Enabling the use of heterocyclic arynes in chemical synthesis.

Heterocyclic arynes have long been targeted as potential tools for the synthesis of substituted heterocycles. Recent advances have led to an improved understanding of the factors that determine regioselectivity in reactions of these strained intermediates and, in turn, the aryne distortion model. This paper highlights the use of this predictive model to enable the use of heterocyclic arynes, such as indolynes and pyridynes, in chemical synthesis.