“…Considering the current interest in this topic and the ongoing investigations of the structure-activity relationships, we saw an opportunity to contribute to the availability of structurally diverse Santacruzamate A analogues with our method for β-keto amide synthesis [9]. In a previous publication we demonstrated that this enamine-based domino approach provides access to β-keto amides IV functionalized with protected amino group in the side chain (Scheme 1, R 1 = H, Ph) [10]. If N-ethoxycarbonyl glycine is used as the amino acid component III in this methodology and R 1 is set to phenethyl, then the products IV would be structurally similar to Santacruzamate A, with introduced carbonyl functionality in the gamma-aminobutyric part and possible variation of the chain length by the choice of an appropriate R 1 substituent in the acetoacetamide I (Figure 1b).…”