Efficient 1,6-addition reactions of 3-substituted oxindoles: Access to isoxazole-fused 3,3′-disubstituted oxindole scaffolds and hexahydro-1h-pyrido[2,3-b]indol-2-one scaffolds

Developed herein is a new methodology for a hybrid of two pharmacophoric oxindole and isoxazole motifs to construct isoxazole-fused 3,3′-disubstituted oxindole scaffolds via an efficient 1,6-addition reaction of 3-substituted oxindoles to 3-methyl-4-nitro-5-alkenylisoxazoles, which might generate novel drug-like molecules for biological screenings. The method gives an easy access to a series of isoxazole-fused 3,3′-disubstituted oxindoles with 26 examples in high yields (up to 92% yield) and good diastereoselectivity (up to >20:1), which makes possible the synthesis of libraries under similar circumstances. Subsequently, a sequential Michael addition/amidation/reductive cyclization process was designed for accessing this hexahydro-1H-pyrido[2,3-b]indol-2-one scaffold, which is a key structural skeleton found in a large number of biologically active natural products and pharmaceutical compounds. Hexahydro-1H-pyrido[2,3-b]indol-2-one scaffold 7cg could be obtained in 42.5% overall yield after 4 steps.