Azanorbornadienes as Thiol-Reactive Cleavable Linkers.

Azanorbornadienes (ZNDs), prepared from pyrroles, undergo Michael reaction with thiols followed by retro-Diels-Alder (rDA) cleavage to release the starting pyrrole and a thiomaleate. Somewhat less reactive in this regard than furan-derived oxanorbornadienes, ZNDs have an additional point of variability at the pyrrole nitrogen center. Sulfonylated ZNDs were far more stable toward rDA cleavage than acylated analogues. tert-Butoxycarbonyl examples were much less reactive with thiols, rendering the rDA step slower than the initial conjugate addition.