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The addition of 2-bromobenzylmagnesium bromide to chiral N-tert-butanesulfinyl imines derived from tetralone-type ketones proceeds with high levels of diastereocontrol. The resulting sulfinamide derivatives were transformed into dibenzoazaspiro compounds after a palladium-catalyzed intramolecular N-arylation. DFT calculations have been performed to rationalize the stereochemical course of the reaction. Similar results have been obtained considering either diethyl ether or toluene as a solvent, in both cases in an excellent agreement with experimental findings. NCI topological calculations have also been used to evidence crucial noncovalent interactions. In addition, the azaspiro compounds reduced the viability of chronic myeloid leukemia cells in the micromolar range. Notably, both the halogen-substituted (R)- and (S)-8g and -8h as well as (R)-8j were at least two times more effective on a multidrug-resistant derivative than on the parental cell line, exerting a collateral sensitivity effect. We acknowledge the continued financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO; project CTQ2014-53695-P, CTQ2014-51912-REDC, CTQ2016-81797-REDC, CTQ2016-76155-R, CTQ2017-85093-P), FEDER, the Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEOII/2014/017), and the University of Alicante. We thankfully acknowledge the resources from the supercomputers “Memento” and “Cierzo” and technical expertise and assistance provided by BIFI-ZCAM (Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain). We also thank Prof. Vivian M. Rumjanek for providing FEPS cells and Prof. Adriano D. Andricopulo for the preliminary cytotoxicity screening. This study was also financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001.

11a-N-tosyl-5-carbapterocarpans (5a–c and 6a–c), 9-N-tosyl-4,4a,9,9a-tetrahydro-3H-carbazole (7), 11a-N-tosyl-5-carbapterocarpen (8) analogues of LQB-223 (4a), were synthesized through palladium catalyzed azaarylation of substituted dihydronaphtalenes (14a–c) and cyclohexadiene (15), respectively, with N-tosyl-o-iodoaniline (11). In order to understand the role of the N-tosyl moiety for the pharmacological activity, the azacarbapterocarpen (9) was also synthesized by Fischer indol reaction. The structural requirements at the A and D-rings for the antineoplastic activity toward human leukemias and breast cancer cells were evaluated as well. Substitutions on the A-ring of 4a and analogues alter the effect on different breast cancer subtypes. On the other hand, A-ring is not essential for antileukemic activity since compound 7, which does not contain the A-ring, showed efficacy with high selectivity indices for drug-resistant leukemias. On the other hand, substitutions on the D-ring of 4a for fluorine or iodine did not improve the antileukemic activity. In silico studies concerning Lipinskis rule of five, ADMET properties and drug scores of those compounds were performed, indicating good physicochemical properties for all compounds, in special for compound 7.