Hikizimycin (1), which exhibits
powerful anthelmintic
activity, has the most densely functionalized structure among nucleoside
antibiotics. A central 4-amino-4-deoxyundecose of 1 possesses
10 contiguous stereocenters on a C1–C11 linear chain and is
decorated with a cytosine base at C1 and a 3-amino-3-deoxyglucose
at C6-OH. These distinctive structural features of 1 make
it an extremely challenging target for de novo construction. Herein,
we report a convergent total synthesis of 1 from four
known components: 3-azide-3-deoxyglucose derivative 4, bis-TMS-cytosine 5, d-mannose 9, and d-galactose derivative 10. We first designed
and devised a novel radical coupling reaction between multiply hydroxylated
aldehydes and α-alkoxyacyl tellurides. The generality and efficiency
of this process was demonstrated by the coupling of 7c and 8, which were readily accessible from two hexoses, 9 and 10, respectively. Et3B and O2 rapidly induced decarbonylative radical formation from α-alkoxyacyl
telluride 8, and intermolecular addition of the generated
α-alkoxy radical to aldehyde 7c yielded 4-amino-4-deoxyundecose 6-α with installation of the desired C5,6-stereocenters.
Subsequent attachments of the cytosine with 5 and of
the 3-azide-3-deoxyglucose with 4 were realized through
selective activation of the C1-acetal and selective deprotection of
the C6-hydroxy group. Finally, the 3 amino and 10 hydroxy groups were
liberated in a single step to deliver the target 1. Thus,
the combination of the newly developed radical-coupling and protective-group
strategies minimized the functional group manipulations and thereby
enabled the synthesis of 1 from 10 in only
17 steps. The present total synthesis demonstrates the versatility
of intermolecular radical addition to aldehyde for the first time
and offers a new strategic design for multistep target-oriented syntheses
of various nucleoside antibiotics and other bioactive natural products.