The regioselective palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions of 2,4,7-trichloroquinazoline with various aryl-and heteroarylboronic acids are reported. An efficient, sequential strategy was developed that provides access to novel, functionalized heterocycles.Keywords palladium catalysis; cross-coupling; heterocycles; regioselectivity; quinazoline Palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions represent a powerful method for the formation of highly substituted heterocycles. 1 The regioselective activation of polyhalogenated heteroaromatics in such reactions has been extensively studied 2 and can provide a versatile means for the synthesis of libraries containing functionalized substituents in specific positions of the heterocyclic scaffold. The quinazoline moiety is of particular importance, as it is a component of a variety of biologically active compounds, including potent tyrosine kinase inhibitors, 3 antibacterial, 4 and anticancer agents. 5 For example, trisubstituted quinazoline derivatives such as A and B have been prepared as part of a series of liver X receptor (LXR) modulators (Figure 1). 6 Quinazolines are also components of several approved drugs, including erlotinib, 7 used to treat several types of tumors, iressa, 8 an epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitor approved for the treatment of nonsmall cell lung cancer, and prazosin, 9 an α-adrenergic receptor blocker. While the regioselectivity for palladium-catalyzed alkylation, 10 alkynylation, 11 and arylation 12 of 2,4-dichloroquinazolines has been previously explored, only the alkylation 10 and alkynylation 11 of 6-bromo-2,4-dichloroquinazoline have been reported. For crosscoupling reactions employing 2,4-dichloroquinazoline, exclusive selectivity for the most electrophilic C-4 position 13 has been observed. Attempts to achieve monosubstitution with the more highly halogenated 6-bromo-2,4-dichloroquinazoline resulted in coupling at both the C-4 and C-6 positions in a ratio of 3:1, respectively. To our knowledge, a regioselective method for the sequential polyarylation of trihalogenated quinazolines has not been disclosed. Herein, we describe a versatile new protocol for the regioselective palladiumcatalyzed cross-coupling reactions of 2,4,7-trichloroquinazoline 14 with aryl-and heteroarylboronic acids.Initially, we set out to achieve the regioselective cross-coupling of 2,4,7-trichloroquinazoline by consecutive, Suzuki cross-couplings (Scheme 1, route A). We Fax +1 (412)6240787 envisioned the first coupling to take place at the most electrophilic C-4 position, followed by substitutions at the C-2 and C-7 positions, respectively. However, coupling at C-4 proved to be low-yielding due to competitive hydrolysis at that site under the reaction conditions. In order to circumvent this problem, a new route was designed in which the C-4 position was first temporarily deactivated by a thioether, followed by a regioselective cross-coupling at C-2 (Scheme 1, route B). The C-4 position would then be functionalized via a palladiumcatalyzed, copper(I...