Synthesis and structure-activity relationship study of FD-891: importance of the side chain and C8-C9 epoxide for cytotoxic activity against cancer cells.

Unified synthesis of FD-891 analogs and their structure-activity relationship are described. By using stereoselective allylation/crotylation and Evans aldol chemistry, six side-chain fragments having different length and terminus were synthesized. These fragments were coupled with a macrolactone fragment, improved synthesis of which was also developed here, to generate FD-891 and five truncated analogs. These synthetic compounds as well as three analogs obtained from fermentation of gene-disrupted Streptomyces graminofaciens mutants were tested for in vitro cytotoxic activity against HeLa cells. As a result, coexistence of the C8-C9 epoxide and side-chain terminus was found to be critical for the cytotoxic activity.