Recent advances in synthetic approaches for bioactive cinnamic acid derivatives

• Betty A. Kustiana,
• Galuh Widiyarti and
• Teni Ernawati

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1031–1086, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.85

Recent advances in controllable/divergent synthesis

• Jilei Cao,
• Leiyang Bai and
• Xuefeng Jiang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 890–914, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.73

• providing illustrative examples across reaction classes, and emerging strategies for programming synthetic outcomes. The integration of these approaches promises to accelerate drug discovery and materials development through sustainable, atom-economic synthesis of complex molecular libraries. Review Ligand

4-(1-Methylamino)ethylidene-1,5-disubstituted pyrrolidine-2,3-diones: synthesis, anti-inflammatory effect and in silico approaches

• Nguyen Tran Nguyen,
• Vo Viet Dai,
• Luc Van Meervelt,
• Do Thi Thao and
• Nguyen Minh Thong

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 817–829, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.65

• pyrrolidine-2,3-dione derivatives could inhibit biomacromolecules (DNA, BSA, mPGES-1 or CDKs) and consequently, enable them to be candidates for Alzheimer's disease [11], anti-inflammatory [12][13][14][15][16][17], and antitumor drug discovery [12]. Furthermore, pyrrolidine-2,3-diones are also important

• Information File 1). Analysis of drug-likeness and ADMET characteristics Drug-likeness serves as an essential preliminary evaluation in the drug discovery process. In this section, we investigate the drug-likeness profiles of the newly synthesized molecules by theoretically assessing whether they conform to

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

• pivotal structural elements in drug discovery [1][2][3][4]. Notably, tetrahydroquinoline derivatives featuring a strain-inducing ring system are prevalent in numerous bioactive molecules, including those with promising therapeutic potential for neurological disorders, oncology, and various other medical

• utility and scalability [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. Cyclobutane-fused tetrahydroquinolines (THQs) have garnered significant attention in drug discovery due to their inherent structural rigidity and enhanced pharmacological profiles [21], which render them highly desirable for

• intermediates, followed by intermolecular cyclization and aromatization. The scalability of this method was demonstrated through a gram-scale reaction, highlighting its potential for practical applications in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. Synthetic strategies for the construction of

Entry to 2-aminoprolines via electrochemical decarboxylative amidation of N‑acetylamino malonic acid monoesters

• Olesja Koleda,
• Janis Sadauskis,
• Darja Antonenko,
• Edvards Janis Treijs,
• Raivis Davis Steberis and
• Edgars Suna

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 630–638, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.50

• -disubstituted piperidine-containing amino acid subunits. Likewise, a cyano-substituted cyclic aminal is a core structural unit of the fibroblast activation protein inhibitor 5 [3] (Figure 1). The widespread use of non-proteinogenic cyclic amino acids in drug discovery justifies both the design of new analogs

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

• ] cycloaddition step that ends with aromatization through a 1,3-H shift (Scheme 31) [84][85]. These compounds are highly relevant biological scaffolds for drug discovery [84]. In general, this reaction works very well with a wide variety of Lewis acids (as Sc(OTf)3 and MgCl2) and Brønsted acids (e.g., NH4Cl and

New tandem Ugi/intramolecular Diels–Alder reaction based on vinylfuran and 1,3-butadienylfuran derivatives

• Yuriy I. Horak,
• Roman Z. Lytvyn,
• Andrii R. Vakhula,
• Yuriy V. Homza,
• Nazariy T. Pokhodylo and
• Mykola D. Obushak

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 444–450, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.31

• reactions, for instance, have contributed to high-throughput screening for drug discovery, facilitating the identification of new therapeutic compounds. [9][10]. A notable example is ivosidenib, approved in 2018, which was synthesized using the Ugi reaction to target mutated IDH1 in acute myeloid leukemia

• , form heterolignans, which are synthetic derivatives of naturally occurring lignans [22][23][24][25]. This has gained significant attention in drug discovery [26]. Several synthetic routes, such as tandem Pummerer/Diels–Alder or Wittig/Diels–Alder approaches, have been developed for heterolignan

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

• .), JST ACT-X (JPMJAX211B: R. T.), the Naito Foundation (R. T. and H. O.), the Asahi Glass Foundation (H. O.), JST-Mirai Program Grant Number JPMJMI23G2 (K. Y.), and the Platform Project for Supporting Drug Discovery and Life Science Research (Basis for Supporting Innovative Drug Discovery and Life

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

• obtained 15 diversely substituted heteroannulated pyrimidones, employing privileged thiophene, quinoline and indole scaffolds in a rapid fashion, without the need of column chromatography, in a parallel setup. Heteroannulated pyrimidones in drug discovery: blockbuster drugs that are based on the privileged

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

• . Review 1 Transformations via the formation of copper nitrenoids 1.1 C(sp3)–H amidation Lactams are recognized as one of the most significant nitrogen-containing heterocycles in drug discovery [69][70]. Among these, six-membered lactams, known as 2-piperidinones, have been extensively studied due to their

Recent advances in organocatalytic atroposelective reactions

• Henrich Szabados and
• Radovan Šebesta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 55–121, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.6

• privileged catalyst frameworks [2]. Axially chiral biaryls have also been found to be useful in materials [3]. Although much less widely occurring than centrochiral compounds, there are also naturally occurring axially chiral compounds. Axially chiral compounds are becoming increasingly relevant also in drug

• discovery and medicine [4]. However, a lack of reliable synthetic methods for their preparation hindered the broader application of axially chiral compounds. In recent decades, there has been increased interest in the catalytic syntheses of axially chiral compounds by catalytic [5][6], especially

Emerging trends in the optimization of organic synthesis through high-throughput tools and machine learning

• Pablo Quijano Velasco,
• Kedar Hippalgaonkar and
• Balamurugan Ramalingam

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 10–38, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.3

• reactors; data processing; high-throughput experimentation; machine learning; reaction optimization; Introduction Organic synthesis plays a crucial role in drug discovery, polymer synthesis, materials science, agrochemicals, and specialty chemicals. Their synthesis and process optimization require

• literature in other areas relevant to the application of ML to chemical synthesis that are not covered by our review, such as small molecule discovery [8], drug discovery [9][10], retrosynthesis [11][12], and catalyst selection and design [13][14]. Review HTE platforms HTE platforms were designed to

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

• ], therefore it is no surprise that sponges are highly sought after for novel bioactive metabolites and have been a major focus of marine natural product drug discovery for over 70 years. The identification of ianthelliformisamines A–C from the Australian marine sponge Suberea ianthelliformis, which displayed

Germanyl triazoles as a platform for CuAAC diversification and chemoselective orthogonal cross-coupling

• John M. Halford-McGuff,
• Thomas M. Richardson,
• Aidan P. McKay,
• Frederik Peschke,
• Glenn A. Burley and
• Allan J. B. Watson

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3198–3204, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.265

• ]. As such, the reaction has been used extensively throughout drug discovery [20][21], chemical biology [22][23], and materials science [24][25][26][27]. Orthogonal alkyne reactivity can also be observed under certain systems [28][29][30]. The reaction typically uses a Cu(II) pre-catalyst, which is

Multicomponent reactions driving the discovery and optimization of agents targeting central nervous system pathologies

• Lucía Campos-Prieto,
• Aitor García-Rey,
• Eddy Sotelo and
• Ana Mallo-Abreu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3151–3173, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.261

• . Diagonal 643, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain 10.3762/bjoc.20.261 Abstract The ongoing quest to discover effective treatments for diseases remains a significant challenge for the scientific community. Multicomponent reactions (MCRs) have emerged as powerful tools in accelerating drug discovery, enabling the

• activity towards AβpE3-42 but accomplishing increased solubility. Due to the multifactorial pathogenesis of AD, one of the current drug discovery approaches is the so-called multitarget-directed ligands (MTDLs). In 2015, Benchekroun et al. [38] reported the design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of a

• obtained intermediates with the appropriate commercial lactams, under microwave irradiation (Scheme 8). As a result, compound 8a has been identified as a promising derivative potentially useful in further AD drug discovery for its antioxidant activity (4.7 TE in ORAC-FL assay), moderate hAChE inhibition

Hypervalent iodine-mediated intramolecular alkene halocyclisation

• Charu Bansal,
• Oliver Ruggles,
• Albert C. Rowett and
• Alastair J. J. Lennox

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3113–3133, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.258

• Although less common than fluorine in biologically active compounds, chlorine-containing molecules have interest in drug discovery, with over 250 chloro-containing drugs presently available [43]. The introduction of a chlorine atom into biologically active compounds for use in pharmaceuticals and

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

• represent promising candidates for drug discovery, because of their improved water solubility, membrane permeability, and improved recognition by the respective receptors [16]. The present article aims to provide an updated review of the chemistry and biological applications of N-glycosides of indigo

Synthesis of tricarbonylated propargylamine and conversion to 2,5-disubstituted oxazole-4-carboxylates

• Kento Iwai,
• Akari Hikasa,
• Kotaro Yoshioka,
• Shinki Tani,
• Kazuto Umezu and
• Nagatoshi Nishiwaki

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2827–2833, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.238

• -acylamine; oxazole; propargylamine; Introduction Propargylamine is an important motif in the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds [1][2][3][4] and drug discovery [5][6] due to its multifunctionality, which includes a basic and nucleophilic amino group, an electrophilic and dipolarophilic triple bond, and an

Synthesis of spiroindolenines through a one-pot multistep process mediated by visible light

• Francesco Gambuti,
• Jacopo Pizzorno,
• Chiara Lambruschini,
• Renata Riva and
• Lisa Moni

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2722–2731, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.230

• ]. Among the common compound collections for drug discovery, the introduction of spirocyclic elements presents an attractive strategy for increasing molecular complexity without increasing molecular weight, and at the same time, for introducing structural novelty for patentability [3]. However, the

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

• extraordinary advances over the past 150 years. They are a crucial tool for the development of new molecules across a wide range of fields, including drug discovery, energy, materials science, and many more. The ability to design and create novel compounds through organic synthesis, aided by catalysis, is

A review of recent advances in electrochemical and photoelectrochemical late-stage functionalization classified by anodic oxidation, cathodic reduction, and paired electrolysis

• Nian Li,
• Ruzal Sitdikov,
• Ajit Prabhakar Kale,
• Joost Steverlynck,
• Bo Li and
• Magnus Rueping

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2500–2566, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.214

• . Additionally, the increased interest of medicinal chemists in electrochemical methods, combined with their continuous search for new LSF strategies, will further extend the applicability of newly established electrochemical methods. LSF is a rapidly growing field that offers new opportunities in drug discovery

Deuterated reagents in multicomponent reactions to afford deuterium-labeled products

• Kevin Schofield,
• Shayna Maddern,
• Yueteng Zhang,
• Grace E. Mastin,
• Rachel Knight,
• Wei Wang,
• James Galligan and
• Christopher Hulme

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2270–2279, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.195

• , Tucson, Arizona, 85721, USA 10.3762/bjoc.20.195 Abstract The utility of bio-isosteres is broad in drug discovery and methodology herein enables the preparation of deuterium-labeled products is the most fundamental of known bio-isosteric replacements. As such we report the use of both [D1]-aldehydes and

• drug-like compounds with synthetic ease [5][6]. In recent years use of deuterium in drug discovery has expanded beyond mechanistic and tracer studies to deuterium incorporation in small molecules in attempts to hijack the deuterium kinetic isotope effect to induce longer drug t1/2 and greater systemic

Finding the most potent compounds using active learning on molecular pairs

• Zachary Fralish and
• Daniel Reker

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2152–2162, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.185

• ][4] and steer molecular optimization for drug discovery [5][6][7][8]. Active learning is particularly powerful during early project stages. However, one major downside is that, at these early project stages, only a very small amount of training data is available to learn from [9] which can be

• optimization. Discussion Coinciding with increased enthusiasm for machine learning methods to support drug discovery [30][31], expanded use of adaptable laboratory automation [16][32][33] will help support adaptive learning methods like active machine learning to become a cornerstone technology to guide

O,S,Se-containing Biginelli products based on cyclic β-ketosulfone and their postfunctionalization

• Kateryna V. Dil and
• Vitalii A. Palchykov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2143–2151, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.184

• chemistry highlights derivatives capable of interacting with multiple receptors or enzymes, making them ideal candidates for drug discovery. Dihydropyrimidinones (DHPMs) and their derivatives are particularly noteworthy within this category. Accordingly, their synthesis is of significant interest for

Computational toolbox for the analysis of protein–glycan interactions

• Ferran Nieto-Fabregat,
• Maria Pia Lenza,
• Angela Marseglia,
• Cristina Di Carluccio,
• Antonio Molinaro,
• Alba Silipo and
• Roberta Marchetti

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2084–2107, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.180

• docking plays a crucial role in computer-aided drug development, allowing systematic evaluation of compound libraries to identify high-affinity lead compounds for specific targets. Bio-algorithms enable modelling protein tertiary structures, predicting ligand binding pockets, and supporting drug discovery