Hypervalent iodine oxidation of O-silylated phenol derivatives to azacarbocyclic spirodienones; synthetic approach to the anticancer marine alkaloid, discorhabdin C
Hypervalentiodineoxidation of O-silyated phenols bearing various types of aminoquinones at the p-position in 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol gave azacarbocyclic spirodienones in good yields and application of this reaction to the synthetic approach to discorhabdin C was also described.
BPR0L075 (2) is a potential anticancer drug candidate designed from Combretastatin A-4 (1) based on the bioisosterism principle. Metabolites of 2, proposed from in vitro human microsome studies, were synthesized, leading to the identification of metabolitc-derived analogue 10 with 40-350 pM potency against various cancer cell lines. Insights gained from the major inactive metabolite of 2 led to the development of 29, with better pharmacokinetics and improved potency in the tumor xenograft model than 2.