Process Development and Scale-up Total Synthesis of Largazole, a Potent Class I Histone Deacetylase Inhibitor

Herein we describe the research and development of the process for the scale-up total synthesis of largazole, a potent class I selective histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, a potential anticancer agent and also useful for the treatment of other disorders where transcriptional reprogramming might be beneficial. The synthetic route and conditions for each fragment and final product were modified and optimized to make them suitable for larger scale synthesis. With the process we developed, hundreds of grams of each fragment and decagrams of final productlargazole were synthesized in good to excellent yields. The final target largazole was obtained in 21% overall yield over eight steps based on the longest sequence with over 95% HPLC purity.