Synthesis and antiproliferative activity of a tetrahydrofuran analog of FR901464.

FR901464 is a natural product that exhibits antiproliferative activity at single-digit nanomolar concentrations in cancer cells. Its tetrahydropyran-spiroepoxide covalently binds the spliceosome. Through our medicinal chemistry campaign, we serendipitously discovered that a bromoetherification formed a tetrahydrofuran. The tetrahydrofuran analog was three orders of magnitude less potent than the corresponding tetrahydropyran analogs. This study shows the significance of the tetrahydropyran ring that presents the epoxide toward the spliceosome.

Aromatic nitrogen scanning by ipso-selective nitrene internalization.

Nitrogen scanning in aryl fragments is a valuable aspect of the drug discovery process, but current strategies require time-intensive, parallel, bottom-up synthesis of each pyridyl isomer because of a lack of direct carbon-to-nitrogen (C-to-N) replacement reactions. We report a site-directable aryl C-to-N replacement reaction allowing unified access to various pyridine isomers through a nitrene-internalization process. In a two-step, one-pot procedure, aryl azides are first photochemically converted to 3H-azepines, which then undergo an oxidatively triggered C2-selective cheletropic carbon extrusion through a spirocyclic azanorcaradiene intermediate to afford the pyridine products. Because the ipso carbon of the aryl nitrene is excised from the molecule, the reaction proceeds regioselectively without perturbation of the remainder of the substrate. Applications are demonstrated in the abbreviated synthesis of a pyridyl derivative of estrone, as well as in a prototypical nitrogen scan.

Direct Deamination of Primary Amines via Isodiazene Intermediates.

We report here a reaction that selectively deaminates primary amines and anilines under mild conditions and with remarkable functional group tolerance including a range of pharmaceutical compounds, amino acids, amino sugars, and natural products. An anomeric amide reagent is uniquely capable of facilitating the reaction through the intermediacy of an unprecedented monosubstituted isodiazene intermediate. In addition to dramatically simplifying deamination compared to existing protocols, our approach enables strategic applications of iminium and amine-directed chemistries as traceless methods. Mechanistic and computational studies support the intermedicacy of a primary isodiazene which exhibits an unexpected divergence from previously studied secondary isodiazenes, leading to cage-escaping, free radical species that engage in a chain, hydrogen-atom transfer process involving aliphatic and diazenyl radical intermediates.