Copper-catalyzed domino cyclization of anilines and cyclobutanone oxime: a scalable and versatile route to spirotetrahydroquinoline derivatives

• Qingqing Jiang,
• Xinyi Lei,
• Pan Gao and
• Yu Yuan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 749–754, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.58

• report the copper-catalyzed synthesis of tetrahydroquinoline derivatives via a domino reaction of aniline with cyclobutanone oxime. This method demonstrates a selective approach for generating bioactive tetrahydroquinoline scaffolds, which have broad applications in pharmaceutical chemistry. The reaction

Orthogonal photoswitching of heterobivalent azobenzene glycoclusters: the effect of glycoligand orientation in bacterial adhesion

• Leon M. Friedrich and
• Thisbe K. Lindhorst

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 736–748, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.57

• potency as inhibitors of Man-specific bacterial adhesion investigated. Results and Discussion Synthesis For the preparation of the homobivalent glycocluster 6αMan3αMan 2, the known mannosyl thioacetate 7 [31] was prepared from the trichloroacetimidate 6 [32] and thioacetic acid in an α-selective reaction

• Table 1 shows that the PSS values of the bis-azobenzene glycoclusters 1 and 2 are in a similar range. Furthermore, the glycoazobenzene antennas comprised in 1 and 2 show a similar switching behavior as the individual antennas 6αMan 3, 6βGlc 4, and 3αMan 5. Wavelength-selective photoswitching of 2 as

• to the O-azobenzene (AB) photoswitch. (Orthogonal) photoswitching alters the relative spatial orientation of the two sugar units. Glucose (Glc) moieties are colored in blue and mannose (Man) in green according to the symbol nomenclature for carbohydrates (SNFG) [29][30]. A: Wavelength-selective

Acyclic cucurbit[n]uril bearing alkyl sulfate ionic groups

• Christian Akakpo,
• Peter Y. Zavalij and
• Lyle Isaacs

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 717–726, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.55

• weakly. The ratio of the binding constants of a common guest to C1 versus M1 is as follows: Me6PDA (26.0), Me6HDA (22.2), PXDA (4.2), Me6PXDA (3.3), CHDA (2.3), Me6CHDA (1.3), AdA (1.2), Me3AdA (1.1). The C1 host is both a tighter and more selective host for the narrower guests than M1. We can also tease

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

• that it is not selective towards injured tissue: it also binds to μ-opioid receptors in healthy tissue, causing side-effects. To overcome this drawback, a fluorinated analogue of fentanyl ((±)-105) was developed [177]. The electron-withdrawing fluorine substituent of 105 lowers the pKaH of the

Recent advances in allylation of chiral secondary alkylcopper species

• Minjae Kim,
• Gwanggyun Kim,
• Doyoon Kim,
• Jun Hee Lee and
• Seung Hwan Cho

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 639–658, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.51

• transmetalation of organolithium and organoboron compounds, copper hydride catalysis, and enantiotopic-group-selective transformations of 1,1-diborylalkanes. Detailed mechanistic insights into stereochemical control and current challenges in this field are also discussed. Keywords: allylic substitution; chiral

• generating configurationally unstable organocopper species with secondary carbon–metal bonds, their unique properties, and related mechanistic insights. This review also aims to outline future research directions and prospects, contributing to the development of more efficient and selective copper-catalyzed

• (+)-lasiol was achieved through a highly selective SN2 substitution (SN2/SN2' = >99:1, dr = 98:2, 99% ee), while the preparation of (+)-13-norfaranal and (+)-faranal showcased the versatility of the methodology in constructing more complex terpene frameworks. These successful applications in natural product

Photocatalyzed elaboration of antibody-based bioconjugates

• Marine Le Stum,
• Eugénie Romero and
• Gary A. Molander

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 616–629, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.49

• conjugation methods often face challenges related to site-selectivity and heterogeneous product mixtures, highlighting the need to develop new, innovative chemical strategies. Photoredox chemistry emerges as a powerful tool in this context, enabling precise, mild, and selective modifications of peptides and

• selective chemical reactions, often for bioconjugation, by utilizing photoaffinity reagents. These reagents are typically photoreactive molecules that can be activated by light to form covalent bonds with nearby molecules [31][32][33]. PAL involves using a light-activated group (often a photo-crosslinker

• ) that can form covalent bonds when exposed to UV or visible light. These photoaffinity tags or crosslinkers are designed to bind to specific biomolecules, such as proteins, nucleic acids, or lipids, in a highly selective manner. The light irradiation triggers a chemical reaction, such as a bond

Semisynthetic derivatives of massarilactone D with cytotoxic and nematicidal activities

• Rémy B. Teponno,
• Sara R. Noumeur and
• Marc Stadler

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 607–615, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.48

• , epidermoid carcinoma A431, ovarian carcinoma SKOV-3, and breast cancer MCF-7 cell lines. Compounds 2 and 3 exhibited significant cytotoxicity against all the tested cells. Some of the semisynthetic derivatives were also tested for their nematicidal activity and compound 4 displayed significant and selective

• compound 2. This suggests that the presence of the exo-methylene group is a critical structural feature that influences the cytotoxic activity, as outlined earlier [15]. These data also demonstrate possible selective effects of acylated massarilactone D in biological systems. Massarilactone D 3,4,7-tri-O

• -bromobenzoyl (4) also showed significant and selective nematicidal activity with LD90 and LD50 of 100 and 12.5 µg/mL, respectively. In the case of compound 5, the LD90 was not obtained but the LD50 was determined to be 100 µg/mL. Compounds 1, 6, 7, and 8 showed some mortality at concentrations of 50 and 100 μg

Total synthesis of (±)-simonsol C using dearomatization as key reaction under acidic conditions

• Xiao-Yang Bi,
• Xiao-Shuai Yang,
• Shan-Shan Chen,
• Jia-Jun Sui,
• Zhao-Nan Cai,
• Yong-Ming Chuan and
• Hong-Bo Qin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 601–606, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.47

• scaffold of simonsol C, utilizing an alkaline dearomatization as the key reaction, followed by a functional-group-selective Wittig reaction and concurrent oxy-Michael addition [6]. A bromophenol acetal was used in the intramolecular alkylative dearomatization, which was first reported by Magnus et al. [8

Formaldehyde surrogates in multicomponent reactions

• Cecilia I. Attorresi,
• Javier A. Ramírez and
• Bernhard Westermann

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 564–595, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.45

• byproducts (Scheme 26b) [76][78]. Because of the tendency of formaldehyde to generate these byproducts, several efforts have been made to optimize the chemoselectivity of the Kabachnik–Fields reaction. In this context, Zhao et al. proposed a more selective strategy for the synthesis of α-amino phosphorus

• amine with two methyl groups and a benzyl or allyl group, the cleavage of the N–CH2Ph and N–allyl bond takes place more selective (by 85% and 67%, respectively), instead of the cleavage of an N–Me bond. This explains the high selectivity observed for some examples in Scheme 27. Finally, this methodology

Binding of tryptophan and tryptophan-containing peptides in water by a glucose naphtho crown ether

• Gianpaolo Gallo and
• Bartosz Lewandowski

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 541–546, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.42

• Gianpaolo Gallo Bartosz Lewandowski Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, ETH Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 3, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland 10.3762/bjoc.21.42 Abstract Tryptophan fulfills a plethora of important functions in nature both in its free form and as a component of peptides and proteins. Selective

• peptides [4][5]. Tryptophan also serves as a substrate to produce hormones such as serotonin or melatonin [6][7]. Due to the biological relevance of tryptophan synthetic receptors for this amino acid are highly sought after [8]. From a biological perspective it is especially desirable to achieve selective

• binding of tryptophan in water [9]. However, the development of selective amino acid receptors in aqueous environments is challenging since it requires a combination of hydrophobic and polar interactions for binding [10][11][12]. As a result, the number of reported selective receptors for tryptophan in

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 is a significant and important reaction for the selective synthesis of homoallylic alcohols in an efficient and sustainable way [2][3]. As carbonyl compounds, alkyl trifluoropyruvates [4][5] are an interesting class of compounds that have been used in addition reactions of different nucleophiles

Cryptophycin unit B analogues

• Thomas Schachtsiek,
• Jona Voss,
• Maren Hamsen,
• Beate Neumann,
• Hans-Georg Stammler and
• Norbert Sewald

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 526–532, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.40

• University, Universitätsstraße 25, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany 10.3762/bjoc.21.40 Abstract Drug conjugates using toxic payloads are a promising approach for selectively combating cancer while sparing healthy tissue. The lack of highly cytotoxic and at the same time selective therapeutics against cancer is an

• 8 was obtained in good yield of 61% through reductive amination with excess formaldehyde and NaBH3CN as reductant, the selective installation of only one methyl group, providing monomethyl aniline 7, proved to be more troublesome. Either reductive amination using the same protocol, but under strict

• deaths in cancer patients and MDR-selective therapeutics are lacking [36], we expect that cryptophycins 1 and 2 will be considered as viable cytotoxins for the use in targeted tumour therapy, especially against MDR cancers. A: Structure of cryptophycin-52. B: Cryptophycin-52 derivatives modified with

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

• of (R)-2-methyloxirane ((R)-2) with allylmagnesium bromide (3) catalyzed by CuI produced a mixture of (R)-hex-5-en-2-ol ((R)-4) and (S)-2-methylpent-4-en-1-ol ((S)-4’) (ratio 8:1, determined by 1H NMR spectroscopy) [25][26]. The primary alcohol (S)-4’ could be easily removed by a selective TEMPO

Synthesis of electrophile-tethered preQ₁ analogs for covalent attachment to preQ₁ RNA

• Laurin Flemmich and
• Ronald Micura

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 483–489, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.35

• were required to obtain the corresponding mesylate 3b. Similar to 11, compound 12 was isolated as its trifluoroacetate salt. Selective Boc protection of the aliphatic amine gave 13, which was selectively O-mesylated to give compound 14. Compound 14 was found to slowly undergo intramolecular cyclization

Photomechanochemistry: harnessing mechanical forces to enhance photochemical reactions

• Francesco Mele,
• Ana M. Constantin,
• Andrea Porcheddu,
• Raimondo Maggi,
• Giovanni Maestri,
• Nicola Della Ca’ and
• Luca Capaldo

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 458–472, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.33

• photons and forces, streamlining the combination of mechanochemical and photochemical processes and paving the way for more efficient, sustainable, and selective transformations in organic synthesis. An unexplored opportunity is offered by resonant acoustic mixing (RAM) [82], a technology that leverages

Electrochemical synthesis of cyclic biaryl λ³-bromanes from 2,2’-dibromobiphenyls

• Andrejs Savkins and
• Igors Sokolovs

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 451–457, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.32

• diaryl λ3-bromanes under remarkably mild conditions with subsequent applications of the in situ-generated arynes in cycloaddition reactions [3], meta-selective reactions with oxygen and nitrogen nucleophiles [4][5], regiodivergent meta or ortho-alkynylations [6], and regioselective (di)halogenation [7

Beyond symmetric self-assembly and effective molarity: unlocking functional enzyme mimics with robust organic cages

• Keith G. Andrews

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 421–443, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.30

• across many fields of selective catalysis under the term confinement [3], a term borrowed from heterogeneous catalysis. Polarization can be understood as the catalyst providing an electrostatic environment that works to stabilize electron redistribution. Since all reactions redistribute electrons, and

• a size-selective space [105][126][129][130][132][134]. A key advantage is that these capsules have been made on multi-hundred-gram scales and can be recycled [132]. Additionally, control of structural or bound water by the capsule [105] and properties such as a lowered pKa inside [125] demonstrate a

• selective substrate and transition-state binding, and for which extensive synthetic development is known [350][351][352][353][354][355]; (iii) they are the lowest possible symmetry polymacrocyclic structure (removing one edge piece will result in a macrocycle) [356][357], meaning ordered asymmetric

Identification and removal of a cryptic impurity in pomalidomide-PEG based PROTAC

• Bingnan Wang,
• Yong Lu and
• Chuo Chen

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 407–411, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.28

• chimera (PROTAC) has made it a popular starting point to develop selective small-molecule degraders [2]. Currently, leveraging ubiquitination by the von Hippel–Lindau (VHL) protein or cereblon (CRBN) is the most successful method to achieve targeted protein degradation [3][4]. For initial studies, a short

The effect of neighbouring group participation and possible long range remote group participation in O-glycosylation

• Rituparna Das and
• Balaram Mukhopadhyay

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 369–406, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.27

• . Levulinoyl protection: Levulinic acid (Lev, 27) as protecting group which can be cleaved using hydrazine hydrate in AcOH, also yields highly selective 1,2-trans glycosides [95][96] and was implemented as a substitute for acetyl or benzoyl protection [97][98]. van Boom et al. also showed the use of a masked

• levulinoyl protecting group, the 4,4-(ethylenedithio)pentanoyl group 28 [99]. Wong and co-workers illustrated the selective activation (Scheme 5) of C-2 levulinoyl-protected thiotolyl glycopyranosyl donor 29 for the synthesis of the disaccharide fragment 31 of fucosyl ganglioside GM1 [100]. Pivalate

• themselves from the other ester-type protecting groups, thereby enabling selective orthogonal deprotection strategies. Such protecting group showing orthogonality with acetyl protection is the chloroacetyl protecting group [109][110][111]. It renders similar neighbouring group participation by employing the

Synthesis, characterization, antimicrobial, cytotoxic and carbonic anhydrase inhibition activities of multifunctional pyrazolo-1,2-benzothiazine acetamides

• Ayesha Saeed,
• Shahana Ehsan,
• Muhammad Zia-ur-Rehman,
• Erin M. Marshall,
• Sandra Loesgen,
• Abdus Saleem,
• Simone Giovannuzzi and
• Claudiu T. Supuran

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 348–357, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.25

• prepared scaffolds are valuable additions to the class of pyrazolo-1,2-benzothiazine antibiotics with selective antistaphylococcal activity. Keywords: acetamides; antibiotics; antimicrobial; benzothiazines; Staphylococcus aureus; Introduction The global crisis of antibiotic resistance has been

• /cancer and other CAs (I, II). Non-selective inhibitors may have certain adverse effects so selective CAIs are worthier and more valuable [57]. Results of hCA inhibition assays are listed in Table 3. It was observed that the dialkylated pyrazolobenzothiazines 7i–n failed to inhibit any of the four

• CA II, 7c for CA IX, 7d for CA II, CA IX and CA XII, and 7f for XII. However, compound 7e appeared to show low but selective inhibition against the two transmembrane and tumor-associated forms (CA IX and CA XII) with Ki values of 82.6 and 88.4 µM, respectively and no inhibition against CA I and CA II

Red light excitation: illuminating photocatalysis in a new spectrum

• Lucas Fortier,
• Corentin Lefebvre and
• Norbert Hoffmann

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 296–326, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.22

• , making it particularly suited for large-scale applications. Recent advances highlight the unique advantages of both metal-based and metal-free catalysts under red-light irradiation, broadening the range of possible reactions, from selective oxidations to complex polymerizations. In biological contexts

• sustainable photocatalysis, with applications ranging from selective oxidation to cross-dehydrogenative coupling. These organic systems are valued for their reduced environmental impact, their wide availability, and tunability, making them viable alternatives to traditional metal-based catalysts for red-light

Synthesis and characterizations of highly luminescent 5-isopropoxybenzo[rst]pentaphene

• Islam S. Marae,
• Jingyun Tan,
• Rengo Yoshioka,
• Zakaria Ziadi,
• Eugene Khaskin,
• Serhii Vasylevskyi,
• Ryota Kabe,
• Xiushang Xu and
• Akimitsu Narita

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 270–276, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.19

• -donating bis(methoxyphenyl)amino groups further improved the PLQY to 73%, displaying a mixed excitonic and charge-transfer character [22]. Additionally, the functionalization of BPP with two methyl benzoate groups enabled the development of hole-selective contact, which was applicable in significantly

Three-component reactions of conjugated dienes, CH acids and formaldehyde under diffusion mixing conditions

• Dmitry E. Shybanov,
• Maxim E. Kukushkin,
• Eugene V. Babaev,
• Nikolai V. Zyk and
• Elena K. Beloglazkina

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 262–269, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.18

• participation of the C=C bond. Apparently, the ratio of the adducts of the Diels–Alder (i.e., I) and the hetero-Diels–Alder reaction (i.e., II) was strongly influenced by steric factors; a decreased steric hindrance in the initial CH acid derivatives led to a more selective formation of the structures I. This

• [27]. The three-component reaction with acetoacetic ester was highly selective, and the formation of a minor [4 + 2]-cycloaddition product was not observed (according to 1H NMR spectroscopy), but the yield of the products 15 did not exceed 9%. For acetylacetone, the reaction was the least selective

Streamlined modular synthesis of saframycin substructure via copper-catalyzed three-component assembly and gold-promoted 6-endo cyclization

• Asahi Kanno,
• Ryo Tanifuji,
• Satoshi Yoshida,
• Sota Sato,
• Saori Maki-Yonekura,
• Kiyofumi Takaba,
• Jungmin Kang,
• Kensuke Tono,
• Koji Yonekura and
• Hiroki Oguri

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 226–233, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.14

• measurements (Figures S20 to S25, Supporting Information File 1). A notable feature of this cascade process is the temporary protection of the C≡N triple bond, nitrile in the key intermediate 11, by the 2,3-diaminobenzofuran group. This facilitates the site-selective activation of the alkyne triple bond by the

Recent advances in electrochemical copper catalysis for modern organic synthesis

• Yemin Kim and
• Won Jun Jang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 155–178, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.9

• olefin addition reactions [20] conducted by various research groups, contributed to this area of research. Recently, the coupling reactions of C(sp3)-based electrophiles were explored using dual photoredox and copper catalysis, achieving selective radical coupling reactions involving alkyl halides [21