Artificial Macrocycles

Artificial macrocycles recently became popular as a novel research field in drug discovery. As opposed to their natural twins, artificial macrocycles promise to have better control on synthesizability and control over their physicochemical properties resulting in drug like properties. Very few synthetic methods allow for the convergent, fast but diverse access to large macrocycles chemical space. One synthetic technology to access artificial macrocycles with potential biological activity, multicomponent reactions, is reviewed here, with a focus on our own work. We believe that synthetic chemists have to acquaint themselves more with structure and activity to leverage the design aspect of their daily work. 1 Introduction 2 Macrocycle Properties and Receptor Binding 3 Synthetic Approaches towards Artificial Macrocycles Using MCR 4 Design Rules for Membrane Crossing Macrocycles 5 Design Rules for Libraries of Macrocycles 6 Computational Macrocyclic Methods 7 Future View