An Oxidation and Ring Contraction Approach to the Synthesis of (±)-1-Deoxynojirimycin and (±)-1-Deoxyaltronojirimycin

Cyclisations and Strategies for Stereoselective Synthesis of Piperidine Iminosugars

This personal account focuses on synthesis of polyhydroxylated piperidines, a subset of compounds within the iminosugar family. Cyclisations to form the piperidine ring include reductive amination, substitution via amines, iminium ions and cyclic nitrones, transamidification (N-acyl transfer), addition to alkenes, ring contraction and expansion, photoinduced electron transfer, multicomponent Ugi reaction and ring closing metathesis. Enantiomerically pure piperidines are obtained from chiral pool precursors (e. g. sugars, amino acids, Garner's aldehyde) or asymmetric reactions (e. g. epoxidation, dihydroxylation, aminohydroxylation, aldol, biotransformation). Our laboratory have contributed cascades based on reductive amination from glycosyl azide precursors as well as Huisgen azide-alkene cycloaddition. The latter's combination with allylic azide rearrangement has given substituted piperidines, including those with quaternary centres adjacent to nitrogen.

Visible light-induced aerobic dioxygenation of α,β-unsaturated amides/alkenes toward selective synthesis of β-oxy alcohols using rose bengal as a photosensitizer

The first visible light-induced aerobic dioxygenation of alkenes for the selective synthesis of β-oxy alcohols was developed using non-toxic rose bengal as a photosensitizer.

Lewis acid-catalysed nucleophilic opening of a bicyclic hemiaminal followed by ring contraction: Access to functionalized L-idonojirimycin derivatives

The Lewis acid-catalyzed nucleophilic opening of a D-gluco-configured bicyclic hemiaminal has been examined. Several Lewis acids and silylated nucleophiles have been screened allowing the introduction of acetophenone, phosphonate or nitrile at the pseudoanomeric position in satisfactory yields and high 1,2 trans stereoselectivities. Their skeletal rearrangement triggered by the N-benzyl anchimeric assistance provided the corresponding L-ido-configured piperidines displaying various functional groups at C-6 position in good yield.

Six-Step Syntheses of (-)-1-Deoxyaltronojirimycin and (+)-1-Deoxymannonojirimycin from N-Z-O-TBDPS-l-serinal

Highly stereoselective six-step syntheses of (-)-1-deoxyaltronojirimycin (altro-DNJ) and (+)-1-deoxymannojirimycin (manno-DNJ) from N-Cbz-O-TBDPS-l-serinal are described. Key transformations involve a two-step preparation of a functionalized dihydropyridin-3-one as a common intermediate followed by Luche reduction and dihydroxylation (for altro-DNJ). The same sequence employing an epoxidation/epoxide opening in place of dihydroxylation furnishes manno-DNJ.

A core switching strategy to pyrrolo[2,3-b]quinolines and diazocino[1,2-a]indolinones

Two novel core-switching rearrangements to natural product-like privileged scaffolds that proceed in up to 99% yield have been developed. The deviation away from planarity of the central N-acyl urea carbonyl, caused by the structure of the medium-sized ring, dictates the exclusive reaction outcome. Proposed mechanisms and products for the reaction pathways are supported by small molecule X-ray crystallography and an isolated intermediate. Twenty-four novel rearrangement products are reported.

Hydrogen bond directed epoxidation: diastereoselective olefinic oxidation of allylic alcohols and amines

This article compares the diastereoselective epoxidation of acyclic and cyclic allylic alcohols, with the chemo- and diastereoselective olefinic oxidation of a range of acyclic and cyclic allylic amines. The diastereoselectivity in these systems is compared and a discussion about the origin of this high diastereocontrol is also presented. The ammonium directed epoxidation methodology has been extended to more complex substrates and representative applications of this protocol in natural product synthesis are also summarised.

γ-Aminoalcohol rearrangement applied to pentahydroxylated azepanes provides pyrrolidines epimeric to homoDMDP

A series of pentahydroxylated pyrrolidines, displaying five contiguous stereogenic centres and epimeric to α-glucosidase inhibitor homoDMDP, have been synthesized. The key step involves a γ-aminoalcohol rearrangement applied to polyhydroxylated azepanes. These five-membered iminosugars demonstrate micromolar inhibition of glycosidases.

New building blocks for iminosugars: a concise synthesis of polyhydroxylated N-alkoxypiperidines through an intramolecular azepine ring contraction

Polyhydroxylated piperidines are a functionally rich class of biologically active molecules that have broad therapeutic potential.

Epoxidation of trans-4-Aminocyclohex-2-en-1-ol Derivatives: Competition of Hydroxy-Directed and Ammonium-Directed Pathways

N-Substituted trans-4-aminocyclohex-2-en-1-ols undergo epoxidation upon treatment with Cl3CCO2H followed by meta-chloroperbenzoic acid (m-CPBA) via competitive pathways resulting from hydrogen-bonding delivery by both the hydroxy group and the in situ formed ammonium ion. The absence of epoxide ring-opening in these reactions renders these substrates a unique platform for analysing the effect of the two competing directing groups on the rate of the epoxidation reaction: the diastereoisomeric ratio of the epoxide products is also the ratio of the rate constants describing the competing epoxidation processes (the group with the higher directing ability dominating the stereochemical course of the reaction). Analysis of the diastereoisomeric epoxide mixtures obtained from these reactions allowed the following order of directing group ability to be defined: NHBn >> NMeBn > OH > NBn2. The large difference in rate between the secondary and tertiary amino groups is consistent with superior directing ability of the former due to the presence of two hydrogen-bond donor sites on the secondary ammonium ion and/or an increased conformational flexibility to adopt an optimum geometry. The rate of an ammonium-directed epoxidation proceeds ~10 times slower in the presence of an allylic hydroxy group than in its absence, consistent with the presence of the additional, inductively electron-withdrawing heteroatom abating the nucleophilicity of the olefin. The relative rate of the hydroxy-directed epoxidation process in the presence of a more sterically demanding ammonium substituent is greater than that in the presence of a less sterically demanding one: this effect is attributed to an increased bias for the half-chair conformer in which the bulky ammonium substituent and, hence, the hydroxy group occupy pseudo-equatorial sites, thus allowing the latter to direct the reaction more efficiently.

Stereoselective synthesis of 2-acetamido-1,2-dideoxynojirimycin (DNJNAc) and ureido-DNJNAc derivatives as new hexosaminidase inhibitors

A novel approach to the synthesis of 2-acetamido-1,2-dideoxynojirimycin (DNJNAc) and ureido-DNJNAc derivatives as potent hexosaminidase inhibitors is reported.

Stereoselective synthesis of 2-acetamido-1,2-dideoxyallonojirimycin (DAJNAc), a new potent hexosaminidase inhibitor

A practical synthesis of the previously unreported N-acetyl-D-allosamine glycomimetic DAJNAc is described. The reaction sequence involves Pd-catalyzed allylic substitution by phthalimide in an azaheterobicyclic scaffold as the key step. The new iminosugar resulted in being a stronger β-N-acetylglucosaminidase (human placenta) competitive inhibitor than the D-gluco (DNJNAc) and D-galacto (DGJNAc) stereoisomers.

Ammonium-directed olefinic epoxidation: kinetic and mechanistic insights

The ammonium-directed olefinic epoxidations of a range of differentially N-substituted cyclic allylic and homoallylic amines (derived from cyclopentene, cyclohexene, and cycloheptene) have been investigated, and the reaction kinetics have been analyzed. The results of these studies suggest that both the ring size and the identity of the substituents on nitrogen are important in determining both the overall rate and the stereochemical outcome of the epoxidation reaction. In general, secondary amines or tertiary amines with nonsterically demanding substituents on nitrogen are superior to tertiary amines with sterically demanding substituents on nitrogen in their ability to promote the oxidation reaction. Furthermore, in all cases examined, the ability of the (in situ formed) ammonium substituent to direct the stereochemical course of the epoxidation reaction is either comparable or superior to that of the analogous hydroxyl substituent. Much slower rates of ring-opening of the intermediate epoxides are observed in cyclopentene-derived and cycloheptene-derived allylic amines as compared with their cyclohexene-derived allylic and homoallylic amine counterparts, allowing for isolation of these intermediates in both of the former cases.

Ring-opening hydrofluorination of 2,3- and 3,4-epoxy amines by HBF4·OEt2: application to the asymmetric synthesis of (S,S)-3-deoxy-3-fluorosafingol

Treatment of a range of 2,3- and 3,4-epoxy amines with HBF(4)·OEt(2) at room temperature results in fast and efficient S(N)2-type ring-opening hydrofluorination to give stereodefined amino fluorohydrins. Operational simplicity, scalability, and short reaction time at ambient temperature are notable features of this method. The utility of this methodology is exemplified in a concise asymmetric synthesis of (S,S)-3-deoxy-3-fluorosafingol.

An improved asymmetric synthetic route to a novel triple uptake inhibitor antidepressant (2S,4R,5R)-2-benzhydryl-5-((4-methoxybenzyl)amino)tetrahydro-2H-pyran-4-ol (D-142)

Triple monoamine reuptake inhibitors have been implicated in the development of a new generation of antidepressants with higher efficacy than the currently existing therapies. In this paper, we have developed an alternative efficient synthetic route for triple monoamine reuptake inhibitor D-142 in 18.5% overall yield in 11 steps starting from diphenylmethane. D-142 was developed by us recently. The key step of the present synthetic strategy is the preferential formation of a bromohydrin from olefin via a cis-bromoinum intermediate, which introduced significant efficiency in the overall synthesis. Furthermore, we have developed an efficient way to recycle the optically active intermediate diol back to the desired chiral epoxide.