Recent Advances on the Construction of Functionalized Indolizine and Imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine Derivatives

Indolizines and imidazo[1,2-a]pyridines are commonly found in natural products, synthetic drugs, and bioactive molecules. These two types of derivatives possess good antibacterial, antiparasitic, anticancer activities, and so on. The functionalization of indolizines and imidazo[1,2-a]pyridines has always been a hot topic in organic chemistry research and has made significant progress. In recent years, our group has been dedicated to developing diverse synthetic methods for the preparation of such important compounds. 1) We have developed diverse C-H functionalization reactions for efficient modification of the parent indolizines and imidazo[1,2-a]pyridines. 2) A variety of cycloaddition reactions were established for the construction of indolizine and imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine derivatives from simple raw materials. 3) We have developed intriguing deconstruction-functionalization reactions of indolizines, enabling the reorganization of heterocyclic frameworks. This paper outlines our group's latest advancements in constructing structurally diverse indolizine and imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine derivatives. We hope that this work will offer valuable insights and inspiration for the ongoing research in the field of N-heterocyclic compounds.