G. Guerlet et al. / Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 21 (2011) 3608–3612
3611
antagonist31 and cyclopamine, desmethylveramiline (1) is a micro-
molar inhibitor of the Shh signaling pathway as measured in the
luciferase-based and the AP assays (Table 1). Interestingly aza-ste-
roid (1) reveals an inhibitory activity towards Shh signaling in the
same range than cyclopamine. In the Shh-light2 assay, des-
12. (a) Manetti, F.; Faure, H.; Roudaut, H.; Gorojankina, T.; Traiffort, E.;
Schoenfelder, A.; Mann, A.; Solinas, A.; Taddei, M.; Ruat, M. Mol. Pharmacol.
2010, 78, 658; (b) Roudaut, H.; Traiffort, E.; Gorojankina, T.; Vincent, L.; Faure,
H.; Schoenfelder, A.; Mann, A.; Manetti, F.; Solinas, A.; Taddei, M.; Ruat, M.
Mol. Pharmacol. 2011, 79, 453.
13. Fernholtz acid was purchased from Steraloids Inc. (USA).
14. Winkler, J. D.; Isaacs, A.; Laura Holderbaum, L.; Tatard, V.; Nadia Dahmane, N.
Org. Lett. 2009, 11, 2824.
methylveramiline (1) (IC50 = 1.1
lM) is three to four times less po-
15. Atot, M.; Schmidt, S. J.; Adams, J. L.; Dolle, R. E.; Kruse, L. I.; Frey, C. L.; Barone,
J. M. J. Med. Chem. 1992, 35, 100.
16. Veenstra, S. J.; Schmid, P. Tetrahedron Lett. 1997, 38, 997.
17. Spangenberg, T.; Airiau, E.; Thuong, M. B. T.; Donnard, M.; Billet, M.; Mann, A.
Synlett 2008, 2859.
18. Loh, T.-P.; Xu, J.; Hu, Q.-Y.; Vittal, J. J. Tetrahedron: Asymmetry 1565, 2000, 11.
19. Ojima, I.; Tsai, C.-Y.; Tzamarioudaki, M.; Bonafoux, D. Org. React. 2000, 56, 1.
20. Breit, B.; Seiche, W. Synthesis 2001, 1.
21. Billig, E.; Abatjoglou, A. G.; Bryant, D.R. US patent 4,668,651 1987; Chem. Abstr.
1987, 107, 7392.
22. Cuny, G. D.; Buchwald, S. L. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1993, 115, 2066.
23. Toros, S.; Gemes-Pesci, I.; Heil, B.; Maho, S.; Tuba, Z. J. Chem. Soc., Chem.
Commun. 1992, 11, 858.
24. Chiou, W.-H.; Schoenfelder, A.; Sun, L.; Mann, A.; Ojima, I. J. Org. Chem. 2007,
72, 9418.
25. Airiau, E.; Chemin, C.; Girard, N.; Lonzi, G.; Mann, A.; Petricci, E.; Salvadori, J.;
Taddei, M. Synthesis 2010, 17, 2901.
26. Airiau, E.; Spangenberg, T.; Girard, N.; Schoenfelder, A.; Salvadori, J.; Taddei,
M.; Mann, A. Chem. Eur. J. 2009, 14, 10938.
tent than cyclopamine itself (IC50 = 0.3
l
M) (Fig. 2). These results
demonstrate that aza-steroid 1, missing some structural elements
in respect to cyclopamine such as the C-nor-D-Homo substructure
and the E-furane ring, can operate as a micromolar inhibitor of Shh
signaling in the two distinct assays. Those results are in line with
recent results reported by Winckler’s group for a steroidal ana-
logue of cyclopamine (Table 1).14
In conclusion we have shown that the combination of an aza-
Sakurai-Hosomi with a hydroformylation reaction is a powerful
tactic for the preparation of 25-desmethyl-veramiline (1), a steroi-
dal alkaloid, in seven steps from Fernholtz acid (57% overall yield);
from a biological point of view that 1 is a micromolar inhibitor on
Shh signaling. It comforts the assumption that a well designed aza-
steroid may match the activity of cyclopamine. Further studies on
this topic are currently undertaken in our laboratory.32
27. Crystallographic data for 1: formula: C26H43NO, CHCl3; space group: P 21 21 21;
cell lengths: a: 7.3450(2); b: 14.1260(4); c: 26.1680(8); cell angles:
a: 90.00; b:
90.00;
c
: 90.00; cell volume: 2715.0 Z: 4 Z0: 0; R-factor (%): 6.0. The data have
Acknowledgements
been registered at the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Bank with the
following number CCDC 801379.
The authors thankDr. L. Brelot for the crystallographic analysis, P.
Wehrung and P. Buisine for providing HR-MS support and
C. Antheaume for NMR expertise. T.S. gratefully acknowledges the
‘Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche’ for a fel-
lowship. This work was supported by a grant from La Ligue contre le
Cancer (Comité des Yvelines) to M.R.
28. Fousteris, M. A.; Schubert, U.; Roell, D.; Roediger, J.; Bailis, N.; Nikolaropoulos,
S. S.; Baniahmad, A.; Giannis, A. Bioorg. Med. Chem. 2010, 18, 6960.
29. Pascual, O.; Traiffort, E.; Baker, D. P.; Galdes, A.; Ruat, M.; Champagnat, J. Eur. J.
Neurosci. 2005, 22, 389.
30. Chen, J. K.; Taipale, J.; Young, K. E.; Maiti, T.; Beachy, P. A. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.
U.S.A. 2002, 99, 14071.
31. Williams, J. A.; Guicherit, O. M.; Zaharian, B. I.; Xu, Y.; Chai, L.; Wichterle, H.;
Kon, C.; Gatchalian, C.; Porter, J. A.; Rubin, L. L.; Frank, Y.; Wang, F. Y. Proc. Natl.
Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2003, 100, 4616.
References and notes
32. Experimental for selected compounds
(3b,20S)-pregn-5-ene-22S-benzylbut-24-enylcarbamate (6). In a flame dried
flask under argon was introduced 21 (300 mg, 0.675 mmol) and anhydrous
DCM (2.25 mL). Benzylcarbamate (102 mg, 0.675 mmol) was added and the
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mixture was cooled to 0 °C. Trimethylallylsilane (107
added followed by the dropwise addition of freshly distilled trifluoroboron
etherate (87 L, 0.675 mmol). The mixture turns pink after 1 h at 0 °C then blue
lL, 0.675 mmol) was
l
after allowing the temperature to reach room temperature for 1.5 h. Saturated
aqueous NaHCO3 was then added and the mixture was extracted with DCM
(three times). The organic layer was dried over Na2SO4 and the solvent was
removed under reduced pressure. The residue was purified by silica gel
chromatography (heptane/EtOAc 7:3) to yield a white solid (296 mg, 87%).
Rf = 0.20 (heptane/EtOAc 7:3). Mp: 151–152° C. ½a D20
ꢁ
ꢂ39.2 (c 1, CHCl3). 1H NMR
(200 MHz, CDCl3): d 7.33 (m, 5H), 5.72 (m, 1H), 5.33 (m, 1H), 5.07 (m, 2H), 4.97
(m, 1H), 4.47 (m, 1H), 3.86 (m, 1H), 3.50 (m, 1H), 0.98 (s, 3H), 0.86 (d, J = 6,8 Hz,
3H), 0.66 (s, 3H). 13C NMR (75 MHz, CDCl3): d 157.0 (CO), 140.9 (Cquat), 136.7
(Cquat), 135.3 (CH), 128.6 (CHAr), 128.1 (CHAr), 121.6 (CH), 117.1 (CH2), 71.6
(CH), 66.9 (CH), 66.7 (CH2), 56.7 (CH), 53.0 (CH), 50.2 (CH), 42.3 (CH2–CH), 39.8
(CH2), 39.0 (CH2), 38.7 (CH), 37.4 (CH2), 36.5 (Cquat), 32.0 (CH), 31.9 (CH2), 31.6
(CH2), 28.3 (CH2), 24.3 (CH2), 21.2 (CH2), 19.5 (CH3), 12.5 (CH3), 11.8 (CH3). HR-
MS (ESI positive): calculated (M+1) 506.3629, found (M+1) 506.3615.
(3b,20S)-pregn-5-ene-22S-benzyl-25,26-dehydropiperidincarboxylate (7). In a
dry autoclave under argon was introduced para-toluenesulfonic acid
monohydrate (17 mg, 0.089 mmol). In a flame dried schlenk under argon
was introduced Rh(CO)2(acac) (4 mg, 0.019 mmol), anhydrous and degassed
THF followed by biphephos (23 mg, 0.036 mmol). CO evolution was observed.
Compound 22 (100 mg, 0.196 mmol) was then added and the mixture was
transferred in the autoclave and the schlenk was rinsed three times with THF
(Vtot = 11 mL). After three H2/CO (1:1) flushing cycles, the pressure was set at
5 bar and the autoclave was heated at 65 °C (internal temperature) for 18 h.
After cooling, the mixture was transferred into a flask and the solvent was
removed under reduced pressure. The residue was purified by silica gel
chromatography (heptane/EtOAc 7:3) to yield the desired enamide 23 as a
8. Cooper, M. K.; Porter, J. A.; Young, K. E.; Beachy, P. A. Science 1998, 280, 1603.
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10. Tremblay, M. R.; Lescarbeau, A.; Grogan, M. J.; Tan, E.; Lin, G.; Austad, B. C.; Yu,
L.-C.; Behnke, M. L.; Nair, S. J.; Hagel, M.; White, K.; Conley, J.; Manna, L. D.;
Alvarez-Diez, T. M.; Hoyt, J.; Woodward, C. N.; Sydor, J. R.; Pink, M.;
MacDougall, J.; Campbell, M. J.; Cushing, J.; Ferguson, J.; Curtis, M. S.;
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Chem 2009, 52, 4400.
white solid (296 mg, 87%). Mp: 128–129 °C. ½a D20
ꢁ
ꢂ56.1 (c 1, CHCl3). 1H NMR
(200 MHz CDCl3): d 7.29 (m, 5H), 6.88 (m, 1H), 5.33 (m, 1H), 5.17 (m, 2H), 4.88
(m, 1H), 4.19 (m, 1H), 3.52 (m, 1H), 1.25 (d, J = 6.8 Hz, 3H), 1.24 (s, 3H), 0.97 (s,
3H).13C NMR (50 MHz CDCl3): d 154.1 (CO), 141.0 (Cquat), 136.6 (Cquat), 129.2
(C36), 128.7 (CHAr), 126.0 (CHAr), 121.8 (CH), 106.6 (CH), 71.9 (CH), 67.7 (CH2),
56.3 (CH), 55.7 (CH), 53.7 (CH), 50.3 (CH), 42.5 (CH2), 39.8 (CH2), 37.5 (CH2),
36.7 (Cquat), 32.0 (CH CH2), 31.8 (CH2), 29.9 (CH2), 28.0 (CH2), 24.5 (CH2), 21.2
(CH2), 19.6 (CH3), 16.3 (CH3), 11.8 (CH3).
25-desmethylveramiline (1)
In a flame dried flask under argon was introduced 23 (77 mg, 0.149 mmol)
in anhydrous EtOAc (3 mL) and Pd/C 10% (15 mg). A hydrogen balloon was
bubbled in the mixture for 1 min and the mixture was stirred for 2 days
11. Gaffield, W.; Keeler, R. F. Pure Appl. Chem. 1994, 66, 2407.