Development of a Manufacturing Process toward the Convergent Synthesis of the COVID-19 Antiviral Ensitrelvir.

We describe the development of the practical manufacturing of Ensitrelvir, which was discovered as a SARS-CoV-2 antiviral candidate. Scalable synthetic methods of indazole, 1,2,4-triazole and 1,3,5-triazinone structures were established, and convergent couplings of these fragments enabled the development of a concise and efficient scale-up process to Ensitrelvir. In this process, introducing a meta-cresolyl moiety successfully enhanced the stability of intermediates. Compared to the initial route at the early research and development stage, the overall yield of the longest linear sequence (6 steps) was improved by approximately 7-fold. Furthermore, 9 out of the 12 isolated intermediates were crystallized directly from each reaction mixture without any extractive workup (direct isolation). This led to an efficient and environmentally friendly manufacturing process that minimizes waste of organic solvents, reagents, and processing time. This practical process for manufacturing Ensitrelvir should contribute to protection against COVID-19.

Identification of novel indole derivatives as highly potent AMPK activators with anti-diabetic profiles.

AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) has been shown to play an important role in the beneficial effects of exercise on glucose and lipid metabolism in skeletal muscle and liver. Therefore, activation of AMPK has been proposed as an attractive strategy for the treatment of metabolic disorders, such as type 2 diabetes. Many of existing AMPK activators bearing diverse chemical structure were reported. However, there have been few reports of direct AMPK activator with high potency for ß2-AMPK isoform, which is thought to be important for glucose homeostasis, and their chemical structure is limited to benzimidazole core. We describe herein our efforts for identification of novel AMPK activator. Our newly designed 4-azaindole derivative 16g exhibited single-digit nM in vitro activity, and chronic treatment with 16g led to dose-dependent improvement in HbA1c as well as decrease in hepatic lipid accumulation in diabetic animal model.

Formal Bimolecular [2 + 2 + 2] Cycloaddition Strategy for the Synthesis of Pyridines: Intramolecular Propargylic Ene Reaction/Aza Diels-Alder Reaction Cascades.

Two methods for the synthesis of multisubstituted pyridines are described. In each strategy, a highly reactive vinylallene is generated via an intramolecular propargylic ene reaction in the presence of an azadienophile. Reactions employing ethyl N-(tosyl)iminoacetate furnish an intermediate that undergoes elimination and isomerization upon the addition of DBU. The reaction of the intermediate vinylallene with TsCN leads to the isolation of a 2-sulfonylpyridine that serves as a versatile intermediate undergoing substitution reactions with oxygen and carbon nucleophiles.

Enantioselective trapping of an α-chiral carbanion of acyclic nitrile by a carbon electrophile.

An α-chiral nitrile carbanion generated by deprotonation of enantioenriched O-carbamoyl cyanohydrin was trapped in situ with ethyl cyanoformate to give the corresponding ester derivative in 92% yield and 90 : 10 er, providing the first example of trapping of an α-chiral acyclic nitrile carbanion that has been considered to be very configurationally labile.

[2,3]-Wittig rearrangement of enantiomerically enriched 3-substituted 1-propenyloxy-1-phenyl-2-propen-1-yl carbanions: effect of heteroatoms and conjugating groups on planarization of an alpha-oxy-benzylcarbanion through a double bond.

Don't get trapped: The effect of conjugating electron-withdrawing groups and alpha-anion-stabilizing heteroatom substituents on configurational stability of chiral carbanions through a double bond was examined on the basis of extent of chirality transfer in intramolecular trapping in [2,3]-Wittig rearrangement of chiral 3-substituted 1-propenyloxy-1-phenyl-2-propen-1-yl carbanions (see scheme).The effect of conjugating electron-withdrawing groups and alpha-anion-stabilizing heteroatom substituents on configurational stability of chiral carbanions through a double bond was examined on the basis of extent of chirality transfer in intramolecular trapping in [2,3]-Wittig rearrangement of chiral 3-substituted 1-propenyloxy-1-phenyl-2-propen-1-yl carbanions.