Brønsted acid-promoted ‘on–water’ C(sp3)-H functionalization for the synthesis of isoindolinone/[1,2,4]triazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine derivatives targeting the SKP2-CKS1 interaction

Abstract

The isoindolinone and biaryl scaffolds are prevalent in natural products and drug molecules, which have showed broad and interesting biological activities. The efficient construction of such hybridized molecules and biological evaluation are of great interest to medicinal chemistry community. In this communication, we report an efficient Brønsted acid-promoted C(sp3)-H functionalization approach that enables the rapid construction of biologically important isoindolinone/[1,2,4]triazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine hybrids from 5-methyl-7-(2,4,6-trimethoxyphenyl)-[1,2,4]triazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine, 2-formylbenzoic acid and various anilines. The title compounds were generated in high to excellent yields (up to 96%) regardless of the electronic nature and steric effects of the substituents. In this reaction, an isoindolinone scaffold, one CC single bond, and two CN bonds were formed simultaneously with high atom economy. In this work, we have envisioned that the methyl group linked to the electron-deficient N-heterocycles could be used as a new synthetic handle for late-state diversification and may have broad applications in the field of organic and medicinal chemistry. Besides, the title compounds have exhibited promising activity against the SKP2-CKS1 interaction.