Key words ODM-201; diastereomer; synthesis; intramolecular 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition ODM-201 (1) is a novel androgen receptor (AR) inhibitor that showed significant antitumor activity and a favorable safety profile in phase 1/2 studies in men with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC).1,2) ODM-201 ( Fig. 1) is structurally distinct from any known antiandrogens including the second-generation antiandrogens enzalutamide and ARN-509. In contrast to other antiandrogens, ODM-201 displays negligible brain penetrance and does not increase serum testosterone levels in mice.3)As demonstrated in Fig. 1, ODM-201 is a synthetic compound comprising a mixture (1 : 1) of diastereomers, namely 1a and b. Although both compounds 1a and b are claimed to be pharmacologically active, 4) the specific data was not disclosed. We believe that more bioactivity studies are necessary to clarify the action mechanism, which requires substantial supply of diastereomerically pure 1a and b. There are two methods have been reported for the synthesis of 1a and b.
5)In the first method, special enzymes (KREDs) were used for the selective reduction which limited the extensive application. The second one only gave a very low yield (0.025%) in the synthesis of (R)-ethyl-5-(1-hydroxyethyl)-1H-pyrazole-3-carboxylate or (S)-ethyl-5-(1-hydroxyethyl)-1H-pyrazole-3-carboxylate, which is hard for practical production.As well known, 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition has been widely employed in construction of 5-membered heterocyclic systems. 6) In the present work, we devoted to developing an efficient synthetic route for the synthesis of ODM-201's diastereomers through intramolecular 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition.
Results and DiscussionAs displayed in Figs. 2 and 3, we initiated our synthesis from commercially available enantiopure (R)-methyl 3-hydroxybutanoate (2a) and (S)-methyl 3-hydroxybutanoate (2b). We firstly tried to protect the 3-OH in 2a and b with trimethyl silyl (TMS) group, the following transformation, however, only resulted in poor yield. Considering that tert-butyldimethylsilyl (TBS) is more stable than TMS in most cases, we thereof prepared TBS protected intermediates (R)-methyl 3-((tert-butyldimethylsilyl) oxy) butanoate (3a) and (S)-methyl 3-((tert-butyldimethylsilyl) oxy) butanoate (3b) in 94-97% yield. Following diisobutylaluminium hydride (DIBAL)-H reduction of 3a and b gave aldehydes 4a and b correspondingly in 88-92% yield.With aldehydes 4a and b available, we explored the conditions for preparation of 5a and b through condensation with ethyl diazoacetate. We found that when strong bases such as lithium diisopropylamide (LDA) or lithium hexamethyldisilazide (LiHMDS) were employed, target compounds 5a and b were prepared in 73-75% yield. 7,8) The yield of this method is acceptable, but low temperature of −78°C and absolutely anhydrous conditions are required, which limited its application. Further optimization revealed that when ethyl diazoacetate treated with milder base tetrabutylammonium hydroxide (TBAOH) using dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) ...