Microwave-assisted synthesis of new fluorescent indoline-based building blocks by ligand free Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction in aqueous media

Microwave-Induced Synthesis of Bioactive Nitrogen Heterocycles

There are many different applications of heterocyclic molecules in pharmaceutical and materials science, which make them an important family of compounds. Among these heterocyclic compounds, nitrogen-containing heterocyclic (N-heterocyclic) compounds have attracted a lot of interest among researchers due to their various applications across a wide variety of fields. Many studies have been performed over the past few years to study the synthesis of N-heterocycles under different reaction conditions, such as solvent-free, catalytic conditions, reactants immobilized on a solid support, one-pot synthesis, and microwave irradiation. Our research group has demonstrated that microwaves can be utilized for rapid and efficient synthesis of biologically active compounds. In this review, we provide an overview of the microwave-assisted non-catalytic and catalytic preparation of nitrogen-containing heterocycles, mostly polycyclic N-heterocycles, five-membered Nheterocycles, six-membered N-heterocycles, and fused N-heterocycles. In this review, we explore the microwave-assisted preparation of biologically important compounds, such as pyrimidines, thiazoles, imines, tetrazoles, steroidal derivatives, quinolines, indolizine, triazoles, beta-lactams, pyrroles, and quinoxalines.

Synthesis of New Azetidine and Oxetane Amino Acid Derivatives through Aza-Michael Addition of NH-Heterocycles with Methyl 2-(Azetidin- or Oxetan-3-Ylidene)Acetates

In this paper, a simple and efficient synthetic route for the preparation of new heterocyclic amino acid derivatives containing azetidine and oxetane rings was described. The starting (N-Boc-azetidin-3-ylidene)acetate was obtained from (N-Boc)azetidin-3-one by the DBU-catalysed Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons reaction, followed by aza-Michael addition with NH-heterocycles to yield the target functionalised 3-substituted 3-(acetoxymethyl)azetidines. Methyl 2-(oxetan-3-ylidene)acetate was obtained in a similar manner, which was further treated with various (N-Boc-cycloaminyl)amines to yield the target 3-substituted 3-(acetoxymethyl)oxetane compounds. The synthesis and diversification of novel heterocyclic amino acid derivatives were achieved through the Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling from the corresponding brominated pyrazole-azetidine hybrid with boronic acids. The structures of the novel heterocyclic compounds were confirmed via 1H-, 13C-, 15N-, and 19F-NMR spectroscopy, as well as HRMS investigations.

Synthesis and Antiproliferative Activity of 2,4,6,7-Tetrasubstituted-2H-pyrazolo[4,3-c]pyridines

A library of 2,4,6,7-tetrasubstituted-2H-pyrazolo[4,3-c]pyridines was prepared from easily accessible 1-phenyl-3-(2-phenylethynyl)-1H-pyrazole-4-carbaldehyde via an iodine-mediated electrophilic cyclization of intermediate 4-(azidomethyl)-1-phenyl-3-(phenylethynyl)-1H-pyrazoles to 7-iodo-2,6-diphenyl-2H-pyrazolo[4,3-c]pyridines followed by Suzuki cross-couplings with various boronic acids and alkylation reactions. The compounds were evaluated for their antiproliferative activity against K562, MV4-11, and MCF-7 cancer cell lines. The most potent compounds displayed low micromolar GI50 values. 4-(2,6-Diphenyl-2H-pyrazolo[4,3-c]pyridin-7-yl)phenol proved to be the most active, induced poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP-1) cleavage, activated the initiator enzyme of apoptotic cascade caspase 9, induced a fragmentation of microtubule-associated protein 1-light chain 3 (LC3), and reduced the expression levels of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). The obtained results suggest a complex action of 4-(2,6-diphenyl-2H-pyrazolo[4,3-c]pyridin-7-yl)phenol that combines antiproliferative effects with the induction of cell death. Moreover, investigations of the fluorescence properties of the final compounds revealed 7-(4-methoxyphenyl)-2,6-diphenyl-2H-pyrazolo[4,3-c]pyridine as the most potent pH indicator that enables both fluorescence intensity-based and ratiometric pH sensing.

3,3,3′,3′-Tetramethyl-2,2′-diphenyl-3H,3′H-5,5′-biindole

The palladium-catalyzed homocoupling of 5-iodo-3,3-dimethyl-2-phenyl-3H-indole afforded 3,3,3′,3′-tetramethyl-2,2′-diphenyl-3H,3′H-5,5′-biindole in 65% yield. This previously unreported compound was fully characterized by NMR, IR and HRMS data and its optical properties were studied by UV/vis and fluorescence spectroscopy.