Synthesis of 4-phenylthieno[2,3-c]quinolines via Suzuki–Miyaura cross-couplings

Abstract

A small library of previously unreported 4-phenylthieno[3,2-c]quinolines was prepared from a simple thiophene substrate via a modular synthetic strategy that exploited successive palladium-catalyzed crosscoupling reactions. These heterocycles were screened for activity against various bacterial, fungal, parasitic and cancer cell lines, which identified two original 4-(2-methoxyphenyl)-thieno[3,2-c]quinolines that display encouraging antibacterial activity.