The role of spacer length and flexibility in peptide self-assembly

• Julian Link,
• Albin Lahu,
• Manfred Wagner,
• Tanja Weil and
• David Y. W. Ng

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2026, 22, 986–996, doi:10.3762/bjoc.22.77

• naphthalene imide spacers were synthesized in two steps starting from 4-bromo-1,8-naphthalic anhydride (1) (Scheme 1 and Supporting Information File 1, Scheme S1). First, the bromo substituent in compound 1 was replaced by piperidine in a metal-free Buchwald–Hartwig amination reaction to obtain 6-(piperidin-1

Recent advances in copper-catalyzed direct hydroamination of alkenes with (hetero)aromatic amines

• Hyejeong Lee and
• Yunmi Lee

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2026, 22, 925–947, doi:10.3762/bjoc.22.73

• valuable in hydroamination chemistry. Several distinct yet interrelated activation modes have been identified for copper-catalyzed alkene amination [27]. Copper frequently participates directly in amine activation via the formation of Cu–N species (Scheme 1a) [30][31]. In the presence of a base and

• alkene amination, providing a mechanistic foundation for the subsequent development of copper-catalyzed aza-Michael and hydroamination reactions involving (hetero)aromatic amines. Aza-Michael addition via copper–amido intermediate Following the establishment of copper–amido platforms for aza-Michael

• , while suppressing the competing 1,4-addition pathways commonly observed in copper-catalyzed amination reactions. Recently, Lee et al. reported the copper-catalyzed hydroamination of allylic sulfones 10 (Scheme 6) [41]. By tuning the steric and electronic properties of the NHC ligands (e.g., IPrCuCl vs

Site-specific labelling of native peptides and proteins: chemical and enzymatic strategies

• Antonio Angelastro,
• Jonathan Bargh,
• Subhajit Guria,
• Victor Laserna and
• Louis Luk

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2026, 22, 857–881, doi:10.3762/bjoc.22.67

• (1), b) reductive amination by sodium cyanoborohydride, c) native chemical ligation, d) cysteine-reactive 2-cyanobenzothiazole 2 and e) formylphenylboronic acid 3 (FPBA) reacting with N-terminal cysteine. Introduction of carbonyl functionality at protein N-termini via a) oxidation by periodate, b

Preparation of 3-(alkylamino)imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine-2-carbaldehydes via Kornblum oxidation and unexpected ring-opening reactions of the corresponding alcohols under oxidative conditions

• Sandile J. Mkhize,
• Memory Zimuwandeyi,
• Manuel A. Fernandes,
• Amanda L. Rousseau and
• Moira L. Bode

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2026, 22, 763–770, doi:10.3762/bjoc.22.58

• oxidation conditions, reaction in the presence of DMSO and NaHCO3 under conventional or microwave heating to ≈100 °C, were applied to the bromides derived from these alcohols by treatment with PBr3, resulting in the desired aldehydes which successfully underwent reductive amination reactions with 2

• ; Kornblum oxidation; oxidative ring-opening; reductive amination; Introduction Imidazo[1,2-a]pyridines display a wide range of different biological activities, and this scaffold has come to be regarded as being biologically privileged [1]. Compounds containing the imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine core have been

• -chloroaniline, followed by reduction; ii) reaction of the corresponding carboxylic acid with 2-chloroaniline under peptide-coupling conditions followed by reduction; and iii) reduction of the ester to the aldehyde, followed by reductive amination to give compounds 8. Initial attempts at direct conversion of

Rongalite addition to dienones: diastereoselectivity in cyclic sulfone synthesis; stereochemical rationalization and prospects as a general conjugate nucleophile

• Melina Goga,
• Hao Zong,
• James Franco,
• Jazmine Prana,
• Rudolph Michel,
• Antonia Muro,
• Elana Rubin,
• Janet Brenya,
• Henk Eshuis and
• Magnus W. P. Bebbington

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2026, 22, 742–752, doi:10.3762/bjoc.22.56

• 1b was provided by derivatization of both molecules in ways that confirmed their relative stereochemistry by taking advantage of the different symmetry elements present in each case. Thus, both reductive amination and hydride reduction of C2-symmetric 1a led to the isolation of the only possible

Towards the targeted protein degradation of CK2: design and synthesis of CAM4066-based PROTACs

• Sophie Day-Riley,
• Sona Krajcovicova,
• Aryaman Raj Sokhal,
• Jan L. Venne,
• Paul Brear,
• Marko Hyvönen,
• Benjamin C. Whitehurst,
• Jason S. Carroll and
• David R. Spring

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2026, 22, 611–619, doi:10.3762/bjoc.22.47

• corresponding triflate using triflic anhydride, followed by Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling with phenylboronic acid to give 16 in 59% yield (Scheme 1). Boc removal from intermediates 11–14 enabled attachment of the αD binder aldehyde 16 via reductive amination. Interestingly, NaBH(OAc)3 had performed well in the

• synthesis of the ligand–linker analogue 17 using intermediate 11, however, use of intermediates 12–14 were consistently giving low yields. Therefore, for those, methanolic reductive amination with NaBH4 was pursued. Successful optimisation of reductive amination conditions yielded the key ligand–linker

Modern synthetic pathways towards eribulin and its subunits

• Sebastian Dominik Graf

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2026, 22, 495–526, doi:10.3762/bjoc.22.37

• with Ts2O and following amination yielded 1. In comparison to their former route [93], here, the bicyclic motif of 181 was not assembled via tin-mediated radical cyclization reaction, but with Ni-catalyzed cyclization (see Scheme 18 and Scheme 20). This innovation led to a remarkable increasement of

• towards 1 is known from previous works and can be accomplished by regioselective tosylation of 316`s primary alcohol unit and subsequent amination [66]. Notably, in this sequence, 3 fragments are synthesized individually (41, 305 and 306) and finally merged in a short sequence (306→310) to the target

Recent advances in the stereoselective synthesis of distal biaxially chiral molecules

• Fanxing Zhou,
• Chen Zhang,
• Lingyu Sun,
• Yiyun Fang,
• Siming Zheng,
• Lina Hu,
• Mengyang Shen,
• Zhen Zhao,
• Wei Xu,
• Yunqiang Sun and
• Zi-Qiang Rong

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2026, 22, 461–479, doi:10.3762/bjoc.22.34

• first enantioselective C–H amination of arenes catalyzed by a chiral phosphoric acid. Thus, this nucleophilic aromatic substitution reaction not only enables the synthesis of compounds bearing two chiral N-aryl axes but also provides a viable alternative to metal-catalyzed C–N cross-coupling reactions

Electrosynthetic access to unsymmetrical oxaza[8]helicenes with high chiral stability and strong circularly polarized luminescence (CPL)

• Tin Zar Aye,
• Rubal Sharma,
• Muthu Karuppasamy,
• Daiya Suzuki,
• Haruka Nakajima,
• Yoshitane Imai,
• Mitsuhiro Arisawa,
• Mohamed S. H. Salem and
• Shinobu Takizawa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2026, 22, 372–382, doi:10.3762/bjoc.22.25

• -bromophenanthrene (1) via Buchwald–Hartwig amination with p-toluidine under Pd catalysis [55] – was subjected to phosphoric acid-mediated annulation with p-benzoquinone to give the hydroxycarbazole derivative 3 through a tandem Michael addition/ring-closure sequence. After rapid optimization of key parameters (see

Circumventing Mukaiyama oxidation: selective S–O bond formation via sulfenamide–alcohol coupling

• Guoling Huang,
• Huarui Zhu,
• Shuting Zhou,
• Wanlin Zheng,
• Fangpeng Liang,
• Zhibo Zhao,
• Yifei Chen and
• Xunbo Lu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2026, 22, 158–166, doi:10.3762/bjoc.22.9

• preparation of sulfinimidate esters remain scarce. For instance, Degennaro and Luisi reported a direct amination strategy using N,N’-disubstituted sulfenamides in alcoholic solvents; however, this method suffered from limited substrate scope [13]. Subsequently, Malacria and co-workers reported an oxidative

Total synthesis of natural products based on hydrogenation of aromatic rings

• Haoxiang Wu and
• Xiangbing Qi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2026, 22, 88–122, doi:10.3762/bjoc.22.4

• hydrogenation of a pyridine precursor, whereas Mander’s strategy relied on an Eschenmoser fragmentation as well as a reductive amination (Scheme 17) [87]. Pyridine analogue 121 was converted to tetracyclic compound 123 via a 1,2-addition. A five-step transformation, including allylic hydroxy group transposition

Mechanistic insights into hydroxy(tosyloxy)iodobenzene-mediated ditosyloxylation of chalcones: a DFT study

• Jai Parkash,
• Sangeeta Saini,
• Vaishali Saini,
• Omkar Bains and
• Raj Kamal

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2703–2715, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.208

• dearomatization [7], amination [8], oxidative coupling [9], ring contraction [10][11][12], oxidative rearrangement [13][14][15], dihydroxylation of alkenes, arylation [16], oxidation of sulfides [17] and many more. These hypervalent compounds contain iodine in higher oxidation state than its usual −(I) valence

Isoorotamide-based peptide nucleic acid nucleobases with extended linkers aimed at distal base recognition of adenosine in double helical RNA

• Grant D. Walby,
• Brandon R. Tessier,
• Tristan L. Mabee,
• Jennah M. Hoke,
• Hallie M. Bleam,
• Angelina Giglio-Tos,
• Emily E. Harding,
• Vladislavs Baskevics,
• Martins Katkevics,
• Eriks Rozners and
• James A. MacKay

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2513–2523, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.193

• The synthesis of Db1 began from 3-nitrobenzaldehyde (1), which was treated with beta-alanine (2), in a reductive amination followed by subsequent Boc protection to afford 3 in 50% yield over two steps (Scheme 1). The stoichiometry of both the reducing agent and the beta-alanine proved important as

Pd-catalyzed dehydrogenative arylation of arylhydrazines to access non-symmetric azobenzenes, including tetra-ortho derivatives

• Loris Geminiani,
• Kathrin Junge,
• Matthias Beller and
• Jean-François Soulé

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2234–2242, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.170

• intricate and inefficient using these standard synthetic protocols. The transition-metal-catalyzed C–N bond formation has emerged as a viable route to access non-symmetric azobenzenes, owing to the broad functional group tolerance of Buchwald–Hartwig amination reactions [34][35][36][37][38][39][40]. Kong

• substrate scope (functional group tolerances), including challenging tetra-ortho-substituted azobenzenes. Results and Discussion We started our investigation by using phenylhydrazine (1a) and 2-bromotoluene (2a) as model substrates. In the beginning, standard Buchwald amination conditions were tested ([PdCl

C2 to C6 biobased carbonyl platforms for fine chemistry

• Jingjing Jiang,
• Muhammad Noman Haider Tariq,
• Florence Popowycz,
• Yanlong Gu and
• Yves Queneau

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2103–2172, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.165

• synthesis of amines by replacing the current toxic pathway based on ethylene oxide and dichloroethane [29]. Due to the high reactivity of α-hydroxycarbonyls, the main issue in this reductive amination reaction [30] was to control the cascade of consecutive and parallel reactions. The use of methanol as

• of the system in favor of meta isomer. Acidic cleavage followed by reductive amination afforded m-xylylenediamine (Scheme 54). Tetrahydrofuran-derived amines were prepared from furfural via a one-pot two-step reaction. The condensation of furfural with ketones over Amberlyst-26 as catalyst produced

• intermediate furan-derived enones. Subsequent reductive amination was performed in the presence of ammonia or amines and Pd/Al2O3 under H2 pressure, providing the tetrahydrofuran-derived amines [184]. The same catalytic system could allow the one-pot preparation of tetrahydrofuran-derived secondary and

Enantioselective desymmetrization strategy of prochiral 1,3-diols in natural product synthesis

• Lihua Wei,
• Rui Yang,
• Zhifeng Shi and
• Zhiqiang Ma

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1932–1963, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.151

• transformation of 145, compound 146 was oxidized with Dess-Martin periodinane (DMP). Subsequent reductive amination with fragment 139 provided an intermediate, which underwent the second reductive amination using formaldehyde. This one-pot process with concomitant deprotection afforded acid 147 in 70% yield over

• excellent site selectivity during the Bz protection. The assembly of the azabicyclic core was achieved in two steps from 291 via reductive amination followed by oxidative removal of the p-methoxybenzyl (PMB) group, giving heptacyclic compound 292. Finally, (+)-18-benzoyldavisinol (293) was synthesized in

Stereoselective electrochemical intramolecular imino-pinacol reaction: a straightforward entry to enantiopure piperazines

• Margherita Gazzotti,
• Fabrizio Medici,
• Valerio Chiroli,
• Laura Raimondi,
• Sergio Rossi and
• Maurizio Benaglia

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1897–1908, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.147

• development of technology-driven sustainable strategies to alfa and beta amination of carbonyls and carboxylic acids derivatives- TECHNO”, financed by EU - Next Generation EU, Mission 4 Component 1 CUP G53D23003280006. M. Gazzotti thanks Università degli Studi di Milano for a PhD fellowship.

Chiral phosphoric acid-catalyzed asymmetric synthesis of helically chiral, planarly chiral and inherently chiral molecules

• Wei Liu and
• Xiaoyu Yang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1864–1889, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.145

• catalytic kinetic resolution of racemic helical polycyclic phenols through an organocatalyzed enantioselective dearomative amination reaction [30]. The racemic polycyclic phenol derivatives 25, which exist as single diastereomers featuring both central chirality and helical chirality, were readily prepared

• through a [3 + 3]-cycloaddition reaction. By employing the CPA-catalyzed asymmetric electrophilic amination reaction with azodicarboxylate on the phenol moiety, efficient kinetic resolution of 25 proceeded to yield both the amination products 26 and the recovered starting material with high

• enantioselectivity, with an s-factor up to >259 (Scheme 7). Notably, this reaction did not produce the typical arene C–H amination products but instead the dearomative amination products 26, which is believed to be due to the significant steric hindrance surrounding the amination site that impeded the subsequent

Photoswitches beyond azobenzene: a beginner’s guide

• Michela Marcon,
• Christoph Haag and
• Burkhard König

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1808–1853, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.143

• heterocyclic imines [36][37][38]. The Z-isomers of the unsubstituted derivatives adapt different conformations: T-shaped for the N-phenyl and twisted for the N-pyrazoles. The half-lives follow the same trends already discussed beforehand. In contrast with the azopyrazoles, mono- and di-ortho-amination of the

Preparation of a furfural-derived enantioenriched vinyloxazoline building block and exploring its reactivity

• Madara Darzina,
• Anna Lielpetere and
• Aigars Jirgensons

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1737–1741, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.136

• trans-isomer of amide 5. Results and Discussion The protected furfuryl amino alcohols S-2d and R-2d were prepared by reductive amination of furfural (1) with ʟ- and ᴅ-valinol followed by N-protection with Alloc-Cl (Scheme 2). The amino alcohols S-2d and R-2d were then subjected to electrochemical

Influence of the cation in hypophosphite-mediated catalyst-free reductive amination

• Natalia Lebedeva,
• Fedor Kliuev,
• Olesya Zvereva,
• Klim Biriukov,
• Evgeniya Podyacheva,
• Maria Godovikova,
• Oleg I. Afanasyev and
• Denis Chusov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1661–1670, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.130

• hypophosphorous acid are commercially available in bulk amounts, however, their usage is understudied in organic processes. While NaH2PO2 has proved to be an efficient four-electron reductant in the catalyst-free reductive amination, the influence of cation in hypophosphite salt has not been studied yet. This

• issue is a fundamentally important factor. In the present work, the reactivity of the hypophosphites of alkali metals (Li, K, Rb, and Cs) in reductive amination was explored for the first time. A set of secondary and tertiary amines was synthesized from various types of carbonyl compounds and amines

• . The remedy for Parkinson’s disease, piribedil, was obtained in high yield. The plausible mechanism of the elaborated process was proposed and supported by DFT calculations. Keywords: amines; DFT; hypophosphites; reductive amination; role of cations; Introduction Sodium hypophosphite, NaH2PO2, is one

Catalytic asymmetric reactions of isocyanides for constructing non-central chirality

• Jia-Yu Liao

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1648–1660, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.129

• of the resulting products in developing chiral organocatalysts was investigated as well. For instance, 28a was converted to a thiourea-tertiary amine 29 through a four-step procedure in an overall 36% yield. This compound was then utilized as the catalyst in the electrophilic amination reaction

• functionality in 63 allowed for versatile derivatizations, such as reduction, reductive amination, condensation, and olefination, which further expanded the structural diversity of the resulting products. Summary and Outlook The past few years have witnessed exciting progress in developing catalytic asymmetric

General method for the synthesis of enaminones via photocatalysis

• Paula Pérez-Ramos,
• Raquel G. Soengas and
• Humberto Rodríguez-Solla

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1535–1543, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.116

• enaminones has attracted much attention over the past decades. Kuwano’s group described the synthesis of enaminones from ethyl ketones via a nickel-catalyzed selective β-amination (Scheme 1A) [31]. The preparation of enaminones can also be achieved by the reaction of aldehydes and calcium carbide in the

• presence of amines and CuI as catalyst, as reported by Zhang and co-workers (Scheme 1B) [32]. On the other hand, Li et al. disclosed a silver-catalyzed amination of propargyl alcohols to afford enaminones (Scheme 1C) [33]. Although these new methods provide a wide variety of enaminones, there are

• the reactivity of unsaturated esters towards an aza-Michael addition is the use of transition metal complexes as catalysts/promoters [40][41][42]. Considering this background, we reasoned that Ni(II) could be a suitable catalyst for the amination of unsaturated systems. Initial investigations were

Copper catalysis: a constantly evolving field

• Elena Fernández and
• Jaesook Yun

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1477–1479, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.109

• -workers demonstrates that the efficient and green direct C–H amination of benzoxazoles can be catalyzed by copper chloride salts in acetonitrile in the absence of any acidic, basic, or oxidizing additives [8]. Both CuCl and CuCl2 were found to be extremely efficient in promoting the reactions, which

Microwave-enhanced additive-free C–H amination of benzoxazoles catalysed by supported copper

• Andrei Paraschiv,
• Valentina Maruzzo,
• Filippo Pettazzi,
• Stefano Magliocco,
• Paolo Inaudi,
• Daria Brambilla,
• Gloria Berlier,
• Giancarlo Cravotto and
• Katia Martina

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1462–1476, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.108

• S.P.A., Via Pavia 1, Gropello Cairoli, Italy Department of Chemistry, NIS Interdepartmental Centre and INSTM Reference Centre, University of Turin, Via Pietro Giuria 7, 10125 Turin, Italy Cube Labs Spa V. Giulia Caccini 1, 00198 Roma, Italy 10.3762/bjoc.21.108 Abstract The C2-amination of benzoxazole

• offers wide-ranging potential for substrate expansion and the functionalisation of bioactive compounds. This study presents a green and efficient C–H amination, catalysed by CuCl and CuCl2, in acetonitrile without acidic, basic or oxidant additives that is accelerated by microwave (MW) irradiation and is

• -amination of benzoxazoles by transition-metal-catalysed reactions that traditionally involve aryl halide scaffolds [11][12][13][14]. However, these procedures entail disadvantages that need to be overcome if green chemistry criteria are to be met; high temperatures, long reaction times, the need for ligands