Highly regioselective lithiation of pyridines bearing an oxetane unit by n-butyllithium,

Highly regioselective lithiation of pyridines bearing an oxetane unit by n-butyllithium, 

G. Rouquet, D.C. Blakemore, S.V. Ley,Chem. Comm., 2014, 50, 8908-8911

http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2014/CC/C4CC03766A#!divAbstract

The first regioselective ortho-lithiation at the 4-position of simple pyridine derivatives containing a 3-oxetane unit has been achieved using n-butyllithium as base. Electrophilic quenching of the resulting lithio species provides a rapid access to a broad range of new functionalized pyridine oxetane building blocks.