Herein, we report the first examples of the synthesis of pyrroloindolines by means of (3 + 2) dearomative annulation reactions between 3-substituted indoles and highly reactive azaoxyallyl cations. Computational studies using density functional theory (DFT) (B3LYP-D3/6-311G**++) support a stepwise reaction pathway in which initial C–C bond formation takes place at C3 of indole, followed by ring closure to give the observed products. Insights gleaned from these calculations indicate that the solvent, either TFE or HFIP, can stabilize the transition state through H-bonding interactions with oxygen of the azaoxyallyl cation and other relevant intermediates, thereby increasing the rates of these reactions.

Rational assembly of small molecule libraries for purposes of drug discovery requires an efficient approach in which the synthesis of bioactive compounds is enabled so that numerous structurally related compounds of a similar basic formulation can be derived. Here, we describe (4 + 3) and (3 + 2) indole annulation strategies that quickly generate complex indole heterocycle libraries that contain novel cyclohepta- and cyclopenta[b]indoles, respectively. Screening of one such library comprised of these indoles identifies JWU-A021 to be an especially potent stimulator of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) secretion in vitro. Surprisingly, JWU-A021 is also a potent stimulator of Ca2+ influx through TRPA1 cation channels (EC50 ca. 200 nM), thereby explaining its ability to stimulate GLP-1 release. Of additional importance, the available evidence indicates that JWU-A021 is one of the most potent non-electrophilic TRPA-1 channel agonists yet to be reported in the literature.

The first examples of (3+2) annulations between azaoxyallyl cations and cyanamides and nitriles to give the corresponding 2-aminoimidazolones and imidazolones is reported. Based on the isolation of unexpected imidate products with certain substrates, it is proposed that the reaction proceeds via fast kinetic O-alkylation followed by rearrangement to the thermo-dynamically favored 2-aminoimidazolones and imidazolones. The method was applied to the formal synthesis of the antihypertensive drug irbesartan (Figure 1).

Wee1 is a tyrosine kinase that is highly expressed in several cancer types. Wee1 inhibition can lead to suppression of tumor cell proliferation and sensitization of cells to the effects of DNA-damaging agents. AZD1775 is a nonselective Wee1 inhibitor for which myelosuppression has been observed as a dose-limiting toxicity. We have applied structure-based drug design (SBDD) to rapidly generate highly selective Wee1 inhibitors that demonstrate better selectivity than AZD1775 against PLK1, which is known to cause myelosuppression (including thrombocytopenia) when inhibited. While selective Wee1 inhibitors described herein still achieved in vitro antitumor efficacy, thrombocytopenia was still observed in vitro.

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