Synthetic studies on (-)-FR182877: construction of the ABCD ring system via the intramolecular cycloadditions (1)

Construction of the ABCD ring system of (-)-FR182877 via the highly diastereoselective intramolecular Diels-Alder (IMDA) reaction is described. The IMDA reaction of the α,β-unsaturated aldehyde generated in situ from the corresponding acetal successfully provided the desired product 14 possessing the AB ring system as the single diastereomer. The CD ring system was constructed by the subsequent IMHDA reaction and the additional experiment suggested that the diastereoselectivity of the IMHDA reaction could be related to the E/Z geometry of alkene 17, which was generated in situ from 16.