The emergence and evolution of new immunological cancer therapies has sparked a rapidly growing interest in discovering novel pathways to treat cancer. Toward this aim, a novel series of pyrrolidine derivatives (compound ) were identified as potent inhibitors of ERK1/2 with excellent kinase selectivity and dual mechanism of action but suffered from poor pharmacokinetics (PK). The challenge of PK was overcome by the discovery of a novel 3()-thiomethyl pyrrolidine analog . Lead optimization through focused structure-activity relationship led to the discovery of a clinical candidate suitable for twice daily oral dosing as a potential new cancer therapeutic.

[reaction: see text] Diastereoselective alkylations of metalated conformationally locked 4-tert-butylcyclohexanecarbonitrile are highly diastereoselective with magnesium and copper counterions but only modestly diastereoselective with lithium as the counterion. Selective generation of diverse metalated nitriles is readily achieved through bromine-magnesium, -copper, and -lithium exchange reactions of the corresponding bromonitrile or, for lithium, by deprotonating the parent nitrile with lithium diethylamide. Collectively, high alkylation stereoselectivities correlate with the retentive alkylations of C-metalated nitriles, whereas N-lithiated nitriles alkylate with modest selectivity, reflecting minimal steric differences in the corresponding axial and equatorial electrophile trajectories.

Sequential addition of i-PrMgCl and BuLi to sp3 hybridized iodoalcohols triggers a facile iodine-metal exchange. Intercepting the resulting cyclic Grignard reagents with a slight excess of an electrophile leads to a diverse range of substituted alcohols. The iodine-magnesium exchange strategy is effective with 3-carbon iodoalcohols bearing alkyl substitutents on the carbinol or adjacent carbons and with the chain-extended homolog 4-iodobutan-1-ol.

A new silica-supported zinc-copper matrix reagent promotes the conjugate addition of alkyl iodides to cyclic and acyclic alkenenitriles in water. X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy techniques suggest that the active copper species generated from elemental zinc and copper(I) iodide is finely dispersed, zerovalent copper. Alkyl iodides react with the silica-supported reagent to generate putative radicaloid intermediates that efficiently add to alkenenitriles to provide beta-substituted nitriles. Conjugate additions to acyclic and cyclic 5-7-membered alkenenitriles are most effective for primary alkyliodides, although secondary and tertiary alkyliodides are viable reaction partners. The strategy addresses the challenge of performing conjugate additions to disubstituted alkenenitriles and demonstrates the beneficial role of the silica-supported reagent.

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