Letter
Cite This: Org. Lett. 2017, 19, 6004-6007
pubs.acs.org/OrgLett
Total Synthesis of (+)-Pochonin D and (+)-Monocillin II via Chemoand Regioselective Intramolecular Nitrile Oxide Cycloaddition
Hyeonjeong Choe,†,‡ Hyukjoon Cho,§ Hyun-Jeong Ko,∥ and Jongkook Lee*,†,∥
†
Bio & Drug Discovery Division, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, Yuseong, Daejeon 34114, Republic of Korea
University of Science and Technology, Daejeon 34114, Republic of Korea
§
College of Pharmacy, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea
∥
College of Pharmacy, Kangwon National University, 1 Kangwondaehak-gil, Chuncheon 24341, Republic of Korea
‡
S Supporting Information
*
ABSTRACT: Asymmetric total syntheses of (+)-pochonin D (1) and (+)-monocillin II (2), Hsp90 inhibitors with potent
anticancer activity, have been accomplished where the macrolactone 3 was constructed through a chemo- and regioselective
intramolecular nitrile oxide cycloaddition of diene 4.
(+)-Pochonin D (1)1 and (+)-monocillin II (2)1b,2 are fungal
polyketides with a resorcylic acid lactone skeleton. Resorcylic
acid macrolides have attracted considerable interest due to their
strong antitumor activities by inhibiting heat shock protein 90
(Hsp90), a molecular chaperone that guides the correct folding
of nascent polypeptides.3 Hsp90 inhibitors show a broad
spectrum of antitumor activity and act via a combinatorial
blockade of the cellular pathways in cancer cells because a
number of oncoproteins including EGFR, Her2, Raf, VEGFR2,
PDGFR, Flt3, HIF-1, and BCR-ABL are Hsp90 clients.4 More
interestingly, Hsp90 inhibitors reduced the growth and survival
of cancer stemlike cells both in vitro and in vivo.5 The
significant attention directed toward resorcylic acid macrolides
also stems from their ability to stimulate hair growth by
downregulating the expression of Wnt5A.6
Since the report of the pioneering work by Asaoka et al. on
the use of the intramolecular nitrile oxide cycloaddition
(INOC) to form macrolactones,7 acrylate groups have been
used as cyclization partners for the nitrile oxide moiety in the
INOC-based macrocyclic natural product syntheses.8,9 We
recently expanded the general utility of the INOC reaction by
demonstrating that a terminal alkene, not conjugated with
carbonyl group, could also be a good dipolarophile in the
synthesis of a macrocyclic natural product, (+)-11β-hydroxycurvularin, wherein a remote stereoinductive INOC was
showcased.10 To further explore its utility, we set out to
investigate the preference for an unconjugated terminal alkene
over an internal alkene as a cyclization partner for the nitrile
oxide moiety in an INOC-based macrocyclization. We
envisioned that the structural simplicity of (+)-pochonin D
© 2017 American Chemical Society
(1) and (+)-monocillin II (2) would provide an opportunity to
clarify the effect of the alkene environment on the chemoselectivity in an INOC-based macrocyclization. Described
herein are asymmetric syntheses of (+)-pochonin D (1) and
(+)-monocillin II (2) that feature a macrocycle construction
based on a novel chemo- and regioselective INOC reaction,
highlighting the selectivity for terminal alkene against internal
alkene as well as bridged-ring over fused-ring product.
Our retrosynthetic analysis for (+)-pochonin D (1) and
(+)-monocillin II (2) called for macrolactone 3 as a key
intermediate, and this could be chemo- and regioselectively
constructed from acyclic precursor 4 by INOC (Scheme 1).
Diene 4 could be prepared from carboxylic acid 5 by
esterification with alcohol 6.
The requisite INOC substrate 4 was derived from
commercially available nitro compound 1011 in a straightforward manner as shown in Scheme 2. Julia−Lythgoe−Kocienski
olefination of readily available aldehyde 7 with sulfone 8
selectively produced E-diene 9 along with Z-isomer 9′ in 93%
yield (9/9′ = 10:1, 500 MHz 1H NMR spectrum analysis).12
The silyl group of diene 9 was removed to afford alcohol 6 by
treatment with HCl (AcCl/MeOH) in almost quantitative
yield.13 Nitro compound 10 was formylated to give aldehyde 11
by the Vilsmeier−Haack reaction,10,12b,14 and subsequent
oxidation of 11 produced carboxylic acid 5 in 70% yield for
the two steps.15 Carboxylic acid 5 was transformed to ester 4 by
coupling with alcohol 6 in 92% yield.16
Received: September 29, 2017
Published: October 19, 2017
6004
DOI: 10.1021/acs.orglett.7b03054
Org. Lett. 2017, 19, 6004−6007
Letter
Organic Letters
encounters two possible sites of attack (internal olefin vs
terminal olefin), with two possible orientations of approach by
the respective olefin to the nitrile oxide moiety. Although the
chemo- and regioselectivity of addition was a concern initially,
the INOC of 4 was conducted under conventional conditions.
Delightfully, we observed that the INOC proceeded selectively
at the terminal alkene of 4 to produce the two bridged isomers
3a,b as major components along with a fused isomer 3c in high
yield and with good regioselectivity (3a/3b/3c = 4:4:1, 90%,
Scheme 3). We found no appreciable quantities of products
Scheme 1. Retrosynthetic Analysis of (+)-Monocillin II (1)
and (+)-Pochonin D (2)
Scheme 3. Intramolecular Nitrile Oxide Cycloaddition
Scheme 2. Preparation of an Intramolecular Nitrile Oxide
Cycloaddition Substrate
resulting from the INOC of the internal olefin of diene 4. The
observed high chemoselectivity is presumably attributed to
steric hindrance by the butenyl group attached to the internal
olefin and/or strain in the incipient 9- or 10-membered ring of
the resultant INOC product. To the best of our knowledge,
such a chemo- and regioselective INOC has not been reported
in the construction of macrocycles for either natural or
unnatural products.
Chemoselective N−O bond cleavage of dihydroisoxazole
ring of macrolactone 3a,b with Mo(CO)6 and subsequent
elimination of the β-hydroxyl group of the resulting product
were carefully carried out to afford α,β-unsaturated ketone 12
overall in 67% yield.7,8,17 With ketone 12 in hand, we
proceeded to the completion of the syntheses of (+)-pochonin
D (1) and (+)-monocillin II (2) (Scheme 4). Debenzylation of
dibenzyl ether 12 with BCl3 produced (+)-monocillin II (2) in
85% yield, with the α,β-unsaturated ketone moiety remaining
intact.18 (+)-Monocillin II (2) was regioselectively chlorinated
with sulfuryl chloride to produce (+)-pochonin D (1) in 69%
yield.19 The spectral results from both of our synthetic
macrolides 1 and 2 are in good agreement with the reported
data.1,2
In summary, we have achieved a 7- and 8-step asymmetric
synthesis, respectively, of two Hsp90 inhibitors with potent
anticancer activity, (+)-monocillin II (2) and (+)-pochonin D
(1), from readily available nitro compound 10 in respective
overall yields of 29 and 20%. This highly practical approach
demonstrates that a terminal alkene is preferred to an internal
alkene as the dipolarophile in the INOC-based macro-
The INOC reaction of diene 4 was quite challenging because
the nitrile oxide moiety generated during the reaction
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.orglett.7b03054
Org. Lett. 2017, 19, 6004−6007
Organic Letters
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Scheme 4. Completion of the Syntheses of (+)-Monocillin II
(2) and (+)-Pochonin D (1)
ASSOCIATED CONTENT
S Supporting Information
*
The Supporting Information is available free of charge on the
ACS Publications website at DOI: 10.1021/acs.orglett.7b03054.
Experimental procedures and characterization data for all
products including 1H and 13C NMR spectra (PDF)
■
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Letter
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail: jkl@kangwon.ac.kr.
ORCID
Jongkook Lee: 0000-0003-0739-7963
Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
Taken in part from the Master’s Theses of H. Choe (University
of Science and Technology, 2012) and H. Cho (Seoul National
University, 2011).
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation
of Korea (NRF) grants funded by the Korean government
(MSIT) (NRF-2012R1A1A1038686 and NRF2015R1A2A2A01004708). We thank the Central Laboratory
of Kangwon National University for providing us with technical
assistance on the spectroscopic experiments.
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DEDICATION
This paper is dedicated to Prof. Deukjoon Kim (Seoul National
University) on the occasion of his 70th birthday.
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Letter
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