Synthesis of Epiboxidine 36
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
C H A P T E R - I I Synthesis of Epiboxidine 36 1. Introduction The construction of 7-azabicyclo[2.2.1]heptane framework has seen strong revival immediately after the structural elucidation of epibatidine (1) {exo-2-(6-chloro-3-pyridyl)-7- azabicyclo[2.2.1]heptane}.' Epibatidine (1); the only prominent m e m b e r of this class, as introduced in the previous chapter, has been shown to be a highly potent non-opioid analgesic agent^'® an d a novel nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs)^'® agonist. Fig. 1 Although these outstanding pharmacological activities of 1 have kindled interest to recognize this molecule as an useful therapeutically important drug, its high toxicity, * causing death in mice (six out of six) w h e n injected at 10 (iL/ K g scale, has b e c o m e a major impediment in developing this molecule as a drug.® Therefore, there has been continuing research interest towards an alternate p h a r m a c o p h o r e related to the structure 1 capable of exhibiting comparable pharmacological properties but with an enhanced ratio of pharmacological to toxicological activity. In this context, chemists and phamacologists have begun synthesizing compounds analogous to 1 by • altering, extending or cleaving the 7-azabicyclo[2.2.1]heptane framework of 1, keeping the pyridyl ring intact, • adding extra functionalities in the original framework of 1 along with the features described above or, • by combining structural features of the k n o w n alkaloids having high affinity towards nicotinic receptors an d 1. 37 By exploring the above-mentioned parameters, many groups have synthesized vahous synthetic analogues of 1 a n d hav e studied their pharmacological activity as well as toxicity in comparison to 1. T h e details are su m m a r i z e d in Fig. 2. Fig. 2 N H Homoepibatidine (2)7,8 3-Oxo-l-iomoepibatidine Desetliyl Epibatidine (4)^ (3Y Activity: Weaker analgesic Activity: Inactive Activity: Inactive than 1 Toxicity: Not reported Toxicity: Not reported Toxicity: Not reported H i N Bis-Homoepibatidine (5)° UB-165 (6)10 PHT (7)” Activity: Inactive Activity: Potent nicotinic ’Activity: Potent nicotinic receptor ligand receptor Toxicity: Not reported Toxicity: Not reported Toxicity: Not reported (8)’^ (9)^^ (ior Activity: Nicotinic receptor Activity: 5-fold less binding Activity: 16-fold less bind and stimulant affinity to n A C h R s ing affinity to than 1 nAChRs than 1 Toxicity: Not reported' Toxicity; Not reported Toxicity: Not reported 38 (11^ (12)’^ (13)’^ Activity: Inactive Activity: Less active Activity: Inactive Toxicity; Not reported Toxicity: Not reported Toxicity: Not reported N 1 H Cl (14)’^ (15^^ ABT-594{16y'‘ Activity: Moderately active Activity: Similar to that 1 Activity; Potent nicotinic receptor & c o m parable to 1 Toxicity: Not reported Toxicity; Not reported Toxicity: Less toxic than 1 It has been shown that (S)-3-methyl-5-(1-methyl-2-pyrrolidinyl)isoxazole (ABT-418), (18) another nicotinic receptor agonist, in which the pyridyl ring of nicotine 17 is replaced by methyl-isoxazolyl ring, is found to show a better anxiolytic and potent antinociceptive effect in mice^^® '’than 17. Because of the enhanced antinociceptive and anxiolytic activity of 18, Badio e t al.^ designed a pharmacophore by combining the structural features of the k n o w n nicotinic receptor agonist 18 a n d 1 , by replacing the chloropyridyl moiety of 1 to methylisoxazole moiety and named it as epiboxidine (19), {exo-2-(3-methyl-5-isoxazolyl)-7-azabicyclo[2.2.1]heptane}. It showed similar n A C h R binding affinity a nd drastic reduction of toxicity behavior c o m p a r e d to 1. O ut of all the synthetic analogue of epibatidine in Fig. 2, epiboxidine (19) was found to be not only a less toxic but also a selective ganglionic nicotinic receptor. 39 Fig. 3 The nicotinic receptor agonist and antinociceptive activities of epiboxidine is evaluated a n d further c o m p a r e d with the activities of epibatidine along v\/ith AB T - 4 1 8 a n d the results are su m m a r i z e d as follows: 1) Epiboxidine is about 10-fold less potent than epibatidine a n d about 17-fold m o r e potent than A B T - 4 1 8 in inhibiting [^H] nicotinic binding to a 4p2 nicotinic receptors in rat cerebral cortical me m b r a n e s . 2) In cultured ceils with functional ion flux assays, epiboxidine is nearly equipotent to epibatidine and 200-fold more potent than ABT-418 at a 3P4(s) a n d at ganglionic- type P C I 2 cell nicotinic receptors. 3) Epiboxidine is about 5-fold less potent than epibatidine and about 30-fold more potent than ABT-418 in neuromuscular-type TE671 cells with aipiy5, nicotinic receptors. 4) In a hot-plate antinociceptive assay with mice, epiboxidine is about 10-fold less potent than epibatidine. 5) T h e in v iv o profile, study s h o w e d epiboxidine as about 10-fold less potent than epibatidine as an antinociceptive agent, but it appeared to be much less toxic (around 20-fold less) in comparison to 1. Therefore, it was concluded that epiboxidine (19) represents a novel and potent antinociceptive agent with better ratio of pharmacological to toxicological activity than 1. Thus, epiboxidine has been presumed to be a better therapeutic target. However, owing to 40 the lack of good viable synthetic strategy by which epiboxidine could be accessed in multigram scale to carry out the detailed pharmacological evaluations, a short and efficient strategy wa s planned. Retrosynthetic analysis (Scheme 1) of the target suggested that W-protected-2- exo-(carboalkoxy)-7-azabicyclo[2.2.1]heptane (20) could be a valuable synthetic precursor for the synthesis of 19. Synthesis of methylisoxazole moiety’^ of epiboxidine (19) w as visualized to be achieved by reacting the dianion of acetone oxime (21) to the ester moiety of (20). For the synthesis of 20, we envisaged two complementary cycloaddition approaches such as [3+2]-cycloaddition (Route A) and [4+2]-cycloaddition (Route B). Th 83)1 S c h e m e 1 25 26 20a, P = -C 02Me, R = M e 20b, P = -COjEt, R = Et TMS TMS N 20c, P = -Boo, R = M e I 20d, P = -Boc, R = Et B n 24 41 T h e a b o v e retrosynthetic analysis suggested that the [3+2]-dipolar cycloaddition reaction of cyclic azomethine ylide 23, where whole of the ylide conjugation is inside the ring of pyrrolidine, with ethyl acrylate (22) will lead to an efficient assembling of 7-azabicyclo[2.2.1]heptane skeleton 20. The in s itu generation of azomethine ylide 2 3 could be achieved by the sequential one electron oxidation of /V-benzyl-2,5- bis(trimethylsilyl)pyrrolidine (24) employing Ag(l)F as o n e electron oxidant, a m eth odology previously developed by our group.Construction of 20 was also envisaged by utilizing an alternate [4+2] cycloaddition approach of A/-carbomethoxypyrrole (25) with dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate ( D M A D ) (26). However, before going into the details of our work, a brief introduction o n the reported methods for the synthesis of the novel precursor 20, for the synthesis of 19 would be appropriate to understand the current status of this research field. 2. Reported approaches for the synthesis of A/-protected-2- exo-(carboalkoxy)-7-azabicyclo[2.2.1]heptane (20) The precursor 7-carboethoxy-2-exo-(carboethoxy)-7-azabicyclo[2.2.1]heptane (20b) was prepared by Bai e t a l J employing ring contraction of the 2-bromotropinone derivative 28 v ia Favorskii rearrangement ( S c h e m e 2). However, the yield of 20 b w a s very poor. S c h e m e 2 M e CO,Et I C O , E t SI Br CICOOEt, THF^ N a O E t , Eton COjEt H B r / A c O H 4 5 min, rt, 2 4 % 6 0 % O 27 28 20b 42 Recently, Singh e t a l } ° have reported the synthesis of 20c from 31 either v ia hydrogenation followed by reductive dehalogenation or v ia hydrodehalogenation followed by epimerization (Scheme 3). The diene 31 was obtained (60 % yield) by Diels-Alder reaction of N -Q o c pyrrole (29) an d methyl-3-bromopropiolate (30). S c h e m e 3 C02Me 90-9 5° C ^ C O , M e Hj, Pd/ C 3 0 h, 6 0 % N MeOH, EtjN I B o c Br 4 h, 9 6 % 29 30 3 3 Hj, Pd / C N a O M e / Cyclohexane M e O H ,12 h, 9 8 % 4 h, 8 3 % B o c I M 20c + 33 C02Me (3:1) 3 ^ + / > v / d m s o 3 h, 8 2 % (1 :1.5) 20c Rapoport e t a l } ' h a v e reported the intramolecular M a n n i c h cyclization of iminium ion intermediate 35, derived by the decarbonyiation of the substituted proline derivatives 34, for the preparation of optically active (-)-20c a nd (-)-33 as s h o w n in S c h e m e 4. However, overall processes we r e c u m b e r s o m e with resulting poor yield. 43 Scheme 4 1,11 tB u O ,C N N L CO,Me° Bn C O ,M e " 34 35 (-)-36 iv-vi 30C N OTMS VII,VIII (-)-33 39 C O ,M e Reagents and conditions: i) H* /1-120; ii) (C0CI)2; ill) 4 73 %: iv) Hs, Pd/C; v) (Boc)sO, TEA, DCM, ri, 82 %; vi) KHMDS, TMSCI; vii) O3, Me2S; viii) i-BuOiCCI, N-hydroxy-2-thiopyridone, hy.