The spread of HIV has become a global epidemic. The need for an effective drug to combat this disease has become increasingly important. Drugs such as AZT have been effective, but due to the virus's ability to mutate, more potent compounds are needed.

Currently in our laboratories, the preparation of a group of aminosulfones that have been shown to be active are being investigated. These sulfones are being prepared using a rearrangement of the sulfonanilide to the sulfone. Previous research had focused on derivatives of tetrahydroquinoline and tetrahydrobenzazepiine. The current work is concerned with the preparation of sulfones derived from carbazole and imidobibenzyl. Currently methods for the preparation of the sulfonanilides from the starting amines have been developed. Future work will be concerned with exploring the scope of the rearrangement and isolating the product sulfones for testing.