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B. Lee et al. / Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 26 (2016) 4277–4281
microvascular endothelial cells (HRECs) and blocks neovasculariza-
tion in the OIR and L-CNV models.27,33 Although the studies of
mechanisms and medicinal chemistry could contribute to many
therapeutic facets of the antiangiogenic homoisoflavonoids, their
exact mechanisms of action and cellular targets remain unknown,
so the search for direct interacting proteins is valuable.34,35 Herein
we report design and synthesis of homoisoflavonoid–biotin conju-
gates for inhibiting proliferation of endothelial cells and identify-
significant loss of activity by elongating a tethered biotin moiety
with hydrophilic groups. Unfortunately, the introduction of a
tether to the site of the NHBoc group in SH-11037 (2) was proven
to be problematic due to the low reactivity of the amino group and
instability of the ester group in the course of Boc-deprotection or
linking with a carbamate.
The synthesis of intermediate 10 is outlined in Scheme 1.24,36
Similar to the procedures reported previously, the synthesis of
biotinylated benzophenone was commenced with two different
alkylations of 4,40-dihydroxybenzophenone, which was treated
with propargylic bromide and K2CO3, followed by DIAD-mediated
Mitsunobu reaction using 3-(Boc-amino)-1-propanol to afford the
resulting bis-ether 7. The azide 8 which was obtained from treat-
ment of commercially available p-nitrophenyl ester of biotin
(Biotin-ONp) with N3-PEG3-CH2CH2NH2 was coupled with bis-ether
7 by Cu-catalyzed Huisgen 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition,37 followed by
the treatment of the resulting 1,2,3-triazole 9 with TFA to afford
benzophenone-linked biotin intermediate 10 in good yield. In
future target identification studies, 10 can also be utilized as a neg-
ative control compound which lacks the homoisoflavanone moiety.
To prepare the first photoaffinity probe 3, the bioactive and
racemic 3-benzyl-4-chromanone ( )-11 was chosen as a starting
material (Scheme 2).25–27 The phenolic OH on the C-30 position
was alkylated with tert-butyl bromoacetate under basic conditions,
followed by the acidic treatment of the ester 12 to afford the car-
boxylic acid 13. Finally, the carboxylic acid 13 was coupled with
the intermediate 10 by HBTU-mediated amidation to provide the
desired photoaffinity probe 3 in moderate yield.
For the photoaffinity probes modified at the para-position of the
phenylalanyl group of 2, Boc-Tyr(Bn)-OH was introduced into com-
pound 11 at the C-30 position by using EDCI (Scheme 3). The deben-
zylation of the ester 14 afforded the resulting compound 15, which
has a free OH group. The alkylation of 15 with benzyl bromoacetate
and subsequent hydrogenolysis under H2 and Pd/C generated the
carboxylic acid 16. In the end, the carboxylic acid 16 was coupled
with the intermediate 10 by HBTU-mediated amidation to afford
the desired photoaffinity probe 4a in good yield.
ing targets, adapting
a
synthetic strategy we previously
employed to generate homoisoflavanones.
On the basis of our SAR investigations in which the A and B-ring
modifications of homoisoflavonoids with trimethoxy and Boc-
phenylalanyl groups, respectively, had the most beneficial effects
on its activities and selectivities, trifunctional photoaffinity probes
were designed. We synthesized three kinds of photoaffinity probes
(3–5) by linking a trimethoxy derivative of cremastranone and
peptidylated active analog SH-11037 (2) to benzophenone and bio-
tin (Fig. 1) plus a control compound which lacks the homoisofla-
vanone moiety, for the future goal of detecting proteins that
interact with the homoisoflavonoid-labeled photoaffinity probes
in cell lysates. In particular, we modified the homoisoflavanone
scaffold at both C-7 and C-30 position with a benzophenone pho-
toreactive group for crosslinking and a biotin reporter group
through polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a linker. Thus, it was initially
considered to prepare a photoaffinity reagent linking on the phe-
nolic OH group of the C-30 position. It has been noted that the
selected substituents such as N-Boc phenylalanyl moiety, which
is added to the C-30 position of homoisoflavanone, are essential
for the improved antiangiogenic effect. However, because it is
uncertain where
a linker might impinge on function, we
anticipated that SH-11037 (2) could also be modified at the
para-position of the phenylalanyl group as well as C-7 without a
HO
O
O
5
3'
4'
MeO
HO
OH
6
A
B
We next investigated the synthesis of an amide-containing pho-
toaffinity probe, which might have increased stability compared to
the ester probe 4a. This amide compound 4b was synthesized from
homoisoflavanone 1727 having an amino group on the C30 position
to which Boc-Tyr(Bn)-OH was added by EDCI-mediated amidation
(Scheme 4). The resulting amide 18 was treated with H2 and Pd/C
to generate phenol 19. With phenol 19 in hand, the alkylation with
7
OMe
Cremastranone (1)
MeO
O
HNBoc
MeO
MeO
O
O
O
OMe
SH-11037 (2)
Design of photoaffinityprobes
MeO
MeO
O
O
NHBoc
O
3'
MeO
MeO
MeO
MeO
O
Bp
Bt
a-b
O
O
OMe
3
4
HO
OH
O
O
O
Bp
Bt
6
7
HNBoc
+
X
O
O
HN
c
H
O
Biotin-ONp
O
NH
N3
N
H
(X = O or NH)
O
O
OMe
O
3
S
8
H
MeO
HNBoc
O
d
MeO
O
O
O
HN
H
S
O
O
Bt
Bp
Bt
7
O
OMe
NH
N
N
N
H
5
O
O
3
2
N
H
O
R
biotin
9
(R = NHBoc)
10 (R = NH3+ CF3CO2
O
e
O
HN
-
H
)
Bp
O
O
NH
N
N
3
2 S
N
H
N
benzophenone
H
Scheme 1. Synthesis of benzophenone-linked biotin compound (10). Reagents and
conditions: (a) K2CO3, propargylic bromide, acetone, 82%; (b) DIAD, Boc-amino-
propanol, PPh3, THF, 70%; (c) 11-azido-3,6,9-trioxaundecan-1-amine, iPr2NEt, CH2-
Cl2, 49%; (d) CuSO4ꢀ5H2O, sodium ascorbate, t-BuOH/H2O, 40%; (e) TFA, CH2Cl2, 72%.
Figure 1. Structures of cremastranone (1), homoisoflavanone analogue SH-11037
(2) and photoaffinity probes (3–5). Bp: benzophenone, Bt: biotin.