrons, giving . This is again a reasonable four-coordinate structure. The acyl C=O is part of a carbon-bound acyl ligand, not an additional free CO donor.
Write for the cyclopentadienyl ligand bearing its –2-pyridyl arm; means that its ring and pyridyl nitrogen both bind the same metal. . The base removes the pyridinium N–H proton in , restoring a pyridine lone pair. Intramolecular nitrogen coordination then replaces one acetonitrile ligand and closes a chelate ring. Both CO ligands are retained; the molybdenum remains Mo(II), .
This is an proton transfer followed by chelation, with metal electron count . The chelate effect, favorable formation of the Mo–N bond, and release of a solvent molecule explain the driving force. Merely invoking a 16-to-18-electron change would be misleading because is already 18-electron. In the preceding acid treatment, protonation of the allyl ligand allows release of propene; the other proton resides on the pendant pyridine, accounting for 's overall charge. One proton is removed here; the cyclopentadienyl tether is not deprotonated or detached.
One valid asymmetric route uses N-Boc-(R)-proline as a chiral starting material. Convert its acid to the Weinreb amide with N,O-dimethylhydroxylamine and a coupling reagent such as EDC, then add phenylmagnesium bromide at low temperature. chelation of the magnesium tetrahedral intermediate prevents a second addition; aqueous workup releases the phenyl ketone. Reduce it with sodium borohydride, separate the resulting alcohol diastereomers, and retain the one with configuration at both pyrrolidine C2 and the benzylic carbinol. This is an asymmetric synthesis through a pre-existing enantiopure centre, even though the final reduction need not be perfectly diastereoselective. If the other protected alcohol is isolated, Mitsunobu esterification with a carboxylic acid followed by ester hydrolysis inverts just the carbinol centre. Keeping nitrogen Boc-protected during that inversion avoids neighbouring-amine participation. Mild Boc removal followed by reductive benzylation with benzaldehyde and sodium triacetoxyborohydride gives D, the amino alcohol. Use conditions that avoid epimerizing the amino ketone.
For ring expansion, activate D's alcohol with methanesulfonyl chloride and a tertiary amine base. Its own tertiary nitrogen attacks the benzylic carbon from the back, displacing mesylate with inversion and making a fused aziridinium ion. Acetate, supplied as a soluble acetate salt, attacks the original pyrrolidine C2 from the opposite face and breaks the old C2–N bond. The new N–benzylic-C bond is retained, incorporating that side-chain carbon into the six-membered ring. Inversion at the two successively attacked carbons gives the cis acetate/phenyl piperidine E in the displayed orientation. Attack at the benzylic carbon instead would simply open the three-membered ion back to a five-membered-ring derivative; specifying the attacked carbon is the crucial regiochemical step.
The six diphosphines bind the six Pd centres, occupying two adjacent sites on each and displacing two pyridines per Pd. Reassembly therefore favours the two-connected Pd nodes of the bipyramid instead of the cube's four-connected nodes. The balanced transformation is
Thus two cages of type 4 and four free metalloligands of type 3 form per cage 5. iron, palladium, ligand and charge balances all close. Strong phosphine chelation drives the donor replacement, while the release of additional discrete species can favour entropy. The analogous conversion is observed experimentally in the cited heterobimetallic system.[ref]
Opium poisoning characteristically causes progressive unconsciousness with dangerously depressed breathing; acute poisoning by soluble antimony compounds chiefly causes violent gastrointestinal illness and collapse. Each requires its own differential diagnosis and treatment. The historical discussion below describes an 1866 examination answer; the present medical explanation is distinguished explicitly.
With opium poisoning, early drowsiness progresses to deep coma. Pupillary constriction, slow shallow breathing, snoring or gurgling breathing, a limp body and cyanosis are important findings. Failure to wake the person, together with depressed breathing, is more significant than apparent peaceful sleep. The pupils need not remain small in advanced hypoxia, and a single sign cannot establish the diagnosis.[ref]
An 1866 practitioner would seek to remove unabsorbed opium by a stomach pump or an emetic, try to rouse the patient, and sustain breathing by artificial respiration. The contemporary encyclopedia explicitly states that no antidote was known. For antimony, the same source recommended a decoction of Peruvian bark; such tannin-containing preparations belong to the history of attempts to render the poison insoluble, not to a demonstrated modern antidote regimen.[ref]
In present practice the immediate priorities in severe opioid poisoning are an open airway, adequate pulmonary ventilation and urgent medical support, together with naloxone to reverse the opioid effect. Continued observation is needed because respiratory depression can return after reversal. Pouring liquids into the mouth or inducing vomiting can cause aspiration; efforts to rouse the person must not delay effective breathing support.[ref][ref]
The principal mimics of opium poisoning include alcohol intoxication, a stroke formerly described as “apoplexy”, and other causes of coma, such as hypoglycaemia or uraemia. Establish the sequence of symptoms and exposure, examine breathing and the pupils, and look for focal neurological signs. Odour of alcohol does not exclude a second poison or a stroke. Modern testing of blood glucose and appropriate neurological assessment complement the exposure history; urgent treatment of failed breathing must not await a chemical identification.
For antimony poisoning, the important period exposure is tartar emetic, or antimony potassium tartrate. Acute ingestion may cause nausea, repeated vomiting, abdominal pain, profuse diarrhoea, thirst, weakness and circulatory collapse. Loss of water and electrolytes compounds the toxicity. Present knowledge also recognizes serious cardiac effects; repeated exposure may produce continuing gastrointestinal illness and weakness rather than one dramatic attack. The chemical form matters: these findings should not be generalized to every exposure to metallic antimony.[ref]
The closest clinical confusions are cholera, severe gastroenteritis, and poisoning by other irritants, especially arsenic. Recurrent attacks associated with particular food or medicine, persistence outside an outbreak, and chemical examination of vomit, excreta and suspected preparations help distinguish them. These are clues for investigation, not grounds for declaring a particular person guilty.
Modern management of antimony poisoning stops further exposure, supports breathing and blood circulation, replaces fluid and electrolyte losses, and monitors cardiac arrhythmias and organ function. A specialist determines whether decontamination or chelation is appropriate. The institutional monograph records sparse human evidence for chelation; it does not justify presenting a tannin drink or any chelator as a certain cure. It is a later, explicitly dated toxicological comparison, not the treatment available to the 1866 candidate.[ref]
A pyridine ring bearing carboxylic acid substituents at positions 2 and 5. Removing both acidic protons gives a dianion with a neighbouring N,O chelation site and a remote carboxylate site.
Thomas E. Kehl-Fie 2026-11-05
Thomas E. Kehl-Fie is a microbiologist whose research concerns metal availability and host defense. His published name is retained without expanding the middle initial. A 2011 collaborative study investigated calprotectin, a host protein involved in nutritional immunity, connecting metal chelation with biological function.[ref]
The study used isothermal titration calorimetry to measure metal binding to calprotectin. Its thermograms provide evidence about a chemical interaction, complementary to separate functional measurements. This is a useful distinction: binding a nutrient, changing an enzyme's activity and changing a biological outcome are different observations.[ref]
For an original idealized constant-pressure measurement, suppose one increment yields a measured heat of and a matched analytical blank yields . Assume that blank correction removes all nonbinding contributions and that of additional complexes actually form. The corrected heat is
and the corresponding molar enthalpy change is
The sign denotes an exothermic binding contribution under the stated assumptions. These invented numbers are not affinities or measurements from Kehl-Fie's work. A single corrected heat value also does not determine a dissociation constant: that inference requires a binding model and measurements across suitable conditions.
Figure 1.
Thomas E. Kehl-Fie, portrait linked from the Vallee Foundation's named scholar profile
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