Cover Picture: One Century of Aryne Chemistry (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 5/2003)

Abstract

A century of aryne chemistry has not dampened the interest in this class of reactive intermediates. The cover picture shows the structure of a calicheamicin–DNA complex, the “warhead” of which is a cyclic enediyne unit (highlighted). The biological activity of the enediyne cytostatics is based on the depicted Bergman cyclization of the enediyne to a didehydrobenzene biradical. More about these short‐lived species is given by Sander et al. on pp. 502 ff.