Intermolecular radical addition to N-acylhydrazones as a stereocontrol strategy for alkaloid synthesis: formal synthesis of quinine

Growing Utilization of Radical Chemistry in the Synthesis of Pharmaceuticals

Our current unhealthy lifestyle and the exponential surge in the population getting affected by a variety of diseases have made pharmaceuticals or drugs an imperative part of life, making the development of innovative strategies for drug discovery or the introduction of refined, cost-effective and modern technologies for the synthesis of clinically used drugs, a need of the hour. Ever since their discovery, free radicals and radical cations or anions as reactive intermediates have captivated the chemists, resulting in an exceptional utilization of these moieties throughout the field of chemical synthesis, owing to their unprecedented and widespread reactivity. Sticking with the idea of not judging the book by its cover, despite the conventional thought process of radicals being unstable and difficult to control entities, scientists and academicians around the globe have done an appreciable amount of work utilizing both persistent as well as transient radicals for a variety of organic transformations, exemplifying them with the synthesis of significant biologically active pharmaceutical ingredients. This review truly accounts for the organic radical transformations including radical addition, radical cascade cyclization, radical/radical cross-coupling, coupling with metal-complexes and radical cations coupling with nucleophiles, that offers fascinating and unconventional approaches towards the construction of intricate structural frameworks of marketed APIs with high atom- and step-economy; complementing the otherwise employed traditional methods. This tutorial review presents a comprehensive package of diverse methods utilized for radical generation, featuring their reactivity to form critical bonds in pharmaceutical total synthesis or in building key starting materials or intermediates of their synthetic journey, acknowledging their excellence, downsides and underlying mechanisms, which are otherwise poorly highlighted in the literature. Despite great achievements over the past few decades in this area, many challenges and obstacles are yet to be unraveled to shorten the distance between the academics and the industry, which are all discussed in summary and outlook.

Diastereoselective C-alkylation of aldimines, derived from chiral α-carbon heteroatom-substituted aldehydes, with triethylborane. Application to the synthesis of benzylisoquinolines

The one-pot reaction of a chiral aldehyde, p-methoxyaniline or p-fluoroaniline, and triethylborane produces the corresponding alkylated chiral amine with high yields and diastereoisomeric ratios. Stereocontrol is induced by the presence of a heteroatom in the α-position to the aldehyde. In the case of alkylation of imines derived from chiral aliphatic amines, good yields and moderate to high diastereoselectivity are obtained: yields are significantly better when the preformed imine is used in the reaction with triethyl borane, and diastereoselectivity of the reactions largely depends on the structure of the chiral aliphatic amine. The methodology is successfully applied to the synthesis of romneine, a natural benzylisoquinoline.

Metal-Free Chemoselective Oxidation of 4-Methylquinolines into Quinoline-4-Carbaldehydes

A convenient protocol for the synthesis of quinoline-4-carbaldehydes via chemoselective oxidation of 4-methylquinolines using hypervalent iodine(III) reagents as oxidant is described. This method highlights metal-free and mild reaction conditions, nice yield, good functional group tolerance, and high chemoselectivity.

Stereoselective access to tubuphenylalanine and tubuvaline: improved Mn-mediated radical additions and assembly of a tubulysin tetrapeptide analog

Synthesis of tubuphenylalanine and tubuvaline (Tuv), α-substituted γ-amino acid building blocks for tubulysin family of antimitotic compounds, has been improved using a radical addition reaction in the presence of unprotected hydroxyl functionality. The key carbon-carbon bond construction entails stereoselective Mn-mediated photolytic additions of alkyl iodides to the C=N bond of chiral N-acylhydrazones, and generates the chiral amines in high yield with complete stereocontrol. Reductive N-N bond cleavage and alcohol oxidation converted these amino alcohols into the corresponding γ-amino acids. The route to Tuv proceeded via peptide coupling with serine methyl ester, followed by a high-yielding sequence to convert the serine amide to a thiazole. Finally, peptide bond construction established the tubulysin framework in the form of a C-terminal alcohol analog. Attempted oxidation to the C-terminal carboxylate was unsuccessful; control experiments with dipeptide 18 showed a cyclization interfered with the desired oxidation process.

Multicomponent versus domino reactions: One-pot free-radical synthesis of β-amino-ethers and β-amino-alcohols

Following an optimized multicomponent procedure, an aryl amine, a ketone, and a cyclic ether or an alcohol molecule are assembled in a one-pot synthesis by nucleophilic radical addition of ketyl radicals to ketimines generated in situ. The reaction occurs under mild conditions by mediation of the TiCl4/Zn/t-BuOOH system, leading to the formation of quaternary β-amino-ethers and -alcohols. The new reaction conditions guarantee good selectivity by preventing the formation of secondary products. The secondary products are possibly derived from a competitive domino reaction, which involves further oxidation of the ketyl radicals.

Stereoselective formation of amines by nucleophilic addition to azomethine derivatives

This chapter describes state-of-the-art methods to prepare α-chiral amines by the addition of nonstabilized nucleophiles to imine derivatives. The first part of the chapter illustrates the most effective diastereoselective addition reaction (substrate controlled and chiral auxiliary based methods) whereas the second part focuses on catalytic asymmetric methods.