Synthesis of 7-substituted tetracycline derivatives

Versatile and facile synthesis of diverse semisynthetic tetracycline derivatives via Pd-catalyzed reactions

A diverse collection of tetracycline derivatives has been synthesized utilizing Heck, Suzuki, and other palladium-coupling reactions via tetracycline arenediazonium and iodoarene salts. Large numbers of tetracyclines are now possible via these reactions, including numerous upper periphery derivatives of doxycycline, minocycline, sancycline, and methacycline modified at positions C7, C9, and C6-C13 on the tetracycline naphthacene ring. Application of palladium-coupling reactions to the tetracyclines has yielded new tetracycline classes with differing structural attributes, greatly increasing the structural diversity of this family of antibiotics, one of the last of the early antibiotic families to be expanded by organic and medicinal chemistry.

Exploiting genomics, genetics and chemistry to combat antibiotic resistance

To address the worsening problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria there is an urgent need to develop new antibiotics. Comparative genomics and molecular genetics are being applied to produce lists of essential new targets for compound screening programmes. Combinatorial chemistry and structural biology are being applied to rapidly explore and optimize the interactions between lead compounds and their biological targets. Several compounds that have been identified from target-based screens are now in development, but technical and economic constraints might result in a trickle, rather than a flood, of new antibiotics onto the market in the near future.

Palladium catalyzed C-N bond formation in the synthesis of 7-amino-substituted tetracyclines

A facile synthesis of 7-alkylamino- and 7-cycloalkylaminotetracycline derivatives has been accomplished using an in situ generated aminostannane precursor. This procedure is advantageous in that it allows the concise synthesis of a number of unreported tetracycline derivatives that are cumbersome to prepare through traditional methods. These compounds are crucial to understanding structure activity relationships in the D-ring of tetracycline-type antibiotics and the acquired efflux resistance mechanism to this class of antibiotics.