Justin T. Mohr

Natural products as inspiration for the development of asymmetric catalysis

Biologically active natural products often contain particularly challenging structural features and functionalities in terms of synthesis. Perhaps the greatest difficulties are those caused by issues of stereochemistry. A useful strategy for synthesizing such molecules is to devise methods of bond formation that provide opportunities for using enantioselective catalysis. In using this tactic, the desire for a particular target structure ultimately drives the development of catalytic methods. New enantioselective catalytic methods contribute to a greater fundamental understanding of how bonds can be constructed and lead to valuable synthetic technologies that are useful for a variety of applications.

Enantioselective Decarboxylative Alkylation Reactions: Catalyst Development, Substrate Scope, and Mechanistic Studies

α-Quaternary ketones are accessed through novel enantioselective alkylations of allyl and propargyl electrophiles by unstabilized prochiral enolate nucleophiles in the presence of palladium complexes with various phosphinooxazoline (PHOX) ligands. Excellent yields and high enantiomeric excesses are obtained from three classes of enolate precursor: enol carbonates, enol silanes, and racemic β-ketoesters. Each of these substrate classes functions with nearly identical efficiency in terms of yield and enantioselectivity. Catalyst discovery and development, the optimization of reaction conditions, the exploration of reaction scope, and applications in target-directed synthesis are reported. Experimental observations suggest that these alkylation reactions occur through an unusual inner-sphere mechanism involving binding of the prochiral enolate nucleophile directly to the palladium center.

Academic cross-fertilization by public screening yields a remarkable class of protein phosphatase methylesterase-1 inhibitors

National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored screening centers provide academic researchers with a special opportunity to pursue small-molecule probes for protein targets that are outside the current interest of, or beyond the standard technologies employed by, the pharmaceutical industry. Here, we describe the outcome of an inhibitor screen for one such target, the enzyme protein phosphatase methylesterase-1 (PME-1), which regulates the methylesterification state of protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) and is implicated in cancer and neurodegeneration. Inhibitors of PME-1 have not yet been described, which we attribute, at least in part, to a dearth of substrate assays compatible with high-throughput screening. We show that PME-1 is assayable by fluorescence polarization-activity-based protein profiling (fluopol-ABPP) and use this platform to screen the 300,000+ member NIH small-molecule library. This screen identified an unusual class of compounds, the aza-β-lactams (ABLs), as potent (IC50 values of approximately 10 nM), covalent PME-1 inhibitors. Interestingly, ABLs did not derive from a commercial vendor but rather an academic contribution to the public library. We show using competitive-ABPP that ABLs are exquisitely selective for PME-1 in living cells and mice, where enzyme inactivation leads to substantial reductions in demethylated PP2A. In summary, we have combined advanced synthetic and chemoproteomic methods to discover a class of ABL inhibitors that can be used to selectively perturb PME-1 activity in diverse biological systems. More generally, these results illustrate how public screening centers can serve as hubs to create spontaneous collaborative opportunities between synthetic chemistry and chemical biology labs interested in creating first-in-class pharmacological probes for challenging protein targets.

Homogeneous Pd-Catalyzed Enantioselective Decarboxylative Protonation

General homogeneous conditions for the palladium-catalyzed synthesis of carbonyl compounds with tertiary carbon stereocenters at the alpha-position are reported. The highly reactive catalyst tolerates a variety of substrate substitution and functionality, and generates enantioenriched cyclic ketones from racemic allyl beta-ketoester starting materials.

The Reaction Mechanism of the Enantioselective Tsuji Allylation: Inner-Sphere and Outer-Sphere Pathways, Internal Rearrangements, and Asymmetric C−C Bond Formation

We use first principles quantum mechanics (density functional theory) to report a detailed reaction mechanism of the asymmetric Tsuji allylation involving prochiral nucleophiles and nonprochiral allyl fragments, which is consistent with experimental findings. The observed enantioselectivity is best explained with an inner-sphere mechanism involving the formation of a 5-coordinate Pd species that undergoes a ligand rearrangement, which is selective with regard to the prochiral faces of the intermediate enolate. Subsequent reductive elimination generates the product and a Pd(0) complex. The reductive elimination occurs via an unconventional seven-centered transition state that contrasts dramatically with the standard three-centered C-C reductive elimination mechanism. Although limitations in the present theory prevent the conclusive identification of the enantioselective step, we note that three different computational schemes using different levels of theory all find that inner-sphere pathways are lower in energy than outer-sphere pathways. This result qualitatively contrasts with established allylation reaction mechanisms involving prochiral nucleophiles and prochiral allyl fragments. Energetic profiles of all reaction pathways are presented in detail.

Enantioselective Total Synthesis of (+)-Cassiol

An enantioselective total synthesis of (+)-cassiol is reported. The complex derived from Pd(2)(pmdba)(3) and enantiopure t-BuPHOX ligand catalyzes enantioconvergent decarboxylative alkylation to generate the quaternary carbon stereocenter at an early stage. The overall synthetic strategy involves a convergent late-stage coupling of two fragments. The synthesis features a longest linear sequence of eight steps.

Competitive Activity-Based Protein Profiling Identifies Aza-β- Lactams as a Versatile Chemotype for Serine Hydrolase Inhibition

Serine hydrolases are one of the largest and most diverse enzyme classes in Nature. Most serine hydrolases lack selective inhibitors, which are valuable probes for assigning functions to these enzymes. We recently discovered a set of aza-β-lactams (ABLs) that act as potent and selective inhibitors of the mammalian serine hydrolase protein-phosphatase methylesterase-1 (PME-1). The ABLs inactivate PME-1 by covalent acylation of the enzymes serine nucleophile, suggesting that they could offer a general scaffold for serine hydrolase inhibitor discovery. Here, we have tested this hypothesis by screening ABLs more broadly against cell and tissue proteomes by competitive activity-based protein profiling (ABPP), leading to the discovery of lead inhibitors for several serine hydrolases, including the uncharacterized enzyme α,β-hydrolase domain-containing 10 (ABHD10). ABPP-guided medicinal chemistry yielded a compound ABL303 that potently (IC(50) ≈ 30 nM) and selectively inactivated ABHD10 in vitro and in living cells. A comparison of optimized inhibitors for PME-1 and ABHD10 indicates that modest structural changes that alter steric bulk can tailor the ABL to selectively react with distinct, distantly related serine hydrolases. Our findings, taken together, designate the ABL as a versatile reactive group for creating first-in-class serine hydrolase inhibitors.

Palladium-Catalyzed Enantioselective Decarboxylative Allylic Alkylation of Cyclopentanones

The first general method for the enantioselective construction of all-carbon quaternary centers on cyclopentanones by enantioselective palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative allylic alkylation is described. Employing the electronically modified (S)-(p-CF3)3-t-BuPHOX ligand, α-quaternary cyclopentanones were isolated in yields up to >99% with ee’s up to 94%. Additionally, in order to facilitate large-scale application of this method, a low catalyst loading protocol was employed, using as little as 0.15 mol % Pd, furnishing the product without any loss in ee.

Copper-Catalyzed γ-Sulfonylation of α,β-Unsaturated Carbonyl Compounds by Means of Silyl Dienol Ethers

A regioselective method for the introduction of sulfonyl groups at the γ-carbon of enone systems is reported. Using a copper catalyst and readily available sulfonyl chlorides, a range of silyl dienol ethers are sulfonylated in good yield under mild reaction conditions. The sulfone derivatives formed are poised for further synthetic manipulations as demonstrated by regioselective alkylations.

Cu-Catalyzed Stereoselective γ-Alkylation of Enones

A general regio- and stereoselective γ-C-C bond formation is achieved using α-halocarbonyl compounds and dienol ethers via Cu(II) catalysis. This method constitutes a novel approach to the challenging 1,6-dioxygenation motif. A range of γ-substituted enones, including many bearing all-carbon quaternary centers, are available through a simple protocol under mild reaction conditions with superb functional group compatibility. Excellent stereoinduction is observed providing controlled access to challenging stereochemical arrays.