Chemists create pharmacologically interesting compounds
The pharmacological activity of a chemical compound depends to a large extent on its external structure. Natural substances, such as ellipticin, which has been known as an anti-cancer drug since 1967, are effective because of their special form, which enables these substances to insert themselves into the DNA of tumor cells and unfold their effect there. During the investigation of natural substances with antibiotic and cytostatic effects, a new, reactive class of substances was found: the enyne-allenes. In order to better understand and use the mode of action of these compounds, the working group of Prof. Dr. Michael Schmittel at the Institute for Organic Chemistry at the University of Würzburg produced various representatives of the enyne-allenes and observed their reaction paths. In doing so, the chemists discovered a novel radical reaction sequence that can be used to quickly and flexibly build up complex, polycyclic molecules other methods. This amazingly simple process is now to be used in Würzburg for the production of both naturally occurring and structurally related compounds that are pharmacologically useful. This project by Prof. Schmittel is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The synthesis of effective natural substances such as ellipticine is often very expensive due to the complicated structures. With the Würzburg method, however, carbocyclic and heterocyclic variants of the ellipticin basic structure can usually only be prepared in four steps from simple precursor molecules, says Prof. Schmittel. In this way it is possible to quickly develop a wide range of interesting analogs. In principle - and this is a long-term goal of the work in Würzburg - the effective antitumor agent could even be produced directly at the site of action. © University of Würzburg
