Alkene steroidal

Norbomene adds to photolytically produced ethoxycarbonylnitrene specifically at the exo face the same aziridine is produced in the thermal addition of ethoxycarbonyl azide, but via the triazoline rather than the nitrene, with much imine by-product. There can be problems of selectivity and rearrangements when one reacts ethoxycarbonylnitrene with more complex substrates, e.g. alkenic steroids. Ethoxycarbonylnitrene via a-elimination) adds to vinyl chlorides to give 2-chloroaziridines, which can be rearranged thermally to yield 2-chloroallyl carbamates. This nitrene also adds to enamines, giving an array of rearranged products. A modem discussion of the reactivities of ethoxycarbonylnitrene (electrophilic) in comparison with phthalimidonitrene (nucleophilic) towards alkenes of different electronic properties has tqipeared. ... 

The reagent Is expensive and poisonous, consequently the hydroxylation procedure is employed only for the conversion of rare or expensive alkenes (e.g., in the steroid field) into the glycols. Another method for hydroxylation utilises catalytic amounts of osmium tetroxide rather than the stoichiometric quantity the reagent is hydrogen peroxide in tert.-butyl alcohol This reagent converts, for example, cyc/ohexene into cis 1 2- t/ohexanedlol. 

The ene reaction of an alkyne and an alkene produces a 1,4-diene. An important application, the regio- and stereoselective coupling of 17-(Z)-ethylidene steroids and alkynes to give cholane-type 16,22-dienes, is described in section 4.5.2. 

A major difficulty with the Diels-Alder reaction is its sensitivity to sterical hindrance. Tri- and tetrasubstituted olefins or dienes with bulky substituents at the terminal carbons react only very slowly. Therefore bicyclic compounds with polar reactions are more suitable for such target molecules, e.g. steroids. There exist, however, several exceptions, e. g. a reaction of a tetrasubstituted alkene with a 1,1-disubstituted diene to produce a cyclohexene intermediate containing three contiguous quaternary carbon atoms (S. Danishefsky, 1979). This reaction was assisted by large polarity differences between the electron rich diene and the electron deficient ene component. 

Intramolecular reaction can be used for polycyclization reaction[275]. In the so-called Pd-catalyzed cascade carbopalladation of the polyalkenyne 392, the first step is the oxidative addition to alkenyl iodide. Then the intramolecular alkyne insertion takes place twice, followed by the alkene insertion twice. The last step is the elimination of/3-hydrogen. In this way, the steroid skeleton 393 is constructed from the linear diynetriene 392(276]. 

Acetoxy-l,7-octadiene (40) is converted into l,7-octadien-3-one (124) by hydrolysis and oxidation. The most useful application of this enone 124 is bisannulation to form two fused six-membered ketonesfl 13], The Michael addition of 2-methyl-1,3-cyclopentanedione (125) to 124 and asymmetric aldol condensation using (5)-phenylalanine afford the optically active diketone 126. The terminal alkene is oxidi2ed with PdCl2-CuCl2-02 to give the methyl ketone 127 in 77% yield. Finally, reduction of the double bond and aldol condensation produce the important intermediate 128 of steroid synthesis in optically pure form[114]. 

In the carbonylation of trans,trans,cis-CDT, the trans double bond is attacked preferentially to give the monoester 10, and then the diester 11. Attack of the cis double bond to give the triester is slow[15]. Only the C-16 alkene was carbonylated regio- and stereoselectively to give the Ibo-carboxy-late 12 by carbonylation of the C-5 and C-16 unsaturaied steroid[]6]. 

Steroidal alkene (531a) reacted with a nitronic ester at 14 000 atmospheres to produce an isoxazolidine (532a) (80IZV1893). 

The stabilization reactions of alkylcarbenes were used preparatively in some cases. The diazirine derived from adamantanone gave the dehydroadamantane (2l7) thermally in 96% yield 73ZOR430). Alkene formation was reported for a steroid with its C-3 atom part of a diazirine ring. At 140 °C a A-2-unsaturated steroid was formed 65JA2665). 

NBS, DMSO, H2O, rt, 17 h. A trisubstituted steroidal alkene was not affected by these conditions. 

Two illustrations that show the power of this reaction for the preparation of strained cycloalkenes are the contractions of 102 to the propellane 103 , an application that has been reviewed , and of 104 to the bicyclo[2.1.1]hexene 105 . The utility of the Ramberg-Backlund rearrangement in the preparation of various natural products such as steroids , terpenoids and pheromones has been demonstrated. In addition to the synthetic applications mentioned in the previous subsection, several selected examples taken from the recent literature are given in equations 66-69. These examples further demonstrate the potential of this method for alkene synthesis in general. 

The protic catalytic conditions are also compatible with trapping of the radicals formed after cyclization with acrylates or acrylonitriles prior to their reduction with Cp2TiCl . In this manner highly substituted alkenes for the potential preparation of modified steroids can be accessed (Scheme 19) [97]. 

Microwave-assisted Heck reactions have also been carried out with triflates as coupling partners, involving some very complex molecules. Winterfeld and coworkers have reported a multigram synthesis of a complex non-symmetrical bis-steroidal diene by microwave-promoted coupling of the corresponding alkene and triflate steroidal moieties (Scheme 6.8) [27]. 

With the exception of the parent compounds, where the Michael adducts are isolated, acrylic esters [see, e.g. 6,7,31,105,111 ] and nitriles [6,7], and vinyl ketones [26, 113, 115] generally yield the cyclopropanes (Table 7.6) under the standard Makosza conditions with chloroform. Mesityl oxide produces a trichlorocyclopropy-lpropyne in low yield (10%) [7]. When there is no substituent, other than the electron-withdrawing group at the a-position of the alkene, further reaction occurs with the trichloromethyl anion to produce spiro systems (35-48%) (Scheme 7.12) [7, 31]. Under analogous conditions, similar spiro systems are formed with a,p-unsaturated steroidal ketones [39]. Generally, bromoform produces cyclo adducts with all alkenes. Vinyl sulphones are converted into the dichlorocyclopropane derivatives either directly or via the base-catalysed cyclization of intermediate trichloromethyl deriva-... 

Not unexpectedly, cycloalkene oxides are equally important as alkene oxides in medicinal chemistry and drug metabolism, as illustrated below with a few selected examples. Other compounds of interest that will not be discussed here include epoxytetrahydrocannabinols and endogenous 16,17-ep-oxy steroids. 

The investigation of factors affecting facial selectivity in the hydroboration of steroidal -alkenes revealed the facial (a vs /3) stereoselectivities of hydroboration of androst-5-enes (69) and B-norandrost-5-enes (70) do not parallel the difference between the calculated force-field energies for a- and jS-cyclobutane models (71)-(74). This finding appears to suggest that the facial selectivity is not determined by the four-centre transition state but by the relative ease of formation of the initial tt-complex. ... 

Steroids and sterols represent an important class of drugs that are susceptible to oxidative degradation through the possession of alkene moieties. The oxidation of phenothiazines forms the sulfoxide moiety. 

Nucleophilic displacement using [ F] fluoride works well in aUphatic systems where reactive haUdes or sulfonates esters can undergo substitution at unhindered sites. In order to introduce a F fluorine atom in a secondary or tertiary position, a two steps strategy was developed. It involves a F-bromofluorination of alkenes, followed by reductive debromination (n-BujSnH, AIBN). [ F]BrF is usually generated in situ from [ F]potassium fluoride and l,3-dibromo-5,5-dimethylhydantoin (DBH) in sulfuric acid. This methodology was successfully applied to label steroids at the 11 and 6a positions [245] (Scheme 60) and to prepare [ F]fluorocyclohexanes [246]. 

Treatment of the 11 P-hydroxysteroid with tosyl chloride produces a tosylate ester, providing a good leaving group for a base-catalysed E2 elimination (see Section 6.4.1). The favoured product is the more-substituted 9, 11-alkene (see Section 6.4.1). A consideration of the steroid shape (see Box 3.19) shows that the 9a-proton and the 1 Ip-tosylate are both axial and, therefore, anti to each other they are thus ideally positioned for an elimination... 

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