Total synthesis and biological evaluation of tamandarin B analogues

Tamandarins A and B are a class of marine natural cyclodepsipeptides with structures and biological activities closely related to those of the didemnins. The easier synthetic access to tamandarins accelerates the preparation of new macrocyclic derivatives of this family of antitumor, antiviral, and immunosuppressive compounds. The optimization of the previously reported synthetic route to tamandarins by changing the macrolactamization site from Nst(1) and Thr(6) to Pro(4) and N,O-Me(2)Tyr(5) residues led to a significant improvement in the reaction yield. Using this new synthetic approach, four new macrocyclic analogues of tamandarin B were prepared and evaluated for anticancer activity. These results provide further insight into the structure-activity relationship of the tamandarins and didemnins.