DOI: 10.1002/chem.201403940
Full Paper
&
Synthetic Methods
Rapid Assembly of Functionalised Spirocyclic Indolines by
Palladium-Catalysed Dearomatising Diallylation of Indoles with
Allyl Acetate
[
a]
Persis Dhankher, Laure Benhamou, and Tom D. Sheppard*
Abstract: Herein, we report the application of allyl acetate
to the palladium-catalysed dearomatising diallylation of in-
doles. The reaction can be carried out by using a readily
available palladium catalyst at room temperature, and can
be applied to a wide range of substituted indoles to provide
access to the corresponding 3,3-diallylindolinines. These
compounds are versatile synthetic intermediates that readily
undergo Ugi reactions or proline-catalysed asymmetric Man-
nich reactions. Alternatively, acylation of the 3,3-diallylindoli-
nines with an acid chloride or a chloroformate, followed by
treatment with aluminium chloride, enables 2,3-diallylindoles
to be prepared. By using ring-closing metathesis, functional-
ised spirocyclic indoline scaffolds can be accessed from the
Ugi products, and a dihydrocarbazole can be prepared from
the corresponding 2,3-diallylindole.
Introduction
readily available indoles into polyfunctionalised spirocyclic in-
[9]
dolines, which enables the incorporation of functional groups
at a variety of different positions in the scaffold.
Medicinal chemistry has traditionally focused on the synthesis
of aromatic heterocycles and related derivatives as lead com-
pounds due to their drug-like physical properties and synthetic
accessibility. However, it is widely considered that an increasing
focus on three-dimensional structures, which incorporate
We envisaged that introduction of two allyl groups at the 3
position of an indole core, with concomitant dearomatisation,
would enable the formation of a diallylindolinine. Such a com-
pound is potentially a very versatile synthetic intermediate
that can undergo reactions with a variety of nucleophiles and
electrophiles at the imine moiety, cross-coupling/CÀH function-
alisation reactions on the aromatic ring, and can be readily
converted into a spirocyclic alkaloid-like structure by ring-clos-
ing metathesis (Scheme 1). Given the large number of indoles
3
[1]
a greater proportion of sp carbons, is probably desirable, in
order for medicinal chemistry programmes to be successful
against more complex drug targets. Whilst natural products
can provide suitable three-dimensional functionalised architec-
tures, such compounds are often highly complex, difficult to
synthesise, and display undesirable physical properties. As
a consequence, there is considerable interest in the develop-
ment of synthetic routes to access small chiral saturated rings
[
2]
[3–4]
[5]
including cyclopropanes, oxetanes
and azetidines, as
[6]
well as benzofused heterocyclic systems, such as indolines
[
7]
and dihydrobenzofurans. In addition, the incorporation of
these motifs into spirocyclic frameworks can lead to increased
molecular complexity whilst maintaining a relatively low mo-
[
4,8]
lecular weight. Such systems can potentially provide a struc-
turally rigid three-dimensional core, which can be functional-
ised at several sites to provide a library of drug-like com-
pounds. Herein, we report a short synthetic route to convert
Scheme 1. Proposed synthetic route to spirocyclic indolines (RCM=ring-
closing metathesis).
that are readily available commercially, a diverse range of func-
tionalised spirocylic scaffolds could readily be constructed. The
spirocyclic ring structure embedded in these scaffolds has not
[
a] Dr. P. Dhankher, Dr. L. Benhamou, Dr. T. D. Sheppard
Department of Chemistry, University College London
[10]
2
0 Gordon St, London, WC1H 0AJ (UK)
been widely explored in existing drugs, though it forms part
of the polycyclic frameworks of the ajmaline alkaloid natural-
E-mail: tom.sheppard@ucl.ac.uk
[11]
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW under
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/chem.201403940.
product family, which contains compounds possessing anti-
[12]
[13]
arrhythmic
and antiplasmodial activity,
some of which
ꢀ
2014 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.
have found application in medical treatment.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons At-
tribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any
Our synthetic plan involved the development of a Pd-cata-
lysed allylation procedure to achieve regioselective introduc-
Chem. Eur. J. 2014, 20, 13375 – 13381
13375 ꢀ 2014 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim