Pyrimidine and Pyrazole Linked Azetidin-2-ones: Entry to Novel Class of β-Lactam Heterocycles

A Comprehensive Review on C-3 Functionalization of β-Lactams

BACKGROUND

A lot of advancement has been made in the area of β-lactams in recent times. Most of the research is targeted towards the synthesis of novel β-lactams, their functionalization and exploring their biological potential. The C-3 functionalization of β-lactams has continued to attract considerable interest of the scientific community due to their utility as versatile intermediates in organic synthesis and their therapeutic applications. This has led to the significant increase in efforts towards developing efficient and economic strategies for C-3 functionalized β-lactams.

OBJECTIVE

The present review aims to highlight recent advancement made in C-3 functionalization of β - lactams.

CONCLUSION

To summarize, functionalization of β-lactams at C-3 is an essential aspect of β-lactam chemistry in order to improve/modify its synthetic utility as well as biological potential. The C-3 carbocation equivalent method has emerged as an important and convenient strategy for C-3 functionalization of β-lactam heterocycles which provides a wide range of β-lactams viz. 3-alkylated β-lactams, 3-aryl/heteroarylated β-lactams, 3- alkoxylated β-lactams. On the other hand, base mediated functionalization of β-lactams via carbanion intermediate is another useful approach but their scope is limited by the requirement of stringent reaction conditions. In addition to this, organometallic reagent mediated α-alkylation of 3-halo/3-keto-β-lactams also emerged as interesting methods for the synthesis of functionalized β-lactams having good yields and diastereoselectivities.

Exploring the chemical space and the bioactivity profile of lactams: a chemoinformatic study

Lactams are a class of compounds important for drug design, due to their great variety of potential therapeutic applications, spanning cancer, diabetes, and infectious diseases. So far, the biological profile and chemical diversity of lactams have not been characterized in a systematic and detailed manner. In this work, we report the chemoinformatic analysis of beta-, gamma-, delta- and epsilon-lactams present in databases of approved drugs, natural products, and bioactive compounds from the large public database ChEMBL. We identified the main biological targets in which the lactams have been evaluated according to their chemical classification. We also identified the most frequent scaffolds and those that can be prioritized in chemical synthesis, since they are scaffolds with potential biological activity but with few reported analogs. Results of the biological and chemoinformatic analysis of lactams indicate that spiro- and bridged-lactams belong to classes with the lowest number of compounds and unique scaffolds, and some showing activity against specific targets. Information obtained from this analysis allows focusing the design of new chemical structures in less explored spaces and with increased possibilities of success.

Lactams are a class of compounds important for drug design, due to their great variety of potential therapeutic applications, spanning cancer, diabetes, and infectious diseases.