Synthesis and Characterization of a Click-Assembled 18-Atom Macrocycle That Displays Selective AXL Kinase Inhibitory Activity.

A novel macrocyclic construct consisting of a pyrazolopyrimidine scaffold concatenated to a benzene ring through two triazoles has been developed to investigate uncharted chemical space with bioactive potential. The 18-atom macrocycle was assembled via a double copper-catalyzed alkyne-azide cycloaddition (CuAAC) reaction between 1,3-bis(azidomethyl)benzene and a bis-propargylated pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine core. The resulting macrocycle was functionalized further into a multicyclic analog that displays selective inhibitory activity against the receptor tyrosine kinase AXL.