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

• kinetic resolution through a Pictet–Spengler reaction, enabled the preparation of axially chiral 8-aryltetrahydroisoquinolines 108 starting from aminobiaryl scaffolds 107 and paraformaldehyde (Scheme 34) [59]. For most substrates, excellent enantioselectivities and moderate to excellent yields were

• of the naphthol's OH group and indole's NH group, presumably through hydrogen bonding with organocatalyst C27. The organocatalytic atroposelective preparation of promising EBINOL scaffolds 167 and 169 was done by Wang et al. with the help of the SPINOL-derived organocatalysts C40, C41, and C42

Facile one-pot reduction of β-nitrostyrenes to phenethylamines using sodium borohydride and copper(II) chloride

• Laura D’Andrea and
• Simon Jademyr

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 39–46, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.4

• substituted β-nitrostyrenes. This one-pot procedure allows the quick isolation of substituted β-nitrostyrene scaffolds with 62–83% yield under mild conditions, without the need for special precautions, inert atmosphere, and time-consuming purification techniques. Keywords: 2C-X; CuCl2; NaBH4; β-nitrostyrene

• aluminum hydride, sodium borohydride is a non-pyrophoric and easy-to-handle reducing agent. Since the first attempts in 1967, NaBH4 has been employed to reduce β-nitrostyrene scaffolds to the corresponding nitroalkanes [19][20][21]. Several catalysts have been combined with NaBH4 to facilitate full

• -nitrostyrene (4a), precursor of most of the hallucinogenic 2C-X family (Table 1). This method was also tested on other types of scaffolds to investigate its potential general applications and effects on other substituents. As sodium borohydride per se does not reduce ester nor nitro functionalities [15][16][17

Giese-type alkylation of dehydroalanine derivatives via silane-mediated alkyl bromide activation

• Perry van der Heide,
• Michele Retini,
• Fabiola Fanini,
• Giovanni Piersanti,
• Francesco Secci,
• Daniele Mazzarella,
• Timothy Noël and
• Alberto Luridiana

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3274–3280, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.271

• functionalization (LSF) of peptide scaffolds. α,β-Unsaturated amino acids like dehydroalanine (Dha) derivatives have emerged as particularly useful structures, as the electron-deficient olefin moiety can engage in late-stage functionalization reactions, like a Giese-type reaction. Cheap and widely available

• ]. Amid the growing popularity of biomolecular drug candidates, the late-stage modification of peptide scaffolds has gained significant importance [28]. A particularly interesting class of amino acids for late-stage diversification consists of dehydroamino acids (Dha). Dha derivatives have shown

Non-covalent organocatalyzed enantioselective cyclization reactions of α,β-unsaturated imines

• Sergio Torres-Oya and
• Mercedes Zurro

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3221–3255, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.268

• imines; asymmetric organocatalysis; cyclization; N-heterocycles; inverse electron demand aza-Diels–Alder reaction; Introduction Nitrogen-containing heterocycles are abundant scaffolds present in natural products, biologically active compounds, pharmaceuticals, synthetic agrochemicals, and functional

• activation providing stereoselective syntheses to access chiral N-heterocyclic scaffolds. While those strategies involving hydrogen-bond donors such as bifunctional thioureas and squaramides or chiral Brønsted acids such as chiral phosphoric acids are more established, reports involving cinchona-derived

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

• synthesizing diverse scaffolds [6]. Furthermore, the Ugi reaction exhibits versatility in forming both fused and unfused heterocyclic compounds, involving 4-, 5-, 6-, and 7-membered rings [17]. This capability is exploited by various approaches, including the Ugi–Deprotection–Cyclization strategy (UDC) and

• AChE, while pyrazole scaffolds possess the ability to reduce the tau and β-amyloid dual aggregation. Benzofuran-pyrazole aldehydes were employed in the Ugi azide reaction to give the desired hybrids. From the screened compounds, 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d, 2e, and 2f demonstrated notable efficacy in regulating the

• agents for central nervous system pathologies. This combination not only enhances the pace of discovery but also broadens the scope of potential treatments, underscoring the significant impact of MCRs in medicinal chemistry. Classical MCRs. Different scaffolds that can be formed with the Ugi adduct. Most

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

• ; heterocycles; hypervalent iodine; oxidation; Introduction Halogenated carbocyclic and heterocyclic compounds are present in many active pharmaceutical ingredients [1][2]. The intramolecular halocyclisation of alkenes mediated by HVI(III) reagents allow access to a range of halogenated cyclic scaffolds in a

• cost effective and selective, one-pot transformation. Pharmaceutical uses for bio-active cyclic molecules accessible by I(III) reagents are plentiful; anticancer drugs can be formed from the basis of pyrrolo[2,3-b]indoles 1 [3][4], 2-oxazolines 2 [5][6], dihydrofuran 3 [7][8], and spirocyclic scaffolds

• heterocycles. Example bioactive compounds containing cyclic scaffolds potentially accessible by HVI chemistry. A general mechanism for HVI-mediated endo- or exo-halocyclisation. Metal-free synthesis of β-fluorinated piperidines 6. Ts = tosyl. Intramolecular aminofluorination of unactivated alkenes with a

Advances in the use of metal-free tetrapyrrolic macrocycles as catalysts

• Mandeep K. Chahal

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3085–3112, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.257

• Metal-free tetrapyrrolic macrocycles as supramolecular organocatalysts Supramolecular organocatalysis has recently attracted emerging attention as a green alternative to metal-based catalysis [24][25][26]. Organocatalysis using macrocyclic scaffolds such as crown ethers, cyclodextrins, cucurbiturils

Recent advances in transition-metal-free arylation reactions involving hypervalent iodine salts

• Ritu Mamgain,
• Kokila Sakthivel and
• Fateh V. Singh

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2891–2920, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.243

• heteroaromatic compounds serve as crucial scaffolds in pharmaceuticals. Therefore, the synthesis of N-substituted heteroaromatic derivatives under mild and environmentally friendly conditions is highly valued. The use of electrophilic diaryliodonium salts for nitrogen arylation has been investigated. Working on

• approach providing regioselective access to N2-arylated products along with high yields. The synthetic route could also be applied for the synthesis of N2-arylbenzotriazoles which are promising scaffolds for pharmaceuticals. Subsequently, the impact of the aryl group present in the diaryl iodonium salts on

Synthesis of pyrrole-fused dibenzoxazepine/dibenzothiazepine/triazolobenzodiazepine derivatives via isocyanide-based multicomponent reactions

• Marzieh Norouzi,
• Mohammad Taghi Nazeri,
• Ahmad Shaabani and
• Behrouz Notash

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2870–2882, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.241

• , and triazolobenzodiazepine under solvent- and catalyst-free conditions. Purposefully, this approach produced various bioactive scaffolds using environmentally friendly, mild, and simple conditions. Due to their bioactive moieties, these compounds with exclusive fluorescence properties may attract

• isocyanides, gem-diactivated olefins, and cyclic imines (dibenzoxazepines, dibenzothiazepine, and triazolobenzodiazepine) under catalyst- and solvent-free conditions. Furthermore, the other advantages of this reaction include the manufacturing premium pharmaceutical scaffolds, a wide range of substrates

Copper-catalyzed yne-allylic substitutions: concept and recent developments

• Shuang Yang and
• Xinqiang Fang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2739–2775, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.232

• sequence, [4 + 1] and [3 + 2] annulations involving yne-allylic substitutions have been released. These studies have shown the huge potential of this protocol in affording diversified molecular scaffolds, and more studies will be expected to demonstrate the value of this reaction. Copper-catalyzed allylic

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

• Francesco Gambuti Jacopo Pizzorno Chiara Lambruschini Renata Riva Lisa Moni Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Genoa, Via Dodecaneso 31, 1646 Genova, Italy 10.3762/bjoc.20.230 Abstract Spiro-heterocyclic indolenines are privileged scaffolds widely present in numerous

• : isocyanide; multicomponent reactions; one-pot reaction; oxidation; spiroindolenine; Ugi reaction; visible light; Introduction Diversity-oriented synthesis (DOS) is a successful approach to biologically active scaffolds directed to create an enormous exploratory space in pharmaceutical hit discovery [1][2

Computational design for enantioselective CO₂ capture: asymmetric frustrated Lewis pairs in epoxide transformations

• Maxime Ferrer,
• Iñigo Iribarren,
• Tim Renningholtz,
• Ibon Alkorta and
• Cristina Trujillo

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2668–2681, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.224

• an in silico approach to design asymmetric frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs) aimed at controlling reaction stereochemistry. Four FLP scaffolds, incorporating diverse Lewis acids (LA), Lewis bases (LB), and substituents, were assessed via volcano plot analysis to identify the most promising catalysts. By

• significantly and seeks to explore new possibilities in this area. Herein, the present study focusses on the asymmetric insertion of CO2 into PO using asymmetric FLPs as catalysts. Initially, five FLP scaffolds with different substituents, LA and LB, were tested, resulting in a total of 53 potential catalysts

• (Scheme 1). The most promising catalyst scaffolds for the reaction under study were identified by volcano plot analysis [26][27]. Inspired by the asymmetric oxazoline synthesised by Gao et al. [28], and guided by the volcano plot results, modifications to these FLP scaffolds facilitated the development of

Synthesis and cytotoxicity studies of novel N-arylbenzo[h]quinazolin-2-amines

• Battini Veeraiah,
• Kishore Ramineni,
• Dabbugoddu Brahmaiah,
• Nangunoori Sampath Kumar,
• Hélène Solhi,
• Rémy Le Guevel,
• Chada Raji Reddy,
• Frédéric Justaud and
• René Grée

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2592–2598, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.218

• scaffolds for bioactive molecules. Thus, it appeared interesting to explore novel molecules with extended aromatic units around this basic quinazoline core and our first choice was N-arylbenzo[h]quinazoline-2-amines with the general structure C as indicated in Figure 1. Very limited studies have been

Anion-dependent ion-pairing assemblies of triazatriangulenium cation that interferes with stacking structures

• Yohei Haketa,
• Takuma Matsuda and
• Hiromitsu Maeda

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2567–2576, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.215

• . Moreover, the N-aryl-substituted TATA+ cations have been used as the building units of porous organic polymers for capturing CO2 [27]. Cations with characteristic electron-deficient planar triangular geometries were used as scaffolds for various supramolecular cage structures [28][29]. Although

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

• representative examples to illustrate the potential of electrochemistry or photoelectrochemistry for the LSF of valuable molecular scaffolds. Keywords: electrochemistry; late-stage functionalization; paired electrolysis; pharmaceutical drugs; photoelectrochemistry; Introduction Organic electrochemistry is

• achieved compared to many classical methods. In light of the general trend towards more chemoselective protocols with broader functional group compatibility, there has been a growing interest in exploring the potential of electrosynthesis for the late-stage functionalization of complex scaffolds

• carbocation intermediate, which rearomatizes through proton loss. Concurrently, the cathodic reduction of the generated protons produces H2. In addition to (hetero)aromatic groups, alkene scaffolds also underwent this reaction (Scheme 3). In the same year, the Lei group [10] extended the electrochemical C(sp2

Visible-light-mediated flow protocol for Achmatowicz rearrangement

• Joachyutharayalu Oja,
• Sanjeev Kumar and
• Srihari Pabbaraja

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2493–2499, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.213

• a result, developing an alternative strategy would be an attractive solution to address the limitations described above. Flow chemistry was chosen as the most attractive alternative for the photo-induced (visible light) Achmatowicz rearrangement to convert furfuryl alcohol scaffolds into

HFIP as a versatile solvent in resorcin[n]arene synthesis

• Hormoz Khosravi,
• Valeria Stevens and
• Raúl Hernández Sánchez

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2469–2475, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.211

• described herein exemplifies that even when protocols are well-established, a simple, yet critical modification may improve access to known species in shorter reaction times, and most importantly unveil new scaffolds that were previously inaccessible. We encourage scientists starting their careers in this

Photoredox-catalyzed intramolecular nucleophilic amidation of alkenes with β-lactams

• Valentina Giraldi,
• Giandomenico Magagnano,
• Daria Giacomini,
• Pier Giorgio Cozzi and
• Andrea Gualandi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2461–2468, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.210

• literature, oxacepham scaffolds, the 6-membered fused bicyclic analog of clavams, were prepared from appropriately substituted unfused precursors by intramolecular C-radical addition to alkene functionalities [44]. The utilization of radical conditions has prevented the effective nucleophilic opening of the

Synthesis, electrochemical properties, and antioxidant activity of sterically hindered catechols with 1,3,4-oxadiazole, 1,2,4-triazole, thiazole or pyridine fragments

• Daria A. Burmistrova,
• Andrey Galustyan,
• Nadezhda P. Pomortseva,
• Kristina D. Pashaeva,
• Maxim V. Arsenyev,
• Oleg P. Demidov,
• Mikhail A. Kiskin,
• Andrey I. Poddel’sky,
• Nadezhda T. Berberova and
• Ivan V. Smolyaninov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2378–2391, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.202

• heterocycles are classified as privileged medicinal scaffolds being components of many drugs [13][14]. Thiazole derivatives and their reduced forms exhibit antitumor (thiazofurin, ixabepilone), antibacterial (cefotaxime, ceftaroline, cefiderocol), antifungal (isavuconazole, fosravuconazole), antiviral

Asymmetric organocatalytic synthesis of chiral homoallylic amines

• Nikolay S. Kondratyev and
• Andrei V. Malkov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2349–2377, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.201

• simultaneous construction of homoallylamine scaffolds, exemplified by compounds 16–20 with up to 3 contiguous stereocentres, including a quaternary centre in moderate to high yields (60–94%) with 90–99% ee and dr in the range from 97:3 to >99:1 (Scheme 4). The selectivity of the reaction arises from the

• enantioselectivities (30–65% ee) and low to moderate yields (49–81%). However, despite the modest enantioselectivity, the proposed approach presents an appealing strategy towards chiral homoallylic amine scaffolds 150 that are difficult to achieve using other methods. Conclusion Summarising all the analysed approaches

• offer access to the homoallylic amine scaffolds, difficult to access by the direct allylation methodologies from the two previous classes. Class (iv) on the other hand, so far is represented by the sole methodology which is capable of producing quaternary stereogenic centres. Despite this methodology is

Improved deconvolution of natural products’ protein targets using diagnostic ions from chemical proteomics linkers

• Andreas Wiest and
• Pavel Kielkowski

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2323–2341, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.199

• ; Introduction Natural products (NPs) have been pivotal for the development of modern medicine accompanying humans from the prehistorical age [1]. In the last century, NPs became the main source of the active scaffolds for the pharmaceutical industry with focus on principle of one compound, one target, and one

Catalysing (organo-)catalysis: Trends in the application of machine learning to enantioselective organocatalysis

• Stefan P. Schmid,
• Leon Schlosser,
• Frank Glorius and
• Kjell Jorner

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2280–2304, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.196

• mechanical calculations is also increasing, such as a data set that considers propargylation reactions catalysed by bipyridine N,N’-dioxide-derived scaffolds, created by Wheeler and co-workers using their AARON toolkit [21][114][115][116]. Similar to experimental data, computational data sets also lead to

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

• ethyl acetoacetate with aldehyde and ammonia to give 1,4-dihydropyridine [53]. Such scaffolds are seen in several FDA-approved calcium channel blockers including nifedipine, nicardipine and nimodipine and three site-specific deuterated analogs of approved 1,4-dihydropyridines (DHPs) are presented

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

• at identifying more potent inhibitors compared to the standard exploitative active learning implementations of Chemprop, XGBoost, and Random Forest. The ActiveDelta approach is also able to identify more chemically diverse inhibitors in terms of their Murcko scaffolds. Finally, deep models such as

• molecules based on their Murcko scaffolds, possibly due to the ability to learn property differences rather than exploiting analog identification. Finally, the acquired data enabled the Chemprop algorithm to predict the most promising compounds more accurately in challenging time-split test datasets. Taken

• of unique Murcko scaffolds in the set of molecules selected by the different approaches whose Ki values are within the top ten percentile of the most potent compounds in the complete learning set), AD-CP selected more distinct hit scaffolds than Chemprop (Figure 2E, p = 5e − 25 at 100 iterations) but

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

• reaction is the traditional method for synthesizing DHPM scaffolds, but it faces limitations in product diversity. To overcome these challenges, two main strategies have been developed. The first strategy involves modifying the conventional components of the Biginelli chemistry, while the second focuses on