International Journal of Molecular Sciences Review Lactones in the Synthesis of Prostaglandins and Prostaglandin Analogs Constantin Tănase 1,* , Lucia Pintilie 1 and Raluca Elena Tănase 2,3 1 Synthesis of Biologically Active Substances Department, National Institute for Chemical-Pharmaceutical Research and Development, 74373 Bucharest, Romania;
[email protected] 2 Department of Mathematics, Angstrom Laboratory, Uppsala University, 751 06 Uppsala, Sweden;
[email protected] 3 “Simion Stoilow” Institute of Mathematics of the Romanian Academy, 010702 Bucharest, Romania * Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract: In the total stereo-controlled synthesis of natural prostaglandins (PGs) and their structural analogs, a vast class of compounds and drugs, known as the lactones, are encountered in a few key steps to build the final molecule, as: δ-lactones, γ-lactones, and 1,9-, 1,11-, and 1,15-macrolactones. After the synthesis of 1,9-PGF2α and 1,15-PGF2α lactones, many 1,15-lactones of E2,E3,F2,F3, A2, and A3 were found in the marine mollusc Tethys fimbria and the quest for understanding their biological role stimulated the research on their synthesis. Then 1,9-, 1,11-, and 1,15-PG lactones of the drugs were synthesized as an alternative to the corresponding esters, and the first part of the paper describes the methods used for their synthesis. The efficient Corey procedure for the synthesis of prostaglandins uses the key δ-lactone and γ-lactone intermediates with three or four stereocenters on the cyclopentane fragment to link the PG side chains. The paper describes the most used procedures for the synthesis of the milestone δ-Corey-lactones and γ-Corey-lactones, their improvements, and some new promising methods, such as interesting, new stereo-controlled and Citation: T˘anase,C.; Pintilie, L.; catalyzed enantioselective reactions, and methods based on the chemical/enzymatic resolution of T˘anase,R.E.