Matched combinations of Brønsted or Lewis acids with suitable pro-electrophiles and secondary amine organocatalysts enable the novel enantioselective syntheses of carbamoyl dihydroquinoline and tetrahydropyridine derivatives with concomitant formation of two stereocenters. A short formal asymmetric synthesis of (2R,2'R)-threo-methylphenidate (Ritalin) is also described.

Glycine and taurine conjugates of 5beta-cholanic acids have been synthesized using improved procedures based on the peptide coupling reagent, N-ethoxycarbonyl-2-ethoxy-1,2-dihydroquinoline. The conjugates are obtained in chromatographically pure form in yields higher than 90%. The use of this procedure in the large scale preparation of cholyl[1,2-13C2]glycine is described.

CB2 receptor selective ligands are becoming increasingly attractive drugs due to the potential role of this receptor in several physiopathological processes. Thus, the development of our previously described series of 4-oxo-1,4-dihydroquinoline-3-carboxamides was pursued with the aim to further characterize the structure-affinity and structure-functionality relationships of these derivatives. T...