Spiroindole and spirooxindole scaffolds are very important spiro-heterocyclic compounds in drug design processes. Significant attention has been directed at obtaining molecules based on spiroindole and spirooxindole derivatives that have bioactivity against cancer cells, microbes, and different types of disease affecting the human body. Due to their inherent three-dimensional nature and ability to project functionalities in all three dimensions, they have become biological targets. Considering reports on spiroindole and spirooxindole-containing scaffolds in the past decades, introducing novel synthetic procedures has been an active research field of organic chemistry for well over a century and will be useful in creating new therapeutic agents. This review summarizes the pharmacological significance of spiroindole and spirooxindole scaffolds and highlights the latest strategies for their synthesis, focusing particularly on the past 2 years with typical examples. The spiroindole and spirooxindoles in this review are divided by the type and ring size of the spirocycle that is fused to indole or oxindole. Summarizing these procedures will be very beneficial for discovering novel therapeutic candidate molecules.

螺吲哚和螺吲哚支架是药物设计过程中非常重要的螺杂环化合物。人们非常关注获得基于螺吲哚和螺吲哚衍生物的分子，这些分子对癌细胞、微生物和影响人体的不同类型的疾病具有生物活性。由于它们固有的三维特性和在所有三个维度上投射功能的能力，它们已成为生物学目标。考虑到过去几十年关于螺吲哚和含有螺吲哚的支架的报道，一个多世纪以来，引入新的合成程序一直是有机化学的一个活跃研究领域，并将有助于创造新的治疗剂。这篇综述总结了螺吲哚和螺吲哚支架的药理意义，并重点介绍了它们合成的最新策略，重点介绍了过去 2 年的典型例子。本综述中的螺吲哚和螺吲哚按与吲哚或羟吲哚稠合的螺环的类型和环大小来划分。总结这些程序将非常有利于发现新的治疗候选分子。