published_or_final_version / Chemistry / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Chemistry / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This thesis describes investigations on the topic of the versatile organic scaffold, 7-oxabenzonorbornadiene. The synthesis of 2-alkyl substituted furans via iron-catalyzed coupling of Grignard reagents and 2-bromofuran was optimized and various groups were coupled to furan. Primary and secondary alkyl groups were coupled with moderate to low yields of up to 56% were obtained. Furan-benzyne cycloaddition led to the formation of the corresponding C-1 substituted oxabenzonorbornadiene in yields of up to 70%. This methodology allows for access to uniquely substituted, strained bicyclic alkenes for further studies. The second part of this thesis describes the cyclopropanation of oxabenzonorbornadiene and the subsequent discovery of several reactions of the cyclopropane. The conditions for cyclopropanation were optimized, obtaining this product in yields of up to 98%. Treatment of this cyclopropane under electrophilic conditions led to the formation of (2-naphthyl)methanes in up to 98% yields, whereas treatment under nucleophilic conditions led to the formation of dihydronaphthols in up to >99% yield. The optimization of these reactions and mechanistic studies are described.

3-acyltetramic acids, such as reutericyclin, belong to a group of natural products which contain a 5-membered pyrrolidine-2,4-dione heterocycle with an acyl group at the 3-position. Molecules containing this motif have been shown to contain a wealth of desirable bio-activity such as antibiotic, antitumor, antiviral, antiulcerative, fungicidal and cytotoxic properties. The motivation for synthetic efforts towards reutericyclin and analogues is that it has been shown to have potential as an antibiotic treatment against superbug C. difficile. Our synthetic approach used a pyrroloisoxazole bicyclic system as a masked form of the acyltetramic acid core structure, which enables us to make selective modifications towards these bio-active products and produce more analogues suitable for biological testing. We report the synthesis of several novel compounds closely related to a masked reutericyclin as well as elaborations at the C-3 methyl group through aldol chemistry. The route began with a naturally occurring amino acid that underwent N-protection, carboxyl reduction and conversion to an oxime. This oxime is precursor to a nitrile oxide used in a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition to achieve a substituted isoxazole that was deprotected and, through an intramolecular peptide coupling reaction, provided the pyrroloisoxazole core as the masked acyltetramic acid. Acylation reactions were completed upon this pyrroloisoxazole using butyllithium as a base and a range of acyl chlorides. Other developments made in this synthesis were the isolation of the chlorinated oxime and its use in a solvent study and significant improvements in the peptide coupling reaction. Also, synthetic efforts were made to produce an analogue of the natural product laccarin A using this methodology.

The cobalt-catalysed oxidative cyclisation of 5-hydroxy alkenes has been demonstrated to be a powerful synthetic tool for the formation of trans-THFs with excellent diastereoselectivity. This thesis describes the utilisation of this methodology in the synthesis of the FG fragment of pectenotoxin-4, allowing the scope of the reaction to be further explored. Introduction: This section introduces the pectenotoxins, a family of structurally complex closed-chain polyether macrolides with promising biological activities. The isolation, structural elucidation, and biological properties of the pectenotoxins are reviewed, along with a summary of previous syntheses towards the FG fragment of pectenotoxin-4. In addition, the cobalt-catalysed oxidative cyclisation of 5-hydroxy alkenes and its application in synthesis is discussed. Results and Discussion: An outline of the synthetic strategy employed in this project and details of the novel retrosynthesis of the C31-C40 fragment of pectenotoxin-4 is described. The synthetic studies carried out towards the synthesis of the FG fragment of pectenotoxin-4 are discussed in detail, with the exploitation of a cobalt-catalysed oxidative cyclisation as the key step to form the trans-THF F-ring. Overall, the FG fragment, which contains six stereogenic centres, was achieved in 18 total synthetic steps (13 longest linear sequence).

This thesis explores two approaches to fragment-based drug discovery. First, protein target CK2 was chosen due to its importance in the cancer phenotype. A literature fragment, NMR154L, proved to be a promising compound for fragment development, due to its binding at the interface site of the protein rather than the highly conserved ATP pocket. Analogues were synthesised of this fragment leading to a candidate with a better IC50. Additionally, computer modelling of the interface site suggested that a series of spirocyclic compounds would inhibit this protein. These were synthesised and tested in vitro. Results from these tests were analysed and informed the synthesis of new inhibitors with the aid of crystal structures and computer modelling. Secondly, to address the lack of spirocyclic scaffolds in fragment screening libraries a number of diversity-orientated synthetic campaigns were undertaken. The first of these utilised glycine as starting material. Two terminal alkenes were installed. The alkenes were linked and the amino and acidic residues cyclised. This allowed for the formation of a diverse range of spirocyclic scaffolds from this one starting material. Having established chemistry for linking amino and acidic residues a campaign with dehydroalanine was under taken. This would allow for the installation of the second ring by pericyclic chemistry as well as using chemistry previously established. This pericyclic chemistry was also applied to synthesising spirocycles from rings with exocyclic double bonds. These being readily installed from Wittig chemistry, this allowed utilisation of starting materials which contained a cyclic ketone. Of these azetidinone was a good candidate due to the fact it was a commercially available building block and allowed access to spirocycles containing a 4-membered ring; an underrepresented ring size. Finally, computation analysis was carried out on the library to assess it diversity and any potential biological targets which these fragments may inhibit.

Tertiary thiols are a synthetically challenging class of compounds to prepare asymmetrically. The few reported methods for preparing these species require restrictive functionality to be incorporated into the products or are limited to employing simple carbon electrophiles. This thesis details investigations into the lithiation of N-aryl thiocarbamates. A stereoselective intramolecular arylation within lithiated thiocarbamates has been developed allowing the construction of quaternary stereocentres next to sulfur. Simple deprotection allows the isolation of enantiomerically pure tertiary thiols. A procedure for aryl migration within benzylic thiocarbamates has been developed and optimised. Rearrangement occurs in good yield and excellent stereoselectivity in a wide range of thiocarbamate substrates. Various substitution patterns are tolerated on the migrating aryl ring, the benzylic aryl ring and on the benzylic carbon centre. Extension of this methodology has incorporated an asymmetric alkylation of achiral benzylic thiocarbamates as a method of preparing aryl migration substrates. This allows the asymmetric synthesis of tertiary thiols in 2 steps from simple achiral precursors. Aryl migration has also been found to occur in lithiated allylic thiocarbamates with high stereospecificity, allowing preparation of a wider range of tertiary thiols.

Iminosugars are polyhydroxylated alkaloids, and can be generally defined as sugar mimetics in which the endocyclic oxygen atom has been replaced with a basic nitrogen. A common affect of this atomic substitution is to bestow these compounds with the ability to inhibit various sugarprocessing enzymes; most significantly the glycosidases (glycoside hydrolases) which areintimately involved in a huge array of biological functions. Compounds which inhibit these enzymes concordantly possess much potential as medicinal agents for the treatment of a variety of diseases. Several iminosugars have already achieved market approval as drugs, and many more are promising candidates in the late stages of clinical development. As such there remains considerable interest in this class of compound, both in terms of the exploration of novel iminosugar structures, as well as the continual development of more efficient general methodology for their synthesis. The densely-packed functionality and stereochemical information present in iminosugars makes them challenging targets for asymmetric chemical synthesis, whereas carbohydrates are clearly very attractive as chiral-pool starting materials for this purpose. Indeed, the majority of the most successful syntheses of iminosugars use the latter approach, and such is the focus of this thesis. Chapter 1 presents a relatively brief introduction to iminosugars, including their types of structure, natural occurrence and biological mode of action. The rationale behind their use as therapeutic agents for the treatment of some significant disease targets is also discussed. Chapter 2 is concerned with the preparation of a number of novel polyhydroxylated azetidines, and their evaluation as glycosidase inhibitors. Such compounds represent an almost entirely neglected class of iminosugars within the literature. An overview of natural and synthetic products incorporating an azetidine motif is given, as well as a brief review of preparative methods and known azetidine iminosugars. A highly efficient and flexible method for the key azetidine ring formation is demonstrated by the cyclisations of 3,5-di-O-triflates of pentoses and hexoses, and of a 2,4-di-O-triflate of glucose, with various primary amines. In this manner, many azetidine triols and tetrols were prepared in good yield. Furthermore, this process is readily adaptable to the installation of added functionality to the azetidine scaffold, as demonstrated by the preparation of 1-acetamido analogues. The initial biological screening of these compounds showed a promising array of glycosidase inhibition, including that of selective inhibition of fungal enzymes. Chapter 3 describes a strategy with which to prepare all sixteen stereoisomers of a known piperidine iminosugar, alpha-homonojirimycin (alpha-HNJ), in a highly divergent manner from just four of the possible thirty-two 6-azidoheptitols using traditional chemical synthesis in tandem with biotechnological transformations. One half of the execution of this strategy is described in this thesis. Two 6-azidoheptitols were prepared from D-mannose, thereby providing access to four 6-azidoketoheptoses through a combination of microbial oxidation and enzymatic epimerisation. Catalytic hydrogenation of these 6-azidoketoheptoses furnished four diastereomeric mixtures of 2,6-iminoheptitols, with varying degrees of stereoselectivity. Purification of these mixtures allowed six 2,6-iminoheptitols to be isolated, two of which have never previously been tested for glycosidase inhibition. Significantly, one of them was found to be a potent and highly selectiveinhibitor of alpha-galactosidases, and may therefore be of interest in the treatment of Fabry disease.

This thesis centres on the synthesis of taxol analogues via late-stage hydroxylation with P450 enzymes. To accomplish this, the taxane core, specifically taxa-4(5),11(12)-dien-2-one, was synthesised by classical synthetic methods, and subsequently oxidised using P450_BM3 mutants. Chapter 1 introduces enzymatic catalysis, and the advantages and disadvantages of its application to organic synthesis. Additionally, an overview of taxol, including its discovery, mode of action, biosynthesis and large-scale production, and a summary of the previously reported approaches to the taxane core are described. Chapter 2 details the problems encountered and solutions implemented when reproducing Baran's route to taxa-4(5),11(12)-dien-2-one. Furthermore, approaches to some of its intermediates and an alternative route to taxa-4(5),11(12)-dien-2-one, which is based on Baran's, are discussed. Chapter 3 describes the development of a new, practical and short synthetic route to taxa-4(5),11(12)-dien-2-one which, ultimately, led to 1,3-di-epi-taxa-4(5),11(12)-dien-2-one. Additionally, the application of this route to the synthesis of a model compound and attempts to convert this racemic synthesis into an enantioselective route are reported. Finally, the enzymatic oxidation of taxa-4(5),11(12)-dien-2-one and related molecules using P450_BM3 mutants is explored in Chapter 4. A preliminary study to determine the substrate enantioselectivity of the mutants is also described, along with the biological assays of the oxidised compounds produced during the study.

Die Ziele dieser Arbeit waren die Darstellung der Naturstoffe Murrayachinon-B–E und Pyrayachinon-A–C, sowie die Synthese einiger nicht natürlicher, potentiell anti-Tuberkulose-aktiver Carbazole und Carbazolchinone. Für die Darstellung der aus der Pflanze Murraya euchrestifolia Hayata isolierten Naturstoffe wurden verschiedene synthetische Herangehensweisen untersucht: Die Transformation eines 7 Hydroxycarbazolchinons in die Zielverbindungen gelang nicht, ebenso wie die Syntheseroute über eine trioxygenierte Vorstufe. 7-Methoxy-3-methyl-1-tosyloxycarbazol (A) ließ sich jedoch in einer Ausbeute von 76 % über drei Stufen darstellen. Ausgehend von A konnten die Zielverbindungen regioselektiv in fünf bis sieben Stufen in Gesamtausbeuten von 10 % bis 46 % synthetisiert werden. Der Pyranring in Pyrayachinon-A wurde dabei über eine Sequenz aus Bromierung, Prenylierung, Cyclisierung und Oxidation aufgebaut. Die Anellierung der Pyranringe in Pyrayachinon-B und –C erfolgte, nach Methyletherspaltung an A in zwei Stufen. Die Einführung der Prenyl- und Geranylgruppen für die Synthese der Murrayachinone gelang durch reduktive Pyranringöffnung bzw. über eine Sequenz aus Methyletherspaltung, Propargylierung, partieller Hydrierung und Umlagerung. Außerdem wurde für Murrayafolin-B, Bismurrayafolin-B und -D über diese Syntheseroute ein Zugang geschaffen. Diese Verbindungen konnten, ausgehend von A, in sechs bzw. sieben Stufen in Gesamtausbeuten von 39 % bis 53 % dargestellt werden. Im Vergleich zu den bislang beschriebenen Synthesen dieser Verbindungen konnten alle Gesamtausbeuten signifikant gesteigert werden. Besonders hervorzuheben sind die Synthesen von Murrayafolin-B (bislang: 0.4 %, in dieser Arbeit: 40.0 %) und Pyrayachinon-A (bislang: 3.0 %, in dieser Arbeit: 22.1 %). Überdies wurde erstmalig die palladiumkatalysierte oxidative Cyclisierung eines O-tosylgeschützten Diarylamins zu einem Carbazol beschrieben. In Fortführung vorangegangener Arbeiten wurden zehn bislang nicht beschriebene Derivate des anti-Tuberkulose-aktiven 3-Methoxy-2-methylcarbazol-1,4-chinons dargestellt, darunter neun Carbazolchinone und ein Carbazol. Die Synthese der Carbazolchinone gelang palladiumkatalysiert in je vier bis sechs Stufen. Das Carbazol wurde eisenvermittelt über fünf Stufen dargestellt. Die Untersuchung der Aktivität gegenüber Mycobacterium tuberculosis steht noch aus.