Synthesis of xanthone-1,2,3-triazole dyads

Xanthones and 1,2,3-triazoles are known to exhibit several biological, pharmacological and biocidal properties[1]. The potential applications of these two classes of heterocycles led us to develop new strategies to synthesize xanthone-1,2,3-triazole dyads, aiming to get potentially improved therapeutic agents[2]. With this rational in mind we designed and synthesized novel chromone derivatives 1a-d to be used as building motifs and to explore the reactivity of the two unsaturated systems (the diene and the alkyne). In the present communication we will present a new synthetic route towards the synthesis of xanthone-1,2,3-triazole dyads 7a-d using consecutively the azide-alkyne Huisgen 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition and Diels-Alder reaction. Our approach involves the synthesis chromone-triazole derivatives 2a-d using the reaction of 1a-d with sodium azide, followed by the methylation of the NH of the triazole moiety. The methylation afforded three isomers 3a-d, 4a-d and 5a-d, as expected. The major isomers 3a-d were used in the Diels-Alder reaction with N-methylmaleimide, and the adducts obtained 6a-d were oxidized to afford the xanthone-1,2,3-triazole dyads 7a-d. All the synthetic details as well as the structural characterization (by 1D and 2D NMR studies) of the new synthesised compounds will be presented and discussed.

Recent developments in the synthesis of novel xanthone-1,2,3-triazole dyads

The development of multi-target drugs for treating complex multifactorial diseases constitutes an active research ield. This kind of drugs has gained much importance as alternative strategy to combination therapy (“cocktail drugs”).1 A common way to design them brings together two different pharmacophores in one single molecule (so-called dyads). Following this idea and being aware that xanthones2 and 1,2,3-triazoles3 possess important pharmacological properties, we combined these two heterocycles in one molecule to create new dyads with improved therapeutic potential. In this work, new xanthone-1,2,3-triazole dyads were prepared from novel (E)-2-(4-arylbut-1-en-3-yn-1-yl)chromones by two different approaches to evaluate their eficiency and sustainability. Both methodologies involved Diels-Alder reactions to build the xanthone core, which were optimized using microwave irradiation as alternative heating method, and 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions to insert the 1,2,3-triazole moiety (Figure 1).4 All final and intermediate compounds were fully characterized by 1D and 2D NMR techniques.