Catalytic System-Controlled Divergent Reaction Strategies for the Construction of Diversified Spiropyrazolone Skeletons from Pyrazolidinones and Diazopyrazolones.

A catalytic system-controlled divergent reaction strategy was here reported to construct four types of intriguing spiroheterocyclic skeletons from simple and readily available starting materials via a precise chemical bond activation/[n+1] annulation cascade. The tetraazaspiroheterocyclic and trizazspiroheterocyclic scaffolds could be independently constructed by a selective N-N bond activation/[n+1] annulation cascade, a C(sp2 )-H activation/[4+1] annulation and a novel tandem C(sp2 )-H/C(sp3 )-H bond activation/[4+1] annulation strategy, along with a broad scope of substrates, moderate to excellent yields and valuable transformations. More importantly, in these transformations, we are the first time to capture a N-N bond activation and a C(sp3 )-H bond activation of pyrazolidinones under different catalytic system.

Tetrahydro-1H,5H-pyrazolo[1,2-a]pyrazole-1-carboxylates as inhibitors of Plasmodium falciparum dihydroorotate dehydrogenase.

The reactions between 5-substituted pyrazolidine-3-ones, aldehydes, and methyl methacrylate provided tetrahydropyrazolo[1,2-a]pyrazole-1-carboxylates as mixtures of syn- and anti-diastereomers. Testing for inhibition of dihydroorotate dehydrogenase of Plasmodium falciparum (PfDHODH) revealed high activity of some anti-isomers of the methyl esters, while the corresponding carboxylic acids and carboxamides were not active. The most active representative, methyl (1S*,3S*,5R*)-1,5-dimethyl-7-oxo-3-phenyltetrahydro-1H,5H-pyrazolo[1,2-a]pyrazole-1-carboxylate (IC50 = 2.9 ±â€¯0.3 µM), also exhibited very high selectivity of the parasite enzyme vs. the human enzyme, PfDHODH/HsDHODH > 350. According to the molecular docking score, this high activity is explainable by synergic interactions of the methyl, phenyl and the CO2Me substituent with the hydrophobic pockets in the active site of the enzyme. The carboxylic acid and carboxamides derived from this compound did not inhibit PfDHODH.

Expedient Organocatalytic Syntheses of 4-Substituted Pyrazolidines and Isoxazolidines.

The efficient organocatalytic synthesis of heterocyclic systems of biological relevance is a subject of growing interest. We have found that the pyrrolidine/benzoic acid-catalyzed reaction of α-substituted propenals such as methacrolein, 2-benzylpropenal and 2-(n-hexyl)propenal with activated hydrazines takes place in very good yields (83%-99.6%) under very mild conditions to afford 4-substituted pyrazolidin-3-ols (as diastereomer mixtures); subsequent oxidation with PCC affords the corresponding-4-substituted-3-pyrazolidinones in essentially quantitative yields. In a similar way, 4-substituted isoxazolidinones are obtained with N-Cbz-hydroxylamine as a reagent. The use of chiral diarylprolinol trimethylsilyl ethers as catalysts allows the synthesis of several of these compounds in optically active form, in some cases with excellent enantioselectivity (up to 96:4 er). A preliminary evaluation of the biological activity shows that some of these compounds exhibit interesting antibacterial and antifungal activities.

Design, synthesis and cytotoxic evaluation of 4-methylidenepyrazolidin-3-ones.

Three series of new 4-methylidenepyrazolidin-3-ones with various substitution patterns were synthesized and tested for the cytotoxic activity against two human leukemia cell lines NALM-6 and HL-60 as well as MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. Several obtained methylidenepyrazolidinones exhibited high cytotoxic activity with IC50 values below 10 µM, mainly against HL-60 leukemia cell line and two of them, 18d,e, displayed IC50 ≤ 5 µM, against all tested cell lines. Structure-activity relationship studies revealed that the presence of phenyl substituents on both ring nitrogen atoms and vinyl or phenyl substituents in position 5 are crucial for high activity. Selected methylidenepyrazolidinones were also tested on normal human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) and pyrazolidinone 18a was found to be 5-fold more toxic against HL-60 than normal cells.