Despite the pyrene derivatives have been covered extensively by scientists during the last years, many interesting properties and applications of pyrene derivatives have been presented, nowadays there are still areas of pyrenes’ chemistry that need to be fulfilled. Most of the described in literature pyrenes are 1,3,6,8-tetrasubstituted followed by 4,5,9,10-tetrasubstituted, 2,7-, and 1,6-, and 1,8-disubstituted pyrene derivatives. In the case of 1,3-di(hetero)aryl-7-substituted, there are only a few examples of derivatives containing at position 7 - tert-butyl group. In this work, the necessity of synthesis of 1,3-di(hetero)aryl-7-substituted pyrenes is presented based on the results of theoretical calculations by using density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) by using Gaussian 09 program with B3LYP exchange-correlation functional and 6-31G** basis set. What is more, the synthetic routes with feasible reagents and conditions are presented. As the starting material, 1,3-dibromo-7-nitropyrene will be used which can be synthesized based on the literature method starting from commercially available pyrene. This compound will be used in the next steps in the synthesis of 1,3-disubstituted by (hetero)aryl groups pyrene derivatives which will be also substituted at position 7 by various groups. It will be possible by exchange nitro group at position 7 on amine group followed by a further exchange on bromine group. Properly selected substituents (the part of target molecules containing at positions 1 and 3 heteroaryl groups suitable for the coordination of metal ions) will allow also to determine the application of new pyrene derivatives as NCN-cyclometalating ligands with various d-block metals.

Fluorescence is a suitable tool to detect and quantify accurately biomolecules in situ thanks to bioimaging techniques. As a matter of fact, cysteine (Cys), homocysteine (Hcys) and Glutathione (GSH) are essential biological thiols relevant to the growth of cells and tissues in living systems. Alterations in the levels of these specific biological thiols have been linked to a number of diseases, such as liver damage, neutral tube defects, Alzheimer’s, and various types of cardiovascular and renal illnesses. Thus, the detection of these amino acids (AA) is highly important to detect, understand and treat these kind of diseases.

To this aim, we have designed a fluorescent sensor based on the BODIPY dye, featuring unsaturated esters at the a-pirrolic position. Both aromatic arms act as reactive sites for these AA and allow the shift of the emission towards the red-edge, thereby, ensuring deeper penetration into tissues. The photophysical signatures of this compound are very sensitive to the presence of these AA (even at the micromolar scale) in the surrounding environments. Thus, up to three channels are available to monitor and quantify AA; the loss of red emission and, mainly, the remarkable increase of the green and yellow fluorescence. Moreover, this ratiometric sensor behaves also as colorimetric sensor, hence, the sensing of the AA in the biological media can be visualized quickly and easily by ‘‘naked eye’’.

Prostaglandins with cytoprotective activity were studied for a long time and a few PGE₁ and PGE₂ stable analogues were promoted as drugs: arbaprostil, enprostil, misoprostol and rioptostol; the same activity has nocloprost, a 9β-chlorine prostaglandin analogue, and many 9β- ar 11β-substituted prostaglandins were synthesized and studied for their biological activity. We previously synthesized new 9β-halogenated prostaglandins with an ester group at the carbon atom 6 (PGs numbering) by reaction of a δ-lactone intermediate with diols in acid catalysis.

These compounds were now used in a molecular docking study to determine their potential cytoprotective (anti-ulcer) activity. The study has been done with CLC Drug Discovery Workbench 2.4. software and an oxidoreductase enzyme receptor, chosen from the Protein Data Bank, ID: 4KEW. (www.rcsb.org). In the study we used as standard two recognized drugs, omeprazole (co-crystallized with the enzyme) and nocloprost. The 9β-halogenated prostaglandin analogs were finally docked. Nocloprost and all 9β-halogenated compounds had docking score greater than that of omeprazole. The majority of the 9β-halogenated analogs have a docking score even greater than that of nocloprost, indicating that these compounds could have potential cytoprotective (anti-ulcer) activity. A few correlations between docking score and substituents on the prostaglandin skeleton have been done.

Synthesis of hardly available 2-alkylsemicarbazides and their hydrochlorides from semicarbazide hydrochloride has been developed. This general and efficient protocol is based on preparation of acetone semicarbazone, its N2-alkylation in the presence of sodium hydride, and hydrolysis under mild conditions.

A new magnetic core/shell nanocatalyst functionalized with 1,3,5-tris(2-hydroxyethyl)isocyanurate and boric acid (Fe₃O₄/SiO₂/CPTS/THEIC/(CH₂)₃B(OH)₂) was designed and properly characterized by the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, nitrogen adsorption–desorption technique (BET), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy. The catalytic activity of Fe₃O₄/SiO₂/CPTS/THEIC/(CH₂)₃B(OH)₂, as an efficient magnetically recoverable catalyst, was investigated for the synthesis of polyhydroquinolines (PHQs) as well as polyhydroacridines (PHAs) via one-pot multicomponent reactions of ethyl acetoacetate and / or dimedone, different aldehydes and ammonium acetate in EtOH under reflux conditions. High to quantitative yields of the desired PHQs or PHAs products, wide scope of the substrates, eliminating of any toxic heavy metals or corrosive reagents for modification of the catalyst, simple work-up procedure, short reaction times and low loading of the catalyst are remarkable advantages of this green protocol. An additional advantage of this magnetic nanoparticles catalyst is its ability to be separated and recycled easily from the reaction mixture with minimal efforts in six subsequent runs without significant loss of its catalytic activity.