The palladium-catalyzed arylation of different alpha-methylene-gamma-lactone-containing sesquiterpene lactones was shown to produce E-olefin coupling products selectively in moderate to excellent yields. Biological evaluation of these semisynthetic sesquiterpene lactone derivatives in HeLa cells showed interesting antiproliferative profiles and provided initial structure-activity data.

Multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable plasma cell malignancy where nearly all patients succumb to a relapse. The current preclinical models of MM target the plasma cells, constituting the bulk of the tumor, leaving the cancer stem cells to trigger a relapse. Utilizing a three-dimensional tissue culture system where cells were grown in extracellular matrix designed to reconstruct human bone marrow, we tested the anti-multiple myeloma cancer stem cell (MM-CSC) potential of two natural product inhibitors of nuclear factor κB (NFκB). Here we show that parthenolide and andrographolide are potent anti-MM-CSC agents. Both natural products demonstrated preferential toxicity toward MM-CSCs over non-tumorigenic MM cells. Addition of the bone marrow stromal compartment abrogated andrographolide activity while having no effect on parthenolide cytoxicity. This is the first report of a natural product with anti-CSC activity in myeloma, suggesting that it has the potential to improve the survival of patients with MM by eliminating the relapse-causing MM-CSCs.

A new reagent, the dimethylaluminum N,O-dimethylhydroxylamine complex, is effective at masking reactive carbonyl groups in situ from nucleophilic addition. This reagent allows chemoselective addition of reducing reagents, Grignard reagents, organolithiums, Wittig reagents, and enolates into substrates with multiple carbonyl groups. Moreover, the trapped carbonyl group, a stable aminal, can be unmasked in situ for additional synthetic manipulations.

Bromofluorination reactions were performed by treating of a variety of unsaturated compounds with N-bromosuccinimide (NBS) and DMPU/HF as the fluorinating reagent. The DMPU/HF complex showed to be an efficient fluorinating reagent to convert alkenes into their corresponding bromofluoro compounds. It showed to have high reactivity and the process afforded bromofluorinated products with good Markovnikov regioselectivity. These fluorinated compounds are useful starting materials and serve as building blocks for many fluorinated biologically active molecules.

Aluminum complexes of N,O-dimethylhydroxylamine are effective reagents to mask carbonyl groups in situ from nucleophilic addition by organolithiums, Grignard reagents, and borohydrides. The utility of this process by selectively adding nucleophiles into carbonyl groups on a variety of structures as well as distinguishing between carbonyl groups on a sensitive natural product is demonstrated. (1)H NMR analysis supports the in situ masking of the more reactive carbonyl group.