Diastereoselective self-condensation of dihydroxyfumaric acid in water: potential route to sugars

Jack of all trades: water-soluble salts of DHF underwent self-condensation to afford the threo diastereomer of pentulosonic acid, through differing reaction pathways contingent on the metal salt used. This transformation exemplifies the diverging roles of DHF as a nucleophile (a synthon for α-hydroxyacetyl anion) and an electrophile (an α-carboxyglycolaldehyde equivalent).

Total Syntheses of Zaragozic Acids A and C by a Carbonyl Ylide Cycloaddition Strategy

A carbonyl ylide cycloaddition approach to the squalene synthase inhibitors zaragozic acids A and C is described. The carbonyl ylide precursor 8 was synthesized starting from di-tert-butyl D-tartrate (47) via an eleven-step sequence involving the regioselective reduction of the mono-MPM (MPM=4-methoxybenzyl) ether 48 with LiBH4 and the diastereoselective addition of sodium tert-butyl diazoacetate to alpha-keto ester 10. The reaction of alpha-diazo ester 8 with 3-butyn-2-one (40) in the presence of a catalytic amount of [Rh2(OAc)4] gave the desired cycloadduct 59 as a single diastereomer. The dihydroxylation of enone 59 followed by sequential transformations permitted the construction of the fully functionalized 2,8-dioxabicyclo[3.2.1]octane core 5. Alkene 79 derived from 5 serves as a common precursor to zaragozic acids A (1) and C (2), since the elongation of the C1 alkyl side chain can be attained by olefin cross-metathesis, especially under the influence of Blechert's catalyst (85).

Dynamic covalent chemistry

Dynamic covalent chemistry relates to chemical reactions carried out reversibly under conditions of equilibrium control. The reversible nature of the reactions introduces the prospects of "error checking" and "proof-reading" into synthetic processes where dynamic covalent chemistry operates. Since the formation of products occurs under thermodynamic control, product distributions depend only on the relative stabilities of the final products. In kinetically controlled reactions, however, it is the free energy differences between the transition states leading to the products that determines their relative proportions. Supramolecular chemistry has had a huge impact on synthesis at two levels: one is noncovalent synthesis, or strict self-assembly, and the other is supramolecular assistance to molecular synthesis, also referred to as self-assembly followed by covalent modification. Noncovalent synthesis has given us access to finite supermolecules and infinite supramolecular arrays. Supramolecular assistance to covalent synthesis has been exploited in the construction of more-complex systems, such as interlocked molecular compounds (for example, catenanes and rotaxanes) as well as container molecules (molecular capsules). The appealing prospect of also synthesizing these types of compounds with complex molecular architectures using reversible covalent bond forming chemistry has led to the development of dynamic covalent chemistry. Historically, dynamic covalent chemistry has played a central role in the development of conformational analysis by opening up the possibility to be able to equilibrate configurational isomers, sometimes with base (for example, esters) and sometimes with acid (for example, acetals). These stereochemical "balancing acts" revealed another major advantage that dynamic covalent chemistry offers the chemist, which is not so easily accessible in the kinetically controlled regime: the ability to re-adjust the product distribution of a reaction, even once the initial products have been formed, by changing the reaction's environment (for example, concentration, temperature, presence or absence of a template). This highly transparent, yet tremendously subtle, characteristic of dynamic covalent chemistry has led to key discoveries in polymer chemistry. In this review, some recent examples where dynamic covalent chemistry has been demonstrated are shown to emphasise the basic concepts of this area of science.

Bioactive agents from natural sources: trends in discovery and application

About 30% of the worldwide sales of drugs are based on natural products. Though recombinant proteins and peptides account for increasing sales rates, the superiority of low-molecular mass compounds in human diseases therapy remains undisputed mainly due to more favorable compliance and bioavailability properties. In the past, new therapeutic approaches often derived from natural products. Numerous examples from medicine impressively demonstrate the innovative potential of natural compounds and their impact on progress in drug discovery and development. However, natural products are currently undergoing a phase of reduced attention in drug discovery because of the enormous effort which is necessary to isolate the active principles and to elucidate their structures. To meet the demand of several hundred thousands of test samples that have to be submitted to high-throughput screening (HTS) new strategies in natural product chemistry are necessary in order to compete successfully with combinatorial chemistry. Today, pharmaceutical companies have to spend approximately US $350 million to develop a new drug. Currently, approaches to improve and accelerate the joint drug discovery and development process are expected to arise mainly from innovation in drug target elucidation and lead finding. Breakthroughs in molecular biology, cell biology, and genetic engineering in the 1980 s gave access to understanding diseases on the molecular or on the gene level. Subsequently, constructing novel target directed screening assay systems of promising therapeutic significance, automation, and miniaturization resulted in HTS approaches changing the industrial drug discovery process drastically. Furthermore, elucidation of the human genome will provide access to a dramatically increased number of new potential drug targets that have to be evaluated for drug discovery. HTS enables the testing of an increasing number of samples. Therefore, new concepts to generate large compound collections with improved structural diversity are desirable.