Improved Synthesis of the Nav1.7 Inhibitor GDC-0276 via a Highly Regioselective SNAr Reaction

Mechanism-Based Regiocontrol in SNAr: A Case Study of Ortho-Selective Etherification with Chloromagnesium Alkoxides

Although nucleophilic aromatic substitution (SNAr) is routinely employed as a practical alternative to transition-metal-catalyzed cross-coupling, the mechanistic basis for reactivity and regioselectivity remains underexplored and is an active area of research. This article reports a SNAr-based etherification of 2,4-difluoroarylcarboxamides as a model system and shows that the ortho/para regioselectivity spans >500:1 to 1:∼20 simply by varying the reaction conditions via high-throughput experimentation (HTE). An in-depth characterization of the ortho-selective lead conditions is presented, and these insights are used to build a reactivity model that self-consistently accounts for the regioselectivity and reaction scope. This article discusses synthetic implications of condition-dependent magnesium coordination and Schlenk equilibria and demonstrates that consideration of molecular-level stoichiometry and isomerism is an essential prerequisite for rationalizing reactivity and regioselectivity in SNAr.

A broadly applicable quantitative relative reactivity model for nucleophilic aromatic substitution (SNAr) using simple descriptors

We report a multivariate linear regression model able to make accurate predictions for the relative rate and regioselectivity of nucleophilic aromatic substitution (S_NAr) reactions based on the electrophile structure. This model uses a diverse training/test set from experimentally-determined relative S_NAr rates between benzyl alcohol and 74 unique electrophiles, including heterocycles with multiple substitution patterns. There is a robust linear relationship between the experimental S_NAr free energies of activation and three molecular descriptors that can be obtained computationally: the electron affinity (EA) of the electrophile; the average molecular electrostatic potential (ESP) at the carbon undergoing substitution; and the sum of average ESP values for the ortho and para atoms relative to the reactive center. Despite using only simple descriptors calculated from ground state wavefunctions, this model demonstrates excellent correlation with previously measured S_NAr reaction rates, and is able to accurately predict site selectivity for multihalogenated substrates: 91% prediction accuracy across 82 individual examples. The excellent agreement between predicted and experimental outcomes makes this easy-to-implement reactivity model a potentially powerful tool for synthetic planning.

Synergistic Experimental and Computational Investigation of the Bioorthogonal Reactivity of Substituted Aryltetrazines

Tetrazines (Tz) have been applied as bioorthogonal agents for various biomedical applications, including pretargeted imaging approaches. In radioimmunoimaging, pretargeting increases the target-to-background ratio while simultaneously reducing the radiation burden. We have recently reported a strategy to directly ¹⁸F-label highly reactive tetrazines based on a 3-(3-fluorophenyl)-Tz core structure. Herein, we report a kinetic study on this versatile scaffold. A library of 40 different tetrazines was prepared, fully characterized, and investigated with an emphasis on second-order rate constants for the reaction with trans-cyclooctene (TCO). Our results reveal the effects of various substitution patterns and moreover demonstrate the importance of measuring reactivities in the solvent of interest, as click rates in different solvents do not necessarily correlate well. In particular, we report that tetrazines modified in the 2-position of the phenyl substituent show high intrinsic reactivity toward TCO, which is diminished in aqueous systems by unfavorable solvent effects. The obtained results enable the prediction of the bioorthogonal reactivity and thereby facilitate the development of the next generation of substituted aryltetrazines for in vivo applications.

Discovery of Acyl-sulfonamide Nav1.7 Inhibitors GDC-0276 and GDC-0310

Nav1.7 is an extensively investigated target for pain with a strong genetic link in humans, yet in spite of this effort, it remains challenging to identify efficacious, selective, and safe inhibitors. Here, we disclose the discovery and preclinical profile of GDC-0276 (1) and GDC-0310 (2), selective Nav1.7 inhibitors that have completed Phase 1 trials. Our initial search focused on close-in analogues to early compound 3. This resulted in the discovery of GDC-0276 (1), which possessed improved metabolic stability and an acceptable overall pharmacokinetics profile. To further derisk the predicted human pharmacokinetics and enable QD dosing, additional optimization of the scaffold was conducted, resulting in the discovery of a novel series of N-benzyl piperidine Nav1.7 inhibitors. Improvement of the metabolic stability by blocking the labile benzylic position led to the discovery of GDC-0310 (2), which possesses improved Nav selectivity and pharmacokinetic profile over 1.

Practical Early Development Synthesis of Nav1.7 Inhibitor GDC-0310

The concise early development route to the Nav1.7 inhibitor GDC-0310 is described. The active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) contains one stereocenter, which was obtained with high enantiomeric excess (>99:1) by using an SN2 displacement approach to connect two intermediates: a chiral benzyl alcohol and a piperidine. The synthesis of the piperidine building block proceeded via a regioselective SNAr reaction on 1-chloro-2,4-difluorobenzene by N-Boc-4-piperidinemethanol, followed by installation of the methyl ester group by electrophilic aromatic bromination and a palladium-catalyzed alkoxycarbonylation. A subsequent Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling reaction was then telescoped directly into cleavage of the Boc group to provide the advanced piperidine intermediate. The key feature of the synthesis is the highly selective SN2 displacement of the chiral mesylate of (R)-1-(3,5-dichlorophenyl)ethan-1-ol with the piperidine intermediate, followed by a chiral purity upgrade via the corresponding (1S)-(+)-camphorsulfonic acid salt. After standard hydrolysis of the methyl ester and CDI mediated amidation to couple the resulting acid with methanesulfonamide, enantiomerically pure GDC-0310 was obtained in high overall yield (37%) on a 6.5 kilogram scale.