Triggering the directional selectivity of a ring-closure reaction leads to pyridoazacarbazoles with anticancer properties

Abstract

We herein describe a facile and versatile synthetic route to the tetracyclic system of 6-substituted 5,6-dihydro-11H-pyrido[3,2-i]-1-azacarbazoles with promising anticancer properties. These derivatives are built up by an elegant one-step base-catalyzed synthetic procedure from commercially available building blocks. One additional step provides the corresponding skeleton hitherto unknown in the literature. The possibility to synthesize a large library of compounds with various substitution patterns utilizing this method underlines the importance of this synthetic procedure.

Keywords: antitumor agents; heterocycles; one-step synthesis; pyridoazacarbazoles; synthetic methods.