Trichloroacetimidates are useful alkylating agents for aromatic amines, requiring only a catalytic amount of a Brønsted acid to facilitate the reaction. Monoalkylation predominates under these conditions. Electron-poor anilines provide superior yields, with electron-rich anilines sometimes showing competitive Friedel-Crafts alkylation. A single flask protocol with formation of the imidate in situ is demonstrated, providing a convenient method for the direct substitution of alcohols with anilines. Reaction with a chiral imidate favors a mechanism that proceeds through a carbocation intermediate.

Trichloroacetimidates are useful reagents for the synthesis of esters under mild conditions that do not require an exogenous promoter. These conditions avoid the undesired decomposition of substrates with sensitive functional groups that are often observed with the use of strong Lewis or Brønsted acids. With heating, these reactions have been extended to benzyl esters without electron donating groups. These inexpensive and convenient methods should find application in the formation of esters in complex substrates.

Recently, inhibition of the SH2-containing inositol 5′-phosphatase 1 (SHIP1) has become an attractive strategy for facilitating engraftment of MHC-I mismatched bone marrow grafts, increasing the number of adult stem cells in vivo, and inducing mobilization of hematopoietic stem cells. Utilizing high-throughput screening, two quinoline small molecules (NSC13480 and NSC305787) that inhibit SHIP1 enzymatic activity were discovered. New syntheses of these inhibitors have been developed which verified the relative stereochemistry of these structures. Utilizing this synthetic route, some analogs of these quinolines have been prepared and tested for their ability to inhibit SHIP. These structure activity studies determined that an amine tethered to the quinoline core is required for SHIP inhibition. SHIP inhibition may explain the antitumor effects of similar quinoline amino alcohols and provides an impetus for further synthetic studies in this class of compounds.

Starting from iodoalcohol9, the monoprotected dialdehyde 5 was synthesized (Scheme 2) and converted to 17 by reaction with 0x0-phosphonate 15 (Scheme 3). The latter was prepared from 13. Cyclisation of 17 to the target compound 18 failed. Also the attachment of thiol 22 to lactone 19 was unsatisfactory (Scheme 4 ) . Therefore, the building blocks 28 and 29 were synthesized using diene 33 and diester 30 as starting material for 28 and 9 for 29 (Schemes 5 and 6). Hydroxy acid 28 was converted into formyl-ester 46 (Scheme 7 ) . However, the condensation of its derivatives 48 and 49 with 'Umpolung' of the carbonyl reactivity was unsuccessful, probably due to steric hindrance.According to the concept presented earlier [2] [3] for the synthesis of proxiphomin ( = (16R, 13E,21E)-16-methyl-1O-phenyl[l3]cytochalasa-6,13,2l-triene-l,23-dione; 7)*), the optically active building block 1 should have been linked to the tetrahydroisoindolinone unit 2 leading to the 13,14-didehydro derivative 3.

An intermolecular alkylation of sulfonamides with trichloroacetimidates is reported. This transformation does not require an exogenous acid, base, or transition metal catalyst, instead the addition occurs in refluxing toluene without additives. The sulfonamide alkylation partner appears to be only limited by sterics, with unsubstituted sulfonamides providing better yields than more encumbered N-alkyl sulfonamides. The trichloroacetimidate alkylating agent must be a stable cation precursor for the substitution reaction to proceed under these conditions. Graphical abstractThe sulfonamide functional group has played an important role in the development of numerous pharmaceuticals. While best known as antibiotics, sulfonamide scaffolds provide a diverse range of biological activity including antitumor, antiviral, diuretic, antiinflammatory and anti-hypertensive properties. 1 Summaries of the top selling pharmaceuticals clearly demonstrate that sulfonamides are well represented in these valuable structures. 2 Data on recently approved pharmaceuticals indicate that sulfonamides continue to be popular in drug discovery, 3 with recent publications in the medicinal chemistry field corroborating that the investigation of sulfonamide-containing structures is ongoing. 4 Sulfonamides also have proven useful in agricultural and insecticidal applications. 5