“…Furthermore, a strategy was envisioned in which the novel prototypes would be devoid of chiral centers that could undergo facile racemization. E-2020 has been tested as a mixture of enantiomers, presumably due to the ease of racemization of the chiral a-keto 0022-2623/94/1837-2721$04.50/0 © 1994 American Chemical Society a Reagents: (a) NH20H*HC1, Na0Ac-3H20, EtOH, H20, reflux, 2 h; (b) Ac20, reflux, 2 min; (c) pyr, reflux, 12 h; (d) 1 N HC1, reflux, 45 min; (e) PhCOCl, EtsN, DMAP, CH2C12, room temperature, 16 h; (f) PhS02Cl, pyr, CH2C12, 0 °C, 1.3 h; (g) [Br(CH2)2]20, Et(i-Pr)2N, PhMe, reflux, 15 h. center at physiological pH. Our attention turned to a series of heterocyclic substitutions which resulted in the identification of the benzisoxazole ring (la, Figure 1) as a suitable benzoyl bioisostere.…”