| The epothilones cause microtubule hyperstabilization by the same mechanism of action as the successful anti-cancer drug Taxol RTM. The epothilones are equipotent to TaxolRTM but possess superior characteristics including activity against multi-drug resistant cancers. Several epothilone analogs are currently being evaluated in clinical trials.; The epothilones are polyketide natural products which possess a highly oxygenated 16-membered macrolide. In order to prepare epothilone analogs we propose to synthesize a de-aryl epothilone C analog and use phosphine-free Heck coupling to attach various aromatic groups. This would allow a rapid entry into a wide variety of epothilone analogs. A retrosynthetic analysis of the de-aryl epothilone C analog provides three key fragments which may be joined using a Suzuki coupling, a diastereospecific mixed aldol reaction and a Yamaguchi macrolactonization. |
