Accessing skeletal diversity using catalyst control: formation of n and n + 1 macrocyclic triazole rings

Recent Progress on Synthesis of Functionalized 1,5-Disubstituted Triazoles

Immediately after the invention of 'Click Chemistry' in 2002, the regioselective 1,2,3- triazole scaffolds resulted from respective organic azides and terminal alkynes under Cu(I) catalysis have been well recognized as the functional heterocyclic core at the centre of modern organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and material sciences. This CuAAC reaction has several notable features including excellent regioselectivity, high-to-excellent yields, easy to execute, short reaction time, modular in nature, mild condition, readily available starting materials, etc. Moreover, the resulting regioselective triazoles can serve as amide bond isosteres, a privileged functional group in drug discovery and development. More than hundreds of reviews had been devoted to the 'Click Chemistry' in special reference to 1,4-disubstituted triazoles, while only little efforts were made for an opposite regioisomer i.e., 1,5-disubstituted triazole. Herein, we have presented various classical approaches for an expeditious synthesis of a wide range of biologically relevant 1,5- disubstituted 1,2,3-triazole analogues. The syntheses of such a class of diversly functionalized triazoles have emerged as a crucial investigation in the domain of chemistry and biology. This tutorial review covers the literature assessment on the development of various synthetic protocols for the functionalized 1,5-disubstituted triazoles reported during the last 12 years.

Growing Impact of Intramolecular Click Chemistry in Organic Synthesis

Click Chemistry, a modular, rapid, and one of the most reliable tool for the regioselective 1,2,3-triazole forming [3+2] reaction of organic azide and terimal alkyne is widely explored in various emerging domains of research ranging from chemical biology to catalysis and medicinal chemistry to material science. This regioselective reaction from a diverse range of azido-alkyne scaffolds has been well performed in both intermolecular as well as intramolecular fashions. In comparison to the intermolecular metal (Cu/Ru/Ni) variant of 'Click Chemistry', the intramolecular click tool is little addressed. The intramolecular click chemistry is exemplified as a mordern tool of cyclization which involves metal-catalyzed (CuAAC/RuAAC) cyclization, organo-catalyzed cyclization, and thermal-induced topochemical reaction. Thus, we report herein the recent approaches on intramolecular azide-alkyne cycloaddition 'Click Chemistry' with their wide-spread emerging applications in the developement of a diverse range of molecules including fused-heterocycles, well-defined peptidomemics, and macrocyclic architectures of various notable features.

Synthesis of a tricyclic hexapeptide -via two consecutive ruthenium-catalyzed macrocyclization steps- with a constrained topology to mimic vancomycin's binding properties toward D-Ala-D-Ala dipeptide

A ring-closing metathesis (RCM) - peptide coupling - ruthenium-catalyzed azide alkyne cycloaddition (RuAAC) strategy was developed to synthesize a tricyclic hexapeptide in which the side chain to side chain connectivity pattern resulted in a mimic with a topology that effectively mimics the bioactivity of vancomycin as a potent binder of the bacterial cell wall D-Ala-D-Ala dipeptide sequence and more importantly being an effective inhibitor of bacterial growth.

Insights on the Synthesis of N-Heterocycles Containing Macrocycles and Their Complexion and Biological Properties

Macrocyclic chemistry has been extensively developed over the past several decades. In fact, the architecture of new macrocyclic models has undergone exponential growth to offer molecules with specific properties. In this context, an attempt is made in this study to provide an overview of some synthetic methods allowing the elaboration of N-heterocycles containing macrocycles (imidazole, triazole, tetrazole, and pyrazole), as well as their applications in the complexation of metal cations or as pharmacological agents.

Synthetic and computational efforts towards the development of peptidomimetics and small-molecule SARS-CoV 3CLpro inhibitors

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is a severe febrile respiratory disease caused by the beta genus of human coronavirus, known as SARS-CoV. Last year, 2019-n-CoV (COVID-19) was a global threat for everyone caused by the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2. 3CLpro, chymotrypsin-like protease, is a major cysteine protease that substantially contributes throughout the viral life cycle of SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. It is a prospective target for the development of SARS-CoV inhibitors by applying a repurposing strategy. This review focuses on a detailed overview of the chemical synthesis and computational chemistry perspectives of peptidomimetic inhibitors (PIs) and small-molecule inhibitors (SMIs) targeting viral proteinase discovered from 2004 to 2020. The PIs and SMIs are one of the primary therapeutic inventions for SARS-CoV. The journey of different analogues towards the evolution of SARS-CoV 3CLpro inhibitors and complete synthetic preparation of nineteen derivatives of PIs and ten derivatives of SMIs and their computational chemistry perspectives were reviewed. From each class of derivatives, we have identified and highlighted the most compelling PIs and SMIs for SARS-CoV 3CLpro. The protein-ligand interaction of 29 inhibitors were also studied that involved with the 3CLpro inhibition, and the frequent amino acid residues of the protease were also analyzed that are responsible for the interactions with the inhibitors. This work will provide an initiative to encourage further research for the development of effective and drug-like 3CLpro inhibitors against coronaviruses in the near future.

Ring-Expansion Approach to Medium-Sized Lactams and Analysis of Their Medicinal Lead-Like Properties

Medium-sized rings are widely considered to be under-represented in biological screening libraries for lead identification in medicinal chemistry. To help address this, a library of medium-sized lactams has been generated by using a simple, scalable and versatile ring-expansion protocol. Analysis of the library by using open-access computational tool LLAMA suggested that these lactams and their derivatives have highly promising physicochemical and 3D spatial properties and thus have much potential in drug discovery.

Synthetic Strategy and Anti-Tumor Activities of Macrocyclic Scaffolds Based on 4-Hydroxyproline

A series of novel 13- to 15-member hydroxyproline-based macrocycles, which contain alkyl-alkyl ether and alkyl-aryl ether moieties, have been synthesized by the strategy of macrocyclization utilising azide-alkyne cycloaddition, Mitsunobu protocol and amide formation. Their anti-tumor activities towards A549, MDA-MB-231 and Hep G2 cells were screened in vitro by an MTT assay. The results indicated that 13-member macrocycle 33 containing alkene chain showed the best results, exhibiting the highest inhibitory effects towards lung cancer cell line A549, which was higher than that of the reference cisplatin (IC50 value = 2.55 µmol/L).

The Synthesis of Structurally Diverse Macrocycles By Successive Ring Expansion

Structurally diverse macrocycles and medium-sized rings (9-24 membered scaffolds, 22 examples) can be generated through a telescoped acylation/ring-expansion sequence, leading to the insertion of linear fragments into cyclic β-ketoesters without performing a discrete macrocyclization step. The key β-ketoester motif is regenerated in the ring-expanded product, meaning that the same sequence of steps can then be repeated (in theory indefinitely) with other linear fragments, allowing macrocycles with precise substitution patterns to be "grown" from smaller rings using the successive ring-expansion (SuRE) method.

A diversity-oriented synthesis strategy enabling the combinatorial-type variation of macrocyclic peptidomimetic scaffolds

Macrocyclic peptidomimetics are associated with a broad range of biological activities. However, despite such potentially valuable properties, the macrocyclic peptidomimetic structural class is generally considered as being poorly explored within drug discovery. This has been attributed to the lack of general methods for producing collections of macrocyclic peptidomimetics with high levels of structural, and thus shape, diversity. In particular, there is a lack of scaffold diversity in current macrocyclic peptidomimetic libraries; indeed, the efficient construction of diverse molecular scaffolds presents a formidable general challenge to the synthetic chemist. Herein we describe a new, advanced strategy for the diversity-oriented synthesis (DOS) of macrocyclic peptidomimetics that enables the combinatorial variation of molecular scaffolds (core macrocyclic ring architectures). The generality and robustness of this DOS strategy is demonstrated by the step-efficient synthesis of a structurally diverse library of over 200 macrocyclic peptidomimetic compounds, each based around a distinct molecular scaffold and isolated in milligram quantities, from readily available building-blocks. To the best of our knowledge this represents an unprecedented level of scaffold diversity in a synthetically derived library of macrocyclic peptidomimetics. Cheminformatic analysis indicated that the library compounds access regions of chemical space that are distinct from those addressed by top-selling brand-name drugs and macrocyclic natural products, illustrating the value of our DOS approach to sample regions of chemical space underexploited in current drug discovery efforts. An analysis of three-dimensional molecular shapes illustrated that the DOS library has a relatively high level of shape diversity.

Synthesis of novel tryptamine-based macrocycles using an Ugi 4-CR/microwave assisted click-cycloaddition reaction protocol

A practical synthesis of novel tryptamine-based macrocycles using an Ugi 4-CR/click-cycloaddition sequential reaction protocol is described.

A strategy for the diversity-oriented synthesis of macrocyclic scaffolds using multidimensional coupling

A prerequisite for successful screening campaigns in drug discovery or chemical genetics is the availability of structurally and thus functionally diverse compound libraries. Diversity-oriented synthesis (DOS) provides strategies for the generation of such libraries, of which the build/couple/pair (B/C/P) algorithm is the most frequently used. We have developed an advanced B/C/P strategy that incorporates multidimensional coupling. In this approach, structural diversity is not only defined by the nature of the building blocks employed, but also by the linking motif installed during the coupling reaction. We applied this step-efficient approach in a DOS of a library that consisted of 73 macrocyclic compounds based around 59 discrete scaffolds. The macrocycles prepared cover a broad range of different molecular shapes, as illustrated by principal moment-of-inertia analysis. This demonstrates the capability of the advanced B/C/P strategy using multidimensional coupling for the preparation of structurally diverse compound collections.

Macrocyclic inhibitors of 3C and 3C-like proteases of picornavirus, norovirus, and coronavirus

The design, synthesis, and in vitro evaluation of the first macrocyclic inhibitor of 3C and 3C-like proteases of picornavirus, norovirus, and coronavirus are reported. The in vitro inhibitory activity (50% effective concentration) of the macrocyclic inhibitor toward enterovirus 3C protease (CVB3 Nancy strain), and coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and norovirus 3C-like proteases, was determined to be 1.8, 15.5 and 5.1 μM, respectively.

Skeletal diversification via heteroatom linkage control: preparation of bicyclic and spirocyclic scaffolds from N-substituted homopropargyl alcohols

The discovery and application of a new branching pathway synthesis strategy that rapidly produces skeletally diverse scaffolds is described. Two different scaffold types, one a bicyclic iodo-vinylidene tertiary amine/tertiary alcohol and the other, a spirocyclic 3-furanone, are each obtained using a two-step sequence featuring a common first step. Both scaffold types lead to intermediates that can be orthogonally diversified using the same final components. One of the scaffold types was obtained in sufficiently high yield that it was immediately used to produce a 97-compound library.

Build/couple/pair strategy for the synthesis of stereochemically diverse macrolactams via head-to-tail cyclization

A build/couple/pair (B/C/P) strategy was employed to generate a library of 7936 stereochemically diverse 12-membered macrolactams. All 8 stereoisomers of a common linear amine precursor were elaborated to form the corresponding 8 stereoisomers of two regioisomeric macrocyclic scaffolds via head-to-tail cyclization. Subsequently, these 16 scaffolds were further diversified via capping of two amine functionalities on SynPhase Lanterns. Reagents used for solid-phase diversification were selected using a sparse matrix design strategy with the aim of maximizing coverage of chemical space while adhering to a preset range of physicochemical properties.

Amino triazolo diazepines (Ata) as constrained histidine mimics

Two synthetic routes for the synthesis of amino-triazolodiazepine (Ata) scaffolds are presented. The scope of both of these proceeding through key intra- and intermolecular Huisgen cycloaddition reactions is discussed. The replacement of the His-Pro dipeptide segment in angiotensin IV by the dipeptide mimetic Ata-Gly and subsequent biological evaluation in two inhibitory enzyme assays validated the use of the Ata moiety as a His mimic given the equipotency of both peptidic analogs.

Cu(I)- and Ru(II)-mediated "click" cyclization of tripeptides toward vancomycin-inspired mimics

Structural mimics comprising 1,4- and 1,5-disubstituted triazole-containing cyclic tripeptides with excellent resemblance toward the DE-ring of vancomycin are conveniently accessible using Cu(I)- or Ru(II)-assisted "click" cyclization.

Diversity-oriented synthesis of macrocyclic peptidomimetics

Structurally diverse libraries of novel small molecules represent important sources of biologically active agents. In this paper we report the development of a diversity-oriented synthesis strategy for the generation of diverse small molecules based around a common macrocyclic peptidomimetic framework, containing structural motifs present in many naturally occurring bioactive compounds. Macrocyclic peptidomimetics are largely underrepresented in current small-molecule screening collections owing primarily to synthetic intractability; thus novel molecules based around these structures represent targets of significant interest, both from a biological and a synthetic perspective. In a proof-of-concept study, the synthesis of a library of 14 such compounds was achieved. Analysis of chemical space coverage confirmed that the compound structures indeed occupy underrepresented areas of chemistry in screening collections. Crucial to the success of this approach was the development of novel methodologies for the macrocyclic ring closure of chiral α-azido acids and for the synthesis of diketopiperazines using solid-supported N methylmorpholine. Owing to their robust and flexible natures, it is envisaged that both new methodologies will prove to be valuable in a wider synthetic context.

Efficient access to new chemical space through flow--construction of druglike macrocycles through copper-surface-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition reactions

A series of 12- to 22-membered macrocycles, with druglike functionality and properties, have been generated by using a simple and efficient copper-catalyzed azide-acetylene cycloaddition reaction, conducted in flow in high-temperature copper tubing, under environmentally friendly conditions. The triazole-containing macrocycles have been generated in up to 90 % yield in a 5 min reaction, without resorting to the high-dilution conditions typical of macrocyclization reactions. This approach represents a very efficient method for constructing this important class of molecules, in terms of yield, concentration, and environmental considerations.

Sequential one-pot ruthenium-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition from primary alkyl halides and sodium azide

An experimentally simple sequential one-pot RuAAC reaction, affording 1,5-disubstituted 1H-1,2,3-triazoles in good to excellent yields starting from an alkyl halide, sodium azide, and an alkyne, is reported. The organic azide is formed in situ by treating the primary alkyl halide with sodium azide in DMA under microwave heating. Subsequent addition of [RuClCp*(PPh(3))(2)] and the alkyne yielded the desired cycloaddition product after further microwave irradiation.