The conversion of widely available carboxylic acids into versatile boronic esters would be highly enabling for synthesis. We found that this transformation can be effected by illuminating the -hydroxyphthalimide ester derivative of the carboxylic acid under visible light at room temperature in the presence of the diboron reagent bis(catecholato)diboron. A simple workup allows isolation of the pinacol boronic ester. Experimental evidence suggests that boryl radical intermediates are involved in the process. The methodology is illustrated by the transformation of primary, secondary, and tertiary alkyl carboxylic acids as well as a diverse range of natural-product carboxylic acids, thereby demonstrating its broad utility and functional group tolerance.

Optimization of isoquinolinone PI3K inhibitors led to the discovery of a potent inhibitor of PI3K-γ (26 or IPI-549) with >100-fold selectivity over other lipid and protein kinases. IPI-549 demonstrates favorable pharmacokinetic properties and robust inhibition of PI3K-γ mediated neutrophil migration in vivo and is currently in Phase 1 clinical evaluation in subjects with advanced solid tumors.

DNA-encoded libraries of small molecules are being explored extensively for the identification of binders in early drug-discovery efforts. Combinatorial syntheses of such libraries require water-and DNA-compatible reactions, and the paucity of these reactions currently limit the chemical features of resulting barcoded products. The present work introduces strain-promoted cycloadditions of cyclic allenes under mild conditions to DNA-encoded library synthesis. Owing to distinct cycloaddition modes of these reactive intermediates with activated olefins, 1,3-dipoles and dienes, the process generates diverse molecular architectures from a single precursor. The resulting DNA-barcoded compounds exhibit unprecedented ring and topographic features-related to elements found to be powerful in phenotypic screening. File list (2) download file view on ChemRxiv strained_allenes-preprint.pdf (184.62 KiB) download file view on ChemRxiv strained_allenes-SI.pdf (2.14 MiB)

Odd and even homologues of some n-alkane-based systems are known to exhibit significantly different trends in solid state properties; a well-known illustration is the zigzag plot of their melting point versus chain length. Odd-even effects in the solid state often arise from intermolecular interactions involving fully extended molecules. These effects have also been observed in less condensed phases, such as self-assembled monolayers; however, the origins of these effects in such systems can be difficult to determine. Here, combining NMR and computational analysis, we show that all-syn contiguously methyl-substituted hydrocarbons, with chain lengths from C6 to C11, exhibit a dramatic odd-even effect in helical propensity. The even-and odd-numbered hydrocarbons populate regular and less controlled helical conformations, respectively. This knowledge will guide the design of helical hydrocarbons as rigid scaffolds or as hydrophobic components in soft materials.

Dihydrobenzofurans and indolines are important constituents of pharmaceuticals. Herein, we describe a novel strategy for their construction in which the aromatic ring is created de novo through an inverse-electron demand Diels−Alder reaction and cheletropic extrusion sequence of a 2-halothiophene-1,1dioxide with an enol ether/enamide, followed by aromatization. Unusually, the aromatization process proved to be highly challenging, but it was discovered that treatment of the halocyclohexadienes with a base effected an α-elimination− aromatization reaction. Mechanistic investigation of this step using deuterium-labeling studies indicated the intermediacy of a carbene which undergoes a 1,2-hydrogen shift and subsequent aromatization. The methodology was applied to a modular and stereoselective total synthesis of the antiplatelet drug beraprost in only 8 steps from a key enal-lactone. This lactone provided the core of beraprost to which both its sidechains could be appended through a 1,4-conjugate addition process (lower ω-sidechain), followed by de novo construction of beraprost's dihydrobenzofuran (upper α-sidechain) using our newly developed methodology. Additionally, we have demonstrated the breadth of our newly established protocol in the synthesis of functionalized indolines, which occurred with high levels of regiocontrol. According to density-functional theory (DFT) calculations, the high selectivity originates from attractive London dispersion interactions in the TS of the Diels−Alder reaction.