Communications
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201005329
Synthetic Methods
Total Synthesis of Jadomycin A and a Carbasugar Analogue of
Jadomycin B**
Mingde Shan, Ehesan U. Sharif, and George A. OꢀDoherty*
Jadomycins A and B are unique members of the angucycline
family of natural products with the unusual 8H-
benz[b]oxazolo[3,3-f]-phenanthridine
ring
system
(Scheme 1). Both jadomycins A and B are produced by the
Gram-positive soil bacteria Streptomyces venezuelae ISP5230
Scheme 2. Retrosynthetic comparison for phenanthridine B-ring forma-
tion.
could skirt the stereoelectronic disadvantages of the 6-endo-
dig ring closures (10 to 9).[9] To the best of our knowledge this
is the first time that switching to an electrocyclic ring closure
was used to change the regioselectivity for ring closure. This
may also be the biosynthetic mode of ring closure and thus
implying that the B-ring cyclization step does not need
enzyme mediation to control the regioselectivity of cycliza-
tion.
Retrosynthetically, we envisioned 1 and 2 arising from the
condensation of a protected amino acid 11 and aldehyde 4 to
form imine 10. A 6p-electron electrocyclic ring closure would
form the desired benzo[b]-phenanthridine 9 after hydration
and oxidation. Finally an acid-catalyzed deprotection/dehy-
dration would install the final oxazolone ring in jadomycin
(Scheme 3). Following precedent, a Stille coupling could be
employed to prepare 4.[6] In accordance with the proposed
biosynthetic pathway,[5] the l-digitoxose could be incorpo-
rated earlier (e.g., 4) or on jadomycin A—this would depend
on the stability of the glycosidic bond to the required acid-
catalyzed transformations.
Scheme 1. Jadomycin A, B and its analogue.
under specific nutrient and environmental stress.[1] They
display important bioactivities, including antitumor, antimi-
crobial, anti-viral, as well as, aurora-B kinase inhibition and
DNA-cleaving capacity.[2–4]
There has been no total synthesis of jadomycin A or B,
although libraries of jadomycin analogues have been pro-
duced through fermentation approaches.[5] Several
approaches to the benzo[b]-phenanthridine ring system
have been developed (Scheme 2).[6,7] From these studies one
can conclude that for stereoelectronic reasons the B-ring is
best constructed by a cyclization of a 2-amino-3-phenyl-
naphthoquinone (e.g., 6 to 5), rather than an amine cycliza-
tion onto the 2-position of an anthroquinone (e.g., 8 to 5).
However, these results stand in contrast to the proposed
biosynthetic route (e.g., 1/2 through 4, Scheme 1).
Our ongoing interest in the synthesis and study of
biologically active carbohydrate containing natural prod-
ucts,[8] along with these biosynthetic questions, made us
interested in this class of natural products. Specifically, we
were interested in testing our hypothesis that by employing a
6p-electrocylic ring closure for the B-ring construction, one
[*] M. Shan, E. U. Sharif, Prof. G. A. O’Doherty
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115 (USA)
E-mail: G.O’Doherty@neu.edu
[**] We are grateful to the NIH (GM088839) and NSF (CHE-0749451)
for their generous support of our research program. A dissertation
fellowship to M.S. from WVU’s Office of Graduate Study and Life is
greatly appreciated.
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW
Scheme 3. Our biomimetic approach toward the jadomycins.
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ꢀ 2010 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2010, 49, 9492 –9495