N-formamido-containing mono- and diheterocyclic pyrrole- and imidazole-2-carboxylic acids as building blocks for polyamide synthesis

Four N-formamido-containing mono-and diheterocyclic pyrrole- and imidazole-2-containing acids 1-4 were synthesized as intermediates for the preparation of polyamide molecules. The N-formamido-moiety forces the compounds to bind strongly as a stacked dimer, and in a staggered fashion, at specific sequences in the minor-groove of DNA. The acid moiety at the C-terminus of compounds enables these molecules to be coupled to amine-containing intermediates to form the amide linkages of the target polyamide. This convergent approach increases the synthetic diversity in polyamide chemistry by enabling one acid to be used with a variety of different C-terminus-functionalized intermediates.