Recent advances in chemoselective acylation of amines

N-chemoselective acylation of amines in the presence of competing nucleophiles, like alcohols and thiols, is by no means a simple achievement in organic synthesis and even more difficulties arise when distinctions between primary, secondary, and aromatic amines need to be made. The present digest will review some recent achievements in this field, ranging from transamidation reactions to carboxylic acid derivatives transacylations. In addition, more creative strategies, involving chemoenzymatic reactions and metal-catalyzed acylations and carbonylations, will be discussed in order to furnish a concise view of the state-of-the-art approaches to this synthetic challenge.