Overexpression and somatic heterozygous mutations of EZH2, the catalytic subunit of polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2), are associated with several tumor types. EZH2 inhibitor, EPZ-6438 (tazemetostat), demonstrated clinical efficacy in patients with acceptable safety profile as monotherapy. EED, another subunit of PRC2 complex, is essential for its histone methyltransferase activity through direct binding to trimethylated lysine 27 on histone 3 (H3K27Me3). Herein we disclose the discovery of a first-in-class potent, selective, and orally bioavailable EED inhibitor compound 43 (EED226). Guided by X-ray crystallography, compound 43 was discovered by fragmentation and regrowth of compound 7, a PRC2 HTS hit that directly binds EED. The ensuing scaffold hopping followed by multiparameter optimization led to the discovery of 43. Compound 43 induces robust and sustained tumor regression in EZH2 preclinical DLBCL model. For the first time we demonstrate that specific and direct inhibition of EED can be effective as an anticancer strategy.

The therapeutic potential of cisplatin in ovarian cancer treatment is restricted by the occurrence of cellular resistance. We aimed to explore the role of SRPK1 in cisplatin resistance related to the long non-coding RNA UCA1 in ovarian cancer cell.Totally, 24 ovarian cancer tissues and 16 normal tissues were used to assess the expression of UCA1 RNA. UCA1 stable transfected SKOV3 cells were established and the ability of cell migration, invasion and cisplatin resistance was assessed. The expression of SRPK1 and apoptosis pathway proteins was then assessed to explore the mechanism. In addition, SRPK1 knockdown cell line was also established and the effects of SRPK1 on cell migration, invasion and cisplatin resistance was evaluated.Elevated expression of UCA1 RNA was identified in ovarian cancer tissues compared with normal tissues. Expression of UCA1 RNA in SKOV3 cells enhanced the cell migration, invasion and cisplatin resistance. Increased expression of SRPK1 and anti-apoptosis proteins were found in SKOV3/pcDNA-UCA1 cells. Knocking-down SRPK1 could partly rescue the effect of UCA1 expression on cell migration, invasion and cisplatin resistance in SKOV3 cells.Elevated expression of UCA1 RNA was found in ovarian cancer tissues. UCA1 can improve the cell migration, invasion and induce cisplatin resistance. SRPK1 and apoptosis pathway proteins may be involved in the effect of UCA1.

Chromium catalysts derived from chiral sulfonamides represented by A effect the couplings of aldehydes with vinyl, allyl, or alkyl halides. With three distinct sites for structural modification, A affords access to a structurally diverse pool of chiral sulfonamides. The Cr catalysts derived from these sulfonamides exhibit a broad range of catalyst-substrate matching profiles. A strategy is presented to search for a satisfactory chiral sulfonamide for a given substrate. In order to demonstrate the generality and effectiveness of this approach, five diverse C-C bond-forming cases have been selected from the halichondrin synthesis. For each of the cases, two ligands have been deliberately searched for, to induce the formation of (R)- and (S)-alcohols, respectively, at the arbitrarily chosen efficiency level of ">or=80% yield with >or=20:1 stereoselectivity in the presence of

A de novo asymmetric approach to the natural product anthrax tetrasaccharide 1 and an analogue 2 with an anomeric hexyl azide group has been developed from acetylfuran. The construction of the tetrasaccharide was achieved by a traditional [3 + 1] glycosylation strategy. An iterative diastereoselective palladium-catalyzed glycosylation, Luche reduction, diastereoselective dihydroxylation, and regioselective acylation were employed for the assembly of the L-rhamno-trisaccharide building block. The anthrose building block also required a palladium-catalyzed azide allylation and a triflate inversion to set the gluco-stereochemistry in addition to Luche reduction and dihydroxylation.

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The identification of activating mutations in NOTCH1 in 50% of T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia has generated interest in elucidating how these mutations contribute to oncogenic Reprints and permissions information is available at www.nature.com/reprints.

The enantioselective syntheses of daumone and two analogues have been achieved in seven to eight steps. This route relies upon a diasteroselective palladium-catalyzed glycosylation reaction for the formation of the anomeric bond. The asymmetry of the sugar and aglycone portion of daumone were introduced by Noyori reduction of an acylfuran and a propargyl ketone. A highly diastereoselective epoxidation and reductive ring opening established the desired C-2 and C-4 stereochemistry of daumone. [reaction: see text]

With sequential use of catalytic asymmetric Cr-mediated coupling reactions, E7389 C14-C35 and halichondrin C14-C38 building blocks have been stereoselectively synthesized. The C19-C20 bond is first formed via the catalytic asymmetric Ni/Cr-mediated coupling, i.e., 8 + 9 --> 10 (90%; dr = 22:1), in which vinyl iodide 8 is used as the limiting substrate. The C23-C24 bond is then formed via the catalytic asymmetric Co/Cr-mediated coupling, i.e., 13 + 14 --> 4 (82%; dr = 22:1), in which the alkyl-iodide bond in 14 is selectively activated over the vinyl-iodide bond. The catalytic asymmetric Ni/Cr-mediated reaction is employed to couple C14-C26 segment 19 with E7389 C27-C35 segment 20 (91%; dr = >55:1). In this synthesis, the C23-O bond is stereoselectively constructed via a double-inversion process, i.e., 21 --> 22, to furnish E7389 C14-C35 building block 22 in 84% yield. The same synthetic sequence has been employed to synthesize halichondrin C14-C38 building block 18b, i.e., 16a + 19 --> 18b.