The discovery of artemisinin more than 30 years ago provided a completely new antimalarial structural prototype; that is, a molecule with a pharmacophoric peroxide bond in a unique 1,2,4-trioxane heterocycle. Available evidence suggests that artemisinin and related peroxidic antimalarial drugs exert their parasiticidal activity subsequent to reductive activation by haem, released as a result of haemoglobin digestion by the malaria-causing parasite. This irreversible redox reaction produces carbon-centred free radicals, leading to alkylation of haem and proteins (enzymes), one of which--the sarcoplasmic-endoplasmic reticulum ATPase PfATP6 (ref. 7)--may be critical to parasite survival. Notably, there is no evidence of drug resistance to any member of the artemisinin family of drugs. The chemotherapy of malaria has benefited greatly from the semi-synthetic artemisinins artemether and artesunate as they rapidly reduce parasite burden, have good therapeutic indices and provide for successful treatment outcomes. However, as a drug class, the artemisinins suffer from chemical (semi-synthetic availability, purity and cost), biopharmaceutical (poor bioavailability and limiting pharmacokinetics) and treatment (non-compliance with long treatment regimens and recrudescence) issues that limit their therapeutic potential. Here we describe how a synthetic peroxide antimalarial drug development candidate was identified in a collaborative drug discovery project.

The inability of the TE domain alone to catalyze cyclization suggests that macrocycle formation results from the combined action of the TE domain and a PKS module. The chain-length and stereochemical preferences of the TE domain might be relevant in the design and engineered biosynthesis of certain novel polyketides. Our results also suggest that the TE domain might loop back to catalyze the release of polyketide chains from both terminal and pre-terminal modules, which may explain the ability of certain naturally occurring PKSs, such as the picromycin synthase, to generate both 12-membered and 14-membered macrolide antibiotics.

The titanates derived from C(,C(,LY ',ol'-tetraaryl-l,3-dioxolane-4,5-dimethanols (TADDOLs, prepared from tartrate) act as catalysts for enantioselective additions of dialkylzinc compounds to aldehydes. For the standard reaction chosen for this investigation of the mechanism, the addition of diethylzinc to benzaldehyde, there is very little change of selectivity with different aryl substituents on the TADDOLate ligands (Tables 2 4 , examples). With 0.02 to 0.2 equiv. of the chiral titanates, selectivities above 90% are observed only in the presence of excess tetraisopropyl titanate! According to NMR measurements (Fig. 2), the chiral bicyclic titanate and the achiral titanate do not react to give new species under these conditions. From experiments with different stoichiometries of the components, and with different achiral or chiral OR groups on the Ti-atom of the seven-membered ring titanate, it is concluded i ) that a single chiral titanate is involved in the product-forming step, ii) that the bulky TADDOLate ligand renders the Ti-center catalytically more active than that of (i-PrO)4Ti, due to fast dynamics of ligand exchange on the sterically hindered Ti-center (Table 5, Fig.3), and iii) that the role of excess (i-PrO),Ti is to remove -by ligand exchange -the product alkoxides (R*O) from the catalytically active Ti-center (Scheme 4, Table 6 ) . Three new crystal structures of TADDOL derivatives (two clathrates with secondary amines, and a dimethyl ether) have been determined by X-ray diffraction (Figs. 5-7), and are compared with those previously reported. The distances between the C(aryl)*O oxygen atoms in the C2-and C1-symmetrical structures vary from 2.58 to 2.94 A, depending upon the conformation of their dioxolane rings and the presence or absence of an intramolecular H-bond (Fig. 8). A single-crystal X-ray structure of a spiro-titanate, with two TADDOLate ligands on the Ti-atom, is described (Fig. 9 ) ; it contains six different seven-membered titanate-ring conformations in the asymmetric unit (Fig. lo), which suggests a highly flexible solution structure. The structures of Ti TADDOLate complexes are compared with those of C,-symmetrical Ru, Rh, and Pd disphosphine chelates ( Table 7). A common topological model is presented for all nucleophilic additions to aldehydes involving Ti TADDOLates (Si attack with (R,R)-derivatives, relative topicity unlike ; Fig. 11 ). Possible structures of complexes containing bidentate substrates for Ti TADDOLate-mediated ene reactions and cycloadditions are proposed (Fig. 12). A simple six-membered ring chair-type arrangement of the atoms involved can be used to describe the result of TADDOLate-mediated nucleophilic additions to aldehydes and ketones, with Ti, Zr, Mg, or A1 bearing the chiral ligand (Scheme 6). A proposal is also made for the geometry of the intermediate responsible for enantioselective hydrogenation of N-(acety1amino)cinnamate catalyzed by Rh complexes containing C2-symmetrical dipbosphines (Fig. 13).

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