Vinblastine is a clinical drug used in frontline combination therapies for treatment of cancer. It acts by inhibition of mitosis through binding tubulin and disrupting microtubule formation. Because of advances in its total synthesis, we report previously inaccessible and unusual modifications to vinblastine that improve potency a remarkable 100-fold. These ultrapotent vinblastines display much higher tubulin binding affinities and likely further disrupt the tubulin head-to-tail dimer–dimer interaction by strategic placement of an added rigid, extended group along the adjacent continuing protein–protein interface. Significantly, the ultrapotent vinblastines are accessible by chemical synthesis in three steps from commercially available materials (catharanthine, $16/g; vindoline, $36/g) based on newly introduced synthetic methodology and are inaccessible by natural product derivatization, late-stage functionalization, or biosynthetic methods.
长春碱是一种临床药物,用于癌症的一线组合疗法。它通过抑制有丝分裂,通过结合微管和破坏微管形成来发挥作用。由于其全合成的进展,我们报告了以前无法访问的和不寻常的长春碱修饰,使其作用增强了100倍。这些超强长春碱显示出更高的微管结合亲和力,可能通过在相邻的蛋白质界面上加入刚性、延伸的基团,进一步破坏微管头尾二聚体之间的相互作用。值得注意的是,这些超强长春碱可以通过化学合成从商业可获得的材料(长春碱,每克16美元;长春碱,每克36美元)中的三个步骤制备,基于新引入的合成方法,而无法通过天然产物衍生、后期功能化或生物合成方法获得。