BF 3 .OEt 2 ‐Catalyzed Regioselective One‐Pot Multicomponent Synthesis of Arylated 1 H ‐Indenes With EGFR Inhibitory Potential: A Combined Synthetic and Biocomputational Study

ABSTRACT We developed a regioselective one‐pot strategy for synthesizing highly substituted arylated 1 H ‐indenes bearing heterocycles using BF 3 ·OEt 2 ‐catalyzed multicomponent reactions. The proposed reaction mechanism includes BF 3 complex formation, tautomerization, nucleophilic aryl addition to arylalkyne, cyclization via a 4π‐Nazarov‐type intermediate, and deprotonation. The anticancer potential of the resulting compounds was evaluated using molecular docking studies that targeted the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). All synthesized indene derivatives had high binding affinities, surpassing those of the reference drug erlotinib, indicating their potential as EGFR inhibitors. These findings suggest that, with further biological validation, the newly synthesized arylated indenes could serve as effective leads for the development of anticancer drugs.