Recent advances in the total synthesis of cytochalasan natural products using bioinspired strategies

Cytochalasans are a large class of isoindolone-containing tricyclic fungal secondary metabolites. They have a diverse array of intriguing structures and bioactivities, including nematicidal, anti-inflammatory, and antitumor activities, and therefore, have received a lot of attention from the synthetic community ever since their first member cytochalasin A was initially isolated in 1967. Interest in this class has recently been reignited by the discovery of structurally more complex pentacyclic cytochalasans and merocytochalasans. This review focuses on an overview of recent advances in the bioinspired synthesis of cytochalasans, pentacyclic cytochalasans and merocytochalasans covering from 2016 to 2021.