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Efficient Construction of Drug-like Bispirocyclic Scaffolds Via Organocatalytic Cycloadditions of α-Imino γ-Lactones and Alkylidene Pyrazolones
Published on: February 7, 2019
Formal [2 + 2 + 2] cycloaddition strategy based on an intramolecular propargylic ene reaction/Diels-Alder
Julia M Robinson1, Takeo Sakai, Katsuhiko Okano
1Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
None:
A formal, metal-free, [2 + 2 + 2] cycloaddition strategy is described based on a cascade of two pericyclic processes. The first step involves an intramolecular propargylic ene reaction of a 1,6-diyne to generate a vinylallene, which then reacts in an inter- or intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction with an alkenyl or alkynyl dienophile. Reactions involving unsymmetrical alkenyl and alkynyl dienophiles proceed with good to excellent regioselectivity, and the diastereoselectivity in the Diels-Alder step is also high, with endo cycloadducts produced as the exclusive products of the reaction. In the case of alkynyl dienophiles, [4 + 2] cycloaddition initially generates an isotoluene-type intermediate that isomerizes to the isolated aromatic product upon exposure to a catalytic amount of DBU at room temperature. The mechanism of several earlier fully intramolecular related transformations have been shown to involve an analogous process rather than the diradical-mediated pathways proposed previously.
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