Jayalakshmi Sridhar
Xavier University of Louisiana, USA
Title: Discovery of a synthetic method to form 2,2’-bis(naphthoquinone) compounds
Biography:
Abstract:
Quinones are key structural components in many natural products, and therapeutic drugs impacting many disease conditions, viz antimicrobial, antiparasitic, anti-tumor, inhibition of PGE2 biosynthesis and anti-cardiovascular disease. As part of our efforts in the design and development of kinase inhibitors as potential therapeutics for cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, the synthesis of monohydroxynaphthoquinones using Diels-Alder reaction was pursued. This lead to the discovery of a novel method for the synthesis of 2,2’-bis(naphthoquinones) using conjugated ketene silyl acetals with benzoquinone. The analysis of the reaction conditions and the product structures using NMR and X-ray lead to the elucidation of a credible mechanism of dimer formation. The control of reactant stoichiometry to yield either the monomer of the dimer product is explored.