Passerini and Ugi reactions

Multicomponent reactions (MCRs) have been known to produce highly complex and diverse structures [76]. There is a considerable interest in the application of new multicomponent reactions to access biologically relevant molecules [77,78] and natural products [79]. A recent report has disclosed multicomponent Passerini and Ugi reactions to produce, rapid and efficiently, a library of redox-active selenium and tellurium compounds [80]. The compounds showed promising cytotoxicity against several cancer cell lines. 

Ring-closing metathesis seems particularly well suited to be combined with Passerini and Ugi reactions, due to the low reactivity of the needed additional olefin functions, which avoid any interference with the MCR reaction. However, some limitations are present. First of all, it is not easy to embed diversity into the two olefinic components, because this leads in most cases to chiral substrates whose obtainment in enantiomerically pure form may not be trivial. Second, some unsaturated substrates, such as enamines, acrolein and p,y-unsaturated aldehydes cannot be used as component for the IMCR, whereas a,p-unsaturated amides are not ideal for RCM processes. Finally, the introduction of the double bond into the isocyanide component is possible only if 9-membered or larger rings are to be synthesized (see below). The smallest ring that has been synthesized to date is the 6-membered one represented by dihydropyridones 167, obtained starting with allylamine and bute-noic acid [133] (Fig. 33). Note that, for the reasons explained earlier, compounds... 

Marcaccini S, Torroba T (2005) Post-condensation transformations of the Passerini and Ugi reactions. In Zhu J, Bienayme H (eds) Multicomponent reactions. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, pp 33-75... 

Fig. 2 The Passerini and Ugi reaction, the most prominent examples of the isocyanide-based multicomponent reactions...

The power of the Passerini and Ugi reactions in constructing polyfunctional molecules has been well appreciated since the early studies. The classical Passerini and Ugi reactions afford a-acyloxy carboxamides and a-acylamino amides respectively, that can be easily manipulated by post-condensation reactions, generating molecular diversity for drug discovery and natural product synthesis [22], This strategy has been widely applied to the synthesis of natural peptides and open-chain peptide mimetics covered in this section. 

Fig. 3.1. The most important isocyanide-based MCRs are the archetypical Passerini and Ugi reactions (bottom). Top left Mario Passerini right Ivar Ugi...

In term of diversity-oriented strategies, multicomponent reactions (MCR) represent an attractive and rapid access to libraries of macrocycles inspired by biologically active natural products. Combined with Passerini and Ugi reactions, M-RCM has already shown promising synthetic potential, as illustrated by the pioneering work of Domling and coworkers [46]. Condensation of isocyanide 69 with carboxylic acid 70 in the presence of paraformaldehyde leads to bis-olefin 71, which is subsequently submitted to RCM in the presence of G1 and titanium isopropoxide to give the 22-membered macrocycle 72 (Scheme 2.27). 

The newly available biological high-throughput screening (HTS) systems have induced many initiatives in the field of combinatorial chemistry [42]. Besides oligopeptide syntheses [43], multicomponent reactions offer attractive methods for the production of high-diversity libraries. Passerini and Ugi reactions (Scheme 19) are frequently used for synthesis of libraries containing thousands of compounds [44],... 

Ziegler, T, Schloemer, R, Koch, C, Passerini and Ugi reactions of anomeric glucosyl isonitriles. Tetrahedron Lett., 39, 5957-5960, 1998. 

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