Total synthesis and chemical biology of the sarcodictyins

The sarcodictyins A - F and eleutherobin comprise a family of marine- derived diterpenoids with potent cytotoxicities against various tumor cell lines. Investigations have revealed that several of these compounds exert their cytotoxic effects through tubulin binding in a mechanism analogous to that of the clinical anticancer drug Taxol(TM). The biological importance, challenging molecular architecture, and relative scarcity of these natural products have prompted several groups to undertake their total chemical synthesis. In this review, we summarize the current synthetic efforts and examine the preliminary structure-activity relationships which have emerged from early combinatorial libraries.