Synthetic Studies on Fostriecin and Related Natural Products

Fostriecin (CI-920), isolated from Streptomyces pulveraceus, shows in vitro antitumor activity against leukemia, lung breast and ovarian cancer, and in vivo against L 1210 and P 388 leukemia. Its analogous compounds, such as leustroducsins, phoslactomycins and cytostatin, are also known to show a variety of biological activities. One of the most characteristic biochemical features is a specific inhibitory activity against Ser/Thr protein phosphatase 2 A. Not only because of their interesting biological activities, but also in order to prove utility of new reactions and/or new synthetic methodologies, fostriecin and its analogs attract much attention as a synthetic target, and a number of synthetic studies on these compounds have been conducted, particularly since the stereostructure of fostriecin was revealed by Boger's group in 1997. In this review, we focus on the studies reported after Shibasaki's review in 2005. Recent synthetic studies on the analogous natural products, leustroducsins, phoslactomycins and cytostatin are also included.