Function-Oriented Synthesis, Step Economy, and Drug Design

This Account provides an overview and examples of function-oriented synthesis (FOS) and its increasingly important role in producing therapeutic leads that can be made in a step-economical fashion. Biologically active natural product leads often suffer from several deficiencies. Many are scarce or difficult to obtain from natural sources. Often, they are highly complex molecules and thus not amenable to a practical synthesis that would impact supply. Most are not optimally suitable for human therapeutic use. The central principle of FOS is that the function of a biologically active lead structure can be recapitulated, tuned, or greatly enhanced with simpler scaffolds designed for ease of synthesis and also…