Total Synthesis of Trapoxin A, a Fungal HDAC Inhibitor from Helicoma ambiens.

Peptide modification reactions, e.g., via palladium-catalyzed allylic alkylations, are useful tools for the synthesis of peptides containing interesting nonproteinogenic amino acids, which are often essential for the biological activity of natural products and drugs. Herein we report the utilization of such modification reactions in the first total synthesis of trapoxin A, a naturally occurring tetrapeptidic histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor.