1724
H. Insuasty et al. / Tetrahedron Letters 54 (2013) 1722–1725
Het1
NH
Het1
(Scheme 4), are efficiently promoted by the couple HgCl2/TEA,
Het2
Het2
3
4
3
which are indispensable for removing the sulfur atom and to trap
the two chloride ions, in the form of HgS and Et3NH+ClÀ,
respectively.
HgCl2/TEA,
DMF, rt or
5
O
4
5
N
HNRR1
2
N
1
2
1 N
N
R
N
6
N
N
R1
S
N
4 or 7
H
H
H
7
14
3
Conclusions
Scheme 3. Discarded isomeric pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidines 14.
A practical two-step HgCl2-promoted synthesis of novel 2-ami-
no-substituted pyrazolo[1,5-a][1,3,5]triazines displaying good to
excellent yields (60–94%) and under mild reaction conditions has
been developed. The reaction is applicable to several N-het-
aroylpyrazolylthioureas and aromatic and aliphatic primary and
secondary amines. Various assays demonstrated that pyra-
zolylthioureas reacted with secondary amines under milder
reaction conditions and in shorter reaction times than primary
amines. Nevertheless, both primary and secondary amines gave
good results for the preparation of the title compounds. The biolog-
ical interest of the obtained pyrazolotriazines is under investiga-
tion and will be reported later.
spectra, where one of the most representative signals of the prod-
ucts 5, 8, 9, 12, and 13 corresponded to a singlet between 6.28 and
6.51 ppm assigned to the 8-H proton of their pyrazole moiety, con-
firming that the structures assigned to the isolated pyrazolotria-
zines are correct.
A possible mechanistic approach for the selective synthesis of
products 5, 8, 9, 12, and 13 is outlined in Scheme 4. Initially, the
N@C@S functionality of the starting materials 1 should suffer a
nucleophilic attack from 5-NH2 of pyrazole 2 leading to the forma-
tion of thioureas 3. Afterward, the HgCl2-promoted guanylation of
thioureas 3 with primary and secondary amines 4 or 7 should af-
ford pyrazolylguanidines 6, 10, or 11, presumably, passing through
intermediates 15 and 16. Finally, adducts 6, 10, or 11 should be
intramolecularly cyclized after the attack of 1-NH of pyrazole moi-
ety over the C@O functionality releasing a molecule of water and
generating the isolated pyrazolotriazines 5, 8, 9, 12, and 13. Previ-
ous reports showing a higher nucleophilicity of 1-NH than the C-4
in intermediates containing a similar pyrazole moiety,2e,10 support
the selective formation of pyrazolotriazines shown in Scheme 4
over their isomeric analogues 14 of Scheme 3.
In order to provide further evidence to support the mechanism
depicted in Scheme 4, the following attempts to produce the
guanylation and cyclization of the thiourea 3a with dimethylamine
4a, were performed. When the experiment was carried out in the
absence of the thiophile (HgCl2) and the base (TEA), no reaction
was detected after 24 h of stirring at room temperature. However,
after HgCl2/TEA (1:2) equiv were added the reaction took place in
just 30 min leading to the formation of the expected pyrazolotri-
azine 5a in 79% yield. In the other experiment, when the reaction
was performed only in the presence of HgCl2, product 5a was iso-
lated in just 18% yield along with unreacted starting materials.
These findings, enabled us to establish that the guanylation/cycli-
Acknowledgments
Authors wish to thank COLCIENCIAS, Universidad de Nariño,
and Universidad del Valle for financial support.
References and notes
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- H2O
NEt3
Het1
Het1
N
H
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- HgS
- Et3N.HCl
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Het2
Het2
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Scheme 4. A possible mechanism for the formation of 2-amino-substituted
pyrazolotriazines 5, 8, 9, 12, and 13.