From aziridines to oxazolines and thiazolines: The heterocyclic route to thiangazole

Since its isolation in 1991, the polyazole natural product thiangazole has become a popular target for total synthesis due to its challenging array of heterocyclic segments and its reported potent antiviral activity. The synthetic activity toward thiangazole is reviewed and a novel approach that takes advantage of aziridine and oxazoline intermediates en route to thiazolines is presented.