Chemoenzymatic synthesis of the cardenolide rhodexin A and its aglycone sarmentogenin

• Fuzhen Song,
• Mengmeng Zheng,
• Dongkai Wang,
• Xudong Qu and
• Qianghui Zhou

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2637–2644, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.204

• oleandrin have been used in clinical treatment for heart failure for a long time (Figure 1) [3][4][5]. The bioactivity of CGs is primarily determined by the lactone ring, with the sugar residue critically influencing their toxicological profile [6]. This is evident as the free aglycone facilitates

Thiazolidinones: novel insights from microwave synthesis, computational studies, and potentially bioactive hybrids

• Luan A. Martinho,
• Victor H. J. G. Praciano,
• Guilherme D. R. Matos,
• Claudia C. Gatto and
• Carlos Kleber Z. Andrade

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2618–2636, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.203

• to excellent yields (66–99%) and may present several advantages, notably their potential to enhance bioactivity, expand structural diversity, and contribute to fluorescence properties. Comprehensive studies to fully evaluate these characteristics are in progress. Spectroscopic study of compounds 3n

Pentacyclic aromatic heterocycles from Pd-catalyzed annulation of 1,5-diaryl-1,2,3-triazoles

• Kaylen D. Lathrum,
• Emily M. Hanneken,
• Katelyn R. Grzelak and
• James T. Fletcher

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2524–2534, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.194

• orientation, the distribution of nitrogen atom centers within the ring system appears essential for eliciting bioactivity. Orientation of isoquinoline and N3-triazole subunit nitrogen atoms is identical between 17 and 35 as well as between 18 and 36. In contrast, 34 showed toxicity towards Gram-positive

• bacteria while its triazole-connected counterpart 16 did not. Removal of the non-triazole N center (13 and 31) or its relocation elsewhere (14–16 and 32–33) results in a total loss of bioactivity against all organisms under the concentrations studied. None of the non-annulated control compounds 37–48 were

• measurably bioactive, including those serving as controls for the five bioactive derivatives, highlighting the additional importance of structural rigidity on bioactivity within this series. Elucidation of the mechanism of action for these bioactive pentacyclic compounds will be the focus of future

Further elaboration of the stereodivergent approach to chaetominine-type alkaloids: synthesis of the reported structures of aspera chaetominines A and B and revised structure of aspera chaetominine B

• Jin-Fang Lü,
• Jiang-Feng Wu,
• Jian-Liang Ye and
• Pei-Qiang Huang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2072–2081, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.162

• fungus Aspergillus versicolour SCSIO XWS04 F52 [32]. All these alkaloids distinguish each other only by alkyl substituent at C11 and by relative stereochemistries at C2, C3, C11, and C14. Soon after the report of the isolation, structural elucidation, and bioactivity of (–)-chaetominine by Tan and co

Discovery of cytotoxic indolo[1,2-c]quinazoline derivatives through scaffold-based design

• Daniil V. Khabarov,
• Valeria A. Litvinova,
• Lyubov G. Dezhenkova,
• Dmitry N. Kaluzhny,
• Alexander S. Tikhomirov and
• Andrey E. Shchekotikhin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2062–2071, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.161

• activities, including antiviral, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, and insecticidal properties. Notably, gramine [24] and other Mannich bases [25] exhibit a broad range of bioactivity, and structurally related compounds such as sumatriptan and rizatriptan have been approved for clinical use [24

Research progress on calixarene/pillararene-based controlled drug release systems

• Liu-Huan Yi,
• Jian Qin,
• Si-Ran Lu,
• Liu-Pan Yang,
• Li-Li Wang and
• Huan Yao

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1757–1785, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.139

• employed as an external trigger for supramolecular systems. Azobenzene can regulate geometry, shape, and interfacial curvature under ultraviolet or visible light irradiation. It undergoes cis–trans isomerization, which can trigger alterations in bioactivity or assembly configurations. Methods for creating

Ambident reactivity of enolizable 5-mercapto-1H-tetrazoles in trapping reactions with in situ-generated thiocarbonyl S-methanides derived from sterically crowded cycloaliphatic thioketones

• Grzegorz Mlostoń,
• Małgorzata Celeda,
• Marcin Palusiak,
• Heinz Heimgartner,
• Marta Denel-Bobrowska and
• Agnieszka B. Olejniczak

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1508–1519, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.113

• situ-generated 1 towards enolizable 5-mercapto-1H-tetrazoles 4 bearing various aliphatic and aromatic substituents at the N(1) atom. Competition between the expected S–H and N–H insertion processes was of primary interest. In extension of the synthetically oriented study, bioactivity of selected

Oxetanes: formation, reactivity and total syntheses of natural products

• Peter Gabko,
• Martin Kalník and
• Maroš Bella

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1324–1373, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.101

• E [30] and daphnepapytone C [31] from the 2020s (Figure 4). Most of these compounds possess intriguing biological activities and selected examples from this list are discussed in more detail in chapter 4 with regards to their isolation, bioactivity and a recent total synthesis. The aim of this work

Synthetic approach to borrelidin fragments: focus on key intermediates

• Yudhi Dwi Kurniawan,
• Zetryana Puteri Tachrim,
• Teni Ernawati,
• Faris Hermawan,
• Ima Nurasiyah and
• Muhammad Alfin Sulmantara

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1135–1160, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.91

• architecture. Although extensive research has explored its pharmacological properties and various synthetic approaches, significant challenges remain in the efficient synthesis of borrelidin and its analogs. Existing literature largely focuses on total synthesis, bioactivity, and structural modifications

A versatile route towards 6-arylpipecolic acids

• Erich Gebel,
• Cornelia Göcke,
• Carolin Gruner and
• Norbert Sewald

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1104–1115, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.88

• -inducing properties in peptides [22][23][24]. Furthermore, derivatives of pipecolic acid are known for their bioactivity as secondary metabolites [25][26][27] and for being building blocks for piperidine alkaloids [28] with a variety of uses. Results and Discussion Addressing specific positions in the ring

Origami with small molecules: exploiting the C–F bond as a conformational tool

• Patrick Ryan,
• Ramsha Iftikhar and
• Luke Hunter

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 680–716, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.54

• ]. This molecule is a ring-expanded analogue of proline, and derivatives of it are found within several natural products and drugs. The pucker of the six-membered ring of 96 is quite important for bioactivity, because different puckers project the carboxyl substituent in different orientations (equatorial

Vinylogous functionalization of 4-alkylidene-5-aminopyrazoles with methyl trifluoropyruvates

• Judit Hostalet-Romero,
• Laura Carceller-Ferrer,
• Gonzalo Blay,
• Amparo Sanz-Marco,
• José R. Pedro and
• Carlos Vila

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 533–540, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.41

• compounds that generally enhance the bioactivity of agrochemical and pharmaceutical substrates. On the other hand, 5-aminopyrazole [11][12] is a nitrogen heterocycle that has attracted significant interest to pharmaceutical and medicinal chemists due to the presence of this nitrogen heterocycle in various

Synthesis of the aggregation pheromone of Tribolium castaneum

• Biyu An,
• Xueyang Wang,
• Ao Jiao,
• Qinghua Bian and
• Jiangchun Zhong

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 510–514, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.38

• inductive methylation [24]. To research further the bioactivity of the pheromone, herein, we report an effective synthesis of the aggregation pheromone of T. castaneum, which uses the cheap (R)- and (S)-2-methyloxirane as chiral sources, connects two chiral building blocks through Li2CuCl4-catalyzed

Visible-light-promoted radical cyclisation of unactivated alkenes in benzimidazoles: synthesis of difluoromethyl- and aryldifluoromethyl-substituted polycyclic imidazoles

• Yujun Pang,
• Jinglan Yan,
• Nawaf Al-Maharik,
• Qian Zhang,
• Zeguo Fang and
• Dong Li

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 234–241, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.15

• designed with a PhCF2 group (Figure 1a) [8][9][10]. As a result, there is a pressing need for the development of efficient methods for incorporating both the CF2H and PhCF2 groups into diverse molecular frameworks, particularly those with bioactivity properties. The benzimidazole core is widely recognized

Dioxazolones as electrophilic amide sources in copper-catalyzed and -mediated transformations

• Seungmin Lee,
• Minsuk Kim,
• Hyewon Han and
• Jongwoo Son

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 200–216, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.12

• potential bioactivity [70][71][72][73]. Despite the development of synthetic approaches for six-membered lactams, including transition-metal-catalyzed transformations, several limitations remain, particularly with regard to regioselectivity and asymmetric C–N bond formation, which are still limited. In 2023

Discovery of ianthelliformisamines D–G from the sponge Suberea ianthelliformis and the total synthesis of ianthelliformisamine D

• Sasha Hayes,
• Yaoying Lu,
• Bernd H. A. Rehm and
• Rohan A. Davis

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3205–3214, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.266

• –activity relationship data, leading to speculation over the moieties responsible for their antibiotic effects. A reduction in the number of amines in the polymeric chain and the absence of a primary amine was noted to decrease bioactivity by Xu et al. [7]. Research reported by Khan et al. in 2014 [9] also

Multicomponent reactions driving the discovery and optimization of agents targeting central nervous system pathologies

• Lucía Campos-Prieto,
• Aitor García-Rey,
• Eddy Sotelo and
• Ana Mallo-Abreu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3151–3173, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.261

• primary and secondary pharmacophores. Inspired by the structure and bioactivity profile of aripiprazole, a novel series of DRD2-biased agonists have been developed. The study involves the design, synthesis, and pharmacological characterization of DRD2 partial agonists [68]. Employing Ugi and Ugi post

Synthesis of the 1,5-disubstituted tetrazole-methanesulfonylindole hybrid system via high-order multicomponent reaction

• Cesia M. Aguilar-Morales,
• América A. Frías-López,
• Nadia V. Emilio-Velázquez,
• Alejandro Islas-Jácome,
• Angelica Judith Granados-López,
• Jorge Gustavo Araujo-Huitrado,
• Yamilé López-Hernández,
• Hiram Hernández-López,
• Luis Chacón-García,
• Jesús Adrián López and
• Carlos J. Cortés-García

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3077–3084, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.256

• bioactivity study was proposed based on observations that indole-coumarin-thiadiazole hybrid compounds described by Kamath et al. [44], as well as indole-benzimidazole hybrids reported by Singla et al. [45] have shown potential as therapeutic agents for breast cancer treatment. Thereby, we hypothesized that

Chemical structure metagenomics of microbial natural products: surveying nonribosomal peptides and beyond

• Thomas Ma and
• John Chu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3050–3060, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.253

• Thomas Ma John Chu Department of Chemistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei City 10617, Taiwan 10.3762/bjoc.20.253 Abstract Bioactivity-guided fractionation (BGF) has historically been a fruitful natural product discovery workflow. However, it is plagued by increasing rediscovery rates in

• invention of the bioactivity-guided fractionation (BGF) workflow by Selman Waksman to search systematically for new bioactive small molecules (Figure 1) [11]. He believed that the fungus Penicillium rubens produces penicillin to suppress the growth of other microorganisms, especially those it competes with

• of almost any bioactivity of interest that originate from plants, fungi, and even animals (such as sponges and corals). Perspective BGF can access only a fraction of the natural product chemical space For nearly a century, BGF has been the method of choice and identified the vast majority of natural

Synthesis and antimycotic activity of new derivatives of imidazo[1,2-a]pyrimidines

• Dmitriy Yu. Vandyshev,
• Daria A. Mangusheva,
• Khidmet S. Shikhaliev,
• Kirill A. Scherbakov,
• Oleg N. Burov,
• Alexander D. Zagrebaev,
• Tatiana N. Khmelevskaya,
• Alexey S. Trenin and
• Fedor I. Zubkov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2806–2817, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.236

• ]pyrimidines thus formed did not show significant bioactivity, they found applications as additives in electrochemical copper plating processes [21][22] (Figure 2). Based on the above, the main goal of this work was to develop a convenient method for the construction of potentially pharmacophoric imidazo[1,2-a

• this work was a preliminary evaluation of the potential bioactivity of the obtained compounds. In particular, a molecular docking experiment to investigate the binding mechanisms to the CYP51 enzyme and an evaluation of the antifungal activity of imidazo[1,2-a]pyrimidines against Candida albicans were

Synthesis and cytotoxicity studies of novel N-arylbenzo[h]quinazolin-2-amines

• Battini Veeraiah,
• Kishore Ramineni,
• Dabbugoddu Brahmaiah,
• Nangunoori Sampath Kumar,
• Hélène Solhi,
• Rémy Le Guevel,
• Chada Raji Reddy,
• Frédéric Justaud and
• René Grée

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2592–2598, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.218

• -amines and it was exemplified through the preparation of a focused chemical library with 19 members. In addition, the cytotoxicity assays afforded interesting results demonstrating that the substitution on the anilino part can have significant effects on their bioactivity. Two molecules (4a and 4i

Synthesis, electrochemical properties, and antioxidant activity of sterically hindered catechols with 1,3,4-oxadiazole, 1,2,4-triazole, thiazole or pyridine fragments

• Daria A. Burmistrova,
• Andrey Galustyan,
• Nadezhda P. Pomortseva,
• Kristina D. Pashaeva,
• Maxim V. Arsenyev,
• Oleg P. Demidov,
• Mikhail A. Kiskin,
• Andrey I. Poddel’sky,
• Nadezhda T. Berberova and
• Ivan V. Smolyaninov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2378–2391, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.202

• ), antituberculosis agents [13], as well as in drugs against arrhythmia (nesapidil) or muscular dystrophy (ataluren) [21]. The 1,3,4- and 1,2,4-oxadiazoles are the most promising from the point of view of bioactivity among the four isomers of oxadiazole. The presence of a 1,3,4-oxadiazole ring in the structure of

Allostreptopyrroles A–E, β-alkylpyrrole derivatives from an actinomycete Allostreptomyces sp. RD068384

• Marwa Elsbaey,
• Naoya Oku,
• Mohamed S. A. Abdel-Mottaleb and
• Yasuhiro Igarashi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1981–1987, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.174

• [31]. Range-separated hybrid GGA (RSH-GGA) functional, including dispersive interaction with 6-31G* as the polarization basis set (ωB97X-D/6-31G* method), was used for energy and geometry optimization [32]. Bioactivity Cytotoxicity and tyrosinase assays were carried out according to the procedures

Novel oxidative routes to N-arylpyridoindazolium salts

• Oleg A. Levitskiy,
• Yuri K. Grishin and
• Tatiana V. Magdesieva

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1906–1913, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.166

• exhibit significant bioactivity [4] and can be used as intercalating agents [7]. The very limited scope of these practically useful compounds is mainly attributed to the lack of convenient synthetic approaches to them. Thus, the only example of N-arylpyridoindazolium salts was obtained via intramolecular

Discovery of antimicrobial peptides clostrisin and cellulosin from Clostridium: insights into their structures, co-localized biosynthetic gene clusters, and antibiotic activity

• Moisés Alejandro Alejo Hernandez,
• Katia Pamela Villavicencio Sánchez,
• Rosendo Sánchez Morales,
• Karla Georgina Hernández-Magro Gil,
• David Silverio Moreno-Gutiérrez,
• Eddie Guillermo Sanchez-Rueda,
• Yanet Teresa-Cruz,
• Brian Choi,
• Armando Hernández Garcia,
• Alba Romero-Rodríguez,
• Oscar Juárez,
• Siseth Martínez-Caballero,
• Mario Figueroa and
• Corina-Diana Ceapă

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1800–1816, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.159

• . These peptides were expressed in an E. coli host and produced in sufficient concentrations to perform bioactivity assays. The C39-associated domain was purified to facilitate the transformation from pre-peptide to the mature configuration. The mature clostrisin and cellulosin exhibited antimicrobial