Application of amide-stabilized sulfur ylide reactivity to the stereodivergent synthesis of (R,S)- and (S,R)-reboxetine

Diastereoselective synthesis of new zwitterionic bicyclic lactams, scaffolds for construction of 2-substituted-4-hydroxy piperidine and its pipecolic acid derivatives

The synthesis of new chiral highly functionalized zwitterionic bicyclic lactams starting from acyclic β-enaminoesters derived from (R)-(-)-2-phenylglycinol is described. The key step involved an intramolecular non-classical Corey-Chaykovsky ring-closing reaction of the corresponding sulfonium salts derived from β-enaminoesters. This methodology permits the generation of two or three new stereogenic centers with high diastereoselectivity. The utility of these intermediates was demonstrated by the stereocontrolled total synthesis of cis-4-hydroxy-2-methyl piperidine and its corresponding pipecolic acid derivative.

Epoxide Syntheses and Ring-Opening Reactions in Drug Development

This review concentrates on success stories from the synthesis of approved medicines and drug candidates using epoxide chemistry in the development of robust and efficient syntheses at large scale. The focus is on those parts of each synthesis related to the substrate-controlled/diastereoselective and catalytic asymmetric synthesis of epoxide intermediates and their subsequent ring-opening reactions with various nucleophiles. These are described in the form of case studies of high profile pharmaceuticals spanning a diverse range of indications and molecular scaffolds such as heterocycles, terpenes, steroids, peptidomimetics, alkaloids and main stream small molecules. Representative examples include, but are not limited to the antihypertensive diltiazem, the antidepressant reboxetine, the HIV protease inhibitors atazanavir and indinavir, efinaconazole and related triazole antifungals, tasimelteon for sleep disorders, the anticancer agent carfilzomib, the anticoagulant rivaroxaban the antibiotic linezolid and the antiviral oseltamivir. Emphasis is given on aspects of catalytic asymmetric epoxidation employing metals with chiral ligands particularly with the Sharpless and Jacobsen–Katsuki methods as well as organocatalysts such as the chiral ketones of Shi and Yang, Pages’s chiral iminium salts and typical chiral phase transfer agents.

Stereodivergent synthesis of all the four stereoisomers of antidepressant reboxetine

Chiral amino alcohol-copper(ii) catalysts Cu-L1c and Cu-ent-L1c were utilized to promote the diastereoselective nitroaldol reactions of chiral aldehydes (S)-3 or (R)-3 with nitromethane, which respectively led to the preferential formation of certain stereoisomer for nitro diol derivatives 4. Using this catalytic protocol, all the four stereoisomers of the antidepressant reboxetine were divergently prepared. The highest overall yield of this synthetic route reached up to 30.5% from aldehyde (S)-3.

Asymmetric syntheses of three-membered heterocycles using chiral amide-based ammonium ylides

The use of carbonyl-stabilised ammonium ylides to access chiral glycidic amides and the corresponding aziridines has so far been limited to racemic trans-selective protocols. We herein report the development of an asymmetric approach to access such compounds with high levels of stereoselectivity using easily accessible chiral auxiliary-based ammonium ylides. The use of phenylglycinol as the chiral auxiliary was found to be superior to Evans or pseudoephedrine-based auxiliaries resulting in good to excellent stereoselectivities in both, epoxidation and aziridination reactions.