X. Wang et al. / Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 15 (2005) 4919–4922
4921
(45%) due to partial decomposition, incomplete conver-
sion, and a small amount of di-alkylation, compounds
6a and 7a could easily be obtained, individually, after
column chromatography. Intramolecular lactonization
was achieved quantitatively using 1-(3-dimethylamino-
the translation level. To our delight, the two tightest
binders 12a and 13a from the mass spectrometry assay
did show moderate functional activity.
In conclusion, aminoglycoside analogs lacking a carbo-
hydrate ring have been prepared, demonstrated to have
significant binding to its 16S A-site rRNA target, and
shown to have the ability to inhibit bacterial transla-
tions. This opens up the possibilities of generating
libraries of synthetic compounds mimicking the confor-
mation and function of aminoglycosides lacking the
structural features most recognized by aminoglycoside
modifying enzymes. These compounds offer a new strat-
egy to combat prevalent and persistent bacterial resis-
tance emerging in the clinic.
propyl)-3-ethylcarbodiimide
hydrochloride
(EDA-
CÆHCl); however, attempts to isolate and purify the
lactone were unsuccessful. Alternatively, the lactone
could be reduced by DIBAL, without purification of
the starting material, cleanly and smoothly to give inter-
mediates 8a and 9a, individually. A subsequent reduc-
tive amination, azido reduction, and Boc removal
gave the final compounds 12a and 13a, which were
purified by preparative LC–MS. The p-methoxybenzyl
(PMB) substituted analogs were made in a similar
manner, except intermediates 6b and 7b were not sepa-
rable by silica gel chromatography; however, the final
mixture of compounds 12b and 13b was easily separat-
ed by preparative LC–MS. Regioselective synthesis of
8b or 9b from 4b was attempted using Bu2SnO and
allyl bromide and then oxidative cleavage. Only one
regioisomer 9b was obtained in 18% yield. The regio-
chemistries of compounds 12a,b and 13a,b were ascer-
tained by 1-D NMR (1H, 13C, and DEPT) and 2-D
NMR (COSY, HMQC, and HMBC) (see Scheme 2).
Acknowledgments
We thank Lisa Risen for running antibacterial assays,
and Dr. Richard H. Griffey and Prof. Stephen Hanes-
sian for helpful discussions.
Supplementary data
Supplementary data associated with this article can be
The carboxylic acid regioisomers 6a and 7a were also
directly coupled with primary amines to form amides
14 and 15. A subsequent azido reduction using transfer
hydrogenation yielded final compounds 16 and 17. The
regiochemistries of compounds 16 and 17 were con-
firmed by 2-D NMR (see Scheme 3).
References and notes
1. Vakulenko, S. B.; Mobashery, S. Clin. Microb. Rev. 2003,
16, 430.
2. Govaerts, P. J.; Claes, J.; Van de Heyning, P. H.; Jorens, P.
G.; Marquet, J.; De Broe, M. E. Toxicol. Lett. 1990, 52, 227.
3. Wu, W.-J.; Sha, S.-H.; Schacht, J. Audiol. Neuro-Otol.
2002, 7, 171.
4. Smith, C. A.; Baker, E. N. Curr. Drug Targets—Infect.
Dis. 2002, 2, 143.
5. Sucheck, S. J.; Shue, Y.-K. Curr. Opin. Drug Discovery
Dev. 2001, 4, 462.
6. Tok, J. B.; Bi, L. Curr. Top. Med. Chem. 2003, 3, 1001.
7. Barluenga, S.; Simonsen, K. B.; Littlefield, E. S.; Ayida, B.
K.; Vourloumis, D.; Winters, G. C.; Takahashi, M.;
Shandrick, S.; Zhao, Q.; Han, Q.; Hermann, T. Bioorg.
Med. Chem. Lett. 2004, 14, 713.
The noncovalent binding interaction between the syn-
thetic aminoglycosides and RNA was studied by high-
resolution FTICR mass spectrometry.22 As shown in
Table 1, the addition of the alkyl amino chain (12a,b
and 13a,b) improved the binding activity over the
unsubstituted 5a and 5b by a factor of 10. Quinoline-
substituted analogs bind stronger than the PMB substi-
tuted (12a vs 12b and 13a vs 13b) versions. The presence
of the amide moiety dramatically decreases the binding
affinity (16 vs 12a and 17 vs 13a). A cell-free bacterial
transcription/translation (T/T) assay was run to measure
the functional activity of these compounds inhibiting at
8. Vourloumis, D.; Takahashi, M.; Winters, G. C.; Simon-
sen, K. B.; Ayida, B. K.; Barluenga, S.; Qamar, S.;
Shandrick, S.; Zhao, Q.; Hermann, T. Bioorg. Med. Chem.
Lett. 2002, 12, 3367.
9. Seeberger, P. H.; Baumann, M.; Zhang, G.; Kanemitsu,
T.; Swayze, E. E.; Hofstadler, S. A.; Griffey, R. H. Synlett
2003, 1323.
Table 1. Calculated dissociation constant (Kd, lM) binding with 16S
A-site rRNAa and the cell-free functional transcription/translation
(T/T) IC50 (lM) assay
Compound
Kd (lM)
IC50 (lM)
10. Wang, J.; Li, J.; Tuttle, D.; Takemoto, J. Y.; Chang,
C.-W. T. Org. Lett. 2002, 4, 3997.
11. Greenberg, W. A.; Priestley, E. S.; Sears, P. S.; Alper, P.
B.; Christoph, R.; Hendrix, M.; Hung, S.-C.; Wong, C.-H.
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1999, 121, 6527.
Paromomycin
Neamine
5a
0.1
5
0.6
>50
>50
15.0
2.1
35
12a
13a
16
1.5
2
12. Hanessian, S.; Tremblay, M.; Kornienko, A.; Moitessier,
N. Tetrahedron 2001, 57, 3255.
241
88
>50
>50
>50
>50
>50
17
5b
13. Haddad, J.; Kotra, L. P.; Llano-Sotelo, B.; Kim, C.;
Azucena, E. F.; Liu, M.; Vakulenko, S. B.; Chow, C. S.;
Mobashery, S. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2002, 124, 3229.
14. Russell, R. J. M.; Murray, J. B.; Lentzen, G.; Haddad, J.;
Mobashery, S. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2003, 125, 3410.
315
27
12b
13b
10
a Ligands (7.5, 2.5, 0.75, and 0.25 lM); target RNA (0.1 lM).