On September 12, the international authoritative journal: Journal of the American Chemical Society published the latest research findings of Zhou Qianghui’s research team online. Zhou Qianghui is a professor of the College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences and a part-time researcher of The Institute for Advanced Studies of Wuhan University.
The paper is entitled “Modular Dual-Tasked C-H Methylation via the Catellani Strategy”. Wuhan University is the only communication unit. Gao Qianwen, a 2019 doctoral student of College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, is the first author, and Zhou Qianghui is the corresponding author.
Extensive studies have revealed that the introduction of a methyl group to a drug candidate can modulate its biological activity significantly and improve its half- life, solubility (/period), targeted selectivity, etc., and sometimes can even turn an agonist into an antagonist. Such effect is called the “magic methyl effect” in medicinal chemistry. Hence, methylated modification of bioactive molecules has become one of the most widely used strategies for drug discovery, and various methods of methylation have emerged. However, existing methylation strategies are only single-tasked, and it is difficult to introduce isotope-labeled methyl groups to molecules by these strategies.
To tackle the drawbacks of existing methylation methods, Zhou Qianghui’s research team develops an innovative modular dual-tasked methylation via the Catellani reaction. This method utilizes inexpensive MeOTs or trimethylphosphate as the methylating reagent. Through the cooperative palladium/norbornene (NBE) catalysis, six types of C-I bond “ipso” terminations of aryl iodides can modularly couple with this “ortho” C–H bond methylation to constitute a versatile methylation toolbox for preparing diversified methylated arenes. Besides, it can be uneventfully extended to isotope-labeled methylation by switching to the corresponding reagents CD3OTs or 13CH3OTs.
This toolbox features inexpensive methyl sources, excellent functional-group tolerance, simple reaction procedures, and scalability to produce diversified methylated arenes. Moreover, this toolbox can be applied to late-stage modification of biorelevant substrates with complete stereoretention, which is of great significance for biological and pharmaceutical research. Hence, this method is expected to be widely applied to drug discovery. The research findings have already applied for intellectual property.
Link to the original: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.9b07857
Rewritten by Liu Xinfan, edited by Zhang Shiqi, Shen Yuxi & Hu Sijia
Bibliography
Qianwen,G.,Shang,Y.,Fuzhen,S.,Jinxiang,Y.,Ze-Shui,L.,Lisha,L.,Hong-Gang,C.&Qianghui,Z.(2019).Modular Dual-Tasked C–H Methylation via the Catellani Strategy.Journal of the American Chemical Society
