EATA Reaction Catalyzed by Copper Halides of Mixed Oxidation States and Its Application to Total Synthesis of Scorodonin

Total syntheses of Kavaratamide A and 5-epi-Kavaratamide A

The total synthesis of Kavaratamide A, a new Linear Lipodepsipeptide from the Marine Cyanobacterium Moorena bouillonii was achieved by assembling the side chain in stage through condensation coupling, carbon-chain extension, Steglich esterification and Evans aldol reaction. In addition, total synthesis of Kavaratamide A's isomer, 5-epi-kavaratamide A, is also successfully achieved. Cytotoxicity test suggested that Kavaratamide A and 5-epi-Kavaratamide A have a moderate bioactivity against cancer cells.

Synergistic Pd/Cu-Catalyzed 1,5-Double Chiral Inductions

Much attention has been focused on the catalytic asymmetric creation of single chiral centers or two adjacent stereocenters. However, the asymmetric construction of two nonadjacent stereocenters is of significant importance but is challenging because of the lack of remote chiral induction models. Herein, based on a C═C bond relay strategy, we report a synergistic Pd/Cu-catalyzed 1,5-double chiral induction model. All four stereoisomers of the target products bearing 1,5-nonadjacent stereocenters involving both allenyl axial and central chirality could be obtained divergently by simply changing the combination of two chiral catalysts with different configurations. Control experiments and DFT calculations reveal a novel mechanism involving 1,5-oxidative addition, contra-thermodynamic η3-allyl palladium shift, and conjugate nucleophilic substitution, which play crucial roles in the control of reactivity, regio-, enantio-, and diastereoselectivity. It is expected that this C═C bond relay strategy may provide a general protocol for the asymmetric synthesis of structural motifs bearing two distant stereocenters.

DeepSA: a deep-learning driven predictor of compound synthesis accessibility

With the continuous development of artificial intelligence technology, more and more computational models for generating new molecules are being developed. However, we are often confronted with the question of whether these compounds are easy or difficult to synthesize, which refers to synthetic accessibility of compounds. In this study, a deep learning based computational model called DeepSA, was proposed to predict the synthesis accessibility of compounds, which provides a useful tool to choose molecules. DeepSA is a chemical language model that was developed by training on a dataset of 3,593,053 molecules using various natural language processing (NLP) algorithms, offering advantages over state-of-the-art methods and having a much higher area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC), i.e., 89.6%, in discriminating those molecules that are difficult to synthesize. This helps users select less expensive molecules for synthesis, reducing the time and cost required for drug discovery and development. Interestingly, a comparison of DeepSA with a Graph Attention-based method shows that using SMILES alone can also efficiently visualize and extract compound's informative features. DeepSA is available online on the below web server ( https://bailab.siais.shanghaitech.edu.cn/services/deepsa/ ) of our group, and the code is available at https://github.com/Shihang-Wang-58/DeepSA .

Three-Component Approach to Densely Functionalized Trifluoromethyl Allenols by Asymmetric Organocatalysis

We have developed a new three-component catalytic coupling reaction of alkynyl boronates, diazomethanes, and aliphatic/aromatic ketones in the presence of BINOL derivatives. The reaction proceeds with a remarkably high enantio- and diastereoselectivity (up to three contiguous stereocenters) affording tertiary CF₃-allenols in a single operational step. The reaction proceeds under mild, neutral, metal-free conditions, which leads to a high level of functional group tolerance.

Functionalized Chromans from ortho-Quinone Methides and Arylallenes

ortho-Quinone methides (o-QMs) underwent formal [4 + 2]-cycloaddition reactions with arylallenes regioselectively at the styrenyl olefin to furnish the corresponding 3-methylene-2-arylchromans in moderate to good yields (up to 88%). When R ≠ H, the reactions also proceeded with moderate stereoselectivity (up to 5:1) which was governed by the nature of the R group. The 3-methylene-2-arylchromans could serve as common intermediates for further functionalization including epoxidation, oxidative cleavage/Baeyer-Villiger oxidation, Riley oxidation, acid-catalyzed rearrangement, and Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions to furnish the corresponding derivatives in moderate to good yields.

Dual Rh(II)/Pd(0) Relay Catalysis Involving Sigmatropic Rearrangement Using N-Sulfonyl Triazoles and 2-Hydroxymethylallyl Carbonates

Dual Rh(II)/Pd(0) relay catalysis of N-sulfonyl triazoles and 2-hydroxymethylallyl carbonates has been developed, which affords N-sulfonyl pyrrolidines in moderate to good yields with high diastereoselectivities. The reaction proceeds via a relay mechanism involving O-H insertion onto the α-imino Rh(II)-carbene, [3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement, dipole formation through Pd(0)-catalyzed decarboxylation, and intramolecular N-allylation, leading to the formation of multiple bonds in a one-pot operation.

Distinctive Mechanistic Scenarios and Substituent Effects of Gold(I) versus Copper(I) Catalysis for Hydroacylation of Terminal Alkynes with Glyoxal Derivatives

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations have been conducted to study the mechanisms, substituent effects, and the role of bases in Au- and Cu-catalyzed hydroacylation of terminal alkyne with glyoxal derivatives. The two reactions, despite being catalyzed by the same group of transition metals, follow distinctive reaction mechanisms. Through the detailed DFT calculations, insights into the mechanisms are obtained, and the substituent effects and the role of the bases are understood.