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

• analogues 18 and 19 (Figure 3) [30][33]. Compound 18 contains a 1,3,5-trifluoroalkane moiety with syn,syn-stereochemistry, and it is found to adopt a bent alkyl chain which is necessary for the avoidance of parallel 1,3-difluoro alignments [30]. Compound 19 also contains a 1,3,5-trifluoroalkane moiety, but

• be altered, too [44]. For example, consider compounds 26 and 27 (Figure 4), which are fluorinated analogues of the multiple sclerosis drug gilenya (25) [45]. The syn,anti-fluorinated stereoisomer 26 has a much higher water solubility than gilenya (25), attributable to the presence of new polar bonds

• orthogonal in 47 [84], leading to different overall molecular shapes for compounds 46 and 47. Another illustration of this phenomenon is seen with the macrocycles 48 and 49, which are simplified analogues of a known BACE-1 inhibitor [85]. In the non-fluorinated macrocycle 48, the aryl ether moiety features a

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

• activity of this polyketide. Seven analogues of massarilactone D, compounds 2–8, were synthetized through acylation modifications aimed at enhancing the compound’s interactions with biological targets (Scheme 1). These acylated analogues were subsequently screened for their cytotoxicity against a panel of

• then elucidated as massarilactone D 4,7-di-O-crotonyl. Cytotoxic and nematicidal activities The antiproliferative properties of massarilactone D and the newly synthesized analogues were evaluated against the murine fibroblasts L929, human cervix carcinoma KB3-1, human lung carcinoma A549, human

Study of the interaction of 2H-furo[3,2-b]pyran-2-ones with nitrogen-containing nucleophiles

• Constantine V. Milyutin,
• Andrey N. Komogortsev and
• Boris V. Lichitsky

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 556–563, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.44

• isolation of intermediate salt 3a. Indeed, the reflux of starting compound 1a with amine 2a in AcOH for 24 h led to formation of product 4a with 62% yield. Using various furanones 1 and amines we attempted to synthesize analogues of compound 4a based on the above procedure. It was found that the presence of

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

• , Table 2). The binding affinity of 1 towards peptide 4 is around 1.5 times higher than for the free amino acid (entry 3, Table 2). The acetylated analogues of peptides 2 and 3 – compounds 5 and 6, are bound by 1 notably weaker, with 1.8× and 1.3× lower affinities respectively (entries 4 and 5, Table 2

• as well indicated by the lower binding affinity of 1 to the acetylated analogues of peptides 2 and 3. In the case of peptide 4, acetylation of its N-terminus did not affect the stability of the complex with receptor 1. This suggests that 1 interacts with the N-terminal ammonium in 4 to a much lesser

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

• relationship (SAR) studies between derivatisations of all four units (A to D) (Figure 1A) of cryptophycin-52 analogues with functional groups [8]. While many modifications of cryptophycin decrease the cytotoxicity drastically, some viable attachment points for conjugation were found, mainly including the para

• indicate the major presence of a fully deprotected and trifluoroacetylated seco-cryptophycin, most likely a TFA ester of one of the free hydroxy groups, a finding which might reason the comparably low yields (21–25%) of structurally similar unit B analogues reported earlier [21]. Contrary, diol 25 was

• amines still show nanomolar activity against the MDR cell line KB-V1 (Table 1) with resistance factors FR (being the ratio between IC50 (KB-V1) and IC50 (KB-3-1)) of 25 (1) and 34 (2), thus being comparably much more potent against KB-V1 cells than for example the unit D analogues (FR ≈ 103) [19

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

• -substituted 1d could be also obtained under the developed conditions. Unsymmetrically substituted 4e and monosubstituted dibromides 4f,g demonstrated reactivity similar to that of their symmetrical analogues 4b,c with exception of the mono-MeO-substituted dibromide 4h. Notably, the presence of two stabilizing

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

• preorganization to catalyze new reactions, better stabilize transition states, or provide new selectivities. The study of discrete, soluble cavities in solution before translation to lattice analogues might prove a fruitful avenue. Covalent organic cages Covalent organic cages [235] are any discrete assembly, at

• ) mimic by Otte [44]. (A) Design and development of soluble, functionalized, robust organic cages. (B) Examples of modular structural changes and properties. Ester hydrolysis of cages 2e–4e gives the diacid analogues 2–4. (A) There are 13 metastable conformers (symmetry-corrected) for cage 1 due to

Unraveling aromaticity: the dual worlds of pyrazole, pyrazoline, and 3D carborane

• Zahra Noori,
• Miquel Solà,
• Clara Viñas,
• Francesc Teixidor and
• Jordi Poater

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 412–420, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.29

• of the N–N bond in pyrazole might help preserve its aromaticity. To explore this, we performed quantum chemical analyses on a range of o-carborane-fused pyrazoles and pyrazolines and compared them with their fully planar indazole and indazoline analogues. Aromaticity or non-aromaticity can be

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

• avenues for the development of fluorescent probes based on the bis-THIQ alkaloidal scaffold. Further efforts to develop a concise and modular synthetic process for saframycins are currently underway. Representative bis-tetrahydroisoquinoline (THIQ) alkaloids and their analogues. Oxygen atoms on both the A

Heteroannulations of cyanoacetamide-based MCR scaffolds utilizing formamide

• Marios Zingiridis,
• Danae Papachristodoulou,
• Despoina Menegaki,
• Konstantinos G. Froudas and
• Constantinos G. Neochoritis

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 217–225, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.13

• under the umbrella of C1 chemistry was to provide a straightforward access to the privileged scaffold of fused heteroannulated pyrimidones, which demonstrate a broad range of biological activities [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35], including use as emissive nucleoside analogues [36][37][38]. Moreover

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

• -triazole analogues 6. Both dioxazolones 4 and N-iminoquinolinium ylides 5 demonstrated excellent tolerance in this transformation. Notably, electron-rich dioxazolones exhibited slightly higher reactivity. The proposed catalytic cycle for the copper-catalyzed synthesis of 1,2,4-triazole derivatives is

• -catalyzed synthesis of 1,2,4-triazole analogues from dioxazolones and N-iminoquinolinium ylides. Proposed reaction mechanism for the copper(I)-catalyzed synthesis of N-acyl amidines. Proposed reaction pathway for the copper-mediated synthesis of N-arylamides from dioxazolones. Proposed reaction pathway for

Facile one-pot reduction of β-nitrostyrenes to phenethylamines using sodium borohydride and copper(II) chloride

• Laura D’Andrea and
• Simon Jademyr

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 39–46, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.4

• limited, since a NaBH4/transition metal salt system is mostly used to reduce nitroarenes [23][24][25][26]. One of the reported methods takes advantage of titanium(IV) isopropoxide as a catalyst to prepare varied β-phenethylamine analogues. Despite its simplicity, the reaction time is quite prolonged (from

• to synthesize phenethyl- and phenylisopropylamines from the corresponding nitroalkenes [15][17]. Representatively substituted β-nitrostyrene analogues were reduced via this method at 80 ˚C, including 2,5-dimethoxy-β-methyl-β-nitrostyrene (3a), precursor of amphetamines, and 2,5-dimethoxy-β

• crucial role in the synthesis of phenethylamine analogues via this method. Dithering before the addition of the copper solution leads to the formation of Micheal adducts, which decrease the product yields. This phenomenon is due to the nature of β-nitrostyrenes, displaying considerable delocalization

Chemical glycobiology

• Elisa Fadda,
• Rachel Hevey,
• Benjamin Schumann and
• Ulrika Westerlind

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 8–9, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.2

• glycan assembly [9]. Target-directed synthetic strategies are being developed by Reihill et al. [10] and Karak et al. [11], exploring the syntheses of the linker-displaying, sulfated TF disaccharide and lipid II analogues, respectively. The direct application of synthetic glycans is shown by Fan et al

Synthesis of acenaphthylene-fused heteroarenes and polyoxygenated benzo[j]fluoranthenes via a Pd-catalyzed Suzuki–Miyaura/C–H arylation cascade

• Merve Yence,
• Dilgam Ahmadli,
• Damla Surmeli,
• Umut Mert Karacaoğlu,
• Sujit Pal and
• Yunus Emre Türkmen

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3290–3298, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.273

• %). This cascade involves an initial Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling reaction between 1,8-dihalonaphthalenes and heteroarylboronic acids or esters, followed by an intramolecular C–H arylation under the same conditions to yield the final heterocyclic fluoranthene analogues. The method was further employed to

• heteroatoms or other heterocycles to obtain heterocyclic fluoranthene analogues offers numerous opportunities for structural and functional diversifications. For instance, azafluoranthenes such as triclisine (1) or imeluteine (2) constitute a common structural motif encountered in natural products isolated

• ) ligand 4 were reported by Cowley and co-workers in 2010 [14]. In addition to heterocyclic fluoranthene analogues, highly oxygenated benzo[j]fluoranthenes are commonly encountered fungal natural products with important biological activities [15]. Bulgarein (5) is an example of such a benzo[j]fluoranthene

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 against both Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus, has contributed to a surge in the interest of polyamines as new antibacterial leads [6]. To date the total synthesis of ianthelliformisamines A–C (1–3) has been described [7] and numerous synthetically related analogues have been

• new leads against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and supported by numerous reports of favourable activity for ianthelliformisamines A–C [7][12] and their synthetic analogues [8][9][10], we investigated the planktonic and biofilm activity of the new natural products 4–7 in addition to the known metabolite

• , aplysterol (8) [13]. Our biological assessment of compounds 4–8 showed no inhibition of planktonic growth or biofilm formation for P. aeruginosa when screened at 50 µM. Previously reported antibacterial assessment of ianthelliformisamines A–C (1–3) and their synthetic analogues has generated structure

Synthesis of extended fluorinated tripeptides based on the tetrahydropyridazine scaffold

• Thierry Milcent,
• Pascal Retailleau,
• Benoit Crousse and
• Sandrine Ongeri

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3174–3181, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.262

• feature results will be further confirmed by the insertion of these cyclic β-dehydropiperazic acids in longer peptide sequences. Examples of bioactive tetrahydropyridazine derivatives. Linear and cyclic peptides incorporating the dehydropiperazic acid moiety. Piperazic acid and analogues and target

Advances in the use of metal-free tetrapyrrolic macrocycles as catalysts

• Mandeep K. Chahal

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3085–3112, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.257

• free-base) macrocycles have not been explored as much in terms of catalysis, even though they are starting compounds for the preparation of their metallated analogues that are commonly used as catalysts. In contrast with a calix[4]pyrrole macrocycle with four NHs (from four pyrrole units), a metal-free

• one remaining –NH group is catalytically active while both tri- and tetraalkylated analogues 40 and 41, without an –NH unit, are not. Further, the authors performed 1H NMR experiments with a different substrate:macrocycle ratio and suggested a bifunctional reaction mechanism involving both inner amine

• ones with secondary amine side arm (48d, 48g, h) were catalytically active for Michael additions, providing 60–71% yields (Table 3), whereas tetraalkylated analogues (49a–g) and dialkylated OxPs without a secondary amine side arm (48a–c, 48e and 48i) were not. Based on these results, the authors have

Extension of the π-system of monoaryl-substituted norbornadienes with acetylene bridges: influence on the photochemical conversion and storage of light energy

• Robin Schulte,
• Dustin Schade,
• Thomas Paululat,
• Till J. B. Zähringer,
• Christoph Kerzig and
• Heiko Ihmels

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3061–3068, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.254

• and the analogues 1c and 1e without an alkyne linker [29][30][34]. As the only exception, the m-substituted derivative 1k has a higher quantum yield than its analog 1b, which is, however, still lower than the one of the cyano-substituted norbornadiene 1c [30][34]. In addition, substitution at the 2

• quadricyclanes from 3.0 h to 7.8 h, which are essentially in the same range as the ones of analogues with an acceptor-substituent in the 3-position of the norbornadiene [34]. Notably, the quadricyclane derivatives with sterically more demanding substituents in the 2-position of the norbornadiene unit, such as 1e

• , showed longer half-lives. Therefore, compounds 1h–l,n have significanty lower half-lives than the corresponding analogues without an alkyne linker [29][30]. Conclusion In summary, a small series of mono-, bis-, and tris-norbornadiene derivatives with alkynylbenzene and alkynylnaphthalene core units was

Tunable full-color dual-state (solution and solid) emission of push–pull molecules containing the 1-pyrindane moiety

• Anastasia I. Ershova,
• Sergey V. Fedoseev,
• Konstantin V. Lipin,
• Mikhail Yu. Ievlev,
• Oleg E. Nasakin and
• Oleg V. Ershov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3016–3025, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.251

• dimethylene bridge in arylidene derivatives of pyrindane 1 led to an increase in the emission quantum yield and caused an appearance of solid-state photoluminescence, in contrast to the previously synthesized analogues (stilbazoles A, Figure 1) without such a bridge (Tables S3 and S4, Supporting Information

4,6-Diaryl-5,5-difluoro-1,3-dioxanes as chiral dopants for liquid crystal compositions

• Maurice Médebielle,
• Peer Kirsch,
• Jérémy Merad,
• Carolina von Essen,
• Clemens Kühn and
• Andreas Ruhl

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2940–2945, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.246

• found in some natural products [34] with some fluorinated analogues [35][36], this motif is rarely found in LCs [37][38][39]. Based on these observations and literature data, we embarked in the synthesis and evaluation of enantiomerically pure acetals derived from anti-2,2-difluoro-1,3-diols as

• two achiral nematic host mixtures (Host 1 and Host 2 from Merck) (Table 1). (R,R)-3 and (S,S)-3 with a more liquid crystal-like shape have higher HTP [16 µm−1 (Host 1), 38 µm−1 (Host 2)] than the dimethylacetal analogues (R,R)-4 and (S,S)-4 [8 µm−1 (Host 1), 15 µm−1 (Host 2)]. The difference between

• the two nematic host mixtures is their polarity: whereas Host 1 is only moderately polar (Δε = 4.0), the mixture Host 2 was developed for Blue Mode LCD application and is extremely polar. As compared to chiral dopants depicted in Figure 1, HTPs are lower and closest analogues for comparison could be

N-Glycosides of indigo, indirubin, and isoindigo: blue, red, and yellow sugars and their cancerostatic activity

• Peter Langer

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2840–2869, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.240

• containing the sugar moiety attached to the amine-type nitrogen are less stable than the corresponding compounds containing the sugar moiety attached to the amide-type nitrogen atom. Unfortunately, the synthesis of β-31a was not a general method for the synthesis of indirubin-N-glycosides. Analogues of

• stirred for 6 h at 20 °C to give E-β-46a. Likewise, rhamnosides E-β-46b–e, mannosides E-β-46f–i, glucosides E-β-46j,k, and galactosides E-β-46l,m were prepared. 3-Alkylideneoxindole-N-glycososides 46 can be regarded as analogues of indirubin-N-glycosides completely missing the nitrogen atom of the indoxyl

• deprotection with NaOMe afforded β-81a in 98% yield. Likewise, rhamnosides β-81b,c mannosides β-81d–f, and glucoside β-80g were obtained in good yields. Some products exhibited weak cytotoxic activity against human ceratinocytes (HaCaT). However, in contrast to many indirubin-N-glycosides and their analogues

Investigation of a bimetallic terbium(III)/copper(II) chemosensor for the detection of aqueous hydrogen sulfide

• Parvathy Mini,
• Michael R. Grace,
• Genevieve H. Dennison and
• Kellie L. Tuck

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2818–2826, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.237

• are highly selective to HS−(aq) ions and are thus suitable for environmental or biological studies where interfering anions may be present. Gaseous H2S studies of [Tb.1·3Cu]3+ We aimed to further investigate the luminescence response of Tb3+ analogues upon exposure to hydrogen sulfide gas, building

• upon our previously reported findings. Our earlier work demonstrated an increase in europium luminescence with a LoD of 100 ppb and 665 ppb for two Eu analogues [Eu(triazole-DPA)3·3Cu]3+ [16] and [Eu(DO2A)DPA·Cu]+ [17], while the [Tb(DO2A)DPA·Cu]+ analogue [17] exhibited no significant change in

• emission spectrum, unlike that observed with the europium(III) analogue. This result suggests potential variations in the luminescence response among terbium(III) analogues and highlights the complexity of the interaction between lanthanide complexes and gaseous H2S, and understanding the nuances of this

C–C Coupling in sterically demanding porphyrin environments

• Liam Cribbin,
• Brendan Twamley,
• Nicolae Buga,
• John E. O’ Brien,
• Raphael Bühler,
• Roland A. Fischer and
• Mathias O. Senge

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2784–2798, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.234

• . Functionalization at the meso-phenyls’ ortho- position was not manageable and more research is needed to optimize conditions. Comparing the yields in coupling of borylated porphyrins and the halogenated analogues revealed a greater yield, when the polarity of the reaction was reversed; however, due to tedious

5th International Symposium on Synthesis and Catalysis (ISySyCat2023)

• Anthony J. Burke and
• Elisabete P. Carreiro

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2704–2707, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.227

• -dihydro-1H-pyrroles using aryldiazonium salts and (S)-PyraBox, followed by sequential Jones oxidation. They showcased their methodology by preparing both (R)-rolipram and (R)-baclofen hydrochloride. Tóth et al. reported the design and synthesis of new analogues of HeE1-2Tyr, a nonnucleoside SARS-CoV-2

Applications of microscopy and small angle scattering techniques for the characterisation of supramolecular gels

• Connor R. M. MacDonald and
• Emily R. Draper

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2608–2634, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.220

• increases, and techniques develop at a rapid pace [10][11][52][53]. SAS techniques include small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), small angle neutron scattering (SANS), and their wide angle (WAXS) and ultra-small angle (USAXS and USANS, respectively) analogues have various advantages and drawbacks compared to