Natural products in parallel chemistry--novel 5-lipoxygenase inhibitors from BIOS-based libraries starting from alpha-santonin.

Recently, we developed a concept known as biology-oriented synthesis (BIOS), which targets the design and synthesis of small- to medium-sized compound libraries on the basis of genuine natural product templates to provide screening compounds with high biological relevance. We herein describe the parallel solution phase synthesis of two BIOS-based libraries starting from alpha-santonin (1). Modification of the sesquiterpene lactone 1 by introduction of a thiazole moiety followed by a Lewis-acid-mediated lactone opening yielded a first library of natural product analogues. An acid-mediated dienone-phenol rearrangement of 1 and a subsequent etherification/amidation sequence led to a second natural product-based library. After application of a fingerprint-based virtual screening on these compounds, the biological screening of 23 selected library members against 5-lipoxygenase resulted in the discovery of four potent novel inhibitors of this enzyme.