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

• drug”) class of PROTAC molecules with a PEG linker is frequently used to promote targeted protein degradation. The standard protocol for their synthesis involves nucleophilic aromatic substitution of 4-fluorothalidomide with a PEG-amine. We report herein the identification of a commonly ignored

• contamination. Keywords: glutarimide; IMiD; impurity; nucleophilic acyl substitution; PROTAC; Introduction Targeted protein degradation capitalizing on the concept of chemically induced dimerization has emerged as a new therapeutic approach recently [1]. In particular, the modularity of proteolysis targeting

• 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

N-Boc-α-diazo glutarimide as efficient reagent for assembling N-heterocycle-glutarimide diads via Rh(II)-catalyzed N–H insertion reaction

• Grigory Kantin,
• Pavel Golubev,
• Alexander Sapegin,
• Alexander Bunev and
• Dmitry Dar’in

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1841–1848, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.136

• , including both aromatic and saturated NH-substrates. This yields structures that are appealing for generating cereblon ubiquitin-ligase ligands and for potential use in crafting PROTAC molecules. Keywords: CRBN ligands; diazocarbonyl compounds; N–H insertion reaction; N-heterocycles; Rh(II)-catalysis

• small molecule inhibitors into PROTACs. The RAS proteins, once seen as drug-resistant, became susceptible and a series of covalent inhibitors [5][6][7] were synthesized to bind to KRASG12C. The application of the PROTAC principle has demonstrated the feasibility of endogenous degradation of KRAS [8][9

• ][10], potentially opening a path for its use in treating KRAS-induced cancers. A common characteristic of the degraders elaborated in the literature involves the compulsory integration of an E3-ligase ligand motif into the PROTAC configuration [11]. The E3-ligase most frequently utilized in TPD