Proteinreaktive Naturstoffe

A Two-Phase Approach to Fusicoccane Synthesis To Uncover a Compound That Reduces Tumourigenesis in Pancreatic Cancer Cells

Alterbrassicicene D (1) and 3(11)-epoxyhypoestenone (2) were synthesised via a two-phase approach featuring concise construction of the 5-8-5 tricyclic intermediate and a tandem base-mediated epoxide opening-transannular oxa-Michael addition cascade to forge the complex skeleton of 2. The route is scalable and we generated 15 g of the tricyclic intermediate in 8 steps from (R)-limonene and 720 mg of the penultimate bioactive intermediate in a protecting-group-free manner. Our synthesis enabled the structural determination of 2 and provided materials for preliminary anticancer evaluation. The penultimate intermediate showed therapeutic potential in terms of its ability to dramatically reduce the tumourigenic potential of PANC-1 pancreatic cancer cells according to a limiting dilution tumour-initiating assay. Our synthetic approach will facilitate unified access to naturally occurring fusicoccanes and their derivatives for anticancer evaluation.

Covalent Inhibition in Drug Discovery

Although covalent inhibitors have been used as therapeutics for more than a century, there has been general resistance in the pharmaceutical industry against their further development due to safety concerns. This inclination has recently been reverted after the development of a wide variety of covalent inhibitors to address human health conditions along with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of several covalent therapeutics for use in humans. Along with this exciting resurrection of an old drug discovery concept, this review surveys enzymes that can be targeted by covalent inhibitors for the treatment of human diseases. We focus on protein kinases, RAS proteins, and a few other enzymes that have been studied extensively as targets for covalent inhibition, with the aim to address challenges in designing effective covalent drugs and to provide suggestions in the area that have yet to be explored.

Strategies for the Synthesis of the Halenaquinol and Xestoquinol Families of Natural Products

The halenaquinol family of naphthoquinol natural products includes a few closely related polycyclic compounds that feature an activated, electrophilic furan ring. This motif is likely responsible for the rich biological activity attributed to these secondary metabolites. Their interesting structures-related via their electrophilic furan to the biologically important furanosteroids-and their activities prompted significant efforts by organic chemists that resulted in many strategically compelling laboratory syntheses of these targets. These different strategies are compared and contrasted in this Microreview, and the authors' recent work on the structurally different but biogenetically related natural product exiguaquinol is put into the context of the previous studies on halenaquinol-type targets.

Modular Synthesis of Novel Macrocycles Bearing α,β-Unsaturated Chemotypes through a Series of One-Pot, Sequential Protocols

A series of one-pot, sequential protocols was developed for the synthesis of novel macrocycles bearing α,β-unsaturated chemotypes. The method highlights a phosphate tether-mediated approach to establish asymmetry, and consecutive one-pot, sequential processes to access the macrocycles with minimal purification procedures. This library amenable strategy provided diverse macrocycles containing α,β-unsaturated carbon-, sulfur-, or phosphorus-based warheads.

Kinetic and Theoretical Studies of Beta-Lactone Reactivity-A Quantitative Scale for Biological Application

Natural products comprise a rich source for bioactive molecules with medicinal relevance. Many of these contain electrophilic scaffolds that bind conserved enzyme active sites covalently. Prominent examples include beta-lactams and beta-lactones, which specifically acylate serine residues in diverse peptidases. Although these scaffolds appear similar, their bioactivities and corresponding protein targets vary. To quantify and dissect these differences in bioactivities, the kinetics of the reactions of beta-butyrolactone with a set of reference amines in buffered aqueous solution at 37 °C have been analyzed. Different product ratios of C1 versus C3 attack on the beta-butyrolactone have been observed, depending on the aliphatic or aromatic nature of the standard amine used. Quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) calculations reveal that a H₃ O⁺ molecule has a crucial role in stabilizing C3 attack by aniline, through coordination of the lactone ring oxygen. In agreement with their weak proteome reactivity, monocyclic beta-lactams did not react with the set of standard nucleophiles studied herein. Bicyclic beta-lactams, however, exhibited a lower activation barrier, and thus, reacted with standard nucleophiles. This study represents a starting point for semiquantitative reactivity scales for natural products, which, in analogy to chemical reactivity scales, will provide predictions for electrophilic modifications in biological systems.

Natural products and their biological targets: proteomic and metabolomic labeling strategies

Activity-based protein profiling (ABPP) has matured into a standard method for the fast, sensitive, and selective identification of enzyme activity and inhibitors in proteomes. By using natural product based probes, the targets of many uncharacterized molecules can be easily identified in complex proteomes, and their exact function and mechanism of action understood. Natural products and their derivatives can also serve as pharmaceutical lead structures that impede essential components in the cell and their effects can be studied in biological assays. Since the complex regulatory processes in a cell go beyond mere transcription, translation, and activation, it is imperative to also identify the products of the active proteome--the metabolites and binding partners of individual enzymes and proteins. Therefore, methods by which the chemically complex metabolome can be characterized are necessary. A series of interesting approaches have become available in recent years that enable the global investigation of enzyme-metabolite pairs.

Synthesis of a resorcylic acid lactone (RAL) library using fluorous-mixture synthesis and profile of its selectivity against a panel of kinases

A library of resorcylic acid lactones (RAL) containing a cis-enone moiety targeting kinases bearing a cysteine residue within the ATP-binding pocket was prepared using a fluorous-mixture synthesis and evaluated against a panel of 19 kinases thus providing important structure-activity trends. Two new analogues were then profiled for their selectivity against a panel of 402 kinases providing the broadest evaluation of this pharmacophores' selectivity.

Cytotoxic polyketides containing tetramic acid moieties isolated from the fungus Myceliophthora Thermophila: elucidation of the relationship between cytotoxicity and stereoconfiguration

Five new polyketides that contain tetramic acids, myceliothermophins A-E, were isolated from the thermophilic fungus Myceliophthora thermophila. Two sets of 5-alkyl-5-hydroxyl (or 5-methoxyl)-1H-pyrrol-2(5H)-one diastereomers, myceliothermophins A/B and C/D, were separated as pure compounds by using silica-gel column chromatography and recycling reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). The relative configurations of the chiral centers in 5-alkyl-5-hydroxyl (or 5-methoxyl)-1H-pyrrol-2(5H)-one moieties were deduced from NOESY correlations. In the cytotoxic assay, the 5-(2-methylpropyldiene)-1H-pyrrol-2(5H)-one analogue (myceliothermophin E) exhibited inhibition against four cancer cell lines. In addition, the significant inhibitory effect of myceliothermophins A and C and the inactivity of myceliothermophins B and D revealed the importance of the relative configurations of 5-alkyl-5-hydroxyl (or 5-methoxyl)-1H-pyrrol-2(5H)-one moieties on their cytotoxicity potency against cancer cells.

Photo-cross-linked small-molecule microarrays as chemical genomic tools for dissecting protein-ligand interactions

We have developed a unique photo-cross-linking approach for immobilizing a variety of small molecules in a functional-group-independent manner. Our approach depends on the reactivity of the carbene species generated from trifluoromethylaryldiazirine upon UV irradiation. It was demonstrated in model experiments that the photogenerated carbenes were able to react with every small molecule tested, and they produced multiple conjugates in most cases. It was also found in on-array immobilization experiments that various small molecules were immobilized, and the immobilized small molecules retained their ability to interact with their binding proteins. With this approach, photo-cross-linked microarrays of about 2000 natural products and drugs were constructed. This photo-cross-linked microarray format was found to be useful not merely for ligand screening but also to study the structure-activity relationship, that is, the relationship between the structural motif (or pharmacophore) found in small molecules and its binding affinity toward a protein, by taking advantage of the nonselective nature of the photo-cross-linking process.

Total Synthesis of Lactacystin and Salinosporamide A

Lactacystin and salinosporamide A are fascinating molecules with regard to both their chemical structures and biological activities. These naturally occurring compounds are potent and selective proteasome inhibitors. The molecular structures are characterized by their densely functionalized gamma-lactam cores. The structure and biological properties of these two compounds are attracting the attention of many chemists as challenging synthetic targets. We discuss their synthetic strategies in this review.