DW286, a methyl analog of fluoronaphthyridone antibacterial agent gemifloxacin, has completed Phase I clinical trial. Compared with gemifloxacin, DW286 shows better in vitro and in vivo activity against commonly pathogens in clinic, especially Gram-positive resistant bacteria 1-5. However, the current synthetic process of DW286 is rather complex (16 steps in all), involving some reaction steps with high material cost, high production expenses and column chromatography separation techniques 6. We have previously reported a new route and successfully synthesized DW286 by direct condensation of the naphthyridone nucleus 7-chloro-1-cyclopropyl-6-fluoro-4-oxo-1,4dihydro[1,8]naphthyridine-3-carboxylic acid and the sidechain compound 3-(aminomethyl)-4-(methoxyimino)-3methylpyrrolidine dihydrochloride 1 (Scheme-I). As the key intermediate (1) of DW286, it was prepared via a 9-step sequence. In other word, N-Boc-3-cyano-4-oxopyrrolidine (2) was first obtained by one-pot method from glycine ethyl ester hydrochloride and acrylonitrile as starting materials and then methylation, reduction of ketone moity by NaBH4, hydrogenation of the cyano group, Jones oxidation, oximation and deprotection gave compound 1 7. However, the preparation of 1 was not suitable for industrial application due to the following reasons 1) heavy metal (Cr) pollution; 2) use of column chromatography separation techniques. On the basis of the above considerations, we have recently focused on improving the synthetic route of the key intermediate 1. From the cyano ketone (2), the title compound 1 was NOTE