Biomimetic oxidation of aromatic xenobiotics: synthesis of the phenolic metabolites from the anti-HIV drug efavirenz

We report the oxidation of the first line anti-HIV drug efavirenz (EFV), mediated by a bio-inspired nonheme Fe-complex. Depending upon the experimental conditions this system can be tuned either to yield the major EFV metabolite, 8-hydroxy-EFV, in enantiomerically pure form or to mimic cytochrome P450 (CYP) activity, yielding 8-hydroxy-EFV and 7-hydroxy-EFV, the two phenolic EFV metabolites reported to be formed in vivo . The successful oxidation of the anti-estrogen tamoxifen and the equine estrogen equilin into their CYP-mediated metabolites supports the general application of bio-inspired nonheme Fe-complexes in mirroring CYP activity. We report the oxidation of efavirenz, equilin and tamoxifen by a bio-inspired Fe-complex, yielding the phenolic metabolites of these xenobiotics.