A mild and efficient one-pot synthesis of 2-aminated benzoxazoles and benzothiazoles.

Previous syntheses of the biologically active 2-aminated benzoxazoles have relied on forcing thermal conditions to generate the products directly from the corresponding thiols. The resulting yields have ranged from moderate to poor. A mild and high-yielding alternative one-pot chlorination-amination procedure is described.

Practical asymmetric synthesis of a gamma-secretase inhibitor exploiting substrate-controlled intramolecular nitrile oxide-olefin cycloaddition.

A practical asymmetric synthesis of the gamma-secretase inhibitor (-)-1 is described. As the key transformation, a highly diastereoselective intramolecular nitrile oxide cycloaddition forms the hexahydrobenzisoxazole core of 3 in four operations. Other aspects of the route include a highly stereoselective reduction of an isoxazole to form a cis-gamma-amino alcohol, an efficient chemical resolution, a dianion cyclization to construct a sultam ring, and the alpha-alkylation of a sultam with excellent diastereoselectivity.