Novel and Recent Synthesis and Applications of β-Lactams

Copper-Catalyzed Asymmetric Kinugasa/Michael Addition Cascade Reactions for the Synthesis of Chiral Spiro β-Lactams

A mild copper-catalyzed asymmetric Kinugasa/Michael addition cascade process is developed. The reaction of α, β-unsaturated ester-tethered propiolamides with nitrones provides an efficient protocol for the construction of functionalized chiral 2,6-diazaspiro[3.4]octane-1,5-dione products in satisfactory yields and with high enantio- and diastereoselectivities.

In Silico Analysis: Anti-Inflammatory and α-Glucosidase Inhibitory Activity of New α-Methylene-γ-Lactams

The research about α-methylene-γ-lactams is scarce; however, their synthesis has emerged in recent years mainly because they are isosters of α-methylene-γ-lactones. This last kind of compound is structurally most common in some natural products' nuclei, like sesquiterpene lactones that show biological activity such as anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antibacterial, etc., effects. In this work, seven α-methylene-γ-lactams were evaluated by their inflammation and α-glucosidase inhibition. Thus, compounds 3-methylene-4-phenylpyrrolidin-2-one (1), 3-methylene-4-(p-tolyl)pyrrolidin-2-one (2), 4-(4-chlorophenyl)-3-methylenepyrrolidin-2-one (3), 4-(2-chlorophenyl)-3-methylenepyrrolidin-2-one (4), 5-ethyl-3-methylene-4-phenylpyrrolidin-2-one (5), 5-ethyl-3-methylene-4-(p-tolyl)pyrrolidin-2-one (6) and 4-(4-chlorophenyl)-5-ethyl-3-methylenepyrrolidin-2-one (7) were evaluated via in vitro α-glucosidase assay at 1 mM concentration. From this analysis, 7 exerts the best inhibitory effect on α-glucosidase compared with the vehicle, but it shows a low potency compared with the reference drug at the same dose. On the other side, inflammation edema was induced using TPA (12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate) on mouse ears; compounds 1-7 were tested at 10 µg/ear dose. As a result, 1, 3, and 5 show a better inhibition than indomethacin, at the same doses. This is a preliminary report about the biological activity of these new α-methylene-γ-lactams.

Synthesis of β-Lactams through Carbonylation of Diazo Compounds Followed by the [2 + 2] Cycloaddition Reaction

Reporting an efficient method for the synthesis of β-lactams by the carbonylation of diazo compounds, using [Co2(CO)8] to corresponding ketenes, followed by [2 + 2] cycloaddition with imines. The newly developed strategy was successfully applied to electronically and structurally diverse substrates to produce the corresponding β-lactams under mild reaction conditions. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was employed to monitor ketene formation and the transformation of ketene into β-lactam. All the products were fully characterized by using various analytical and spectroscopic techniques.

Stereoselective Kinugasa/Aldol Cyclization: Synthesis of Enantioenriched Spirocyclic β-Lactams

We report an enantioselective copper-catalyzed Kinugasa/aldol domino reaction. This strategy enables access to a range of spirocyclic β-lactam pyrrolidinones in a stereoselective fashion. Under mild reaction conditions, prochiral alkyne-tethered ketones are coupled with nitrones to enable the facile construction of two spirofused ring systems containing three continuous stereocenters with excellent enantioselectivity. Also disclosed are post-transformation modifications demonstrating potential downstream functionalization of the spirocyclic molecules.

New compounds for a good old class: Synthesis of two Β-lactam bearing cephalosporins and their evaluation with a multidisciplinary approach

Antimicrobial resistance is spreading massively in the world and is becoming one of the main health threats of the 21st century. One of the possible strategies to overcome this problem is to modify the known classes of antibiotics in a rational way, with the aim of tuning their efficacy. In this paper, we present the synthesis and the evaluation of the biological activity of a series of two β-lactam bearing cephalosporin derivatives, in which an additional isolated azetidinone ring, bearing different substituents, is joined to the classical cephalosporanic nucleus by a chain of variable length. A computational approach has been also applied in order to predict the molecular interactions between some representative derivatives and selected penicillin-binding proteins, the natural targets of β-lactam antibiotics. All these derivatives are active against Gram-positive bacteria, with MIC₁₀₀ comparable or even better than that of the reference antibiotic ceftriaxone, and show no or very low cytotoxic activity on different cell lines. Overall, these molecules appear to be able to exert their activity in particular against microorganisms belonging to some of the species more involved in the development of multidrug resistance.

Discovery of Potent Carbonic Anhydrase and Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors: 2-Aminoindan β-Lactam Derivatives

β-Lactams are pharmacologically important compounds because of their various biological uses, including antibiotic and so on. β-Lactams were synthesized from benzylidene-inden derivatives and acetoxyacetyl chloride. The inhibitory effect of these compounds was examined for human carbonic anhydrase I and II (hCA I, and II) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE). The results reveal that β-lactams are inhibitors of hCA I, II and AChE. The K_i values of β-lactams (2a–k) were 0.44–6.29 nM against hCA I, 0.93–8.34 nM against hCA II, and 0.25–1.13 nM against AChE. Our findings indicate that β-lactams (2a–k) inhibit both carbonic anhydrases (CA) isoenzymes and AChE at low nanomolar concentrations.

Monocyclic β-lactam and unexpected oxazinone formation: synthesis, crystal structure, docking studies and antibacterial evaluation

Novel monocyclic β-lactam derivatives bearing aryl, phenyl and heterocyclic rings were synthesized as possible antibacterial agents. Cyclization of imines (3h, 3t) with phenylacetic acid in the presence of phosphoryl chloride and triethyl amine did not afford the expected β-lactams. Instead, highly substituted 1,3-oxazin-4-ones (4h, 4t) were isolated as the only product and confirmed by single crystal X-ray analysis of 4t. The results of antibacterial activity showed that compound 4l exhibited considerable antibacterial activity with MIC and MBC values of 62.5 µg/mL against Klebsiella pneumoniae. Cytotoxicity assay on Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell line revealed non-cytotoxic behavior of compounds 4d, 4h, 4k and 4l up to 200 μg/mL conc. Molecular docking was performed for compound 4l with penicillin binding protein-5 to identify the nature of interactions. The results of both in silico and in vitro evaluation provide the basis for compound 4l to be carried as a potential lead molecule in the drug discovery pipeline against bacterial infections.

Stereoselective determination of 2-benzamidomethyl-3-oxobutanoate and methyl-2-benzoylamide-3-hydroxybutanoate by chiral high-performance liquid chromatography in biotransformation

(2S, 3R)-methyl-2-benzamidomethyl-3-hydroxybutyrate (MBHB) is a key intermediate in the synthesis of 4-aceoxyazetidinone, a building block for the production of penems and carbapenems. More attentions have been paid to screen biocatalysts achieving asymmetric preparation of (2S, 3R)-MBHB. In this study, an improved chiral high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method was developed for the stereoselective determination of 2-benzamidomethyl-3-oxobutanoate (BMOB) and MBHB, and further employed into the biotransformation of BMOB. Chiral separation was achieved within 12 min on Chiralpak AY-H column, which was faster and more suitable for screening biocatalysts exhibited reduction activity and (2S, 3R)-stereospecificity toward BMOB than on other columns. Ultimately, a new strain, Burkholderia gladioli ZJB-12126 capable of reducing BMOB to (2S, 3R)-MBHB was successfully isolated based on this newly constructed HPLC method. Samples were prepared by liquid-liquid extraction system using ethyl acetate as the extractor solvent. The extraction recoveries of BMOB and MBHB isomers ranged from 91.6 to 94.1% with relative standard deviation (RSD) below 10%. Linear calibration curves were obtained in the concentration range of 50-5000 μg/mL for both BMOB and MBHB isomers, respectively. Intra-day and inter-day precisions and accuracy were below 15% for all isomers evaluated by RSDs and relative errors (REs), respectively. This novel method was demonstrated to be suitable for assessing the biotransformation process of BMOB.