Practical synthesis of potent sphingosine-1-phosphate lyase inhibitors THI and LX2931

A practical and scalable synthesis of in vivo sphingosine-1-phosphate lyase inhibitor LX2931 (1) is described. The synthetic route features an improved Büchi cyclocondensation of 2-ethoxyacrylonitrile (3) with either 1-amino-1-deoxy-d-fructose acetate (4a) or d-(+)-glucosamine hydrochloride (4b) to produce 1-(4-((1R,2S,3R)-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroxybutyl)-1H-imidazol-2-yl)ethanone (2, THI), followed by oximation of THI and acid-promoted oxime isomerization to give LX2931 (1).

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