Exploring Aldol Reactions on DNA and Applications to Produce Diverse Structures: An Example of Expanding Chemical Space of DNA-Encoded Compounds by Diversity-Oriented Synthesis

A DNA-encoded chemical library (DECL) is built with combinatorial chemistry, which works by bringing chemical fragments together to generate diverse structures. However, chemical diversity of DNA-encoded chemical libraries is often limited by DNA compatible synthetic reactions. This report shows a conceptual strategy to expand chemical space of DNA-encoded chemical libraries by incorporation of diversity-oriented synthesis in DECL synthesis. We developed Aldol reactions on DNA in a combinatorial way. After obtaining DNA-tagged alpha, beta-unsaturated ketones which represent important chemical intermediates, many distinct structures with skeletal diversities are achieved by diversity-oriented synthesis.