Biochemical synthesis of taxanes from mevalonate.

Taxanes are kinds of diterpenoids with important bioactivities, such as paclitaxel (taxol®) is an excellent natural broad-spectrum anticancer drug. Attempts to biosynthesize taxanes have made with limited success, mainly due to the bottleneck of the low efficiency catalytic elements. In this study, we developed an artificial synthetic system to produce taxanes from mevalonate (MVA) by coupling biological and chemical methods, which comprises multi-enzyme catalytic module, chemical catalytic module and yeast cell catalytic module.

Enantioselective propargylic amination and related tandem sequences to α-tertiary ethynylamines and azacycles.

Chiral α-tertiary amines and related azacycles are sought-after compounds for drug development. Despite progress in the catalytic asymmetric construction of aza-quaternary stereocentres, enantioselective synthesis of multifunctional α-tertiary amines remains underdeveloped. Enantioenriched α-disubstituted α-ethynylamines are attractive synthons for constructing chiral α-tertiary amines and azacycles, but methods for their catalytic enantioselective synthesis need to be expanded.

Visible-Light-Driven Chlorotrifluoromethylative and Chlorotrichloromethylative Cyclizations of Enynes.

Described herein is a visible-light-driven chlorotrifluoromethylative and chlorotrichloromethylative cyclization reaction to synthesize chlorotrifluoromethylated and chlorotrichloromethylated cyclic compounds. Visible-light photochemistry was utilized to generate trifluoromethyl and trichloromethyl radicals and trigger radical addition/cyclization/chlorination sequences. The use of terminal alkene-derived enynes enables the regioselective and stereoselective synthesis of chlorotrifluoromethylated and chlorotrichloromethylated pyrrolidines, piperidines, and cyclopentanes.