A cinchona alkaloid catalyzed enantioselective sulfa-Michael/aldol cascade reaction of isoindigos: construction of chiral bispirooxindole tetrahydrothiophenes with vicinal quaternary spirocenters.

A cinchona alkaloid catalyzed diastereoselective and enantioselective sulfa-Michael/aldol cascade reaction between 1,4-dithiane-2,5-diol and isoindigos has been successfully developed to afford the highly congested bispirooxindole tetrahydrothiophenes with vicinal quaternary spirocenters in high yields (up to 91%), excellent diastereoselectivities (up to >20 : 1 dr), and good enantioselectivities (up to 98% ee). Some synthetic transformations of the reaction products were also studied.