Studies toward the Total Synthesis of (+)-Pyrenolide D

Abstract

Spiro lactones have had an extensive impact in both medicinal and organismal biology. Since their discovery, various methods for preparing spiro lactones have been studied and investigated. One of these spiro lactones, pyrenolide D, which is one of the four metabolites, A-D, was isolated from Pyrenophora teres by Nukina and Hirota in 1992 and shows cytotoxicity towards HL-60 cells at IC50 4 µg/ mL. The structural determination, via spectroscopic methods, reported that unlike pyrenolides A-C, pyrenolide D contained a rare, highly oxygenated tricyclic spiro-γ-lactone structure and did not contain the macrocyclic lactone seen in the other pyrenolides. The purpose of this project is the determination of a cost effective and efficient synthesis of pyrenolide D from the naturally occurring sugar, D-xylose. Herein we report studies towards the total synthesis of pyrenolide D.