Anticancer agents, synthesis

Eisenbrand, G. Lauck-Birkel, S. Tang, W.C. An approach towards more selective anticancer agents. Synthesis 1996, 1246-1258 Niculescu-Duvaz, I. Springer, C.J. Antibody-directed enzyme prodrug therapy (ADEPT) a review. Adv. Drug Delivery Rev. 1997, 26, 151-172. 

Singh, R., Jain, P.C., and Anand, N., Potential anticancer agents. Synthesis of some substituted pyrrolo[2,l-c][l,4]benzodiazepines, Indian J. Chem., Sect. B, 21B. 225. 1982. 

Sugimoto, K. Ohki, S. (1964). Potential anticancer agents. Synthesis of aromatic nitrogen mustards containing azo group. Biochem J. 12(11), 1375-1378. 

Inositols, ie, hexaliydrobenzenehexols, are sugars that have received increasing study and are useful in the treatment of a wide variety of human disorders, including vascular disease, cancer, cirrhosis of the Hver, frostbite, and muscular dystrophy (269). Myoinositol esters prepared by reaction with lower fatty acid anhydrides are useful as Hver medicines and nonionic surfactants the aluminum and ammonium salts of inositol hexasulfate are useful anticancer agents (270). Tetraarjloxybenzoquinones are intermediates in the preparation of dioxazine dyes (266,271). The synthesis of hexakis(aryloxy)benzenes has also beenpubUshed (272). 

Camptothecin was discovered as an active anticancer drug isolated from the bark of Camptotheca acuminata. The anticancer activity of camptothecin was discovered in the 1960s by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as part of a systematic effort to screen for novel anticancer agents derived from natural products. Monroe Wall and Mansuhk Wani identified the chemical structure of camptothecin. They also identified the chemical structure of taxol, again under the auspices of the NCI. Susan Hoiwitz was contracted by the NCI to elucidate the anticancer mechanisms of camptothecin. She found in the early 1970s that camptothecin induced DNA breaks and attested DNA and RNA synthesis. However, it is approximately 12 years later, only after DNA topo-isomerase I (Topi) had been identified in human cells, that Leroy Liu and his coworkers found that Topi was the cellular target of camptothecin [reviewed in [1]. 

The utility of RCM methodology for the synthesis of open-chain building blocks from a,fi-unsaturated d-lactones is exemplified by the partial syntheses of Cossy aimed for (+)-methynolide (the aglycon of the methymicin family of macrolide antibiotics) [45], and the anticancer agent discodermolide [46], as well as during a recent total synthesis of the highly cytotoxic marine natural depsipeptide apratoxin A by Forsyth and Chen [47]. 

In 1985, it was reported by Hsiang et al. [43] that the cytotoxic activity of 20-(S)-camptothecin (CPT III) was attributed to a novel mechanism of action involving the nuclear enzyme topo I, and this discovery of unique mechanism of action revived the interest in CPT and its analogues as anticancer agents. CPT stabilizes the covalent, reversible topo I-DNA complex leading to the inhibition of DNA synthesis in mammalian cells and interferes with the topo I breakage-reunion reaction [44]. Clinical trials and structure-activity relationships have demonstrated the requirement of the a-hydroxy group, the... 

Mixed anhydrides with trifluoroacetic acid are particularly reactive acylating agents.48 For example, Entry 5 in Scheme 11.4 shows the use of a mixed anhydride in the course of synthesis of the anticancer agent tamoxifen. 

Anticancer and Interferon Agents Synthesis and Properties, edited by Raphael M. Ottenbrite and George B. Butler... 

Deslongchamps and coworkers [26] used a combination of a transannular Diels-Alder cycloaddition and an intramolecular aldol reaction in the synthesis of the unnatural enantiomer of a derivative of the (+)-aphidicolin (4-74), which is a diterpe-noic tetraol isolated from the fungus Cephalosporium aphidicolia. This compound is an inhibitor of DNA polymerase, and is also known to act against the herpes simplex type I virus. In addition, it slows down eukaryotic cell proliferation, which makes it an interesting target as an anticancer agent... 

Nicolaou and coworkers used this approach also for the synthesis of hamigerans A and B [30], as well as of several of their epimers [29, 31]. The group of Kraus succeeded in a formal total synthesis of the anticancer agent podophyllotoxin 5-103 from 5-100 [32] (Scheme 5.19) [33]. The method allows a rapid access to the central core 5-102 via 5-101. 

X. Song, P. L. Lorenzi, C. P. Landowski, B. S. Vig, J. M. Hilfinger, and G. L. Amidon. Amino acid ester prodrugs of the anticancer agent gemcitabine synthesis, bioconversion, metabolic bioevasion, and hPEPTl-mediated transport. Mol Pharm 2 157-167 (2005). 

Yang ZQ, Ceng X, Solit D, Pratilas CA, Rosen N, Danishefsky SJ, New efficient synthesis of resorcinylic macrolides via ynolides Establishment of cycloproparadi-cicol as synthetically feasible preclinical anticancer agent based on Hsp90 as the target,/Am Chem Soc 126 7881-7889, 2004. 

Partially hydrogenated quinoline cores are also present in some important bioactive compounds. For example, the 4-aza-analogs of Podophyllotoxin, a plant lignan that inhibits microtubule assembly, revealed to be more potent and less toxic anticancer agents. In 2006, Ji s group reported a green multicomponent approach to a new series of these derivatives, consisting of the reaction of either tetronic acid or 1,3-indanedione with various aldehydes and substituted anilines in water under microwave irradiation conditions (Scheme 26) [107]. For this efficient and eco-friendly transformation, the authors proposed a mechanism quite similar to the one that was postulated for the synthesis of tetrahydroquinolines in the precedent section. 

The bis(isopinocampheyl)borane reagents described in the sections on enantioselective additions have found extensive use in the total synthesis of complex, bioactive natural products. A synthesis of the potent anticancer agent epothilone... 

The Corey allylation system based on a chiral bis(sulfonamide) auxiliary was put to use with success in a number of synthetic efforts, including the total synthesis of the anticancer agent leucascandrolide (Scheme 13). Chiral reagent 152 is added to an achiral aldehyde, 3-(/ -methoxybenzyloxy)propanal, affording intermediate 153 in high stereoselectivity. The latter is transformed into a pyranyl aldehyde, which is subjected to a second allylation (this time, a doubly diastereoselective addition) en route to the completion of leucascandrolide. 

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