Parallel synthesis of prostaglandin E1 analogues

Enantioselective synthesis of 2-substituted and 3-substituted piperidines through a bromoaminocyclization process

A catalytic enantioselective bromocyclization of olefinic amides using amino-thiocarbamates as the catalysts has been developed. The resulting enantioenriched 2-substituted 3-bromopiperidines can readily be transformed to 3-substituted piperidines through a silver salt-mediated rearrangement. This process has been applied to the synthesis of a dopaminergic drug, Preclamol.

A road less traveled by: exploring a decade of Ellman chemistry

The Ellman group has been one of the most influential in the development and widespread adoption of combinatorial chemistry techniques for biomedical research. Their work has included substantial methodological development for library synthesis with a particular focus on new scaffolds rationally targeted to biomolecules of interest and biologically relevant natural products. Herein we analyze a representative set of libraries from this group with respect to their biological and biomedical relevance in comparison to existing drugs and probe compounds. This analysis reveals that the Ellman group has not only provided new methodologies to the community but also provided libraries with unique potential for further biological study.

Solid-phase synthesis of a thymidinyl dipeptide urea library

A thymidinyl dipeptide urea library with structural similarity to the nucleoside peptide class of antibiotics was designed and synthesized. To generate the library, a solid-phase synthesis was developed starting from 5'-azidothymidine attached to a polystyrene butyl diethylsilane (PS-DES) resin support. This study describes the prelibrary solid-phase synthesis development including maximum loading capacity optimization, selection of orthogonal functionalized side-chain protection strategies, synthesis of a 64-member test library, and optimization of the final cleavage step. Using the optimized procedures, we synthesized a 1000-member library in a 50 micromol quantity using IRORI-directed sorting technology in MiniKans, producing the target library in good yields and purity.

Natural Product-Derived Modulators of Cell Cycle Progression and Viral Entry by Enantioselective Oxa Diels-Alder Reactions on the Solid Phase

The underlying frameworks of natural product classes with multiple biological activities can be regarded as biologically selected and prevalidated starting points in vast chemical structure space in the development of compound collections for chemical biology and medicinal chemistry research. For the synthesis of natural product-derived and -inspired compound collections, the development of enantioselective transformations in a format amenable to library synthesis, e.g., on the solid support, is a major and largely unexplored goal. We report on the enantioselective solid-phase synthesis of a natural product-inspired alpha,beta-unsaturated delta-lactone collection and its investigation in cell-based screens monitoring cell cycle progression and viral entry into cells. The screens identified modulators of both biological processes at a high hit rate. The screen for inhibition of viral entry opens up avenues of research for the identification of compounds with antiviral activity.

Efficient Solid-Phase Synthesis of Clavulones via Sequential Coupling of α- and ω-Chains

We describe an efficient solid-phase synthesis of clavulones via the sequential coupling of the alpha- and omega-chains, involving two separate carbon-carbon bond-forming steps. The tetrahydropyranyl linker survived these reaction conditions and was cleaved without decomposing the unstable cross-conjugated dienones. Our methodology has allowed us to prepare six clavulone derivatives that are varied within the alpha-chain.

Chemoinformatics methods for systematic comparison of molecules from natural and synthetic sources and design of hybrid libraries

Until recently, the field of diversity and library design has more or less ignored natural products as a compound source. This is probably due to at least two reasons. First, combinatorial and reaction-based approaches have been major focal points in the early days of computational library design. In addition, a widespread view is that natural products are often highly complex and not amenable to medicinal chemistry efforts. This contribution introduces recent computational approaches to systematically analyze natural molecules and bridge the gap between natural products and synthetic chemistry programs. Large scale comparisons of natural and synthetic molecules are discussed as well as studies designed to identify 'synthetic mimics' of natural products with specific activity. In addition, a concept for the design of natural/synthetic hybrid libraries is introduced. Although research in this area is still in its early stages, an important lesson to be learned from computational analyses is that there is no need to a priori 'shy away' from natural products as a source for molecular design.

Polyglycerol as a high-loading support for boronic acids with application in solution-phase Suzuki cross-couplings

In this paper, we describe the usage of a soluble high-loading polyglycerol support for functionalized boronic acids without further linker design. The quantitatively formed polyglycerol boron esters were subsequently employed in homogeneous Suzuki cross-coupling reactions to give high yields (84-91%) of functional biaryls with minimal amounts of the Pd catalyst (0.2 mol %). In situ precipitation and ultrafiltration were used as simple and effective purification protocols. Furthermore, the reaction conditions were optimized by the choice of the solvent and the catalyst.

Modern methods to produce natural-product libraries

Natural sources offer a wealth of chemically diverse compounds that have been evolutionary preselected to modulate biochemical pathways. Several industrial and academic groups are accessing this source using advanced technology platforms. Methods have been reported to generate large and diverse natural-product libraries optimised for high-throughput screening and for a fast discovery process. In addition to prefractionated and pure natural-product libraries, parallel synthesis gives access to synthetic, semi-synthetic and natural-product-like libraries. Natural-product chemistry and organic synthesis are powerful tools for optimising natural leads and for generating new diversity from natural scaffolds. The amalgamation of both may be expected to become an important strategy in future drug design.

Chemoinformatics methods for systematic comparison of molecules from natural and synthetic sources and design of hybrid libraries

Until recently, the field of diversity and library design has more or less ignored natural products as a compound source. This is probably due to at least two reasons. First, combinatorial and reaction-based approaches have been major focal points in the early days of computational library design. In addition, a widespread view is that natural products are often highly complex and not amenable to medicinal chemistry efforts. This contribution introduces recent computational approaches to systematically analyze natural molecules and bridge the gap between natural products and synthetic chemistry programs. Large scale comparisons of natural and synthetic molecules are discussed as well as studies designed to identify 'synthetic mimics' of natural products with specific activity. In addition, a concept for the design of natural/synthetic hybrid libraries is introduced. Although research in this area is still in its early stages, an important lesson to be learned from computational analyses is that there is no need to a priori 'shy away' from natural products as a source for molecular design.

Organometallic chemistry on solid phase. An overview

Solid-phase organic synthesis (SPOS) is the most important method for the production of combinatorial libraries and with the development of high-throughput screening, libraries are widespread in pharmaceutical and agricultural chemistry. Amongst all the synthetic transformations successfully applied to solid phase, the use of organometallic reagents for the formation of a new carbon-carbon bond has been scarcely pursued. In this overview we collected the most recent examples of the use of organometallic reagents of Li, Mg, Cu, Zn, Si and B for C-C bond formation. The use of organometallic reagents in Pd-catalysed cross-coupling reactions was not reviewed. Highly basic organometallics as organo-lithium and -magnesium reagents have been more largely employed than cuprates and zincates, suggesting that several kinds of resins can withstand relatively strong reaction conditions.

A new strategy for the enantioselective synthesis of carba-prostacyclin analogues based on organocopper conjugate addition to a bicyclic azoene and its application to the synthesis of 13,14-dinor-inter-p-phenylene carbacyclin

An enantioselective synthesis of E/Z-13,14-dinor-inter-p-phenylene carbacyclin (E/Z-2d) by a new strategy has been realized that holds the prospect of serving as a general route for carba-prostacyclin analogues. The key intermediate in this synthesis is the bicyclic azoene Ts-9, and the key step is the regio- and stereoselective conjugate addition of the chiral arylcopper compound Cu-8d/P-n-Bu3 to the azoene with formation of hydrazone 7d. Enantioselective synthesis of azoene Ts-9 of 95% ee from ketone 4 was accomplished in four and five steps, respectively. Thus, enantioselective deprotonation of bicyclic ketone 4 with chiral base Li-10 and trapping of lithium enolate 11 with ClSiMe3 gave enol ether 12, which was chlorinated with N-chlorosuccinimide (NCS) to afford chloro ketone 13. Alternatively, chloro ketone 13 was also prepared upon chlorination of 11 with NCS. Chloro ketone 13 was converted to chloro hydrazone 14, which upon treatment with a mild base furnished azoene Ts-9. Arylcopper compound 8d of 98% ee was obtained in two steps from alcohol 16, which was prepared by enantioselective reduction of ketone 17 with (-)-diisopinocampheylchloroborane. Carbacyclin derivative E/Z-2d was found to be essentially inactive as an inhibitor of ADP induced human platelet aggregation, having an IC50 of >10 micromol/L.

Solid phase synthesis of complex natural products and libraries thereof

Natural products have served as an important source of medicinal compounds and pharmaceutical leads over the last century. Within the last 10 years, significant interest has developed in applying combinatorial chemistry techniques to the study of natural products and their biological activities. In this review, we examine several representative efforts wherein natural product skeletons have been constructed or immobilized on solid support and subsequently derivatized, giving rise to analog libraries useful in understanding the structure-activity relationships of the parent natural product. Issues such as target selection, library design, linker development, automation, and library characterization are addressed.

Combinatorial synthesis through disulfide exchange: discovery of potent psammaplin A type antibacterial agents active against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

Psammaplin A is a symmetrical bromotyrosine-derived disulfide natural product isolated from the Psammaplysilla sponge, which exhibits in vitro antibacterial activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Inspired by the structure of this marine natural product, a combinatorial scrambling strategy for the construction of heterodimeric disulfide analogues was developed and applied to the construction of a 3828-membered library starting from 88 homodimeric disulfides. These psammaplin A analogues were screened directly against various gram positive bacterial strains leading to the discovery of a series of potent antibacterial agents active against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Among the most active leads derived from these studies are compounds 104, 105, 113, 115, 123, and 128. The present, catalytically-induced, disulfide exchange strategy may be extendable to other types of building blocks bearing thiol groups facilitating the construction of diverse discovery-oriented combinatorial libraries.

Solid- and solution-phase synthesis of vancomycin and vancomycin analogues with activity against vancomycin-resistant bacteria

Vancomycin, the prototypical member of the glycopeptide family of antibiotics, is a clinically used antibiotic employed against a variety of drug-resistant bacterial strains including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The recent emergence of vancomycin resistance, viewed as a growing threat to public health, prompted us to initiate a program aimed at restoring the potency of this important antibiotic through chemical manipulation of the vancomycin structure. Herein, we describe the development of synthetic technology based on the design of a novel selenium safety catch linker, application of this technology to a solid-phase semisynthesis of vancomycin, and the solid- and solution-phase synthesis of vancomycin libraries. Biological evaluation of these compound libraries led to the identification of a number of in vitro highly potent antibacterial agents effective against vancomycin-resistant bacteria. In addition to aiding these investigations, the solid-phase chemistry described herein is expected to enhance the power of combinatorial chemistry and facilitate chemical biology and medicinal chemistry studies.

Synthesis of natural-product-based compound libraries

Natural products cover a diversity space not yet available from synthetic libraries, with an unrivalled success rate as drug leads. The combinatorial synthesis of non-oligomeric natural-product-based libraries, however, is still limited to few examples because access to easily modified units strongly depends on the availability of a core structure either from a natural source, or through a suitable synthetic route. Only a few resourceful groups have managed the latter approach for more demanding multifunctional natural drug leads, such as epothilones.