Development of benzodioxine-heteroarylpiperazines as highly potent and selective α2c antagonists.

Here is reported the design and synthesis of a series of highly potent and selective α2C antagonists using benzodioxine methyl piperazine as a central scaffold by pharmacophoric analysis to improve the pharmacokinetics of suboptimal clinical candidate molecules.

2,3-Dihydrobenzo-dioxine piperidine derivatives as potent and selective α2c antagonists.

In this manuscript, we report a series of benzodioxine methyl piperidine derivatives as highly potent and selective α2C antagonists by ligand design to improve the pharmacokinetics of a previous candidate molecule.

Base-catalyzed isomerization of 2-isoxazolines enables a two-step enantioselective synthesis of ß-hydroxynitriles from enals.

The asymmetric synthesis of ß-hydroxynitriles remains a challenge in organic synthesis. Herein we report a convenient synthesis of ß-hydroxynitriles from enantiomerically enriched 3-unsubstituted 2-isoxazolines via a base-catalyzed ring-opening reaction that takes place without loss of enantiopurity. In combination with organocatalytic enantioselective synthesis of 3-unsubstituted 2-isoxazolines, the ring-opening enables a short 2-step synthesis of ß-hydroxynitriles from α,ß-unsaturated aldehydes in high enantiomeric purity.

Synthesis of 2-isoxazolines: enantioselective and racemic methods based on conjugate additions of oximes.

The formation of 3-unsubstituted 2-isoxazolines by means of condensation reactions between α,ß-unsaturated aldehydes and oximes proceeds readily in the presence of catalytic amounts of anilinium salts. Mechanistically, the process involves a fast conjugate addition of the oxime and a slower intramolecular oxime-transfer reaction. The rate of oxime transfer was found to correlate with the acidity of the catalyst. This finding enabled us to discover an enantioselective process in which the fragile conjugate-addition product generated in the first stage is rapidly cyclized into the stable isoxazoline under acidic conditions, with conservation of enantiomeric excess. In summary, herein we describe synthetically useful protocols for accessing 3-unsubstituted 2-isoxazolines in both the enantioselective and racemic manner. The mechanism of the condensation reaction catalyzed by the anilinium salt was also investigated by NMR spectroscopy experiments in which the effect of differently substituted aldehydes and oximes as well as water on the reaction rate was studied. The results point to the rate-limiting elimination of water from the 3-hydroxy-2-isoxazolidine intermediate.

Enantioselective synthesis of 2-isoxazolines by a one-flask conjugate addition/oxime-transfer process.

Enantioselective isoxazoline synthesis: A combination of 1) a catalytic enantioselective conjugate addition of oximes to alpha,beta-unsaturated aldehydes and 2) an acid-catalyzed intramolecular oxime-transfer reaction lead to the first asymmetric synthesis of 3-unsubstituted 2-isoxazolines (see scheme).

Enantiospecific total synthesis of the hapalindoles, fischerindoles, and welwitindolinones via a redox economic approach.

Full details are provided for the total synthesis of several members of the hapalindole family of natural products, including hapalindole Q, 12-epi-hapalindole D, 12-epi-fischerindole U, 12-epi-fischerindole G, 12-epi-fischerindole I, and welwitindolinone A. Use of the recently developed direct indole coupling enabled an efficient, practical, scalable, and protecting-group-free synthesis of each of these natural products. The original biosynthetic proposal is reviewed, and a revised biosynthetic hypothesis is suggested, validated by the above syntheses. The syntheses are also characterized by an adherence to the concept of "redox economy". Analogous to "atom economy" or "step economy", "redox economy" minimizes the superfluous redox manipulations within a synthesis; rather, the oxidation state of intermediates linearly and steadily increases throughout the course of the synthesis.