Indole ring expansion

FIGURE 6.29 Reaction scheme of the lowest energy pathway of 1- and 2-methylene indole ring expansion and their interisomerization. All the energy values are calculated relative to the 1-methylene indene. 

The idea that dichlorocarbene is an intermediate in the basic hydrolysis of chloroform is now one hundred years old. It was first suggested by Geuther in 1862 to explain the formation of carbon monoxide, in addition to formate ions, in the reaction of chloroform (and similarly, bromoform) with alkali. At the end of the last century Nef interpreted several well-known reactions involving chloroform and a base in terms of the intermediate formation of dichlorocarbene. These reactions included the ring expansion of pyrroles to pyridines and of indoles to quinolines, as well as the Hofmann carbylamine test for primary amines and the Reimer-Tiemann formylation of phenols. 

With monochlorocarbene, pyrrole and indole underwent ring expansion to pyridine and quinohne, respectively, and 2,3-dimethyl-indole similarly gave 2,4-dimethylquinohne. ... 

The thermal addition of dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate to indoles, unlike the photocycloaddition (see Section 3.2.1.4.1.1.), proceeds via a polar stepwise process to yield, initially, 3,4-benzo-2-azabicyclo[3.2.0]hepta-3,6-dienes which in some cases are isolable,13 141 but which, in general, ring open in situ to give the indolylacrylates 3 and/or undergo electrocyclic ring expansion to 1-benzazepines.21... 

Curiously, the ring expansion fails in sulfuric, trifluoroacetic, trichloroacetic, and orthophos-phoric acid. The reaction is sensitive to substituents both in the TV-aryl group and in the 2-and 3-positions of the indole nucleus. For example, 3-methyl-l-phenylindole yields a mixture of 10-methyl-5//-dibenz[/t,/]azepine (34% mp 129-131X) and 2-mcthyl-l-phenylindole (57%). In contrast, 2-methyl-l-phenylindole and 2,3-dimethyl-l-phcnylindole fail to ring expand. The reaction also fails with electron-withdrawing groups (N02 and CF3) in the TV-phenyl ring. 

FIGURE 7.16 Trapping of the phosphate of 5 -dGMP by the pyrido [1,2-a] indole quinone methide. The 13C-NMR shows most trapping with ring retention, labeled pyrido, with trace amounts of ring expansion, labeled azepino. ... 

Some other ring expansions involving the intramolecular amino Claisen rearrangement of vinylarylaziridine [ 123], the Diels-Alder reaction of indoles with acetylene derivative [124-127] and the dibromocarbene insertion into quinoline enol ethers [ 128] have been used to prepare 1-benzazepines. On the other hand, treatment of 3-chloro-3-phenyl-l,2,3,4,5,6-hexahydro-l-benz-azocin-2-ones with piperidine causes a ring contraction to give 2-phenyl-2-(l-piperidinylcarbonyl)-2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-l//-l-bcnzazepines in an excellent yield [23]. 

The action of DMAD on indoles is often complex but can, in some cases, provide practicable yields of benzazepines. For example, ring expansion of the 2-ethoxyindole-DMAD 1,4-dipolar cycloadduct (254 Scheme 32) affords the 3// -1 -benzazepine (256). 

The ring expansion of indole 162 to 3-haloquinoline 163, induced by addition of dichlorocarbene, has been intensively studied for its mechanistic implications.256 A significant improvement in yield and simplicity of the reaction is reported by Kwon et al.,251 using Makosza s procedure. Dehmlow and Franke258 report that, depending on the substituents, the yields are 25-70%. 

Camptothecin (Figure 6.93) from Camptotheca acuminata (Nyssaceae) is a further example of a quinoline-containing structure that is actually derived by modification of an indole system. The main rearrangement process is that the original (>-carboline 6-5-6 ring system becomes a 6-6-5 pyrroloquinoline by ring expansion of the indole... 

In many instances, however, solvolysis of a halocyclopropane is deliberately accomplished in order to install an essential vinyl halide or hindered olefin. In 2000, Murphy and coworkers performed a silver ion-mediated ring expansion of gem-dibromocyclopropane 18 in wet acetone to afford the allylic alcohol 19 in 82% yield (Scheme 4.5).16 Under these conditions the desired cyclononene product was obtained as an inseparable mixture of E- and Z-isomers (7 93). Interestingly, two sets of peaks observed in the1H NMR spectrum indicated that the Z-isomer existed as two separate conformers at room temperature. This intermediate was subsequently used in Murphy s approach to the radical-based preparation of tricyclic indoles. 

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