Studies toward the Synthesis of Chartelline C.

Chartelline C, a marine alkaloid, possesses a unique core scaffold including indolenine ß-lactam and imidazole moieties linked by an unsaturated 10-membered ring. A new synthetic approach for the construction of the indolenine ß-lactam was planned, based on the inherent reactivity of chartelline A with NaOMe, triggered by bromination of bromoenamide, and proceeding through an N-acyl imine. However, the N-acyl imine intermediate was not observed. Instead, the corresponding bromoindolenine was obtained, which led to the desired indolenine ß-lactam in 92% yield.

Inhibition of veratridine-induced delayed inactivation of the voltage-sensitive sodium channel by synthetic analogs of crambescin B.

Crambescin B carboxylic acid, a synthetic analog of crambescin B, was recently found to inhibit the voltage-sensitive sodium channels (VSSC) in a cell-based assay using neuroblastoma Neuro 2A cells. In the present study, whole-cell patch-clamp recordings were conducted with three heterologously expressed VSSC subtypes, Nav1.2, Nav1.6 and Nav1.7, in a human embryonic kidney cell line HEK293T to further characterize the inhibition of VSSC by crambescin B carboxylic acid. Contrary to the previous observation, crambescin B carboxylic acid did not inhibit peak current evoked by depolarization from the holding potential of -100mV to the test potential of -10mV in the absence or presence of veratridine (VTD). In the presence of VTD, however, crambescin B carboxylic acid diminished VTD-induced sustained and tail currents through the three VSSC subtypes in a dose-dependent manner, whereas TTX inhibited both the peak current and the VTD-induced sustained and tail currents through all subtypes of VSSC tested. We thus concluded that crambescin B carboxylic acid does not block VSSC in a similar manner to TTX but modulate the action of VTD, thereby causing an apparent block of VSSC in the cell-based assay.

Asymmetric synthesis of crambescin A-C carboxylic acids and their inhibitory activity on voltage-gated sodium channels.

Synthesis of both enantiomers of crambescin B carboxylic acid is described. A cis-enyne starting material was epoxidized under the conditions of Katsuki asymmetric epoxidation to give 95% ee of the epoxide, which was transformed to crambescin B carboxylic acid via bromocation-triggered cascade cyclization as the key step. Enantiomerically pure crambescin A and C carboxylic acids were also synthesized from the product of the cascade reaction. Structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies against voltage-gated sodium channel (VGSC) inhibition using those synthetic compounds revealed that the natural enantiomer of crambescin B carboxylic acid was most active and comparable to tetrodotoxin, and the unalkylated cyclic guanidinium structure is indispensible, while the carboxylate moiety is not important. The absolute stereochemistry of crambescin A was determined by a comparison of the methyl ester derived from natural crambescin A with that derived from the stereochemically defined crambescin A carboxylic acid synthesized in this study.