Reaction of 3-aminoquinoline-2,4-diones with isothiocyanic acid—an easy pathway to thioxo derivatives of imidazo[1,5-c]quinazolin-5-ones and imidazo[4,5-c]quinolin-4-ones

3-Amino-1H,3H-quinoline-2,4-diones react with thiourea or potassium thiocyanate in boiling acetic acid to give novel 2,3-dihydro-3-thioxoimidazo[1,5-c]quinazolin-5(6H)-ones in high yields. However, if the starting compounds are substituted with a benzyl group at position 3, a C-debenzylation proceeds to give 2,3-dihydro-2-thioxo-1H-imidazo[4,5-c]quinolin-4(5H)-ones. According to a proposed reaction mechanism, a molecular rearrangement of the primarily formed mono-substituted thiourea takes place. All compounds were characterized by 1H, 13C and 15N NMR and IR spectroscopy as well as by mass spectrometry.