Publications by authors named "Neil J Ashweek"

A new, second generation, total synthesis of ulapualide A (1), whose stereochemistry was recently determined from X-ray analysis of its complex with the protein actin, is described. The synthesis is designed and based on some speculation of the biosynthetic origin of the contiguous tris-oxazole unit in ulapualide A, alongside that of the related co-metabolites that contain only two oxazole rings, e.g.

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The present article describes a selection of a new class of small molecule antagonists for the h-GnRH receptor, their preparation, and evaluation in vitro. Three computational methods were combined into a consensus score, to rank order virtual templates. The top 5% of templates were further evaluated in silico and assessed for novelty and synthetic accessibility.

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A novel series of 2-(4,5,6,7-tetrahydro-1H-pyrrolo[3,2-c]pyridin-3-yl)-ethylamine derivatives were designed and synthesized as GnRH receptor antagonists. SAR studies led to a series of highly active molecules against both the rat and human receptors. Furthermore, one potent compound, 17j, demonstrated dose-dependent LH suppression in castrated rats.

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Kinetics experiments have been used to establish the free energy, enthalpy, and entropy of activation for the enantiomerization of three structural classes of 2-lithiopyrrolidines. We find that alpha-aminoorganolithiums chelated by a N-methoxyethyl or N-Boc group have a barrier to enantiomerization (DeltaG++) 2-3 kcal/mol lower than that of unstabilized alpha-aminoorganolithiums at 273 K. Density functional calculations were performed to clarify possible ground state and transition structures and to identify possible pathways for inversion of these chiral organolithium species.

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The synthesis of chiral 1,2-diamines and 1,3-diamines was achieved from the unsubstituted diamines by way of N-tert-butoxycarbonyl (Boc) substituted imidazolidines (tetrahydroimidazoles) and pyrimidines (hexahydro-1,3-diazines), which were treated with sec-butyllithium to effect deprotonation alpha- to the N-Boc group, followed by addition of an electrophile to give substituted products that could be hydrolysed under acidic conditions to give the substituted 1,2- or 1,3-diamines. Use of the chiral ligand (-)-sparteine promoted asymmetric deprotonation of the imidazolidine substrates to give, after hydrolysis, enantiomerically enriched 1,2-diamines.

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Enantiomerically enriched alpha-amino-organolithium species, in which the lithium atom is attached to a stereogenic carbon centre, have been found to be chemically stable at room temperature in a solvent of very low polarity and undergo intramolecular carbolithiation onto an unactivated alkene. The configurational stability of the chiral organolithium species, bearing a variety of N-alkenyl substituents, was probed by studying the enantiomeric purity of the cyclization products. With N-but-3-enyl-2-lithiopyrrolidine, cyclization to the five-membered ring is more rapid than racemization and a high yield of the pyrrolizidine alkaloid (+)-pseudoheliotridane was obtained with no loss of optical purity.

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