Synthesis of a Ribose-Incorporating Medium Ring Scaffold via a Challenging Ring-Closing Metathesis Reaction

A practical synthesis of a novel oxabicyclo[6.2.1]undecenetriol useful as a medicinal chemistry scaffold has been developed starting from l-ribose. The sequence involves an oxidation/Grignard addition sequence and a challenging ring-closing metathesis (RCM) reaction as the ring forming step. Exploration of the RCM substrate protecting groups revealed the key factor for successful nine-membered medium ring formation to be conformational bias of the reacting alkenes of the RCM substrate by very bulky silyl ether protecting groups. The synthesis also allowed access to an epimeric triol and saturated and unsaturated variants of the nine-membered ring. The medium ring conformation of the oxabicyclo[6.2.1]undecenetriol was determined by X-ray crystallography and correlated to the solution state conformation by NMR experiments.