Rapidly diastereoselective assembly of ten-membered N-heterocycles between two 1,3-dipoles and their diversity to access fused N-heterocycles

The development of general and practical strategies toward the construction of medium-sized rings is still challenging in organic synthesis, especially for the multiple stereocenters control of substituted groups on the ring owing to the long distance between groups. Thus, stereoselective synthesis of multi-substituted ten-membered rings is attractive. Herein, a rapid assembly of various highly substituted ten-membered nitrogen heterocycles between two 1,3-dipoles through a tandem [3 + 3] cycloaddition/aza-Claisen rearrangement of N-vinyl-α,β-unsaturated nitrones and aza-oxyallyl or oxyallyl cations are disclosed. Products containing two or multiple stereocenters could be obtained in up to 96% yield with high regioselectivity and diastereoselectivity. Selective N-O bond cleavages of ten-membered nitrogen heterocycles lead to various novel 5,6,6-perifused benzofurans, bicyclo[4.4.0] or bicyclo[5.3.0] skeletons containing three or multiple continuous stereocenters in good yields and high diastereoselectivity. Biological tests show that the obtained ten-membered N-heterocycles and bicyclo[4.4.0] skeletons inhibited nitric oxide generation in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells and might serve as good anti-inflammatory agents.