First-Time Disclosure of CVN424, a Potent and Selective GPR6 Inverse Agonist for the Treatment of Parkinson's Disease: Discovery, Pharmacological Validation, and Identification of a Clinical Candidate.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic and progressive movement disorder with the urgent unmet need for efficient symptomatic therapies with fewer side effects. GPR6 is an orphan G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) with highly restricted expression in dopamine receptor D2-type medium spiny neurons (MSNs) of the indirect pathway, a striatal brain circuit which shows aberrant hyperactivity in PD patients. Potent and selective GPR6 inverse agonists (IAG) were developed starting from a low-potency screening hit (EC50 = 43 µM). Herein, we describe the multiple parameter optimization that led to the discovery of multiple nanomolar potent and selective GPR6 IAG, including our clinical compound CVN424. GPR6 IAG reversed haloperidol-induced catalepsy in rats and restored mobility in the bilateral 6-OHDA-lesioned rat PD model demonstrating that inhibition of GPR6 activity in vivo normalizes activity in basal ganglia circuitry and motor behavior. CVN424 is currently in clinical development to treat motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease.

Convergent synthesis and discovery of a natural product-inspired paralog-selective Hsp90 inhibitor.

A convergent synthesis of benzoquinone ansamycin analogs is described that proceeds by a sequence of metallacycle-mediated alkyne-alkyne coupling, followed by site- and stereoselective dihydroxylation and global carbamate formation. These studies have led to (1) validation of alkyne-alkyne coupling to produce geldanamycin analogs that lack the problematic quinone, (2) the discovery that C6-C7 bis-carbamate functionality is compatible with Hsp90 inhibition, and (3) the identification of 1 as a nonquinone geldanamycin-inspired paralog-selective Hsp90 inhibitor.

Convergent and stereospecific synthesis of complex skipped polyenes and polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Skipped polyenes (that is, 1,4-dienes and higher homologues) are stereodefined components of a vast array of biologically important natural products, including polyunsaturated fatty acids. Although widespread in nature, these architectures are generally considered to represent significant barriers to efficient chemical synthesis. Partial reduction of skipped poly-ynes provides a pathway to a subset of such structures, but general chemical methods for the preparation of skipped polyenes that contain varied stereochemistries and substitution patterns are lacking. Here, we describe a metal-promoted reductive cross-coupling reaction between vinylcyclopropanes and alkynes (or vinylsilanes) that provides stereoselective access to a diverse array of skipped polyenes through a process that establishes one C-C bond, generates up to three stereodefined alkenes, and can be used to introduce stereogenic centres at the central positions of the skipped polyene motif. We also demonstrate the significance of the present bond construction by preparing substituted and stereodefined polyunsaturated synthetic fatty acids.

Iridium-catalyzed C-H activation versus directed ortho metalation: complementary borylation of aromatics and heteroaromatics.

Systematic studies are presented demonstrating the complementarity of directed ortho metalation (DoM) and Ir-catalyzed strategies for the provision of borylated aromatics and their subsequent Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reactions. A new concept, the use of the TMS group, readily introduced by DoM, as a latent regiodirective moiety to overcome the otherwise problematic production of isomeric borylated product mixtures is presented. Additional electrophile-induced ipso-deborylation and DoM reactions of the Bpin products are described.

Total synthesis and structure elucidation of (+)-phorbasin C.

The first total synthesis and structure elucidation of a member of the phorbasin class of natural products is described.

Directed ortho metalation methodology. The N,N-dialkyl aryl O-sulfamate as a new directed metalation group and cross-coupling partner for Grignard reagents.

[reaction: see text] The ortho metalation (RLi/THF/-93 degrees C) of 3 followed by quench with a variety of electrophiles constitutes a new general route to substituted aryl O-sulfamates 4a-k. The Kumada-Corriu cross-coupling of O-sulfamates 4e, 4n-s, and 6a with Grignard reagents gives biaryls 9a-m, and the use of 2-halo and boron derivatives 4h, 4i, and 4k for Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling and generation of benzynes leads to naphthols 7a and 7b. A relative metalation ranking of the OSONEt(2) is reported.