N-Acetylenethio phthalimides: Sequential linkage for compositional click reaction

Click chemistry has become a useful tool for diverse molecular linkage and modification, and the development of new click strategy that enable reversibility and multifunctionality is of high demand for the multifunction and drug release. Herein, compositionally clicking combined regioselective iridium-catalyzed azide-alkynthio cycloaddition (Ir-AAC) and disulfuration has been developed for the sequential linkage from N-acetylenethio phthalimides, naturally occurring thiols and readily available azides. This method has been successfully applied to the construction of drug hybrids, peptide modification and glycosylation. Furthermore, by the design of diacetylenethio phthalimide as a platform molecule, trifunctional conjugants were sequentially linked through independent Ir-AAC, disulfuration and Cu-AAC reaction for hydrophobic tagging ternary PROTACs.