No abstract

An improved process for the active pharmaceutical ingredient of a new HIV integrase inhibitor elvitegravir (1) has been developed. It starts from commercially available 2,4‐dimethoxyacetophenone, which is selectively halogenated into the position 5. The 5‐halo acetophenones are condensed with dialkyl carbonates to give the corresponding benzoylacetates. Their treatment with N,N‐dimethylformamide dimethyl acetal followed by (S)‐valinol then provided the corresponding intermediate benzoyl acrylates. Cyclization to the required 1,4‐dihydroquinolin‐4‐oxo derivatives by aromatic nucleophilic substitution of the 2‐methoxy group was achieved by treatment with N,O‐bis(trimethylsilyl)‐acetamide, which also protected the OH group as the trimethylsilyl derivative. Finally, the Negishi coupling with 2‐fluoro‐3‐chlorobenzylzinc bromide and the following hydrolysis provided elvitegravir (1). The preferred variant, the seven‐step procedure starting from 2,4‐dimethoxyacetophenone, provides elvitegravir in 29.3% yield.

DC-SIGN (dendritic cell-specific intercellular adhesion molecule-3-grabbing non-integrin) is a pattern recognition receptor expressed on immune cells and involved in the recognition of carbohydrate signatures present on various pathogens, including HIV, Ebola, and SARS-CoV-2. Therefore, developing inhibitors blocking the carbohydrate-binding site of DC-SIGN could generate a valuable tool to investigate the role of this receptor in several infectious diseases. Herein, we performed a fragment-based ligand design using 4-quinolone as a scaffold. We synthesized a library of 61 compounds, performed a screening against DC-SIGN using an STD reporter assay, and validated these data using protein-based 1 H− 15 N HSQC NMR. Based on the structure−activity relationship data, we demonstrate that ethoxycarbonyl or dimethylaminocarbonyl in position 2 or 3 is favorable for the DC-SIGN binding activity, especially in combination with fluorine, ethoxycarbonyl, or dimethylaminocarbonyl in position 7 or 8. Furthermore, we demonstrate that these quinolones can allosterically modulate the carbohydrate binding site, which offers an alternative approach toward this challenging protein target.

Chemotherapy has not only proved valuable in treating many diseases but the history of discovery of some drugs makes exciting reading. The aim of this article is to outline one such story.