Total Synthesis of the Sesquiterpene (-)-Merrillianin.

The first total synthesis of (-)-merrillianin (1), which is a natural sesquiterpene with a tricyclic structure having a cyclopentane ring and five- and seven-membered lactone parts, is demonstrated. This asymmetric total synthesis enabled the absolute stereostructure determination of naturally occurring (-)-1.

Correction to "First Total Synthesis of Tanzawaic Acid B".

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.3c03634.].

First Total Synthesis of Tanzawaic Acid B.

The first total synthesis of (+)-tanzawaic acid B, a natural polyketide bearing a pentadienoic ester and octalin moiety, has been accomplished. The synthetic improvement from previous synthetic conditions facilitated our gram-scale synthesis of the chiral octalin that possesses seven stereogenic centers and that is the core skeleton of almost all of the tanzawaic acid family.

Oncogenic Kit signalling on the Golgi is suppressed by blocking secretory trafficking with M-COPA in gastrointestinal stromal tumours.

Most gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GISTs) are caused by constitutively active mutations in Kit tyrosine kinase. The drug imatinib, a specific Kit inhibitor, improves the prognosis of metastatic GIST patients, but these patients become resistant to the drug by acquiring secondary mutations in the Kit kinase domain. We recently reported that a Kit mutant causes oncogenic signals only on the Golgi apparatus in GISTs. In this study, we show that in GIST, 2-methylcoprophilinamide (M-COPA, also known as "AMF-26"), an inhibitor of biosynthetic protein trafficking from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to the Golgi, suppresses Kit autophosphorylation at Y703/Y721/Y730/Y936, resulting in blockade of oncogenic signalling. Results of our M-COPA treatment assay show that Kit Y703/Y730/Y936 in the ER are dephosphorylated by protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs), thus the ER-retained Kit is unable to activate downstream molecules. ER-localized Kit Y721 is not phosphorylated, but not due to PTPs. Importantly, M-COPA can inhibit the activation of the Kit kinase domain mutant, resulting in suppression of imatinib-resistant GIST proliferation. Our study demonstrates that Kit autophosphorylation is spatio-temporally regulated and may offer a new strategy for treating imatinib-resistant GISTs.