Synthesis of polysubstituted azepanes by dearomative ring expansion of nitroarenes.

The synthesis of functionalized nitrogen heterocycles is integral to discovering, manufacturing and evolving high-value materials. The availability of effective strategies for heterocycle synthesis often biases the frequency of specific ring systems over others in the core structures of bioactive leads. For example, while the six- and five-membered piperidine and pyrrolidine are widespread in medicinal chemistry libraries, the seven-membered azepane is essentially absent and this leaves open a substantial area of three-dimensional chemical space. Here we report a strategy to prepare complex azepanes from simple nitroarenes by photochemical dearomative ring expansion centred on the conversion of the nitro group into a singlet nitrene. This process is mediated by blue light, occurs at room temperature and transforms the six-membered benzenoid framework into a seven-membered ring system. A following hydrogenolysis provides the azepanes in just two steps. We have demonstrated the utility of the strategy with the synthesis of several azepane analogues of piperidine drugs.

Fully Automated Flow Protocol for C(sp3)-C(sp3) Bond Formation from Tertiary Amides and Alkyl Halides.

Herein, we present a novel C(sp3)-C(sp3) bond-forming protocol via the reductive coupling of abundant tertiary amides with organozinc reagents prepared in situ from their corresponding alkyl halides. Using a multistep fully automated flow protocol, this reaction could be used for both library synthesis and target molecule synthesis on the gram-scale starting from bench-stable reagents. Additionally, excellent chemoselectivity and functional group tolerance make it ideal for late-stage diversification of druglike molecules.

A Photochemical Strategy for the Conversion of Nitroarenes into Rigidified Pyrrolidine Analogues.

Bicyclic amines are important motifs for the preparation of bioactive materials. These species have well-defined exit vectors that enable accurate disposition of substituents toward specific areas of chemical space. Of all possible skeletons, the 2-azabicyclo[3.2.0]heptane framework is virtually absent from MedChem libraries due to a paucity of synthetic methods for its preparation. Here, we report a modular synthetic strategy that utilizes nitroarenes as flat and easy-to-functionalize feedstocks for the assembly of these sp3-rich materials. Mechanistically, this approach exploits two concomitant photochemical processes that sequentially ring-expand the nitroarene into an azepine and then fold it into a rigid bicycle pyrroline by means of singlet nitrene-mediated nitrogen insertion and excited-state-4π electrocyclization. A following hydrogenolysis provides, with full diastereocontrol, the desired bicyclic amine derivatives whereby the aromatic substitution pattern has been translated into the one of the three-dimensional heterocycle. These molecules can be considered rigid pyrrolidine analogues with a well-defined orientation of their substituents. Furthermore, unsupervised clustering of an expansive virtual database of saturated N-heterocycles revealed these derivatives as effective isosteres of rigidified piperidines. Overall, this platform enables the conversion of nitroarene feedstocks into complex sp3-rich heterocycles of potential interest to drug development.

Target 2035 - an update on private sector contributions.

Target 2035, an international federation of biomedical scientists from the public and private sectors, is leveraging 'open' principles to develop a pharmacological tool for every human protein. These tools are important reagents for scientists studying human health and disease and will facilitate the development of new medicines. It is therefore not surprising that pharmaceutical companies are joining Target 2035, contributing both knowledge and reagents to study novel proteins. Here, we present a brief progress update on Target 2035 and highlight some of industry's contributions.

Halogen-atom and group transfer reactivity enabled by hydrogen tunneling.

The generation of carbon radicals by halogen-atom and group transfer reactions is generally achieved using tin and silicon reagents that maximize the interplay of enthalpic (thermodynamic) and polar (kinetic) effects. In this work, we demonstrate a distinct reactivity mode enabled by quantum mechanical tunneling that uses the cyclohexadiene derivative γ-terpinene as the abstractor under mild photochemical conditions. This protocol activates alkyl and aryl halides as well as several alcohol and thiol derivatives. Experimental and computational studies unveiled a noncanonical pathway whereby a cyclohexadienyl radical undergoes concerted aromatization and halogen-atom or group abstraction through the reactivity of an effective H atom. This activation mechanism is seemingly thermodynamically and kinetically unfavorable but is rendered feasible through quantum tunneling.

Structure of human spermine oxidase in complex with a highly selective allosteric inhibitor.

Human spermine oxidase (hSMOX) plays a central role in polyamine catabolism. Due to its association with several pathological processes, including inflammation and cancer, hSMOX has garnered interest as a possible therapeutic target. Therefore, determination of the structure of hSMOX is an important step to enable drug discovery and validate hSMOX as a drug target. Using insights from hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS), we engineered a hSMOX construct to obtain the first crystal structure of hSMOX bound to the known polyamine oxidase inhibitor MDL72527 at 2.4 Å resolution. While the overall fold of hSMOX is similar to its homolog, murine N1-acetylpolyamine oxidase (mPAOX), the two structures contain significant differences, notably in their substrate-binding domains and active site pockets. Subsequently, we employed a sensitive biochemical assay to conduct a high-throughput screen that identified a potent and selective hSMOX inhibitor, JNJ-1289. The co-crystal structure of hSMOX with JNJ-1289 was determined at 2.1 Å resolution, revealing that JNJ-1289 binds to an allosteric site, providing JNJ-1289 with a high degree of selectivity towards hSMOX. These results provide crucial insights into understanding the substrate specificity and enzymatic mechanism of hSMOX, and for the design of highly selective inhibitors.

A radical approach for the selective C-H borylation of azines.

Boron functional groups are often introduced in place of aromatic carbon-hydrogen bonds to expedite small-molecule diversification through coupling of molecular fragments1-3. Current approaches based on transition-metal-catalysed activation of carbon-hydrogen bonds are effective for the borylation of many (hetero)aromatic derivatives4,5 but show narrow applicability to azines (nitrogen-containing aromatic heterocycles), which are key components of many pharmaceutical and agrochemical products6. Here we report an azine borylation strategy using stable and inexpensive amine-borane7 reagents. Photocatalysis converts these low-molecular-weight materials into highly reactive boryl radicals8 that undergo efficient addition to azine building blocks. This reactivity provides a mechanistically alternative tactic for sp2 carbon-boron bond assembly, where the elementary steps of transition-metal-mediated carbon-hydrogen bond activation and reductive elimination from azine-organometallic intermediates are replaced by a direct, Minisci9-style, radical addition. The strongly nucleophilic character of the amine-boryl radicals enables predictable and site-selective carbon-boron bond formation by targeting the azine's most activated position, including the challenging sites adjacent to the basic nitrogen atom. This approach enables access to aromatic sites that elude current strategies based on carbon-hydrogen bond activation, and has led to borylated materials that would otherwise be difficult to prepare. We have applied this process to the introduction of amine-borane functionalities to complex and industrially relevant products. The diversification of the borylated azine products by mainstream cross-coupling technologies establishes aromatic amino-boranes as a powerful class of building blocks for chemical synthesis.

A Modular, Enantioselective Synthesis of Resolvins D3, E1, and Hybrids.

Resolvins D3 and E1 are important signaling molecules in the resolution of inflammation. Here, we report a convergent and flexible strategy to prepare these natural products using Hiyama-Denmark coupling of five- and six-membered cyclic alkenylsiloxanes to connect three resolvin fragments, and control the stereochemistry of the natural product (Z)-alkenes. The modular nature of this approach enables the synthesis of novel resolvin hybrids, opening up opportunities for more-extensive investigations of resolvin biology.

Enantioselective Formal Synthesis of Nectrisine Using a Palladium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Allylic Amination and Cross-Metathesis as Key Steps.

A formal enantioselective synthesis of nectrisine, a potent α-glucosidase inhibitor, was carried out starting from butadiene monoepoxide through a synthetic sequence involving enantioselective allylic substitution, cross-metathesis, dihydroxylation, and cyclization.

Stereospecific Coupling of Boronic Esters with N-Heteroaromatic Compounds.

A protocol for the stereospecific coupling of chiral secondary and tertiary boronic esters with lithiated N-heteroaromatics is described. The process involves initial boronate complex formation followed by addition of Troc-Cl, which activates the nitrogen and induces 1,2-migration. Oxidative workup furnishes the coupled product with >98% es.

Chemo-, regio-, and stereoselective silver-catalyzed aziridination of dienes: scope, mechanistic studies, and ring-opening reactions.

Silver complexes bearing trispyrazolylborate ligands (Tp(x)) catalyze the aziridination of 2,4-diene-1-ols in a chemo-, regio-, and stereoselective manner to give vinylaziridines in high yields by means of the metal-mediated transfer of NTs (Ts = p-toluensulfonyl) units from PhI═NTs. The preferential aziridination occurs at the double bond neighboring to the hydroxyl end in ca. 9:1 ratios that assessed a very high degree of regioselectivity. The reaction with the silver-based catalysts proceeds in a stereospecific manner, i.e., the initial configuration of the C═C bond is maintained in the aziridine product (cis or trans). The degree of regioselectivity was explained with the aid of DFT studies, where the directing effect of the OH group of 2,4-diene-1-ols plays a key role. Effective strategies for ring-opening of the new aziridines, deprotection of the Ts group, and subsequent formation of ß-amino alcohols have also been developed.

Increasing the structural span of alkyne metathesis.

A new generation of alkyne metathesis catalysts, which are distinguished by high activity and an exquisite functional group tolerance, allows the scope of this transformation to be extended beyond its traditional range. They accept substrates that were previously found problematic or unreactive, such as propargyl alcohol derivatives, electron-deficient and electron-rich acetylenes of various types, and even terminal alkynes. Moreover, post-metathetic transformations other than semi-reduction increase the structural portfolio, as witnessed by the synthesis of a annulated phenol derivative via ring-closing alkyne metathesis (RCAM) followed by a transannular gold-catalyzed Conia-ene reaction. Further examples encompass a post-metathetic transannular ketone-alkyne cyclization with formation of a trisubstituted furan, a ruthenium-catalyzed redox isomerization, and a Meyer-Schuster rearrangement/oxa-Michael cascade. These reaction modes fueled model studies toward salicylate macrolides, furanocembranolides, and the cytotoxic macrolides acutiphycin and enigmazole A; moreover, they served as the key design elements of concise total syntheses of dehydrocurvularin (27) and the antibiotic agent A26771B (36).

Total syntheses and biological reassessment of lactimidomycin, isomigrastatin and congener glutarimide antibiotics.

Lactimidomycin (1) was described in the literature as an exquisitely potent cell migration inhibitor. Encouraged by this claim, we developed a concise and scalable synthesis of this bipartite glutarimide-macrolide antibiotic, which relies on the power of ring-closing alkyne metathesis (RCAM) for the formation of the unusually strained 12-membered head group. Subsequent deliberate digression from the successful path to 1 also brought the sister compound isomigrastatin (2) as well as a series of non-natural analogues of these macrolides into reach. A careful biological re-evaluation of this compound collection showed 1 and progeny to be potently cytotoxic against a panel of cancer cell lines, even after one day of compound exposure; therefore any potentially specific effects on tumor cell migration were indistinguishable from the acute effect of cell death. No significant cell migration inhibition was observed at sub-toxic doses. Although these findings cannot be reconciled with some reports in the literature, they are in accord with the notion that lactimidomycin is primarily a ribosome-binder able to effectively halt protein biosynthesis at the translation stage.

Formal total synthesis of the algal toxin (-)-polycavernoside A.

A concise and largely catalysis-based approach to the potent algal toxin polycavernoside A (1) is described that intercepts a late-stage intermediate of a previous total synthesis; from there on, this challenging target can be reached in a small number of steps. Key to success was a sequence of a molybdenum-catalyzed ring-closing alkyne metathesis (RCAM) reaction to forge the macrocyclic frame, followed by a gold-catalyzed and strictly regioselective transannular hydroalkoxylation of the resulting cycloalkyne that allows the intricate oxygenation pattern of the macrolactone ring of 1 to be properly set. The required cyclization precursor 5 was assembled by the arguably most advanced fragment coupling process based on an Evans-Tishchenko redox esterification known to date, which was optimized to the extent that the precious coupling partners could be used in an almost equimolar ratio (6/7 1:1.3). The preparation of these building blocks features, inter alia, the power of the Sc(OTf)(3)-catalyzed Leighton crotylation as well as the superb selectivities of alkene cross metathesis, asymmetric keto-ester hydrogenation, and the Jacobsen epoxidation/epoxide resolution technologies.

Catalytic Z-selective olefin cross-metathesis for natural product synthesis.

Alkenes are found in many biologically active molecules, and there are a large number of chemical transformations in which alkenes act as the reactants or products (or both) of the reaction. Many alkenes exist as either the E or the higher-energy Z stereoisomer. Catalytic procedures for the stereoselective formation of alkenes are valuable, yet methods enabling the synthesis of 1,2-disubstituted Z alkenes are scarce. Here we report catalytic Z-selective cross-metathesis reactions of terminal enol ethers, which have not been reported previously, and of allylic amides, used until now only in E-selective processes. The corresponding disubstituted alkenes are formed in up to >98% Z selectivity and 97% yield. These transformations, promoted by catalysts that contain the highly abundant and inexpensive metal molybdenum, are amenable to gram-scale operations. Use of reduced pressure is introduced as a simple and effective strategy for achieving high stereoselectivity. The utility of this method is demonstrated by its use in syntheses of an anti-oxidant plasmalogen phospholipid, found in electrically active tissues and implicated in Alzheimer's disease, and the potent immunostimulant KRN7000.

An efficient and general enantioselective synthesis of sphingosine, phythosphingosine, and 4-substituted derivatives.

A general and efficient protocol for the enantioselective synthesis of sphingosine, phythosphingosine, and 4-substituted derivatives was established. These compounds were obtained from a common intermediate prepared from butadiene monoepoxide by a synthetic sequence involving enantioselective allylic substitution, cross-metathesis, and dihydroxylation.

Asymmetric sulfur ylide based enantioselective synthesis of D-erythro-sphingosine.

An asymmetric sulfur ylide reaction was employed to prepare an epoxide intermediate in a convergent manner. This epoxide was efficiently transformed into D-erythro-sphingosine.