seco-Cyclothialidines are a promising class of bacterial DNA gyrase B subunit inhibitors. A new seco-cyclothialidine derivative containing a dioxazine moiety, BAY 50-7952, was synthesized through a new concise pathway. One key step of the synthesis is the straightforward formation of the 2-aminothiazole derivative of S-tritylcysteine. In biological tests, BAY 50-7952 and other known seco-cyclothialidines exhibited high and selective activity toward bacterial DNA gyrase and toward Gram-positive bacteria. The dioxazine moiety and other similar groups were found to be important for the ability of the seco-cyclothialidines to penetrate bacterial membranes. The opposite enantiomer ((S)-form) of BAY 50-7952 was also synthesized, and neither significant target activity nor in vitro antibacterial activity were found, suggesting a highly selective fit of the (R)-form. Despite promising in vitro activity, only poor activity was found in the murine infection model.

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The Interleukin‐6 (IL‐6) responsive JAK/STAT pathway seems to be correlated with major diseases such as chronic inflammation, arteriosclerosis, liver fibrosis, Parkinson and Alzheimer disease. In order to take a look at (−)‐galiellalactone as a potential low‐molecular‐weight lead structure for non‐proteinogenic IL‐6 antagonists we carried out a microderivatization program that was aiming at bioactive congeners of the natural product and a preliminary structure‐activity relationship. During this effort, galiellalactone showed reactivity generally governed by convex‐concave face selectivity. O‐Acyl derivatives of galiellalactone turned out to be precursors of bis(dehydratogaliellalactone), a novel oligocyclic Diels−Alder product of complicated architecture. During this extraordinary Diels−Alder‐type conversion four quaternary carbon centers were generated at room temperature under mild conditions in a regio‐ and stereoselective fashion. The novel Diels−Alder transformation was used for a stereoselective hetero‐derivatization of the natural product leading to an aza congener of altered IL‐6 antagonistic activity in HepG2 hepatoma cells. The absolute (4S,5aR,7aR,7bS) configuration of natural (−)‐galiellalactone was confirmed by X‐ray crystallography with Cu‐Kα radiation. (© Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2004)

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