amide with a bivalent electrophile. For example, the aminoamide adducts 118 of tryptamine and an L-amino acid were reacted with a range of pyruvic acids to give the ketoamides 119. These were cyclized with HCl in EtOAc to give the 2,5-DKP ring that underwent a Pictet−Spengler-type condensation to give the tetrahydro-β-carboline and tetrahydroisoquinoline 2,5-diketopiperazines 120a and 120b. 102 However, reacting 118 (R = 5,6-DiMeO, R 1 = Me) with pyruvic acid gave the hydroxylactam 121 as a mixture of diastereroisomers rather than the ketoamide, and they underwent cyclization in the presence of HCl to give the corresponding tetrahydroisoquinoline 2,5-diketopiperazine derivatives 120b (Scheme 30). The L-amino acids were promoters of 1,4-chirality transfer with up to 100% diastereomeric excess (de). The stereochemistry of the final 2,5-diketopiperazines strongly depended on the structure of the L-amino acids used: acyclic amino acids gave predominantly the (R)-configuration at the newly created stereogenic center, whereas L-proline afforded the opposite configuration 122.