Process Development of a Potent Glucosylceramide Synthase Inhibitor
摘要:
An economic, scalable process for the production of glucosylceramide synthase (GCS) inhibitor 7 has been developed. Herein we report a three-step synthesis to aldehyde 4 with high yield and purity that employs the selective cleavage of an endocyclic C-O bond of a THP ether using borane/THF as the key step. This particular methodology has not been used previously from a development standpoint and offers an attractive way towards introducing pentanol side chains. Aldehyde 4 is then coupled with deoxynojirimycin via flow hydrogenation using an H-Cube to safely produce the free base of 7, which is isolated as an MSA salt in 50% overall yield. Herein we discuss the evolution of this process from its original form and the thermodynamics of its associated chemistry.