New route to the 5-((arylthio- and heteroarylthio)methylene)-3-(2,2,2-trifluoroethyl)-furan-2(5H)-ones—Key intermediates in the synthesis of 4-aminoquinoline γ-lactams as potent antimalarial compounds

Abstract In this Letter we report on a multi-step synthesis of 5-((arylthio- and heteroarylthio)-methylene)-3-(2,2,2-trifluoroethyl)furan-2(5 H )-ones starting from γ-keto thiolester or γ-keto carboxylic acid. The key intermediate γ-lactones were then reacted with 4-aminoquinoline-derived amines via ring opening—ring closure (RORC) process affording the corresponding γ-hydroxy-γ-lactams in moderate to good yields. In vitro antimalarial activity of the resulting new 4-aminoquinoline γ-lactams were evaluated against Plasmodium falciparum clones of variable sensitivity (3D7 and W2) and were found to be active in the range of 89–1600 nM with good resistance index and did not show cytotoxicity in vitro when tested against human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) up to concentration of 50 μM.