Chemical development of the vasopressin receptor 2 antagonist SR-121463

A facile convergent total synthesis of the selective, potent, and orally active V-2 nonpeptide antagonist, SR-121463, was developed by modification of the discovery route. One of the late intermediates, the sulfonyl chloride 1, was synthesized from 3-hydroxybenzoic acid (19) by regioselective sulfonation, O-methylation and amidation in four steps. Another late intermediate, indolin-2-one 2, was prepared from p-phenetidine (8) through the indolin-2-one 16, where the cyclohexanone moiety of 27 was introduced into the active 3-methylene group of 16 by sequential transformation using methyl acrylate and KOtBu. After formation of the cyclic ketal moiety of 13, its ring-opening was achieved by using NaBH4 in the presence of CCl3COOH. The morpholino group in 2 was introduced in accordance with the discovery approach, starting from the 2-hydroxyethoxy derivative 14 through the tosyloxy derivative 15 with morpholine in a one-pot reaction. In this way, the indolin-2-one 2 was synthesized from 8 in six steps. Finally, acylation of the indolin-2-one 2 was achieved with the sulfonyl chloride I in the presence of KOtBu in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) at room temperature. This synthetic route proved to be applicable for the large-scale synthesis of SR-121463.