A strategic approach to [6,6]-bicyclic lactones: application towards the CD fragment of DHβE

• Tue Heesgaard Jepsen,
• Emil Glibstrup,
• François Crestey,
• Anders A. Jensen and
• Jesper Langgaard Kristensen

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2017, 13, 988–994, doi:10.3762/bjoc.13.98

• effective synthetic protocol to access [6,6]-bicyclic lactone moieties through a regio- and stereoselective intramolecular Mizoroki–Heck cross-coupling reaction followed by a 6π-electrocyclization. This method enabled the first synthesis of the elusive CD fragment of the Erythrina alkaloid DHβE. Preliminary

• pharmacological evaluations support the notion that the key pharmacophores of DHβE are located in the A and B rings. Keywords: DhβE; Mizoroki–Heck cross-coupling reaction; 6π-electrocyclization; [6,6]-bicyclic lactone; vinyl halide; Introduction The neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) have been

• for aromatic erythrinanes [2] whereas only four total syntheses of lactonic erythrinanes have been published so far [13][14][15][16]. Hence, for the DHβE-based CD fragments, we faced a significantly more challenging synthesis due to the complex nature of the [6,6]-bicyclic lactone moiety for which