Stereoselective Total Synthesis of Macrophage-Produced Prohealing 14,21-Dihydroxy Docosahexaenoic Acids.

Synthesis of 14S,21R- and 14S,21S-dihydroxy-DHA (diHDHA) among the four possible stereoisomers of 14,21-diHDHA was studied. Methyl (R)-lactate (>97% ee), selected as a C20-C22 fragment (DHA numbering), was converted to the C17-C22 phosphonium salt, which was subjected to a Wittig reaction with racemic C16-aldehyde of the C12-C16 part with the TMS and TBS-oxy groups at C12 and C14, yielding the C12-C22 derivative with 14R/S and 21R chirality. Kinetic resolution using Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation of the TBS-deprotected allylic alcohol with l-(+)-DIPT/Ti(O-i-Pr)4 afforded 14S-epoxy alcohol and 14R-allylic alcohol with >99% diastereomeric excess (de) for both. The CN group was introduced to the epoxy alcohol by reaction with Et2AlCN. The 14R-allylic alcohol was also converted to the nitrile via Mitsunobu inversion. Reduction of the nitrile with DIBAL afforded the key aldehyde corresponding to the C11-C22 moiety. The Wittig reaction of this aldehyde with a phosphonium salt of the remaining C1-C10 part followed by functional group manipulation gave 14S,21R-diHDHA. Similarly, ethyl (S)-lactate (>99% ee) was converted to 14S,21S-diHDHA. The chiral LC-UV-MS/MS analysis demonstrated that each of these two 14,21-diHDHAs synthesized using the presented total organic synthesis was highly stereoselective and identical to the macrophage-produced counterpart.

Total Synthesis of Resolvin D5.

Resolvin D5 (RvD5) is a metabolite of docosahexanoic acid with anti-inflammatory activity that has not yet been thoroughly investigated because of its low biological availability. A synthetic route to optically active RvD5 was developed by assembling the C1-C10 aldehyde, C11-C13 phosphonium salt, and C14-C22 aldehyde building blocks. The aldehyde fragments were prepared by Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation of corresponding racemic (E)-1-TMS-1-alken-3-ols followed by reaction of the TBS ethers of the resulting epoxy alcohols with Et2AlCN and DIBAL reduction of the (E)-1-cyano-1-alken-3-ol derivatives. The C14-C22 aldehyde was connected with the C11-C13 fragment, i.e., [TBSO(CH2)3PPh3]+ Br-, by Wittig reaction. The resulting C11-C22 intermediate was converted to the phosphonium salt, which was attached to the C1-C10 aldehyde by Wittig reaction to yield the structure of RvD5.