Indolizines in focus: Synthetic approaches, biological profiles, and SAR perspectives, a review

Indolizine derivatives have proven to be versatile heterocyclic organic compounds with potential applicability in medicinal chemistry and synthetic organic chemistry. Being bicyclic, they can be highly functionalized, thus enabling the synthesis of a variety of bioactive compounds with potential antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, or antiviral activities. The present review highlights the classical methods starting from the chichibabin reaction to the latest developments in catalytic and synthetic approaches involving indolizine derivatives' synthetic strategies. In addition, the biological activities of these compounds will be discussed in terms of their interaction with important biomolecular targets and their therapeutic potential. The review would help to draw together the development of new synthetic methodologies and evaluation for bioassays and emphasize the forward-looking view of indolizine derivatives as a very probable scaffold for drug discovery and development.