Efforts towards the total synthesis of the stemofoline alkaloids utilizing a novel 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction and application of the Pauson-Khand reaction as a novel entry into bridged azabicyclic ring systems

A novel application of the Pauson-Khand reaction was applied to the synthesis of a series of bridged azatricyclic piperazines. This method represents the first application of the Pauson-Khand reaction to synthesize azabridged scaffolds. The ubiquity of bridged azabicyclic ring systems in biologically active natural product skeletons has provided the synthetic chemist with a wealth of opportunity for development over the last century. To this day, the development of new methodologies to tackle these structurally challenging systems remains at the forefront of synthetic chemistry.

During our efforts to achieve a total synthesis of the stemofoline alkaloids, we have thus far developed a novel and scalable synthetic strategy to access the fully functionalized caged azatricyclic core of these challenging alkaloids. The overall synthetic strategy we have implemented began with the commercially available and affordable 2-deoxy-D-ribose as a chiral starting material. Furthermore, we have developed a novel 1,3-dipole cascade cycloaddition, which was successfully employed as the key step in the construction of the bridged azatricyclic core of the stemofoline alkaloids.