An efficient synthesis and the biological evaluation of 80 novel analogs of 25-dehydro-1
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-hydroxyvitaminD
3-26,23
S-lactone
2 (TEI-9647) and its 23
R epimer (
3) in which the lactone ring was systematicallyfunctionalized by introduction of a C
1 to C
4 primary alkyl group at the C24 position (5 sets of 4 diastereomers),together with their C2
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-methyl, 3-hydroxypropyl, and 3-hydroxypropoxy-substituted derivatives weredescribed. The triene structure of the vitamin D
3 was constructed using palladium-catalyzed alkenylativecyclization of the A-ring precursor enyne with the CD-ring counterpart bromoolefin having the C24-alkylatedlactone moiety on the side chain. The CD-ring precursors having 23,24-
cis lactones were prepared by usinga chromium-mediated
syn-selective allylation-lactonization process, and the 23,24-
trans lactone derivativeswere derived from these via inversion of the C23 stereochemistry. The biological evaluation revealedthat both binding affinity for chick vitamin D hormone receptor and antagonistic activity (inhibition ofvitamin D hormone induced HL-60 cell differentiation) were affected by the orientation and chain-length ofthe primary alkyl group on the lactone ring. Furthermore, the C2
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-functionalization of the C24-alkylatedvitamin D
3 lactones dramatically enhanced their biological activities. The most potent compound to emerge,(23
S,24
S)-2
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-(3-hydroxypropoxy)-24-propyl exhibited almost 1000-fold stronger antagonistic activity (IC
50= 7.4 pM) than
2 (IC
50 = 6.3 nM).