A mixture of 2-(4-(2-methylpyridin-4-yl)phenyl)-N-(5-(piperazin-1-yl)pyridin-2-yl)acetamide 131-1 (39 mg, 0.10 mmol), 2-bromoacetonitrile (8 uL, 0.12 mmol) and Potassium Carbonate (28 mg, 0.20 mmol) in DMF (1 mL) was stirred at room temperature overnight. The mixture was poured into water (5 ml) and extracted with ethyl acetate (5 mL×3). The combined organic phases were dried over Na2SO4 and concentrated. The crude product was purified by reverse phase HPLC to give N-(5-(4-(cyanomethyl)piperazin-1-yl)pyridin-2-yl)-2-(4-(2-methylpyridin-4-yl)phenyl)acetamide 175. MS m/z 427.2 (M+1); 1H NMR 400 MHz (MeOD) δ 8.37 (d, 1H), 7.94 (s, 1H), 7.87 (d, 1H), 7.68 (d, 2H), 7.55 (s, 1H), 7.48-7.44 (m, 3H), 7.36 (dd, 1H), 3.74 (s, 2H), 3.67 (s, 2H), 3.17 (t, 4H), 2.69 (t, 4H), 2.54 (s, 3H).
