Controllable skeletal reorganizations in natural product synthesis

Covering: 2016 to 2023The synthetic chemistry community is always in pursuit of efficient routes to natural products. Among the many available general strategies, skeletal reorganization, which involves the formation, cleavage, and migration of C-C and C-heteroatom bonds, stands out as a particularly useful approach for the efficient assembly of molecular skeletons. In addition, it allows for late-stage modification of natural products for quick access to other family members or unnatural derivatives. This review summarizes efficient syntheses of steroid, terpenoid, and alkaloid natural products that have been achieved by means of this strategy in the past eight years. Our goal is to illustrate the strategy's potency and reveal the spectacular human ingenuity demonstrated in its use and development.

Recent Advances in Photoredox-Mediated Radical Conjugate Addition Reactions: An Expanding Toolkit for the Giese Reaction

Photomediated Giese reactions are at the forefront of radical chemistry, much like the classical tin-mediated Giese reactions were nearly forty years ago. With the global recognition of organometallic photocatalysts for the mild and tunable generation of carbon-centered radicals, chemists have developed a torrent of strategies to form previously inaccessible radical intermediates that are capable of engaging in intermolecular conjugate addition reactions. This Review summarizes advances in photoredox-mediated Giese reactions since 2013, with a focus on the breadth of methods that provide access to crucial carbon-centered radical intermediates that can engage in radical conjugate addition processes.

Total Synthesis of (-)-Strempeliopine

A total synthesis of (-)-strempeliopine is disclosed that enlists a powerful SmI₂-mediated and BF₃·OEt₂-initiated dearomative transannular radical cyclization onto an indole by an N-acyl α-aminoalkyl radical that is derived by single electron reduction of an in situ generated iminium ion for formation of a quaternary center and the strategic C19-C2 bond in its core structure.

One-shot access to isoquinolone and (hetero)izidinone architectures using cyclic α-chloro eneformamides and cyclic anhydrides

A site-selective annulation reaction between cyclic α-chloro eneformamides and cyclic anhydrides which provides direct and modular access to pharmaceutically pertinent izidinones and isoquinolones, is presented.

Reductive umpolung reactions with low-valent titanium catalysts

The coupling of similarly polarized carbon fragments can be achieved by a reductive umpolung strategy. This gives access to compounds with functional groups in even bond distances, which are difficult to synthesize by other means. Low-valent titanium catalysts enable such couplings under mild conditions. This account covers the recent progress on this topic with a focus on the development of cross-selective coupling reactions and stereoselective examples.

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids

This review covers pyrrolizidine alkaloids isolated from natural sources. Topics include: aspects of structure, isolation, and biological/pharmacological studies; total syntheses of necic acids, necine bases and closely-related non-natural analogues.

Towards stereochemical control: A short formal enantioselective total synthesis of pumiliotoxins 251D and 237A

A concise enantioselective synthesis of the advanced intermediate 5 for the synthesis of pumiliotoxins (Gallagher's intermediate) is described. The synthesis started from the regio- and trans-diastereoselective (dr = 98:2) reductive 3-butenylation of (R)-3-(tert-butyldimethylsilyloxy)glutarimide 14. After O-desilylation and Dess-Martin oxidation, the resulting keto-lactam 10 was subjected to a highly trans-stereoselective addition of the methylmagnesium iodide to give carbinol 11 as sole diastereomer. An efficient ring closure procedure consisting of ozonolysis and reductive dehydroxylation provided the indolizidine derivative 5, which completed the formal enantioselective total synthesis of pumiliotoxins 251D and 237A.

SmI2-mediated intermolecular coupling of γ-lactam N-α-radicals with activated alkenes: asymmetric synthesis of 11-hydroxylated analogues of the lead compounds CP-734432 and PF-04475270

We report, for the first time, the synthesis of 8-aza-analogues of PGE2. The SmI2-mediated cross coupling reactions of γ-lactam-hemiaminal 9, lactam 2-pyridyl sulfide 17, and lactam 2-pyridyl sulfone 18 with activated alkenes/alkyne were first developed, giving the corresponding γ-lactams in 49-78%, 45-75%, and 75-90%, respectively. The reactions of lactam 2-pyridyl sulfide and 2-pyridyl sulfone proceeded with ≥12:1 trans-diastereoselectivities. This represents the first intermolecular coupling reaction of the γ-lactam N-α-alkyl radicals of types B, B1, and B2 with activated alkenes. Two radical-based mechanisms were suggested. The asymmetric synthesis of the 11-hydroxylated analogue of the highly selective EP4 receptor agonist PF-04475270 (30), the 11-hydroxylated analogue of ocular hypotensive CP-734432 (31), compounds 35 and 36 have been achieved on the basis of this method.