SUMMARY Formins stimulate actin filament assembly for fundamental cellular processes including division, adhesion, establishing polarity and motility. A formin inhibitor would be useful because most cells express multiple formins whose functions are not known, and because metastatic tumor formation depends upon the deregulation of formin-dependent processes. We identified a general small molecule inhibitor of formin homology 2 domains (SMIFH2) by screening compounds for the ability to prevent formin-mediated actin assembly in vitro. SMIFH2 targets formins from evolutionarily diverse organisms including yeast, nematode worm and mice, with a half-maximal inhibitor concentration of ~5 to 15 μM. SMIFH2 prevents both formin nucleation and processive barbed-end elongation, and decreases formin’s affinity for the barbed end. Furthermore, low micromolar concentrations of SMIFH2 disrupt formin-dependent, but not Arp2/3 complex-dependent, actin cytoskeletal structures in fission yeast and mammalian NIH 3T3 fibroblasts.

This account provides a comprehensive overview of the development of gold and platinum catalysis of the enyne cycloisomerization. The use of these soft, alkynophilic metals enables mild, chemoselective and efficient transformations of a variety of readily available acyclic enynes to a wide range of synthetically useful carbocyclic and heterocyclic products. The review is organized according to diverse structural types of enynes that undergo skeletal cycloisomerizations. The account begins with an overview of transformations of primarily 1,6-enynesheptenes. This section is followed by the discussion of cycloisomerizations of 1,5-enynes, which enable a rapid access to a range of other cyclic products, including bicycloA C H T U N G T R E N N U N G [3.1.0]hexenes, cyclohexadienes, heterobicycloalkenes, methylenecyclopentenes, naphthalenes and methyleneindenes. In addition, the [3,3] rearrangement of 1,5-enynes provides efficient access to the corresponding allenes. The account concludes with an overview of the most recent studies on gold-and platinum-catalyzed cycloisomerizations of 1,4-and 1,3-enynes. Due to the rapidly increasing interest in this area during the past three to five years, we believe that this review provides a timely and comprehensive discussion of the development gold-and platinum-catalyzed cycloisomerization starting from the initial pioneering investigations to the latest advances in the field. A significant emphasis is placed on the mechanistic discussion of the observed manifolds of skeletal reorganizations.

Described is a concise, highly stereocontrolled strategy to the Aspidosperma family of indole alkaloids, one that is readily adapted to the asymmetric synthesis of these compounds. The strategy is demonstrated by the total synthesis of (+/-)-tabersonine (rac-1), proceeding through a 12-step sequence. The basis for this approach was provided by a highly regio- and stereoselective [4 + 2] cycloaddition of 2-ethylacrolein with 1-amino-3-siloxydiene developed in our laboratory. Subsequent elaboration of the initial adduct into the hexahydroquinoline DE ring system was accomplished efficiently by a ring-closing olefin metathesis reaction. A novel ortho nitrophenylation of an enol silyl ether with (o-nitrophenyl)phenyliodonium fluoride was developed to achieve an efficient, regioselective introduction of the requisite indole moiety. The final high-yielding conversion of the ABDE tetracycle into pentacyclic target rac-1 relied on intramolecular indole alkylation and regioselective C-carbomethoxylation. Our approach differs strategically from previous routes and contains built-in flexibility necessary to access many other members of the Aspidosperma family of indole alkaloids. The versatility of the synthetic strategy was illustrated through the asymmetric syntheses of the following Aspidosperma alkaloids: (+)-aspidospermidine, (-)-quebrachamine, (-)-dehydroquebrachamine, (+)-tabersonine, and (+)-16-methoxytabersonine. Of these, (+)-tabersonine and (+)-16-methoxytabersonine were synthesized in greater than 1-g quantities and in enantiomerically enriched form ( approximately 95% ee). The pivotal asymmetry-introducing step was a catalyzed enantioselective Diels-Alder reaction, which proceeded to afford the cycloadducts in up to 95% ee. Significantly, the synthetic sequence was easy to execute and required only four purifications over the 12-step synthetic route.

We have described an efficient gold-catalyzed double cyclization of 1,5-enynes to afford a range of heterobicyclic compounds, including oxabicylclo[3.2.1]octenes, azabicyclo[3.2.1]octenes, oxaspiro[5.4]decene, azaspiro[5.4]decene, oxaspiro[5.5]undecene, oxabicyclo[4.3.0]nonene, azabicyclo[4.3.0]nonene, and oxabicyclo[4.4.0]decene. The mechanism of this reaction is proposed to involve a chemoselective gold-based alkyne activation, carbocyclization, intramolecular nucleophilic addition, followed by protodemetalation. The most notable aspect of this process is the efficient and diastereospecific interception of the reactive intermediate of the initial 6-endo-dig (or 5-endo-dig) cyclization with either oxygen- or nitrogen-based nucleophiles.

Leucascandrolide A and neopeltolide are structurally homologous marine natural products that elicit potent antiproliferative profiles in mammalian cells and yeast. The scarcity of naturally available material has been a significant barrier to their biochemical and pharmacological evaluation. We developed practical synthetic access to this class of natural products that enabled the determination of their mechanism of action. We demonstrated effective cellular growth inhibition in yeast, which was substantially enhanced by substituting glucose with galactose or glycerol. These results, along with genetic analysis of determinants of drug sensitivity, suggested that leucascandrolide A and neopeltolide may inhibit mitochondrial ATP synthesis. Evaluation of the activity of the four mitochondrial electron transport chain complexes in yeast and mammalian cells revealed cytochrome bc(1) complex as the principal cellular target. This result provided the molecular basis for the potent antiproliferative activity of this class of marine macrolides, thus identifying them as new biochemical tools for investigation of eukaryotic energy metabolism.

We have developed an efficient and highly stereocontrolled synthesis of bistramide A, a selective activator of protein kinase C isotype delta. Our synthetic strategy featured a novel bidirectional approach for spiroketal construction based on the ring-opening/cross-metathesis sequence employing a highly strained cyclopropenone acetal. The synthesis afforded the final target with the longest linear sequence of 15 steps and provided unambiguous structural determination of bistramide A, including assignment of the previously unknown C(37) stereochemistry.

Bistramide A is a highly potent antiproliferative marine natural product from Lissoclinum bistratum. We have previously established actin as the primary cellular receptor of bistramide A. We report herein the X-ray structure of bistramide A bound to monomeric actin at a resolution of 1.35 A. The most notable aspect of the bistramide A-actin structure is an extensive hydrogen-bonding network established upon a deep penetration of the central segment of bistramide A into the actin-binding cleft between subdomains 1 and 3. The structure presents the first insight into the observed ability of bistramide A to modulate G-actin polymerization. The structural information combined with our ability to chemically modify the bistramide framework provides the basis for rational development of a series of new synthetic analogues as useful probes for studying actin cytoskeleton and as potential therapeutic leads.

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