Highly diastereoselective addition of cinnamylzinc derivatives to alpha-chiral carbonyl compounds.

Cinnamylzinc reagents react with cyclic and acyclic alpha-chiral ketones under very mild conditions (-78 degrees C, 1 h), yielding the corresponding homoallylic alcohols bearing three adjacent stereocenters with high diastereoselectivity. An extension of this reaction to enantioenriched alpha-chiral ketones is also described.

Inhibitors of Plasmepsin II-potential antimalarial agents.

In order to overcome the problem of drug resistance in malaria, it appears wise to concentrate drug discovery efforts toward new structural classes and new mechanisms of action. We report our results, targeting Plasmepsin II, a Plasmodium falciparum aspartic protease active in hemoglobin degradation, a parasite specific catabolic pathway. The results show that the new structural class is not only inhibiting PMII in vitro but is also active in a P. falciparum infected human red blood cell assay.