Total Syntheses and Biological Evaluation of Both Enantiomers of Several Hydroxylated Dimeric Nuphar Alkaloids.

Herein, we describe the first total syntheses of five members of the dimeric nuphar alkaloids: (+)-6,6'-dihydroxythiobinupharidine (+)-1 a, (+)-6-hydroxythiobinupharidine (+)-1 b, (-)-6,6'-dihydroxythionuphlutine (-)-2 a, (-)-6,6'-dihydroxyneothiobinupharidine (-)-3 a, and (+)-6,6'-dihydroxyneothionuphlutine (+)-4 a. The latter two have not been found in nature. We have also made each of their enantiomers (-)-1 a-b, (+)-2 a, (+)-3 a, and (-)-4 a. The key step in these syntheses was the dimerization of an α-aminonitrile (a hydrolytically stable surrogate for its corresponding hemiaminal) with chiral Lewis acid complexes. We have also reassigned the literature structures of (+)-1 a-1 b—for those instances in which the NMR spectra were obtained in CD3OD—to their corresponding CD3O-adducts. Our efforts provide for the first time apoptosis data for (-)-3 a, (+)-4 a, and all five non-natural enantiomers prepared. The data indicate high apoptotic activity regardless of the enantiomer or relative stereochemical configuration at C7 and C7'.