Catalytic asymmetric total synthesis of (+)-lactacystin.

Total synthesis of (+)-lactacystin, a potent and selective proteasome inhibitor, was accomplished using a catalytic enantioselective Strecker reaction of a ketoimine as the initial key step. An enone-derived N-phosphinoyl ketoimine 7 was selected as a stable masked α-hydroxy ketoimine analogue. Excellent enantioselectivity (98% ee) and practical catalyst activity were produced under the optimized catalyst preparation method using 2.5 mol % Gd{N(SiMe3)2}3 as a metal source and 3.8 mol % d-glucose-derived ligand 8. This reaction was conducted on a 5 g scale. The chiral tetrasubstituted C-5 carbon efficiently controlled the stereochemistry of the other three chiral centers of lactacystin. Chelation-controlled Meerwein-type reduction of ketone 5 using i-PrMgBr (originally reported by Kang in a related substrate) selectively produced the desired secondary alcohol at the C-9 position. The C-6 hydroxy and C-7 methyl groups were introduced via a silyl conjugate addition followed by the Tamao oxidation and Donohoe...