A regioselective 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of a disubstituted aryne and various alkyl azides facilitates access to benzotriazole analogues of several anti-Helicobacter pylori antibiotics.Helicobacter pylori has been shown by epidemiological studies to have an etiological role in several diseases, including gastric and duodenal ulcers, distal gastric cancer, mucosal-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma (cancer of the B cell lymphocytes), and was implicated in the cause of 5.6% of all cancers worldwide in 2002. 1 This microaerophilic, Gram-negative bacterium 2 has been estimated to infect the stomach of over half of the world's population making it the planet's most widespread infection. 3 In the majority of cases, infection will persist for the lifetime of an individual in the absence of medical intervention. 4Current treatments for H. pyroli infections are complex and rely on broad range antibiotics in combination with proton-pump inhibitors and bismuth salts. 5 The first line of treatment cures less than 20% of patients due to unpleasant side effects which often leads to noncompliance. 5 H. pyroli also quickly develops resistance to the currently used antibiotics clarithromycin and metronidazole. 5 The complex nature of current treatments combined with their often poor success rates and side effects dictates an obvious need for new helicobactericidal treatments. 5,6 In a screening program to isolate such compounds, Dekker and co-workers isolated several new phthalide antibiotics 1-6 ( Figure 1) with specific anti-H. pylori activity from the basidiomycete Phanerochaete velutina CL6387. 7 Two structurally related compounds, spirolaxine 7 8a and its methyl ether 8 8b have been isolated from the cultures of Phanerochaete chrysosporium and they have also been shown to be good inhibitors of the H. pylori bacterium. 7,12 The ongoing studies in our laboratory regarding the synthesis of potential anti-H. pylori compounds has witnessed the racemic syntheses of CJ-13,015, CJ-13,102, CJ-13,108, CJ-13,104 (1-4) 9 together with the total synthesis and stereochemical assignment of the complex spiroacetal-containing phthalides CJ-12,954 (5), CJ-13,014 (6) 10 and spirolaxine methyl ether (8). 11 We have also synthesized several indole analogues of the CJ antibiotics (1-4) 12 that subsequently displayed inhibitory activity against H. pylori. 13 Figure 1 Phthalide containing antibiotics with anti-H. pylori activity O M e M e O O O O 7 O M e M e O O O R 7 O M e M e O O O H 7 O O O C J -1 3 , 0 1 5 ( 1 ) R = O A c ; C J -1 3 , 1 0 2 ( 2 ) R = H ; C J -1 3 , 1 0 8 ( 3 ) O M e R O O O O 3 O C J -1 3 , 0 1 4 ( 6 ) C J -1 2 , 9 5 4 ( 5 ) R R R R C J -1 3 , 1 0 4 ( 4 ) R = H ; s p i r o l a x i n e ( 7 ) R = M e ; s p i r o l a x i n e m e t h y l e t h e r ( 8 ) O M e M e O O O O O R R R 4 R S 4 O M e M e O O O O O R R R