Divergent and programmable skeletal remodeling of complex macrocycles with a small method set

The bioactivity of complex organic macrocycles can vary unpredictably with their three-dimensional structural contours. Here, we present a streamlined, programmable, and systematic strategy for skeletal remodeling of large organic rings. The central diversification platform (hub) is a readily available macrocyclic olefin or a diene. Six transformations, all but one catalytic, are needed: macrocyclic ring-opening/cross-metathesis for cleaving a ring to generate a diene, cross-metathesis and allylic substitution for one-unit chain homologation, alkene isomerization and ethenolysis for one-unit chain clipping, and macrocyclic ring-closing metathesis for reforming a ring. The methods are practical, mild, efficient, and amenable to iteration. Fourteen analogs of anticancer agent epothilone C (the primary model macrocycle) were accessed through a divergent network of reactions that correspond to an average of three steps per analog from the diene hub.