Receptor binding profile of quinupramine, a new tricyclic antidepressant

Seven-membered N-heterocycles as approved drugs and promising leads in medicinal chemistry as well as the metal-free domino access to their scaffolds

Azepanes or azepines are structural motifs of many drugs, drug candidates and evaluated lead compounds. Even though compounds having N-heterocyclic 7-membered rings are often found in nature (e.g. alkaloids), the natural compounds of this group are rather rare as approved therapeutics. Thus, recently studied and approved azepane or azepine-congeners predominantly consist of semi-synthetically or synthetically-obtained scaffolds. In this review a comparison of approved drugs and recently investigated leads was proposed taking into regard their structural aspects (stereochemistry), biological activities, pharmacokinetic properties and confirmed molecular targets. The 7-membered N-heterocycles reveal a wide range of biological activities, not only against CNS diseases, but also as e.g. antibacterial, anticancer, antiviral, antiparasitic and against allergy agents. As most of the approved or investigated potential drugs or lead structures, belonging to 7-membered N-heterocycles, are synthetic scaffolds, this report also reveals different and efficient metal-free cascade approaches useful to synthesize both simple azepane or azepine-containing congeners and those of oligocyclic structures. Stereochemistry of azepane/azepine fused systems, in view of biological data and binding with the targets, is discussed. Apart from the approved drugs, we compare advances in SAR studies of 7-membered N-heterocycles (mainly from 2018 to 2023), whereas the related synthetic part concerning various domino strategies is focused on the last ten years.

Aminations and arylations by direct C–O activation for the design of 7,8-dihydro-6H-5,8-ethanopyrido[3,2-d]pyrimidines

The design of some novel disubstituted 7,8-dihydro-6H-5,8-ethanopyrido[3,2-d]pyrimidine derivatives is reported. The series was developed from quinuclidinone, which afforded versatile platforms bearing one lactam function in position C-2 that were then used to create C–N or C–C bonds for S_NAr or palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions by in situ C–O activation. The reaction conditions were optimized under microwave irradiation, and a wide range of amines or boronic acids were used to determine the scope and limitations of each method. To complete this study, the X-ray crystallographic data of 7,8-dihydro-6H-5,8-ethanopyrido[3,2-d]pyrimidine derivative 49 were used to formally establish the structures of the products.

A convenient design of 7,8-dihydro-6H-5,8-ethanopyrido[3,2-d]pyrimidines is reported from quinuclidinone, which afforded versatile platforms that were then used to access a variety of original heterocycles.