Combinatorial synthesis of 4-oxo-4H-imidazo[1,5-a]quinoxalines and 4-oxo-4H-pyrazolo[1,5-a]quinoxalines

Copper-Catalyzed Oxidative [3 + 2]-Annulation of Quinoxalin-2(1H)-one with Oxime Esters toward Functionalized Pyrazolo[1,5-a]quinoxalin-4(5H)-ones as Opioid Receptor Modulators

Pyrazolo[1,5-a]quinoxalin-4(5H)-one derivatives as novel opioid receptor modulators have been synthesized via copper-catalyzed oxidative [3 + 2]-annulation of quinoxalin-2(1H)-one and oxime-O-acetates. This hydrazine-free C-C and N-N bond formation strategy starts with the generation of C₂N₁ synthon using oxime acetate, which reacts in a [3 + 2] manner with quinoxalin-2(1H)-one, followed by oxidative aromatization. The synthesized compounds were tested against opioid receptors, of which eight compounds exhibited an antagonistic effect with EC₅₀ < 5 μM at various opioid receptors. Molecular docking studies were performed to identify the binding of active pyrazolo[1,5-a]quinoxalin-4(5H)-one ligands with hKOR protein. Docking results indicated that compounds 3d and 3g participate in hydrogen bonding with the hydroxyl group of T111 of the active site pocket residue.

Aldol reactions in multicomponent reaction based domino pathways: a multipurpose enabling tool in heterocyclic chemistry

The aldol reaction has been evaluated in combination with the Ugi multicomponent reaction to assemble richly decorated mono- and polycyclic systems via expeditious cascade pathways. A small collection of pyrrolinones was generated thereof, and the scarcely accessible pyridoquinoxalinedione scaffold was also prepared by designing an additional nucleophilic substitution step in this domino sequence requiring minimal operational effort.

On the industrial applications of MCRs: molecular diversity in drug discovery and generic drug synthesis

During the last decades, multicomponent chemistry has gained much attention in pharmaceutical research, especially in the context of lead finding and optimization. Here, in particular, the main advantages of multicomponent reactions (MCRs) like ease of automation and high diversity generation were utilized. In consequence of these beneficial properties, a plethora of new MCRs combined with appropriate classical reaction sequences have been published, the accessible chemical space was extended steadily. In the meantime, the desired high diversity became a challenge itself, because by now the systematic use of this huge and unmanageable space for drug discovery was limited by the lack of suitable computational tools. Therefore, this article provides an insight for the rational use of this enormous chemical space in drug discovery and generic drug synthesis. In this context, a short overview of the applied chemo informatics, necessary for the virtual screening of the biggest available chemical space, is given. Furthermore, some examples for recently developed multicomponent sequences are presented.