Efficient Construction of Drug-like Bispirocyclic Scaffolds Via Organocatalytic Cycloadditions of α-Imino γ-Lactones and Alkylidene Pyrazolones.

Abstract

Bispirocyclic scaffolds are one of the important structural subunits in many natural products that exhibit diverse and attractive biological activities. Recently, we have developed an efficient organocatalytic strategy, which provides facile access to a variety of enantiomerically enriched bispiro[γ-butyrolactone-pyrrolidin-4,4'-pyrazolone] skeletons. In this paper, we demonstrate a detailed protocol for the asymmetric synthesis of drug-like bispirocyclic compounds with two spirocyclic carbon centers via an organocatyltic 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction. Spirocyclization synthons α-imino γ-lactones and alkylidene pyrazolones are prepared first, which are then subjected to a cycloaddition reaction in the presence of a bifunctional squaramide organocatalyst to afford the desired bispirocycles in high yields and excellent stereoselectivities. Chiral high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is carried out to determine the enantiomeric purity of the products, and the d.r. value is examined by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR). The absolute configuration of the product is assigned according to an X-ray crystallographic analysis. This synthetic strategy allows scientists to prepare a diversity of bispirocyclic scaffolds in high yields and excellent diastereo- and enantioselectivities.