Anton V. Gulevich

Isocyanoacetate Derivatives: Synthesis, Reactivity, and Application

The sphingolipid bases, D-erythro- and D-threo-sphingosines, are the target molecules that have been synthesized to demonstrate the efficiency of a new methodology to control both absolute and relative configurations in acyclic systems. Tubulysins are compounds of extraordinary potency, rapidly degrading the tubulin cytoskeleton, with tubulysin D being the most active tubulin-modifier known so far. Among other isonitriles, isocyanoacetate derivatives occupy an important place in the field of synthetic application and reaction diversity, which makes them strongly attractive objects for investigation. The unique multifunctional nature of isocyanoacetic acid derivatives opens up a range of exciting reactions, especially tandem/cascade processes for the synthesis of complex cyclic and macrocyclic systems. Multicomponent chemistry of isocyanoacetates is also a powerful instrument to access different classes of biochemically relevant compounds such as peptides, peptide molecules, and nitrogen heterocycles.

Multicomponent synthesis of artificial nucleases and their RNase and DNase activity

Summary The synthesis of new, artificial ribonucleases containing two amino acid residues connected by an aliphatic linker has been developed. Target molecules were synthesized via a catalytic three-component Ugi reaction from aliphatic diisocyanides. Preliminary investigations proved unspecific nuclease activity of the new compounds towards single-stranded RNA and double-stranded circular DNA.

Design of Multi-Component Reactions

Multi-component reactions (MCRs) have now been well established as a powerful synthetic tool for creating molecular complexity and diversity and are undoubtedly well suited for the drug discovery program. Another potential that has probably received less attention among synthetic chemists is the opportunity offered by MCRs for the development of new fundamentally important transformations (reactions). Indeed, although an MCR is composed of a series of known bimolecular reactions, the overall transformation could be novel. Consequently, it provides chemists the opportunities to uncover transformations that were otherwise difficult to realize. In this talk, we will present our recent work in this field, including: (1) the oxidative homologation of aldehydes to amides, (2) the oxidative coupling of aldehydes and isocyanides to α-ketoamides, (3) oxidative isocyanide-based MCRs, and (4) the enantioselective Passerini reaction.

Novel Reagents for Multi-Component Reactions

Ketenimines are a class of versatile and highly reactive intermediates that can participate in a variety of organic reactions, such as nucleophilic additions, radical additions, [2 + 2] and [2 + 4] cycloadditions, and sigmatropic rearrangements. In this presentation, we report on a series of multi-component reactions that involve a ketenimine intermediate. These reactions could furnish diverse heterocyclic compounds, including functionalized iminocoumarin, iminodihydroqunolines, iminothiochromens, pyrrolines, isoquinolines, pyridines, β-lactams, imino-1,2-dihydrocoumarins, and benzimidazoles.