Electrophilic substitution and cyclization of 2,2′-bis(N-methylindolyl): A simple access to potential protein kinase C inhibitor

A strategy is described for the synthesis of functionalized and cyclized 2,2′-bisindolyl derivatives related to several basic systems of natural products. The starting 2,2′-bis(N-methylindolyl) ( 8 ) reacts with a variety of electrophiles and electrophilic dienophiles to furnish the novel, functionalized and cyclized bisindolyl derivatives 9–16 . In addition, some reactivity and structural aspects are discussed; an X-ray crystallographic analysis of the 2,2′-bisindolyl 8 provided valuable information for the conformational analyses.