Polyenes cationic cyclization

Polyene cyclizations are of substantial value in the synthesis of polycyclic terpene natural products. These syntheses resemble the processes by which the polycyclic compounds are assembled in nature. The most dramatic example of biosynthesis of a polycyclic skeleton from a polyene intermediate is the conversion of squalene oxide to the steroid lanosterol. In the biological reaction, an enzyme not only to induces the cationic cyclization but also holds the substrate in a conformation corresponding to stereochemistry of the polycyclic product.17 In this case, the cyclization is terminated by a series of rearrangements. 

The cationic cyclization of polyenes to give multi-ring carbocyclic compounds with many sterically defined centres is one of the more remarkable examples... 

Antibody HA519A4 catalyzes the tandem cationic cyclization of a polyene substrate (Figure 5). ... 

Johnson in 1993 described an approach to racemic p-amyrin involving application of a biomimctic polyene cyclization.7 In the same year Corey accomplished the enantioseleetive synthesis of compound 4. a key intermediate that opened the way to stereoselective preparation of compounds I, 2. and 3 8 A key step in the synthesis of P-amyrin (1) was the introduction of chiral oxazaboroli-dines for enantioseleetive carbonyl reduction. Ba ed on these methods, generation of an enantiomerically pure epoxide and its stereoselective cationic cyclization led to the pentacyclic system of structure 1 Diastereoselective cyclopropanation and an intramolecular protonation of a carbanion represent other interesting steps in this total synthesis. 

Nature often provides excellent suggestions about how to synthesize a compound. After the pathway for the biosynthesis of steroids by cationic cyclization of polyenes was determined, Professor William S. Johnson and coworkers at Stanford University used a very similar reaction to synthesize progesterone. The last part of this synthesis is outlined in the following equations. Alcohol A was prepared in 12 steps with an overall yield of 10%. It was then cyclized to form the steroid ring system. 

In addition to cationic cyclizations, other conditions for the cyclization of polyenes and of ene-ynes to steroids have been investigated. Oxidative free-radical cyclizations of polyenes produce steroid nuclei with exquisite stereocontrol. For example, treatment of (259) and (260) with Mn(III) and Cu(II) afford the D-homo-5a-androstane-3-ones (261) and (262), respectively, in approximately 30% yield. In this cyclization, seven asymmetric centers are established in one chemical step (226,227). Another intramolecular cyclization reaction of iodo-ene poly-ynes was reported using a carbopaUadation cascade terminated by carbonylation. This carbometalation—carbonylation cascade using CO at 111 kPa (1.1 atm) at 70°C converted an acycHc iodo—tetra-yne (263) to a D-homo-steroid nucleus (264) [162878-44-6] in approximately 80% yield in one chemical step (228). Intramolecular aimulations between two alkynes and a chromium or tungsten carbene complex have been examined for the formation of a variety of different fiised-ring systems. A tandem Diels-Alder—two-alkyne annulation of a triynylcarbene complex demonstrated the feasibiHty of this strategy for the synthesis of steroid nuclei. Complex (265) was prepared in two steps from commercially available materials. Treatment of (265) with Danishefsky s diene in CH CN at room temperature under an atmosphere of carbon monoxide (101.3 kPa = 1 atm), followed by heating the reaction mixture to 110°C, provided (266) in 62% yield (TBS = tert — butyldimethylsilyl). In a second experiment, a sequential Diels-Alder—two-alkyne annulation of triynylcarbene complex (267) afforded a nonaromatic steroid nucleus (269) in approximately 50% overall yield from the acycHc precursors (229). 

A spectacular example of cationic cyclization is the Johnson polyene cyclization, described in Section 10.8.A. Polyenes such as squalene are expected to assume a steroid-like conformation in the lowest energy form (sec. 1.5.E), based on the biogenetic preparation of cholesterol from squalene. In practice, treatment of polyenes with acid led to a very low yield of tri- or tetracyclic products, giving instead significant amounts of polymeric material. Diligent work over many years prevailed, however, and Johnson solved the many problems (as described in sec. 10.8.A) to make this reaction an excellent and efficient synthetic route to di-, tri-, and tetracyclic molecules. One of the later examples of polyene cyclization uses an allyl silane to quench the cyclization process. A Lewis acid was used to initiate the reaction via reaction with the acetal. Treatment of... 

Electrocyclic reactions are not limited to neutral polyenes. The cyclization of a pentadienyl cation to a cyclopentenyl cation offers a useful entry to five-membered carbocycUc compounds. One such reaction is the Nazarov cyclization of divinyl ketones. Protonation or Lewis acid complexation of the oxygen atom of the carbonyl group of a divinyl ketone generates a pentadienyl cation. This cation undergoes electrocyclization to give an allyl cation within a cyclopentane ring. The allyl cation can lose a proton or be trapped, for example by a nucleophile. Proton loss occurs to give the thermodynamically more stable alkene and subsequent keto-enol tautomerism leads to the typical Nazarov product, a cyclopentenone (3.220). 

Cation-JT interactions are also prominent at the active sites of enzymes involving cationic substrates. Key examples include the blood coagulation serine proteases Factor Xa and thrombin, and a number of enzymes that use S-adenosyhnethionine. a sulfonium ion that serves as nature s ubiquitous methyl transfer agent. A spectacular series of examples is the array of enzymes that catalyze the cationic cyclizations of polyenes in a key step of terpene and steroid biosynthesis. It is now clear that... 

Electrophilic Addition Reactions. Further work by Johnson on the biomimetic polyene olefin cyclization reactions has shown that asymmetric induction by a chiral centre remote from the initiating cationic centre is possible. This was shown by the preparation of 11 a-methylprogesterone and a stereospecific total synthesis of racemic 11 a-hydroxyprogesterone via this route (Scheme 48). > ... 

A series of carbocyclization cascades of allyl ketenimines initiated through a thermal aza-Claisen rearrangement of A-phosphoryl-A-allyl ynamides has been reported where interceptions of the cationic intermediate via Meerwein-Wagner rearrangements and polyene-type cyclizations are observed (Scheme 17) ... 

Other, removable cation-stabilizing auxiliaries have been investigated for polyene cyclizations. For example, a sdyl-assisted carbocation cyclization has been used in an efficient total synthesis of lanosterol. The key step, treatment of (257) with methyl aluminum chloride in methylene chloride at —78° C, followed by acylation and chromatographic separation, affords (258) in 55% yield (two steps). When this cyclization was attempted on similar compounds that did not contain the C7P-silicon substituent, no tetracycHc products were observed. Steroid (258) is converted to lanosterol (77) in three additional chemical steps (225). 

Polyene Cyclization. Perhaps the most synthetically useful of the carbo-cation alkylation reactions is the cyclization of polyenes having two or more double bonds positioned in such a way that successive bond-forming steps can occur. This process, called polyene cyclization, has proven to be an effective way of making polycyclic compounds containing six-membered and, in some cases, five-membered rings. The reaction proceeds through an electrophilic attack and requires that the double bonds that participate in the cyclization be properly positioned. For example, compound 1 is converted quantitatively to 2 on treatment with formic acid. The reaction is initiated by protonation and ionization of the allylic alcohol and is terminated by nucleophilic capture of the cyclized secondary carbocation. 

Scheme 10.1 gives some representative examples of laboratory syntheses involving polyene cyclization. The cyclization in Entry 1 is done in anhydrous formic acid and involves the formation of a symmetric tertiary allylic carbocation. The cyclization forms a six-membered ring by attack at the terminal carbon of the vinyl group. The bicyclic cation is captured as the formate ester. Entry 2 also involves initiation by a symmetric allylic cation. In this case, the triene unit cyclizes to a tricyclic ring system. Entry 3 results in the formation of the steroidal skeleton with termination by capture of the alkynyl group and formation of a ketone. The cyclization in Entry 4 is initiated by epoxide opening. 

Some excellent examples of cationic polycyclizations, especially in the field of steroid synthesis, were described in Chapter 1. However, these polycyclizations can also be performed using a radical as initiator. Such reactions can be divided into those based on serial 6-mdo-trig cyclizations from polyene acyl precursors [92], radi-... 

Attempts by Fish and Johnson to effect a steroid synthesis using a standard epoxide-initiated pentacyclization of a polyene afforded complex mixtures [69]. Alternatively, the allyl alcohol 326 was synthesized and treated with TFA (Scheme 19.60). Protonation affords a symmetrical tetramethylallyl cation that undergoes cyclization to give pentacycle 327 in 31% yield. Simultaneous cleavage of the isopropylidene and vinylidene groups was carried out to furnish the diketone 328 in 88% yield, which was then converted to sophoradiol (329). 

A radical-cation-type cyclization of a series of isoprenoid polyene acetates has been described recently by Demuth. In the presence of an electron acceptor... 

Burke et al. [84] synthetised nagilactone F (55) by a polyenic cyclization initiated with acetal and concluded with vinylsilane, giving an overall yield of 6%. The key steps in this synthesis were the coupling of substrates 166 and 167 with control of the absolute and relative stereochemistry, the cationic biscyclization to form the intermediate tricyclic trans-anti-trans 169 and the formation of the D ring by regio-selective intramolecular remote functionalization. 

Stereoisomeric alcohols (93) and (94) yielded identical ring-expansion products [e.g. (97)] on formation of carbocations.168 This is evidence of a stepwise reaction in sterol biosynthesis, whereby a tertiary cation [e.g. the model (95)] rearranges to a secondary cation (96)-an anti-Markovnikov rearrangement . The synthetic aspects of biomimetic cyclizations of isoprenoid polyenes were reviewed.169 Included was a detailed discussion of carbenium ion-initiated cyclizations, with a discussion of the different mechanisms that have been proposed. A novel biomimetic carbocation polyene cyclization of a daurichromenic ester was reported an unusual 2 + 2-carbocation cyclization occurred as a side reaction.170... 

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