Antitumor septacidin analogues.

In the first approach by total synthesis to the structure of the antitumor antibiotic septacidin, analogues have been obtained which show similar inhibition of RNA-DNA synthesis in cultured leukemia L1210 cells and similar activity against transplanted leukemia P388 in mice. In these analogues, the natural aminoheptose moiety is replaced by 4-amino-4-deoxy-and 4-amino-4,6-dideoxy-L-glucose, to retain the natural configuration of the pyranose ring. Also retained is the lipophilic fatty acid-amino acid side chain attached to the 4-amino group and glycosylation at the 6-NH2 of adenine. If the fatty acid chain was shortened from C16 to C6, if the fatty chain was shifted to the glycine unit, or if the glycine unit was omitted, activity was completely lost. However, activity was retained if the C16 chain was shortened only to C12 or if the glycine unit was extended to beta-alanine. Both active and inactive analogues were nonbinding to DNA and nonmutagenic to Salmonella strains. The synthetic approach was to start with a suitably protected sugar (L-fucose and L-galactose), construct the adenine moiety at C-1 introduce a 4-amino group, and finally attach the preformed side chain.