Scripps Research Chemists Develop Reactions for General Synthesis of Promising Unexplored Compounds; Family of Compounds Known As 1,2,3,5-Tetrazines Could Have Wide Application in Making New Pharmaceuticals, Chemical and Biological Probes, and Other Products

Chemists at Scripps Research have devised the first general method for synthesizing a family of compounds called 1,2,3,5-tetrazines, which hold great promise for making pharmaceuticals, biological probes, and other chemical products. The researchers had synthesized the first compound in this previously unknown family in 2019, but the new synthesis method, reported on December 3, 2022 in the Journal of Organic Chemistry, is now general and more efficient. The article is titled “1,2,3,5-Tetrazines: A General Synthesis, Cycloaddition Scope, and Fundamental Reactivity Patterns.” “For the first time, the chemistry community can access these promising compounds and explore their interesting properties,” says study senior author Dale Boger, PhD, the Richard and Alice Cramer Professor of Chemistry at Scripps Research. The study’s first author was Zhi-Chen Wu, PhD, a graduate student in the Boger lab during the study, and now a medicinal chemist at Amgen.