Enantioselective cascade reactions of stable sulfur ylides and nitroolefins through an axial-to-central chirality transfer strategy.

An enantioselective [4 + 1] annulation/rearrangement cascade of stable sulfur ylides and nitroolefins has been developed through an efficient axial-to-central chirality transfer with the use of a chiral BINOL-derived sulfide as a reliable stereocontroller. It can provide pharmaceutically and synthetically important oxazolidinones in high stereoselectivities (up to 96:4 e.r. and >95:5 d.r.). Moreover, this strategy was also successfully applied to the asymmetric [4 + 1]/[3 + 2] cycloaddition cascade of sulfur ylides with alkene-tethered nitroolefins, and the corresponding enantioenriched fused heterocycles (up to 87:13 e.r. and >95:5 d.r.) were obtained in good to excellent yields (54-95% yields).

Structure-activity relationship study of novel quinazoline-based 1,6-naphthyridinones as MET inhibitors with potent antitumor efficacy.

As a privileged scaffold, the quinazoline ring is widely used in the development of EGFR inhibitors, while few quinazoline-based MET inhibitors are reported. In our ongoing efforts to develop new MET-targeted anticancer drug candidates, a series of quinazoline-based 1,6-naphthyridinone derivatives were designed, synthesized, and evaluated for their biological activities. The preliminary SARs studies indicate that the quinazoline scaffold was also acceptable for the block A of class II MET inhibitors. The further pharmacokinetic studies led to the identification of the most promising compound 22a with favorable in vitro potency (MET, IC50 = 9.0 nM), human microsomal metabolic stability (t1/2 = 621.2 min) and oral bioavailability (F = 42%). Moreover, 22a displayed good in vivo antitumor efficacy (IR of 81% in 75 mg/kg) in MET-positive human glioblastoma U-87 MG xenograft model. These positive results indicated that 22a is a potential new MET-targeted antitumor drug lead, which is worthy of further development.

Organocatalytic synthesis and sterol 14alpha-demethylase binding interactions of enantioriched 3-(1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)butyl benzoates.

1H-1,2,4-Triazole reacted with 2-butenal in the presence of diaryl prolinol silyl ether 3 and benzonic acid to give 3-(1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)butanal 4, which was subsequently reduced and then treated with various acyl chloride to generate enantioriched 3-(1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)butyl benzoates 6. Some of triazoles 6 exhibited strong binding interactions with the cytochrome P450-dependent sterol 14alpha-demethylase (CYP51). For example, compound (R)-6f showed the best binding activity with K(d) 0.3381 microM.

2,7-naphthyridinone-based MET kinase inhibitors: A promising novel scaffold for antitumor drug development.

As part of our effort to develop new molecular targeted antitumor drug, a novel 2,7-naphthyridone-based MET kinase inhibitor, 8-((4-((2-amino-3-chloropyridin-4-yl)oxy)- 3-fluorophenyl)amino)-2-(4-fluorophenyl)-2,7-naphthyridin-1(2H)-one (13f), was identified. Knowledge of the binding mode of BMS-777607 in MET led to the design of new inhibitors that utilize novel 2,7-naphthyridone scaffold to conformationally restrain the key pharmacophoric groups (block C). Detailed SAR studies resulted in the discovery of a new MET inhibitor 13f, displaying favorable in vitro potency and oral bioavailability. More importantly, 13f exhibited excellent in vivo efficacy (tumor growth inhibition/TGI of 114% and 95% in 50 mg/kg, respectively) both in the U-87 MG and HT-29 xenograft models. The favorable drug-likeness of 13f indicated that 2,7-naphthyridinone may be used a promising novel scaffold for antitumor drug development. The preclinical studies of 13f are under way.

A new entry to cascade organocatalysis: reactions of stable sulfur ylides and nitroolefins sequentially catalyzed by thiourea and DMAP.

A novel cascade organocatalysis that allows efficient and rapid access to diverse and structurally complex oxazolidin-2-ones from simple starting materials and catalysts has been developed. A possible mechanism of this reaction has been proposed based on D- and 13C-labeling experiments.

trans-4-(1-Naphth-yl)-2-oxo-1,3-oxazolidine-5-carboxylic acid.

The crystal structure of the title compound, C(14)H(11)NO(4), is influenced by N-H⋯O and O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, linking mol-ecules into one-dimensional tapes running along the [010] direction.