Regioselective preparation of saturated spirocyclic and ring-expanded fused pyrazoles

Saturated bicyclic pyrazoles represent an important class of biologically active molecules, but their preparation can be hampered by labor-intensive synthesis of required starting materials. A convenient one- or two-step procedure for the synthesis of saturated spirocyclic and fused pyrazoles is reported. The synthesis benefits from the use of readily available alkynes and bench-stable tosylhydrazones, which are easily prepared from their parent ketones. Sigmatropic rearrangement of spirocyclic pyrazoles to fused analogues occurs with concomitant one-carbon expansion of the saturated ring, allowing rapid access to a range of pharmaceutically and agrochemically relevant polycyclic structures featuring a broad scope of saturated ring sizes.