To a room temperature solution of 7-(bromomethyl)-4-(4-fluorophenyl)quinoline-2-carbonitrile (2-1, 311.0 mg, 0.895 mmol, 1.0 equiv.) in acetonitrile (10.0 mL) was added morphline (85.77 mg, 0.985 mmol, 1.1 equiv.) and 5.0 M aqueous NaOH (2.69 mL, 13.43 mmol, 15 equiv.), and the resulting mixture was stirred at 50° C. for 4 days. After cooling to room temperature, water (100.0 mL) was added and the mixture was stirred for 30 minutes. A yellow solid was collected via suction filtration, washed with water, dried in vacuo. The solid was purified by reverse phase HPLC (H2O/CH3CN gradient w/0.1% TFA modifier) to afford 4-(4-fluorophenyl)-7-(morpholin-4-ylmethyl)quinoline-2-carboxamide (4-1, 291.0 mg, 80.0%) as a colorless solid. 1H NMR (500 MHz, CDCl3): δ 8.216 (s, 1H); 8.098 (br s, 2H); 7.911 (d, J=8.54 Hz, 1H); 7.642 (d, J=8.55 Hz, 1H); 7.503-7.529 (m, 2H); 7.219-7.263 (m, 2H); 5.798 (br s, 1H); 3.734 (br s, 6H); 2.528 (br s, 2H). LRMS m/z (M+H)+ 366.2 found, 366.2 required.
