Woo J, Christian AH, Burgess SA, Jiang Y, Mansoor UF, Levin MD. Scaffold hopping by net photochemical carbon deletion of azaarenes.
Science 2022;
376:527-532. [PMID:
35482853 PMCID:
PMC9107930 DOI:
10.1126/science.abo4282]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 27.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
Discovery chemists routinely identify purpose-tailored molecules through an iterative structural optimization approach, but the preparation of each successive candidate in a compound series can rarely be conducted in a manner matching their thought process. This is because many of the necessary chemical transformations required to modify compound cores in a straightforward fashion are not applicable in complex contexts. We report a method that addresses one facet of this problem by allowing chemists to hop directly between chemically distinct heteroaromatic scaffolds. Specifically, we show that selective photolysis of quinoline N-oxides with 390-nanometer light followed by acid-promoted rearrangement affords N-acylindoles while showing broad compatibility with medicinally relevant functionality. Applications to late-stage skeletal modification of compounds of pharmaceutical interest and more complex transformations involving serial single-atom changes are demonstrated.
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