Novel, biologically active substances from nature often provide excitement, stimulation, challenges, and opportunities for the scientific and medical communities. Experience and wisdom dictate investigation of their chemistry and pursuit of their chemical synthesis for more often than not, the rewards for both chemistry and medicine are great. The enediyne anticancer antibiotics are a rapidly emerging class of such compounds derived from bacterial sources. Combining unprecedented and highly unusual molecular architecture, phenomenal biological activities and fascinating modes of action, these DNA cleaving compounds burst onto the scene in the latter half of the 1980s when their structures became known, and they rapidly moved to center stage. Today the enediyne family includes the neocarzinostatin chromophore, the calicheamicins, the esperamicins, and the dynemicins, and soon the number of family members is certain to increase. These molecules elicited extensive research activities in chemical, biological, and biomedical circles and inspired the design of a number of novel molecular assemblies to probe and mimic their chemical and biological actions. A new body of synthetic technology and several novel synthetic strategies have already been devised to address the challenges posed by these molecules, and several new DNA cleaving agents have been designed and synthesized. This article summarizes the chemistry and biology of the enediynes and discusses mechanistic, synthetic, molecular design, and DNA cleavage aspects associated with the field.

The epothilones are naturally occurring antimitotic drugs that share with the taxanes a similar mechanism of action without apparent structural similarity. Although photoaffinity labeling and electron crystallographic studies have identified the taxanebinding site on ␤-tubulin, similar data are not available for epothilones. To identify tubulin residues important for epothilone binding, we have isolated two epothilone-resistant human ovarian carcinoma sublines derived in a single-step selection with epothilone A or B. These epothilone-resistant sublines exhibit impaired epothilone-and taxane-driven tubulin polymerization caused by acquired ␤-tubulin mutations (␤274 Thr3 Ile and ␤282 Arg3 Gln ) located in the atomic model of ␣␤-tubulin near the taxane-binding site. Using molecular modeling, we investigated the conformational behavior of epothilone, which led to the identification of a common pharmacophore shared by taxanes and epothilones. Although two binding modes for the epothilones were predicted, one mode was identified as the preferred epothilone conformation as indicated by the activity of a potent pyridine-epothilone analogue. In addition, the structure-activity relationships of multiple taxanes and epothilones in the tubulin mutant cells can be fully explained by the model presented here, verifying its predictive value. Finally, these pharmacophore and activity data from mutant cells were used to model the tubulin binding of sarcodictyins, a distinct class of microtubule stabilizers, which in contrast to taxanes and the epothilones interact preferentially with the mutant tubulins. The unification of taxane, epothilone, and sarcodictyin chemistries in a single pharmacophore provides a framework to study drug-tubulin interactions that should assist in the rational design of agents targeting tubulin.

The farnesoid X receptor (FXR) functions as a bile acid (BA) sensor coordinating cholesterol metabolism, lipid homeostasis, and absorption of dietary fats and vitamins. However, BAs are poor reagents for characterizing FXR functions due to multiple receptor independent properties. Accordingly, using combinatorial chemistry we evolved a small molecule agonist termed fexaramine with 100-fold increased affinity relative to natural compounds. Gene-profiling experiments conducted in hepatocytes with FXR-specific fexaramine versus the primary BA chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) produced remarkably distinct genomic targets. Highly diffracting cocrystals (1.78 A) of fexaramine bound to the ligand binding domain of FXR revealed the agonist sequestered in a 726 A(3) hydrophobic cavity and suggest a mechanistic basis for the initial step in the BA signaling pathway. The discovery of fexaramine will allow us to unravel the FXR genetic network from the BA network and selectively manipulate components of the cholesterol pathway that may be useful in treating cholesterol-related human diseases.

o-Iodoxybenzoic acid (IBX), a readily available hypervalent iodine(V) reagent, was found to be highly effective in carrying out oxidations adjacent to carbonyl functionalities (to form alpha,beta-unsaturated carbonyl compounds) and at benzylic and related carbon centers (to form conjugated aromatic carbonyl systems). Mechanistic investigations led to the conclusion that these new reactions are initiated by single electron transfer (SET) from the substrate to IBX to form a radical cation which reacts further to give the final products. Fine-tuning of the reaction conditions allowed remarkably selective transformations within multifunctional substrates, elevating the status of this reagent to that of a highly useful and chemoselective oxidant.