Marine natural products

This review covers the literature published in 2003 for marine natural products, with 619 citations (413 for the period January to December 2003) referring to compounds isolated from marine microorganisms and phytoplankton, green algae, brown algae, red algae, sponges, coelenterates, bryozoans, molluscs, tunicates and echinoderms. The emphasis is on new compounds (656 for 2003), together with their relevant biological activities, source organisms and country or origin. Biosynthetic studies or syntheses that lead to the revision of structures or stereochemistries have been included (78), including any first total syntheses of a marine natural product.     

Biosynthesis, total syntheses, and antitumor activity of tanshinones and their analogs as potential therapeutic agents

Tanshinones are a series of abietane diterpenes, isolated exclusively from Salvia miltiorrhiza and related species. More than 40 tanshinones and their analogs have been isolated since the 1930s. Their biosynthetic pathway correlates with the MEP/DOXP pathway, and many key enzymes, such as mCPS, are responsible for establishing their molecular scaffolds and stereospeci?city. Because of their unique structural characteristics and promising biological activities, total syntheses of various tanshinones have attracted the interest of many synthetic chemists, including R. H. Thomson, H. Kakisawa, R. L. Danheiser, Y. Inouye and J. K. Snyder. Tanshinones and their analogs exhibit interesting and broad antitumor activity in various cell and animal models. Most recently, the tanshinone analog neo-tanshinlactone has shown potent and selective activity against breast cancer. This review will discuss the biosynthesis, total syntheses, and antitumor activities of tanshinones,especially neo-tanshinlactone and its analogs.     

氨基硫脲及其相关化合物的化学

本文综述了氨基硫脲及其相关化合的合成、波谱和化学性质以及在药物、工业、农业等方面的应用。     

Actin-binding marine macrolides: total synthesis and biological importance

Marine organisms produce a fascinating range of structurally diverse secondary metabolites, which often possess unusual and sometimes unexpected biological activities. This structural diversity makes these marine natural products excellent molecular probes for the investigation of biochemical pathways. Recently, a number of novel and stereochemically complex macrolides, having a large macrolactone (22- to 44-membered) ring, that interact with the actin cycloskeleton have been isolated from different marine sources. Actin, like tubulin, is a major component of the cytoskeleton and has important cellular functions. Although the details of these interactions are still under investigation, these marine macrolides are becoming increasingly important as novel molecular probes to help elucidate the cellular functions of actin. Owing to their potent antitumor activities, these compounds, for example the aplyronines, also have potential for preclinical development in cancer chemotherapy. Their appealing molecular structures, with an abundance of stereochemistry, and biological significance, coupled with the extremely limited availability from the marine sources, have stimulated enormous interest in the synthesis of these compounds. This review summarizes the biological properties of these unusual marine natural products and features the recently completed total syntheses of swinholide A, scytophycin C, aplyronine A, mycalolide A--all of these being potent cytotoxic agents that target actin--and a diastereoisomer of ulapualide A. Rather than detailing each individual step of these multistep total syntheses, the different synthetic strategies, key reactions, and methods adopted for controlling the stereochemistry are compared.     

Facile syntheses of all possible diastereomers of conduritol and various derivatives of inositol stereoisomers in high enantiopurity from myo-inositol

Phosphoinositide-based signaling processes are crucially important in intracellular signal transduction events. Inositol phosphate analogues have been useful in probing the structure-activity relationships between inositol phosphates and biomacromolecules, and in studying biological functions of newly found inositol phosphates. Thus, a systematic and ready access to inositol stereoisomers is highly desirable. And practical and convenient syntheses of conduritols and related compounds are also important because of their biological activities and their synthetic utilities in the preparation of other bioactive molecules. We herein report the first syntheses of all possible diastereomers of conduritol and various derivatives of eight inositol stereoisomers in high enantiopurity from myo-inositol, which involve efficient enzymatic resolution of the intermediates conduritol B and C derivatives, followed by oxidation-reduction or the Mitsunobu reaction, and cis-dihydroxylation in stereo- and regioselective manners.     

4-羟基-2-吡啶酮类天然生物碱的研究进展

4-羟基-2-吡啶酮类生物碱是从植物和昆虫等内生真菌发酵液中提取分离得到的一类新型天然生物碱, 具有抗真菌、抗菌和抗肿瘤等多种生物活性. 对近年来4-羟基-2-吡啶酮类天然生物碱的分离、结构确证和全合成等进行了总结和概述, 重点介绍了Ilicilolin H, Tenellin和Sambutaxin等的全合成.     

Marine natural products

This review covers the literature published in 2002 for marine natural products, with 579 citations (413 for the period January to December 2002) referring to compounds isolated from marine microorganisms and phytoplankton, green algae, brown algae, red algae, sponges, coelenterates, bryozoans, molluscs, tunicates and echinoderms. The emphasis is on new compounds (677 for 2002), together with their relevant biological activities, source organisms and country of origin. Syntheses that lead to the revision of structures or stereochemistries have been included (114), including any first total syntheses of a marine natural product.     

From Lianas to Glycobiology Tools: Twenty-Five Years of 2,5-Dideoxy-2,5-imino-D-mannitol

Summary.  2,5-Dideoxy-2,5-imino-D-mannitol (DMDP) has been isolated from several natural sources. Many synthetic approaches are available, and many derivatives have been synthesized and their biological activities have been investigated. An overview on isolation, syntheses, and biological data of DMDP as well as some closely related compounds will be given in this review. Received November 14, 2001. Accepted November 19, 2001     

天然5,7-二羟基-3-异戊烯基黄酮与5-羟基-3-异戊烯基黄酮的全合成

以2,4,6-三羟基苯乙酮和2,6-二羟基苯乙酮为原料, 分别通过甲基保护酚羟基、 苯甲酰氯酰化、 Bake-Venkataraman重排、 异戊烯基化、 酸催化关环及EtSLi脱去甲基等6步反应, 以高收率完成了天然5,7-二羟基-3-异戊烯基黄酮(1a, 收率80.6%)和5-羟基-3-异戊烯基黄酮(1b, 收率84.9%)的全合成, 所有化合物均经 ¹H NMR 和 ¹³C NMR表征确定. 通过密度泛函理论方法对目标产物(1a和1b)的生物活性进行了预测. 结果表明, 3位异戊烯基侧链的存在能大大增强化合物相应的生物活性, 而且是化合物生物活性增强必需的取代基. 另外, 目标产物1a的生物活性高于产物1b, 归因于黄酮类化合物分子中A环上的7-OH属增效基团, 起到增强生物活性的作用, 化合物1a分子中A环上有7-OH, 而化合物1b分子中则无该基团. 本合成方法对其它3-烃基黄酮类天然化合物的合成具有潜在的适用性, 所预测的生物活性结果为3-烃基黄酮类化合物的构效关系研究奠定了基础.     

Marine natural products

This review covers the literature published in 2006 for marine natural products, with 758 citations (534 for the period January to December 2006) referring to compounds isolated from marine microorganisms and phytoplankton, green algae, brown algae, red algae, sponges, cnidaria, bryozoans, molluscs, tunicates and echinoderms. The emphasis is on new compounds (779 for 2006), together with their relevant biological activities, source organisms and country of origin. Biosynthetic studies, first syntheses, and syntheses that lead to the revision of structures or stereochemistries, have been included.     

Marine natural products

This review covers the literature published in 2005 for marine natural products, with 704 citations (493 for the period January to December 2005) referring to compounds isolated from marine microorganisms and phytoplankton, green algae, brown algae, red algae, sponges, coelenterates, bryozoans, molluscs, tunicates and echinoderms. The emphasis is on new compounds (812 for 2005), together with their relevant biological activities, source organisms and country of origin. Biosynthetic studies, first syntheses, and syntheses that lead to the revision of structures or stereochemistries, have been included.     

Nonribosomal peptides: from genes to products

The ability to synthesize nonribosomally small bioactive peptides that find application in modern medicine is widely spread among microorganisms. As broad as the spectrum of biological activities is the structural diversity of these peptides, which are mostly cyclic or branched cyclic compounds containing non-proteinogenic amino acids, small heterocyclic rings and other unusual modifications in the peptide backbone. They are synthesized by multimodular enzymes, the so-called nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs), from simple building blocks. Biochemical and genetic studies have unveiled the key principles of nonribosomal peptide syntheses, as well as the realization of many structural features of these peptides. This review focuses on recent results in NRPS research and highlights how this knowledge can be exploited for biotechnological purposes. In addition, possibilities and limitations for prediction of structural features of uncharacterized NRPSs and approaches for their engineering are discussed.     

Acetogenins from Annonaceae: recent progress in isolation, synthesis and mechanisms of action

The aim of the present review is to summarise the knowledge about newly isolated acetogenins (ACGs) in the last six years. It will also report the total syntheses that have allowed either the confirmation or the revision of some structures, together with the biological activities and mechanism of action of such interesting natural products. In fact, of the 417 isolated compounds reviewed, over 176 have been added during the period from 1998 to 2004.     

Synthesis and bioactivity of secondary metabolites from marine sponges containing dibrominated indolic systems

Marine sponges. (e.g., Hyrtios sp., Dragmacidin sp., Aglophenia pleuma, Aplidium cyaneum, Aplidium meridianum.) produce bioactive secondary metabolites involved in their defence mechanisms. Recently it was demonstrated that several of those compounds show a large variety of biological activities against different human diseases with possible applications in medicinal chemistry and in pharmaceutical fields, especially related to the new drug development process. Researchers have focused their attention principally on secondary metabolites with anti-cancer and cytotoxic activities. A common target for these molecules is the cytoskeleton, which has a central role in cellular proliferation, motility, and profusion involved in the metastatic process associate with tumors. In particular, many substances containing brominated indolic rings such as 5,6-dibromotryptamine, 5,6-dibromo-N-methyltryptamine, 5,6-dibromo-N-methyltryptophan (dibromoabrine), 5,6-dibromo-N,N-dimethyltryptamine and 5,6-dibromo-L-hypaphorine isolated from different marine sources, have shown anti-cancer activity, as well as antibiotic and anti-inflammatory properties. Considering the structural correlation between endogenous monoamine serotonin with marine indolic alkaloids 5,6-dibromoabrine and 5,6-dibromotryptamine, a potential use of some dibrominated indolic metabolites in the treatment of depression-related pathologies has also been hypothesized. Due to the potential applications in the treatment of various diseases and the increasing demand of these compounds for biological assays and the difficult of their isolation from marine sources, we report in this review a series of recent syntheses of marine dibrominated indole-containing products.     

抗癌大环化合物的环合方法

大环化合物具有广泛的生物活性.一些具有抗癌活性的天然大环化合物已开发成上市药物或应用于临床研究.在抗癌大环化合物的合成中,环合步骤是整个合成过程中的关键,同时也是难点所在.目前已经发展出了一些方便实用的环合方法.文章以具有抗癌作用的大环化合物为例,简要介绍各种常用的大环环合方法及应用.     

Piperazic acid-containing natural products: isolation, biological relevance and total synthesis

Since their first discovery in 1959, natural products containing the piperazic acid motif have been isolated from a variety of sources and exhibit diverse biological activity profiles. This review provides information about their isolation and biological activities, and presents an overview of recent total syntheses of these molecules.     

Xylochemical Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Shancigusin C and Bletistrin G

The biological activities of shancigusin C (1) and bletistrin G (2), natural products isolated from orchids, are reported along with their first total syntheses. The total synthesis of shancigusin C (1) was conducted by employing the Perkin reaction to forge the central stilbene core, whereas the synthesis of bletistrin G (2) was achieved by the Wittig olefination followed by several regioselective aromatic substitution reactions. Both syntheses were completed by applying only renewable starting materials according to the principles of xylochemistry. The cytotoxic properties of shancigusin C (1) and bletistrin G (2) against tumor cells suggest suitability as a starting point for further structural variation.     

Reactive Organometallic Compounds Obtained from Metallocenes and Related Compounds and Their Synthetic Applications

Progress in the synthesis of organometallic compounds via the partial or total degradation of metallocenes and related compounds under mild reaction conditions is reviewed. These degradation reactions permit highly reactive organo-transition metal complexes to be prepared which can in turn be used in a wide range of synthetic reactions. Examples include catalytic reactions such as the cobalt-catalyzed hydrogenation of benzene and the manganese-catalyzed cyclotrimerization of butadiene as well as stoichiometric syntheses of mono- and polynuclear transition metal complexes, some of which have novel structural features.     

甾体内酯化合物的合成及生物活性研究进展

某些具有生理活性及结构特殊的甾体内酯类化合物引起了化学家的浓厚兴趣。本文按照不同的结构分类,对近年来有关甾体内酯化合物及其衍生物的合成和生理活性研究中具有代表性的工作进行综述,并对此方面的发展趋势、应用前景进行展望。     

An overview on synthetic entries to tetrahydro-β-carbolines

The tetrahydro-β-carboline (THBC) nucleus is a predominant feature of a vast array of naturally occurring alkaloids. Most of these alkaloids have been found to exhibit significant biological activities, which promote to develop a plethora of synthetic methods for the construction of THBCs. In this review, we focus on the recent developments and studies related to the synthesis of THBCs including total syntheses of related alkaloids mainly over the period of 2000–2017. In addition, a brief account of some significant THBC alkaloids with their sources and bioactivities is also presented in tabular format.