Syntheses and medicinal chemistry of spiro heterocyclic steroids

• Laura L. Romero-Hernández,
• Ana Isabel Ahuja-Casarín,
• Penélope Merino-Montiel,
• Sara Montiel-Smith,
• José Luis Vega-Báez and
• Jesús Sandoval-Ramírez

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1713–1745, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.152

• % by condensing unsaturated ketones 84 with aniline under refluxing ethanol. These intermediates were then subjected to a reaction with excess mercaptoacetic acid (also known as thioglycolic acid) in refluxing benzene, resulting in the formation of spiro 1,3-thiazolidin-4-one derivatives with good

Chemo-enzymatic total synthesis: current approaches toward the integration of chemical and enzymatic transformations

• Ryo Tanifuji and
• Hiroki Oguri

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1693–1712, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.151

• using an enzyme or at what stage in a synthesis the enzyme is employed: 1) regio- and stereoselective late-stage functionalization of core scaffolds, 2) in situ generation of highly reactive intermediates, and 3) the one-step construction of macrocyclic or fused multicyclic scaffolds via regio- and

• pathways are described with a focus on the biosynthetic intermediates and enzymatic transformations that enable cascade reactions and pinpoint modifications. This focus highlights how these biosynthetic pathways are applicable to the development of streamlined chemo-enzymatic synthesis processes. The

• discussion will also encompass the design of biosynthetic intermediates and their analogs to achieve chemo-enzymatic total syntheses. Given our emphasis on natural products, this review does not cover the exquisite synthetic approaches involving biocatalysts for small-molecule pharmaceuticals. To gain a more

Ring opening of photogenerated azetidinols as a strategy for the synthesis of aminodioxolanes

• Henning Maag,
• Daniel J. Lemcke and
• Johannes M. Wahl

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1671–1676, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.148

• strategy is founded on the build and release of molecular strain and achieves a formal transposition of a methyl group. During light irradiation, 3-phenylazetidinols are forged as reaction intermediates, which readily undergo ring opening upon the addition of electron-deficient ketones or boronic acids

• stringent demands on the selection and assessment of substrates. In our quest to identify a suitable system, we were attracted by the use of azetidines as potential reaction intermediates (Scheme 1b) [8][9][10]. Azetidines were chosen because of existing literature precedent for their photochemical assembly

Methyltransferases from RiPP pathways: shaping the landscape of natural product chemistry

• Maria-Paula Schröder,
• Isabel P.-M. Pfeiffer and
• Silja Mordhorst

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1652–1670, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.147

• remethylated to ʟ-methionine by the enzyme methionine synthase, which utilises 5-methyltetrahydrolate (5-MTHF) as a methyl donor. 5-MTHF is a constituent of the folate cycle, which encompasses the intermediates tetrahydrofolate (THF) and 5,10-methylene-THF (5,10-CH2-THF). 5,10-CH2-THF is formed from THF and ʟ

• aspartimide intermediates (Figure 6). The activity of most PAMTs depends on a cyclised precursor peptide. Modification of the aspartate/isoaspartate residue was found only in a hairpin-like or the macrocyclic region [71][78]. The underlying purpose of this structural requirement of PAMTs has not yet been

• -MT [114]. PbtM1 methylates Asn4 in the GE2270 precursor peptide. Substrate specificity appears to be pronounced, as amino acid substitutions in the core were not tolerated by the biosynthetic machinery. PtbM1 acts independently of other modifications since linear intermediates after enzyme deletion

pKalculator: A pK_a predictor for C–H bonds

• Rasmus M. Borup,
• Nicolai Ree and
• Jan H. Jensen

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1614–1622, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.144

• industry to implement such C–H transformations to diversify different types of molecules ranging from small drug-like molecules to intermediates and lead compounds. Especially late-stage functionalization is a promising emerging field that allows chemists to efficiently explore the chemical space in

• pharmaceutical intermediates that undergo selective borylation to compare our QM workflow and ML model with experimentally determined reaction sites. The quantum chemistry-based workflow Following work by Ree et al. [12][13][14][15], we present a fully automated QM-based workflow for computing C–H pKa values. A

• ] and experimentally validated their approach using six pharmaceutical intermediates from medicinal chemistry programs. In the article, they state that ”Iridium catalysts ligated by bipyridine ligands catalyze the borylation of the aryl C–H bonds that are most acidic and least sterically hindered…”[45

Divergent role of PIDA and PIFA in the AlX₃ (X = Cl, Br) halogenation of 2-naphthol: a mechanistic study

• Kevin A. Juárez-Ornelas,
• Manuel Solís-Hernández,
• Pedro Navarro-Santos,
• J. Oscar C. Jiménez-Halla and
• César R. Solorio-Alvarado

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1580–1589, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.141

• , the 6-31G(d) basis set was used for the other atoms (i.e., H, C, O, F, Al, etc.). Geometry optimizations were carried out without any symmetry constraints, and the stationary points were characterized by analytical frequency calculations, i.e., energy minima (reactants, intermediates, and products

Electrocatalytic hydrogenation of cyanoarenes, nitroarenes, quinolines, and pyridines under mild conditions with a proton-exchange membrane reactor

• Koichi Mitsudo,
• Atsushi Osaki,
• Haruka Inoue,
• Eisuke Sato,
• Naoki Shida,
• Mahito Atobe and
• Seiji Suga

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1560–1571, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.139

• ; quinoline; Introduction Nitrogen-containing molecules are important bioactive compounds and intermediates in chemical synthesis. Therefore, the chemical transformations of nitrogen-containing compounds have been widely studied in the field of organic synthesis [1][2][3][4]. For instance, the reduction of

Benzylic C(sp³)–H fluorination

• Alexander P. Atkins,
• Alice C. Dean and
• Alastair J. J. Lennox

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1527–1547, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.137

• -fluorobenzoates as both photocatalysts or photo-auxiliaries and was demonstrated on a number of benzylic examples. Photochemical Photochemical methods have proven to be powerful tools in the generation of reactive intermediates, including benzylic radicals [64][65][66][67]. Oxidative photochemical

• yields, with the authors proposing that HFIP aided in stabilising the electrochemically generated benzylic radical cation intermediates. Secondary and tertiary benzylic substrates bearing halogen, ester, protected amine and alkyl functional groups tolerated the reaction conditions well. The authors

• showed they were able to scale-up and selectively fluorinate the ibuprofen methyl ester at the methylene group to produce over 2 g of product 12. The utility of the benzyl fluoride products as strategic intermediates for benzylation of electron-rich arenes was demonstrated by the authors (Figure 41B

Tetrabutylammonium iodide-catalyzed oxidative α-azidation of β-ketocarbonyl compounds using sodium azide

• Christopher Mairhofer,
• David Naderer and
• Mario Waser

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1510–1517, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.135

• . Based on these mechanistic details obtained so far, we were also wondering if we could get any hints concerning possible reaction intermediates. Ishihara’s group recently showed that their α-azidation protocol proceeds via in situ α-iodination first, followed by nucleophilic displacement by the azide

Electrophotochemical metal-catalyzed synthesis of alkylnitriles from simple aliphatic carboxylic acids

• Yukang Wang,
• Yan Yao and
• Niankai Fu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1497–1503, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.133

• intermediates in organic synthesis for the construction of all-carbon-substituted quaternary centers (Figure 1A). However, conventional methods for the synthesis of tertiary alkylnitriles such as direct functionalization of alkylnitriles [10] and hydrocyanation of alkenes [11][12][13][14] are typically hindered

• have provided innovative strategies, substrates in all of these reaction systems are generally limited to benzylic, α-amino-, and α-oxy aliphatic acids, presumably due to the necessity of stabilized radical intermediates for the following radical cyanation step. We and others have recently demonstrated

• investigated (Figure 2). Arylacetic acids with relatively stable benzylic radicals as the corresponding intermediates have been proved to be suitable substrates to the reaction, providing the desired decarboxylative cyanation products with generally good yields (2–18). To show the synthetic potential of this

Bioinformatic prediction of the stereoselectivity of modular polyketide synthase: an update of the sequence motifs in ketoreductase domain

• Changjun Xiang,
• Shunyu Yao,
• Ruoyu Wang and
• Lihan Zhang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1476–1485, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.131

• embedded in the assembly line or not. All cis-AT PKS modules contain a ketosynthase (KS), an acyltransferase (AT), and an acyl carrier protein (ACP) to produce β-keto-intermediates, and some modules contain additional β-processing domains such as ketoreductase (KR), dehydratase (DH), and enoylreductase (ER

• epimerization of α-substituted intermediates. The lack of the conserved GM (11) motif preceding the αFG helix, which is highly conserved in other types of reductase-competent KRs, was also observed in A2-type KRs. The absence of this region in the electron density map of the A2-type AmpKR11 [30] may indicate a

• ) motif. These observations suggest several possibilities: (1) the stereoselectivity prediction for KRs in γ- and δ-modules is inaccurate, (2) a cis (Z) double bond can also be produced from ᴅ-β-hydroxyacyl intermediates due to a different substrate binding mode in DH [7], or (3) a cis (Z) double bond is

Synthesis of 2-benzyl N-substituted anilines via imine condensation–isoaromatization of (E)-2-arylidene-3-cyclohexenones and primary amines

• Lu Li,
• Na Li,
• Xiao-Tian Mo,
• Ming-Wei Yuan,
• Lin Jiang and
• Ming-Long Yuan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1468–1475, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.130

• -benzyl-N-substituted anilines. In this work, (E)-2-arylidene-3-cyclohexenones firstly react with primary amines to form cyclohexenylimine intermediates I. Afterward, isoaromatization resulting from imine–enamine tautomerization and exocyclic double bond shift occurs to give rise to stable aniline

Synthesis of 4-functionalized pyrazoles via oxidative thio- or selenocyanation mediated by PhICl₂ and NH₄SCN/KSeCN

• Jialiang Wu,
• Haofeng Shi,
• Xuemin Li,
• Jiaxin He,
• Chen Zhang,
• Fengxia Sun and
• Yunfei Du

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1453–1461, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.128

• used as an effective anti-inflammatory pharmaceutical [23]. On the other hand, organic thiocyanates usually serve as useful synthetic intermediates that can be conveniently converted to sulfur-containing derivatives including sulfides [24], disulfides [25], thiocarbamates [26], and trifluoromethyl

Synthesis of cyclic β-1,6-oligosaccharides from glucosamine monomers by electrochemical polyglycosylation

• Md Azadur Rahman,
• Hirofumi Endo,
• Takashi Yamamoto,
• Shoma Okushiba,
• Norihiko Sasaki and
• Toshiki Nokami

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1421–1427, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.124

• , entry 4). The reasons for the lower conversion and yield are unclear. However, the lower yield may stem from the lower stability of glycosylation intermediates with a benzyl protecting group at C-3. In all cases, the major product was 1,6-anhydrosugar 7, which was the intramolecular glycosylation

Challenge N- versus O-six-membered annulation: FeCl₃-catalyzed synthesis of heterocyclic N,O-aminals

• Giacomo Mari,
• Lucia De Crescentini,
• Gianfranco Favi,
• Fabio Mantellini,
• Diego Olivieri and
• Stefania Santeusanio

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1412–1420, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.123

• intermediates through selective FeCl3-catalyzed intramolecular N-annulation. Keywords: α-aminoacetals; fused-ring systems; heterocyclic hemiaminals; heterocyclic N,O-aminals; multicomponent reactions; Introduction N-Fused heterocycles are ubiquitous within crucial molecules, including biologically active

• of diversity-oriented synthesis of N-heterocycles via sequential multicomponent approaches, we envisioned that α-aminoacetals could act as bifunctional building blocks along with 1,2-diaza-1,3-diene (DD) coupling partners [22][23], in obtaining functionalized N-aminohydrazones as key intermediates

• and very practical synthetic intermediates commonly employed for the in situ generation of highly electrophilic iminium ions [38][39][40][41]. Conclusion In summary, we planned the synthesis of decorated imidazo skeletons accessible through a judicious choice of the starting components of a 3-CR

Synthesis of substituted triazole–pyrazole hybrids using triazenylpyrazole precursors

• Simone Gräßle,
• Laura Holzhauer,
• Nicolai Wippert,
• Olaf Fuhr,
• Martin Nieger,
• Nicole Jung and
• Stefan Bräse

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1396–1404, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.121

• systematically. Results and Discussion Triazenes have previously been established as versatile intermediates and linkers for conventional and solid-phase synthesis [22][23][24][25] that can be considered as protected diazonium salts [3]. According to the previous work [3], triazenylpyrazoles could serve as azide

• , presumably due to the increased stability of isomer 18 towards acids. This corresponds with the results for the previously reported triazene cleavage to diazonium intermediates and subsequent cyclization to triazine derivatives [3]. In the next step, the obtained pyrazolyl azides were reacted with different

• . It offers the additional benefits of chemistry on solid support: straightforward purification of the resin-bound intermediates by washing steps and a high throughput that allows for faster derivatization. Further research is necessary to establish a protocol for the cleavage of 4-substituted

Synthetic applications of the Cannizzaro reaction

• Bhaskar Chatterjee,
• Dhananjoy Mondal and
• Smritilekha Bera

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1376–1395, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.120

• reaction representing analogous derivatives related to pestalachloride A. The mechanistic transformation could be illustrated schematically following the transformation from 58 to 61 through the intermediates 59 and 60. The natural pestalone 62 when subjected to a photo-induced transformation leads to

Generation of alkyl and acyl radicals by visible-light photoredox catalysis: direct activation of C–O bonds in organic transformations

• Mithu Roy,
• Bitan Sardar,
• Itu Mallick and
• Dipankar Srimani

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1348–1375, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.119

• catalysis In recent times, visible-light-mediated photoredox chemistry has evolved as a unique tool for various organic transformations. In contrast to traditional catalysis, the photochemical process uses an electron or energy transfer mechanism to form reactive intermediates. Typically, a photocatalyst is

• acyl radical. This acyl radical eventually leads to the formation of expected product. Reactions involving alkyl radical obtained via C–O bond cleavage C–O bond activation of prefunctionalized alcohols Alkyl radicals play a crucial role as intermediates in various chemical transformations involving C–H

Transition-metal-catalyst-free electroreductive alkene hydroarylation with aryl halides under visible-light irradiation

• Kosuke Yamamoto,
• Kazuhisa Arita,
• Masami Kuriyama and
• Osamu Onomura

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1327–1333, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.116

• intermediates through a single-electron transfer process [26][27][28][29][30][31]. In particular, electroreductive transformations have recently received renewed attention from modern synthetic chemists as a safer protocol than conventional methods using chemical reductants such as metal hydride species [32][33

• hydroarylation product was not observed (Scheme 3b). This result strongly supported the involvement of radical intermediates in the present transformation. Next, a deuterium-labeling experiment was conducted to elucidate the H-source of this reaction (Scheme 3c). The reaction of 1a and 2e in MeCN with D2O

Computation-guided scaffold exploration of 2E,6E-1,10-trans/cis-eunicellanes

• Zining Li,
• Sana Jindani,
• Volga Kojasoy,
• Teresa Ortega,
• Erin M. Marshall,
• Khalil A. Abboud,
• Sandra Loesgen,
• Dean J. Tantillo and
• Jeffrey D. Rudolf

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1320–1326, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.115

• chemically-induced cationic cyclization mechanisms, we performed quantum chemical calculations [mPW1PW91/6–31+G(d/p)/SMD(chloroform)] [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] to obtain the relative free energies of the cationic intermediates and transition states that interconvert them, as well as the relative free

• epoxide 9, but the similar reaction with 2 yields gersemienol 8. Isolation yields are provided. (B and C) Results of DFT calculations on the protonation-induced cyclizations of 1 and 2. The energies of the cationic intermediates (italicized values) are not on the same energy scale as for the substrates

Sustainable tandem acylation/Diels–Alder reaction toward versatile tricyclic epoxyisoindole-7-carboxylic acids in renewable green solvents

• Ayhan Yıldırım

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1308–1319, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.114

• of hydrocarbons and a variety of intermediates that are needed by a wide range of industries [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Worldwide, vegetable oils are mainly produced for food and feed purposes, but a small number of specific oils are also produced as a source of materials for industrial

• applications [15][16]. These oils are of increasing interest for the production of a wide range of polymeric materials [17][18][19][20][21][22][23], drug delivery systems [24][25][26][27][28][29], less toxic anticancer drugs [30][31][32][33] and intermediates suitable for various organic transformations [14

• reaction medium increases, the size of these lamellar units decreases, increasing the ability to dissolve Diels–Alder components and intermediates. It should be noted that the hydrophobicity of triglycerides is much higher than that of aromatic solvents such as benzene and toluene. For comparison with

Oxidative hydrolysis of aliphatic bromoalkenes: scope study and reactivity insights

• Amol P. Jadhav and
• Claude Y. Legault

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1286–1291, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.111

• heterocyclic compounds [20][21][22]. Particularly dialkyl bromoketones have been utilized in natural product synthesis [23][24][25], also as a precursor to reactive oxyallyl cation intermediates [26][27][28], and for their photochemical reactions [29]. However, the direct halogenation of unsymmetrical ketones

Domino reactions of chromones with activated carbonyl compounds

• Peter Langer

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1256–1269, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.108

• with 1,3-bis(silyloxy)-1,3-butadienes 6a–z afforded azaxanthones 41a–am (Scheme 23) [45][46]. The formation of the products can be explained by the mechanism discussed for the formation of azaxanthone 40 that involves intermediates AF and AG. For most products, the yields were in the range of 30 to 66

Cofactor-independent C–C bond cleavage reactions catalyzed by the AlpJ family of oxygenases in atypical angucycline biosynthesis

• Jinmin Gao,
• Liyuan Li,
• Shijie Shen,
• Guomin Ai,
• Bin Wang,
• Fang Guo,
• Tongjian Yang,
• Hui Han,
• Zhengren Xu,
• Guohui Pan and
• Keqiang Fan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1198–1206, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.102

• distinctive subset of compounds, including jadomycin, gilvocarcin, kinamycin, fluostatin, and lomaiviticin, arises from typical angucycline intermediates via oxidative C–C bond cleavage and subsequent ring rearrangement reactions. These atypical angucyclines exhibit intriguing chemical structures and various

Stability trends in carbocation intermediates stemming from germacrene A and hedycaryol

• Naziha Tarannam,
• Prashant Kumar Gupta,
• Shani Zev and
• Dan Thomas Major

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1189–1197, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.101

• diols by addition of water. For each of these intermediates, simple deprotonation or nucleophilic attack by water are possible. Also, hydride shifts can occur first, which widens the chemical space of possible products. Additionally, the presence of multiple stereocenters adds to the rich

• analyze the intermediates formed from germacrene A and hedycaryol. These carbocations are key mechanistic branching points in different sesquiterpene synthases and calculation of their relative energy trends can explain the preference for (6,6) or (5,7) intermediate carbocations. Considering that the

• formation of (6,6) vs (5,7) is rooted in very slight changes in mechanism (protonation at C1 vs C10), it is of interest to understand whether there is a systematic difference in energy. In cases where enzymes use pathways with high-energy intermediates, the enzyme active site must in some way direct the