Pactamycin and Its Derivatives: Improved Synthesis Route: Pactamycin and Its Derivatives: Improved Synthesis Route

Synthesis of the Cyclopentane Core Skeleton of Cranomycin and Jogyamycin

Cranomycin and jogyamycin, two aminocyclopentitol natural products, possess complex structures and potential medicinal properties. This review describes synthetic studies about the process of making an advanced intermediate of cranomycin and jogyamycin. This highly functionalized intermediate, featuring three contiguous amine-substituted stereocenters, was constructed from cyclopentadiene through a series of reactions including the nitroso Diels-Alder reaction, nitrogen radical cyclization reaction, 1,2-nitrogen migration, and stereoselective nitrogen addition.

Strategies for the Syntheses of Pactamycin and Jogyamycin

Pactamycin and jogyamycin are aminocyclopentitol natural products, where each core carbon bears a stereodefined alcohol or amine moiety. Their structural complexity, coupled with the diversity of functional groups coexisting in a condensed space, make them fascinating synthetic targets in their own right. Pactamycin and its derivatives bind to the 30S ribosomal subunit and display activity against parasites responsible for drug-resistant malaria and African sleeping sickness; however, efforts to develop their therapeutic potential have been hampered by their cellular toxicity. Interestingly, bioengineered analogues display differences in selectivity and toxicity towards mammalian cells, spurring efforts to develop flexible strategies to thoroughly probe structure-activity relationships (SAR), particularly in analogues lacking the C7 hydroxyl group of pactamycin. This review compares and contrasts approaches towards pactamycin and jogyamycin, including two successful total syntheses of the former. The implications of each route for preparing analogues to inform SAR and lead to compounds with increased selectivity for binding malarial over human ribosomes are briefly discussed.

Synthetic Studies on Pactamycin: A Synthesis of Johnson's Intermediate

A formal total synthesis of pactamycin (1) has been accomplished by face-selective and regioselective nitroso Diels-Alder (NDA) reaction of acyl nitroso compound 14, which contains a camphorsultam chiral auxiliary, and chiral cyclopentadiene 12. Construction of the chiral secondary alcohol of 12 was performed by (S,S)-Ts-DENEB catalyst-mediated reduction, and the NDA adduct 15a was readily converted to Johnson's intermediate 21.