S. Kavoosi et al. / Tetrahedron Letters 57 (2016) 4364–4367
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Scheme 1. Synthesis of 8-bromo- and 8-azido-7-deazapurine nucleosides.
Thus the DBH/MeOH combination is the most efficient for synthe-
sizing 2f in terms of yield, reaction time, and product isolation.
Treatment of sangivamycin 1d with DBH (1.1 equiv) in MeOH
(rt, 30 min) yielded 2g (63%), whereas bromination of 1d with
NBS (1.5 equiv) in DMF for 1.5 h gave 2g in 40% yield in addition
to unidentified byproducts. The synthesis of 8-bromosangivamy-
cin 2g is usually achieved by the hydrolysis of 8-bromotoyoca-
mycin 2f with a concentrated NH4OH and 50% H2O2 solution.36
Attempts to synthesize 8-azidotubercidin 3a from 8-bromotu-
bercidin 2e [NaN3 (1–5 equiv)/DMF/rt–153 °C; NaN3 (3 equiv)/
TsOH (3 equiv)/EtOH/reflux] were unsuccessful. The higher elec-
unchanged starting material under various reaction conditions.
These results are in sharp contrast to 7-halo-7-deazapurines that
undergo smooth Sonogashira cross-coupling providing 7-alkynyl
analogs, which after further modifications provide derivatives with
interesting photophysical and biological properties.4,17
Since syntheses of 8-azidotubercidin 3a for the click reactions
were unsuccessful, the possibility to prepare 8-triazolyl adducts
of tubercidin 1b, using a direct C8AH activation of the 7-deaza-
purine ring, was explored next. Direct CAH fuctionalization of
purines and purine nucleosides has recently gained much atten-
tion.19,40–43 The examples include regioselective Pd-catalyzed
direct C8AH arylation of the 6-phenyl-7-deazapurines with aryl
halides to provide 8-arylated products albeit in low to moderate
yields.44 A regioselective direct CAH amination of the 7-deazapuri-
nes to give access to the 8-amino-,45 or 7-amino-7-deazapurine
analogs has also been reported.46 We found that treatment of
tubercidin 1b with benzotriazole (2 equiv) in the presence of I2
(0.4 equiv) and tert-butylhydroperoxide (TBHP; 5–6 M/decane,
2 equiv)47 in anhydrous DMF at 35 °C for 96 h showed ꢀ30% con-
version (TLC) to 8-(benzotriazol-1-yl)tubercidin 10 which was iso-
lated in 18% yield after column chromatography and HPLC
(Scheme 3). Increasing the amount of iodine from catalytic to sto-
ichiometric (3 equiv) afforded 10 in 35% yield after 16 h. 1H NMR
data showed that the 7.60 ppm doublet for H7 in 1b collapsed to
a singlet at 7.04 ppm in 10.
tron density of
p-excessive pyrrole ring most probably prevented
the nucleophilic substitution reaction. However, treatment of 8-
bromotoyocamycin 2f with NaN3 in DMF at room temperature
for 16 h produced 8-azidotoyocamycin 3b in 46% isolated yield
(70%, based on TLC and 1H NMR of the crude reaction mixture).
Although this azidation reaction was light- and heat-sensitive
and required the reaction, purification, and characterization to be
carried out in the dark, the isolated 8-azido product 3b was stable
for days when stored in refrigerator at 4 °C.23,38 The presence of the
EWG on the 7-position of the pyrrole ring in toyocamycin, as com-
pared to tubercidin, could be the reason for successful substitution
of bromide by azide in 2f. Treatment of 8-bromosangivamycin 2g
with NaN3 in DMF (as well as in DMSO or MeOH) at rt or 70 °C
failed to produce the desired 8-azidosangivamycin 3c.
SPAAC reaction of 8-azidotoyocamycin 3b with symmetrically
fused cyclopropyl cyclooctyne 4 (OCT) in an aqueous solution of
acetonitrile (ACN) at ambient temperature (4 h) gave the 8-
(1,2,3-triazol-1-yl) product 5 as a mixture of two isomers (60%,
Scheme 2). Analogous reaction (4 h) of 3b with a strain modulated
dibenzylcyclooctyne 6 (DBCO) produced triazole 7 as a mixture of
isomers (47%) after RP-HPLC purification. The resulting triazolyl
products have ‘light-up’ (inherited) fluorescent properties (Table 1),
due to increased conjugation in the 7-deazapurine ring, and can
therefore be used for fluorescent imaging in cancer cells, as
recently reported with 8-triazolyl purine and 5-triazolyl pyrim-
idine nucleosides.26,27 CuAAC reaction of 8-azido 3b with pheny-
lacetylene in aqueous MeOH (4 days/rt) gave 8-(4-phenyl-1H-
The C8 regioselectivity for the oxidative cross-coupling product
10 was established by an X-ray crystal structure determination
(Fig. 1).48 It is noteworthy that the 7-deazapurine ring and the ben-
zotriazole ring are twisted to each other with an angle of 67.9°
between the planes, which does not favor intermolecular
p-p
interactions. The glycosyl torsion angle C4–N9–C10–O40 is 59.8°
(syn conformation) and the furanose pseudorotation angle49 is
162.9° (2E conformation). The C30–C40–C50–O50 torsion angle is
54.1° and is in g+/gg range.
Treatment of 1b with 5-methylbenzotriazole [I2 (0.2 equiv)/
TBHP/DMF/rt/5 days] produced a 3:2 mixture of 5-methyl- and
6-methylbenzotriazol-1-yl adducts 11a/11b (6%). Reaction with
stoichiometric amount of iodine (3 equiv) resulted in the efficient
conversion to 11a/11b (48%; ꢀ80% based on TLC after 15 min),
showing generality of the iodine-mediated direct activation of
tubercidin ring at C8. Analogous treatment of 1b with 5-chloroben-
zotriazole (3 equiv) produced 5/6-chlorobenzotriazol-1-yl adducts
12a/12b (1:1, 21%; ꢀ60% conversion on TLC). Because 7-deaza-
purine is structurally similar to indole, the coupling of 1b with
benzotriazole might have occurred via initial iodination of the pyr-
role ring of 7-deazapurine followed by trapping of the resulting
iodonium, or 7-iodo iminium intermediates, with nucleophilic tri-
azole. Subsequent elimination of HI, as proposed for the iodine-cat-
alyzed direct activation of indoles with azoles mediated by TBHP,47
1,2,3-triazol-1-yl)toyocamycin
purification.
9
(65%) after silica column
Our attempts to prepare 8-alkynyl-7-dezapurine derivatives,
which could serve as substrates for the synthesis of the underde-
veloped 8-(1,2,3-triazol-4-yl) adducts via click reactions with orga-
noazides were unsuccessful. Thus, treatment of 8-bromotubercidin
(2e), 8-bromotoyocamycin (2f), 8-bromo-20,30,50-tri-O-acetyltoy-
ocamycin,39 or 8-iodotoyocamycin [prepared by treatment of the
silylated toyocamycin with LDA (5 equiv) and iodine (I2, 1.5 equiv)
in THF (16%)] with trimethylsilylacetylene (TMSA) in the presence
of TEA and (PPh3)2PdCl2/CuI in anhydrous DMF showed mainly