A novel synthetic route to the cyclostellettamines
1 using as the key step a microwave-mediated macrocyclicring-closing metathesis o
f precursors bispyridinium dienes
10 followed by catalytic hydrogenation has beendeveloped. The open-chain bispyridinium dienes
10 showed uni
formly higher histone deacetylase (HDAC)inhibitory potency than the natural products. Diene
10b inhibited HDAC1 and was inactive on HDAC4,whereas
10a showed a weak inhibition o
f HDAC1 and a higher activity on HDAC4. Neither
10b nor
10ainhibited iso
forms HDAC2 and HDAC3. Cell cycle analysis, cell di
fferentiation, and apoptosis as well asevaluation o
f the acetylation status o
f H3 lysine tails, up-regulation o
f p21
WAF1/CIP1, and
![](/images/gi<font color=)
fchars/alpha.gi
f" BORDER=0>-tubulin acetylationinduced by the dienes
10 and cyclostellettamines
1 were also carried out on the human leukemia U937 cellline. These enzymatic and
functional assays suggest that
10b is a HDAC1-selective inhibitor and
10a is aHDAC subclass IIa-selective inhibitor.