QSAR studies for androgen receptor

Jose Manuel Garcia de la Vega (Universidad Autonoma de Madrid) and co-workers have reported in the Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology on some QSAR studiesfor androgen analogs acting on androgen receptors.  If you were ever curious about how drug design works, this paper may illustrate a good example of the computational chemist’s approach.

 

JSBMB paper

Synthesis of Deoxystrigol

Minoru Ueda and Mitsuru Shoji from Tohoku University has published recently in JOC on the synthesis of this polycyclic ring system.  Any ideas on how they coupled the aldehyde with an alpha,beta-unsaturated ester to make that lacone ring system?  This molecule is secreted by a fungus in the roots of a plant that signals the branching of the fungus.  This molecule is a strigolactone, which has the 6,5,5-lactone ring system and it is derived from a carotenoid.

JOC paper