Mutations in the leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) gene are the most common genetic cause of familial and sporadic Parkinson's disease (PD). That the most prevalent mutation, G2019S, leads to increased kinase activity has led to a concerted effort to identify LRRK2 kinase inhibitors as a potential disease-modifying therapy for PD. An internal medicinal chemistry effort identified several potent and highly selective compounds with favorable drug-like properties. Here, we characterize the pharmacological properties of cis-2,6-dimethyl-4-(6-(5-(1-methylcyclopropoxy)-1H-indazol-3-yl)pyrimidin-4-yl)morpholine (MLi-2), a structurally novel, highly potent, and selective LRRK2 kinase inhibitor with central nervous system activity. MLi-2 exhibits exceptional potency in a purified LRRK2 kinase assay in vitro (IC 50 5 0.76 nM), a cellular assay monitoring dephosphorylation of LRRK2 pSer935 LRRK2 (IC 50 5 1.4 nM), and a radioligand competition binding assay (IC 50 5 3.4 nM). MLi-2 has greater than 295-fold selectivity for over 300 kinases in addition to a diverse panel of receptors and ion channels. Acute oral and subchronic dosing in MLi-2 mice resulted in dosedependent central and peripheral target inhibition over a 24-hour period as measured by dephosphorylation of pSer935 LRRK2. Treatment of MitoPark mice with MLi-2 was well tolerated over a 15-week period at brain and plasma exposures .100Â the in vivo plasma IC 50 for LRRK2 kinase inhibition as measured by pSer935 dephosphorylation. Morphologic changes in the lung, consistent with enlarged type II pneumocytes, were observed in MLi-2-treated MitoPark mice. These data demonstrate the suitability of MLi-2 as a compound to explore LRRK2 biology in cellular and animal models.

Leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) is a large, multidomain protein which contains a kinase domain and GTPase domain among other regions. Individuals possessing gain of function mutations in the kinase domain such as the most prevalent G2019S mutation have been associated with an increased risk for the development of Parkinson's disease (PD). Given this genetic validation for inhibition of LRRK2 kinase activity as a potential means of affecting disease progression, our team set out to develop LRRK2 inhibitors to test this hypothesis. A high throughput screen of our compound collection afforded a number of promising indazole leads which were truncated in order to identify a minimum pharmacophore. Further optimization of these indazoles led to the development of MLi-2 (1): a potent, highly selective, orally available, brain-penetrant inhibitor of LRRK2.

A highly convergent synthesis of (-)-okilactomycin is described. Key reactions of this synthesis include a strategy-level diastereoselective oxy-Cope rearrangement/oxidation sequence, a Petasis-Ferrier union/rearrangement tactic, and an efficient RCM reaction to construct the 13-membered macrocyclic ring.

An effective, asymmetric total synthesis of the antitumor antibiotic (-)-okilactomycin (1) and assignment of the absolute configuration, has been achieved exploiting a convergent strategy. Highlights of the synthesis include: a diastereoselective oxy-Cope rearrangement/oxidation sequence to install the C(1) and C(13) stereogenic centers; a Petasis-Ferrier union/rearrangement to construct the highly functionalized tetrahydropyranone inscribed within the thirteen membered macrocycle ring, employing for the first time a sterically demanding acetal; an intramolecular chemoselective acylation to access an embedded bicyclic lactone; and an efficient ring closing metathesis (RCM) reaction to generate the macrocyclic ring.

3-(Hetero)arylindazoles are important motifs in several biologically active compounds. Mild and flexible palladium-mediated Negishi reaction conditions are reported for the introduction of (hetero)aryl moieties at the 3-position of N(2)-SEM-protected indazoles in high yields. The requisite Zn-species are readily obtained via regioselective deprotonation and subsequent transmetalation. The methodology tolerates a variety of functional groups on both coupling partners and has been extended to bis-haloarene and heteroarene coupling partners where the most reactive halogen reacts first, leaving the second halogen for subsequent functionalization.

The lituarines A-C comprise an architecturally novel, biologically active family of marine natural products (1-3; Figure 1) reported by Vidal and co-workers in 1992. 1a Isolated from the sea pen Lituaria australasaie, endemic to the western region of the New Caledonian Lagoon near the Baie de St. Vincent, their structures, including the connectivities and relative stereochemistries, were assigned on the basis of multidimensional NMR techniques; 1b the absolute stereochemistry remains undefined. From the biomedical perspective, the lituarines display significant cytotoxicities toward KB cells [(1): IC 50 ) 5.5-7.5 nM; (2): IC 50 ) 1-3 nM; (3): IC 50 ) 7-9 nM]. Intrigued both by the architecture and the biological activities of the lituarines, we initiated a research program directed toward the total synthesis of the lituarines. 2,3 The Robertson laboratory has also reported progress in this area. 4

A robust, green, and sustainable manufacturing process has been developed for the synthesis of gefapixant citrate, a P2X3 receptor antagonist that is under investigation for the treatment of refractory and unexplained chronic cough. The newly developed commercial process features low process mass intensity (PMI), short synthetic sequence, high overall yield, minimal environmental impact, and significantly reduced API costs. The key innovations are the implementation of a highly efficient two-step methoxyphenol synthesis, an innovative pyrimidine synthesis in flow, a simplified sulfonamide synthesis, and a novel salt metathesis approach to consistently deliver the correct active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) salt form in high purity.

We describe our optimization efforts to improve the physicochemical properties, solubility, and off-target profile of 1, an inhibitor of TarO, an early stage enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway for wall teichoic acid (WTA) synthesis. Compound 1 displayed a TarO IC of 125 nM in an enzyme assay and possessed very high lipophilicity (clogP = 7.1) with no measurable solubility in PBS buffer. Structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies resulted in a series of compounds with improved lipophilic ligand efficiency (LLE) consistent with the reduction of clogP. From these efforts, analog 9 was selected for our initial in vivo study, which in combination with subefficacious dose of imipenem (IPM) robustly lowered the bacterial burden in a neutropenic Staphylococci murine infection model. Concurrent with our in vivo optimization effort using 9, we further improved LLE as exemplified by a much more druglike analog 26.