Park J, Cheon CH. A cyanide-catalyzed imino-Stetter reaction enables the concise total syntheses of rucaparib.
RSC Adv 2022;
12:21172-21180. [PMID:
35975042 PMCID:
PMC9341288 DOI:
10.1039/d2ra03619c]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2022] [Accepted: 07/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Two routes toward the synthesis of rucaparib, an FDA-approved drug used for the treatment of ovarian and prostate cancers, have been developed from commercially available starting materials utilizing the cyanide-catalyzed imino-Stetter reaction as the key step for the construction of the indole motif bearing all the desired substituents in their correct positions. In the first-generation synthesis, meta-fluorobenzoate, the starting material currently used in the process chemistry route of rucaparib, was converted into 4,6-disubstituted 2-aminocinnamic acid derivatives (ester or amide). The cyanide-catalyzed imino-Stetter reaction of aldimines derived from the resulting 2-aminocinnamic acid derivatives and a commercially available aldehyde afforded the desired indole-3-acetic acid derivatives. The final azepinone formation completed the total synthesis of rucaparib in 27% overall yield. To resolve the issues raised in the first-generation synthesis, we further developed a second-generation synthesis of rucaparib. The Heck reaction of a commercially available ortho-iodoaniline derivative with acrylonitrile provided 4,6-disubstituted 2-aminocinnamonitrile, which was subjected to the imino-Stetter reaction with the same aldehyde to provide the desired indole-3-acetonitrile product. Subsequent construction of the azepinone scaffold completed the total synthesis of rucaparib in 59% overall yield over three separation operations. The synthetic strategy reported herein can provide a highly practical route to access rucaparib from commercially available starting materials (5.2% overall yield in the current process chemistry route vs. 59% overall yield in the second-generation synthesis).
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