Benzothiophene and its substituted derivatives represent an important heterocyclic scaffold that have been widely found in many pharmaceuticals, natural products, and material science. Some benzothiophene derivatives are used as antimitotic agents, angiogenesis inhibitors, estrogen receptor antagonists and anti-inflammatory agents to name but a few.

Many other compounds containing benzothiophene core are at various stages of development as a: CI959 an anti-inflammatory agent, B428 a urokinase inhibitor, PD144795 an endothelial cell activation inhibitor as a benzothiophene oxide, T588 a cognition enhancing agent with potential application for treating Alzheimer’s dementia.

In our efforts to contribute to the development of novel compounds that may be useful in the treatment of disorders associated with Alzheimer’s disease, we evaluated the relevance of structural features on the ChEs inhibitory activity.

Considering the interesting pharmacological profile of benzothiophenes, in the current work, we have designed and prepared new 2- and 2,3-disubstituted benzo[b]thiophenes using an intramolecular Wittig reaction as a key step of a good methodology for the efficient and general synthesis of a selected series of compounds.