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.

In this Letter we report on a multi-step synthesis of 5-((arylthio- and heteroarylthio)-methylene)-3-(2,2,2-trifluoroethyl)furan-2(5H)-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.