Chemical Variation of Natural‐Product‐Like Scaffolds: Design, Synthesis, and Biological Activity of Fused Bicyclic Acetal Derivatives

A clue from nature: Can the bicyclic acetal framework, which is present in many structurally diverse biologically active natural products, be considered a privileged scaffold? Scaffolds with this framework were synthesized and elaborated to give a collection of small-molecule derivatives as potential orally bioavailable lead compounds, and preliminary biological tests gave encouraging results.