Four toxins are one of the most powerful natural neurotoxins, which have attracted researchers for decades due to their potential applications in pain management and medical treatment. A team of scientists led by Dr. Xiangbing Qi from the National Institute of Biological Sciences Beijing has now successfully developed a scalable and asymmetric total synthesis of Tetrodotoxin and its co-organisms, a closely related tetratoxin compound. Their important findings have been published in the peer-reviewed Nature Communications.
The four toxins are known for their ability to block sodium channels that control nerve signals, making them an effective and powerful pain blocker and numbing agent. However, its complex structure makes laboratory production a huge challenge. The researchers overcome these difficulties by designing a practical step-by-step approach to create it from a common and prone to emergence starting material. “Our strategy simplifies the binding of dense heteroatom-formed structures, a molecular structure that contains different types of atoms, such as oxygen and nitrogen, which affect their properties, thus enabling the synthesis of tetratoxins on an unprecedented scale practical ways,” explains Dr. QI.
Their method employs a stereoselective Diels-Alder reaction that helps build the molecule’s core cyclohexane framework, a six-carbon ring structure that forms the backbone of many organic molecules, followed by carefully orchestrated functional group interconversions, controlled decarboxylative hydroxylation of the highly oxygenated cyclohexane frameworks to Adjust its structural diversity. It is worth noting that carefully controlled oxygen bridge openings and reductions can break and rearrange key parts of molecules, as well as innovative technologies that use metal catalysts to perfect the molecular structure play a crucial role in assembling the final structure. These precise synthesis steps allow researchers to produce more than a large amount of the four toxins and their 9-EPI isomers, marking a significant scale compared to previous efforts.
The ability to synthesize four toxins effectively opens new doors for medical research and drug development. Neurotoxins have shown promise in treating severe pain, especially in cancer patients with poor response to opioid-based drugs, strong painkillers that work by blocking pain signals in the nervous system, but may Addictive. “Establishing a reliable source of tetratoxin synthesis is critical for further research to explore its impact on the body and potential therapeutic applications,” Qi said. In addition, the research’s approach demonstrates the assembly of other oxygen-rich gases with medical benefits. The feasibility of the complexes, naturally occurring compounds, may lead to advances in medicinal chemistry, research and development of research on compounds used in medicine.
In addition to its medical significance, this study also represents an important step in the science of creating complex molecules in the laboratory to perfectly solve complex functionalization, stereochemically complex architectures, especially highly oxidized Ring natural products. These findings not only highlight an innovative synthetic approach, but also pave the way for further exploration of the four-toxin derivatives and their pharmacological potential. With effective synthetic pathways now established, researchers are expected to explore new applications of this effective neurotoxin in medicine and other areas.
Journal Reference
Peihao Chen, Jing Wang, Shuangfeng Zhang, Yan Wang, Yuze Sun, Songlin Bai, Qingcui Wu, Xinyu Cheng, Peng Cao, Xiangbing Qi. “Total synthesis of four toxins and 9-dual toxins.” Nature Communications, 2024. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-45037-0
About the Author
Dr. Qi He received his PhD in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the Southwest Medical Center in Dallas in 2009. After researching medicinal chemistry at UT urbana-champaign and UT Southwestern Medical Center in Illinois, Dr. Qi joined the National Institute of Biological Sciences, (NIBS), Beijing in 2013, and is currently the PI associate PI and chemistry center at NIBS and Tsinghua University director.
His research program focuses on the interfaces of synthetic chemistry, chemical biology and medicinal chemistry. His group used alkyl zirconium reagents to carry out a novel cross-coupling reaction for activation, functionalization and formation of Sp³c-Sp³c and sp³c-heteroatom single bonds. He successfully achieved several natural products with high biological activity and structural complexity, including tetratoxins and Sinning. His group made a breakthrough contribution to drug discovery, including inhibiting the development of bile acid derivatives infected by hepatitis B virus, the first drug candidate to regulate circadian clocks for 12 hours, and two New molecular gel therapy for targeting protein degradation and precise cancer.
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