Ft. Boyle et al., APPLICATIONS OF THE SPIROANNULATION OF TETRALINS WITH ALKYNES - TOWARDS NEW ANTIESTROGENIC COMPOUNDS, Journal of the Chemical Society. Perkin transactions. I, (18), 1997, pp. 2707-2711
Thermal reaction of the benzocyclobutene 17 with 4-methoxystyrene lead
s to 1-cyano-2-(4-methoxyphenyl)-6-methoxytetralin dagger 19 through a
n electrocyclic ring opening Diels-Alder sequence: the derived acid ch
loride 20, and its analogue 10, then undergoes an unusual addition-cyc
lisation reaction with alkynes catalysed by aluminium chloride, to yie
ld the tricyclospirodienones 21a-c and 11a,b; the former set show mode
rate aromatase inhibitory activity.