Synthetic analogues of marine cytotoxic jaspine B and its stereoisomers

Synthetic analogues of the cytotoxic jaspine B and its stereochemical congeners have become an attractive target in the synthetic organic community owing to the search for novel therapeutic candidates with more potent anticancer activity, as cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide. This review article provides insights into the different approaches and strategies available in the literature for the construction of jaspine B-related compounds.

N-(1-Phenylethyl)aziridine-2-carboxylate esters in the synthesis of biologically relevant compounds

Since Garner’s aldehyde has several drawbacks, first of all is prone to racemization, alternative three-carbon chirons would be of great value in enantioselective syntheses of natural compounds and/or drugs. This review article summarizes applications of N-(1-phenylethyl)aziridine-2-carboxylates, -carbaldehydes and -methanols in syntheses of approved drugs and potential medications as well as of natural products mostly alkaloids but also sphingoids and ceramides and their 1- and 3-deoxy analogues and several hydroxy amino acids and their precursors. Designed strategies provided new procedures to several drugs and alternative approaches to natural products and proved efficiency of a 2-substituted N-(1-phenylethyl)aziridine framework as chiron bearing a chiral auxiliary.

Total synthesis and the anticancer activity of (+)-spisulosine

The total synthesis of the anticancer agent (+)-spisulosine has been accomplished. The strategy involved a substrate-controlled aza-Claisen rearrangement to establish the erythro-configured amino-alcohol motif followed by deoxygenation to create a methyl side-chain. Subsequent Wittig olefination then permitted the construction of the carbon backbone of the target molecule. To investigate the antiproliferative effect of 1, its biological profile was examined on a panel of 6 human malignant cell lines and demonstrated the significant anticancer activity of 1 on at least five of the evaluated lines with IC₅₀ < 1 μM (MCF-7, HTC-116, Caco-2, Jurkat and HeLa).