Expeditious Total Synthesis of Hemiasterlin through a Convergent Multicomponent Strategy and Its Use in Targeted Cancer Therapeutics

Abstract

Hemiasterlin is an antimitotic marine natural product with reported sub-nanomolar potency against several cancer cell lines. Herein, we describe an expeditious total synthesis of hemiasterlin featuring a four-component Ugi reaction (Ugi-4CR) as the key step. The convergent synthetic strategy enabled rapid access to taltobulin (HTI-286), a similarly potent synthetic analogue. This short synthetic sequence enabled investigation of both hemiasterlin and taltobulin as cytotoxic payloads in antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs). These novel ADCs displayed sub-nanomolar cytotoxicity against HER2-expressing cancer cells, while showing no activity against antigen-negative cells. This study demonstrates an improved synthetic route to a highly valuable natural product, facilitating further investigation of hemiasterlin and its analogues as potential payloads in targeted therapeutics.