It has long been considered that psychosocial stress plays a role in the expression of symptoms in schizophrenia (SZ), as it interacts with latent neural vulnerability that stems from genetic liability and early environmental insult. Advances in the understanding of the neurobiology of the stress cascade in both animal and human studies lead to a plausible model by which this interaction may occur: through neurotoxic effects on the hippocampus that may involve synaptic remodeling. Of late, the neurodevelopmental model of SZ etiology has been favored. But an elaboration of this schema that credits the impact of postnatal events and considers a role for neurodegenerative changes may be more plausible, given the evidence for gene-environment interaction in SZ expression and progressive structural changes observed with magnetic resonance imaging. Furthermore, new insights into nongliotic neurotoxic effects such as apoptosis, failure of neurogenesis, and changes in circuitry lead to an expansion of the time frame in which environmental effects may mediate expression of SZ symptoms.
Reaction of arene diazonium salts with 3-aminocrotononitrile or methyl 3-aminocrotonate affords the 2-aryl-hydrazono-3-oxobutanenitrile (1 or 3 and 3′) or the methyl 2-arylhydrazono-3-oxobutanoate (2 and 2′ or 4 and 4′). A series of these hydrazones has been prepared with a range of electron-withdrawing and -donating substituents in the ortho or para position of the aryl moiety. The hydrazones have been characterized by spectroscopic methods, with emphasis on the 1H NMR spectra, which have been used to determine the configuration of the hydrazones as E or Z or a mixture of the two. The para-substituted hydrazononitriles (1) are formed as a single species, namely the Z isomer, whereas the ortho isomers are formed as a mixture of E and Z configurations (3 and 3′). The hydrazonobutanoates (2 and 2′ or 4 and 4′) are formed as E/Z mixtures regardless of the position of the substituent in the aryl moiety. Complete assignments of all signals in the 1H NMR spectra have been made on the basis of the ability of the various substituents to participate in intramolecular hydrogen bonding and a mechanism is proposed to account for the variations in the proportions of E and Z isomers and the effect of the nature of the substituent on this ratio. 13C NMR spectra of selected hydrazones have been recorded as an aid to structure assignment. Key words: hydrazone, diazonium, NMR spectroscopy, E/Z isomers, crotonic acid derivatives.