Acetic acid enantioselective aldol reaction

Covalently bonded chiral auxiliaries readily induce high stereoselectivity for propionate enolates, while the case of acetate enolates has proved to be difficult. Alkylation of carbonyl compound with a novel cyclopentadienyl titanium carbohydrate complex has been found to give high stereoselectivity,44 and a variety of ft-hydroxyl carboxylic acids are accessible with 90-95% optical yields. This compound was also tested in enantioselective aldol reactions. Transmetalation of the relatively stable lithium enolate of t-butyl acetate with chloro(cyclopentadienyl)-bis(l,2 5,6-di-<9-isopropylidene-a-D-glucofuranose-3-0-yl)titanate provided the titanium enolate 66. Reaction of 66 with aldehydes gave -hydroxy esters in high ee (Scheme 3-23). 

The original methods for directed aldol and aldol-type reactions of aldehydes and acetals with silyl enolates required a stoichiometric amount of a Lewis acid such as TiCh, Bl i-OI y, or SnCl.j [18]. Later studies have introduced many Lewis acids which accelerate these processes with a catalytic quantity (vide infra). In addition, it has been found that fluoride ion sources also work as effective catalysts of the aldol reaction [19]. In the last decade, much attention has been paid for the development of diastereo- and enantioselective aldol reactions [20, 21], aqueous aldol reactions using water-stable Lewis acids [22], and novel types of silyl enolate with unique reactivity. 

Kiyooka et al. have reported that stoichiometric use of chiral oxazaborolidines (e.g. (S)-47), derived from sulfonamides of a-amino acids and borane, is highly effective in enantioselective aldol reactions of ketene TMS acetals such as 48 and 49 (Scheme 10.39) [117]. The use of TMS enolate 49 achieves highly enantioselective synthesis of dithiolane aldols, which can be readily converted into acetate aldols without epimerization. The chiral borane 47-promoted aldol reaction proceeds with high levels of reagent-control (Scheme 10.40) [118] - the absolute configuration of a newly formed stereogenic center depends on that of the promoter used and not that of the substrate. 

Masamune et al. examined the catalytic activity of several boron Lewis acids derived from BH3 THF and the p-toluenesulfonamides of simple a-amino acids towards the aldol reaction of benzaldehyde with TMS enolate 48 [121]. As a result, the borane catalysts derived from a,a-disubstituted glycine p-tolueriesulforiarriides were found to have high activity. The disubstitution would accelerate the second step (Step II) of the catalytic cycle (Scheme 10.43). On the basis of this observation, they developed chiral borane catalysts 47 c and 47 d, which enable highly enantioselective aldol reactions of KSA and thioketene silyl acetals (84—99% ee with 48). 

Pyruvic aldehyde dimethyl acetal, MeCO-CH(OMe)2, undergoes enantioselective direct aldol reaction with isatin derivatives, using a bifimctional organocatalytic combination of a cinchona-derived primary amine and trichloroacetic acid. Glycosyl-a-aminotetrazoles efficiently catalyse enantioselective aldol reactions DPT calculations have been used to identify the origin of the selectivity. ... 

These first examples of the catalytic asymmetric aldol reaction not only provided first results that could be utilized for such transformations but also highlighted the problems that had to be overcome in further elaborations of this general method. It was shown that truly catalytic systems were required to perform an enantioselective and diastereoselective vinylogous aldol reaction, and it became obvious that y-substituted dienolates that serve as propionate-acetate equivalents provide an additional challenge for diastereoselective additions. To date, the latter problem has only been solved for diastereoselective additions under Lewis acid catalysis (vide infra) (Scheme 4, Table 3). 

Carreira et al. used a chiral BlNOL-derived Schiff base-titanium complex as the catalyst for the aldol reactions of acetate-derived ketene silyl acetals (Scheme 8C.29) [64a]. The catalyst was prepared in toluene in the presence of salicylic acid, which was reported to be crucial to attain a high enantioselectivity. A similar Schiff base-titanium complex is also applicable to the carbonyl-ene type reaction with 2-methoxypropene [64b], Although the reaction, when con-... 

Catalytic, enantioselective addition of silyl ketene acetals to aldehydes has been carried out using a variant of bifunctional catalysis Lewis base activation of Lewis acids.145 The weakly acidic SiCU has been activated with a strongly basic phor-phoramide (the latter chiral), to form a chiral Lewis acid in situ. It has also been extended to vinylogous aldol reactions of silyl dienol ethers derived from esters. 

To make the DERA-catalyzed process commercially attractive, improvements were required in catalyst load, reaction time, and volumetric productivity. We undertook an enzyme discovery program, using a combination of activity- and sequence-based screening, and discovered 15 DERAs that are active in the previously mentioned process. Several of these enzymes had improved catalyst load relative to the benchmark DERA from E. coli. In the first step of our process, our new DERA enzymes catalyze the enantioselective tandem aldol reaction of two equivalents of acetaldehyde with one equivalent of chloroacetaldehyde (Scheme 20.6). Thus, in 1 step a 6-carbon lactol with two stereogenic centers is formed from achiral 2-carbon starting materials. In the second step, the lactol is oxidized to the corresponding lactone 7 with sodium hypochlorite in acetic acid, which is crystallized to an exceptionally high level of purity (99.9% ee, 99.8% de). 

Aldol Addition. A catalyst generated upon treatment of Cu(OTf)2 with the (5,5)-r-Bu-box ligand has been shown to be an effective Lewis acid for the enantioselective Mukaiyama aldol reaction. The addition of substituted and unsubstituted enolsilanes at -78 °C in the presence of 5 mol % catalyst was reported to be very general for various nucleophiles, including silyl dienolates and enol silanes prepared from butyrolactone as well as acetate and propionate esters. 

As above (eq 1), a major drawback of this reagent is the lack of a readily available enantiomer. There are many alternative methods for the enantioselective propionate aldol reaction. The most versatile chirally modified propionate enolates or equivalents are N-propionyl-2-oxazolidinones, a-siloxy ketones, boron enolates with chiral ligands, as well as tin enolates. Especially rewarding are new chiral Lewis acids for the asymmetric Mukaiyama reaction of 0-silyl ketene acetals. Most of these reactions afford s yw-aldols good methods for the anri-isomers have only become available recently. ... 

Kiyooka et al. reported that the 3i-catalyzed aldol reaction of a silyl ketene acetal involving a dithiolane moiety with y3-siloxy aldehyde resulted in the production of syn and anti 1,3-diols with complete stereoselectivity depending on the stereochemistry of the catalyst used [45b]. This methodology was applied to the enantioselective synthesis of the optically pure lactone involving a syn-l,3-diol unit, known to be a mevinic acid lactone derivative of the HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors mevinolin and compac-tin (Sch. 2). 

The Mukaiyama aldol reaction of carbonyl substrates with silyl enol ethers is the most widely accepted of Lewis acid-promoted reactions. Many Lewis acids for the reaction have been developed and used enantioselectively and diastereoselectively. In 1980, catalytic amounts of la were found by Noyori et al. to effect aldol-type condensation between acetals and a variety of silyl enol ethers with high stereoselectivity [2c,20]. Unfortunately, la has poor Lewis acidity for activation of aldehydes in Mukaiyama s original aldol reaction [21]. Hanaoka et al. showed the scope and limitation of 11-cat-alyzed Mukaiyama aldol reaction, by varying the alkyl groups on the silicon atom of silyl enol ethers [22]. Several efforts have been since been made to increase the reactivity and/or the Lewis acidity of silicon. One way to enhance the catalyst activity is to use an additional Lewis acid. 

Evans et al. recently reported the use of structurally well-defined Sn(II) Lewis acids for the enantioselective aldol addition reactions of a-heterosubstituted substrates [47]. These complexes are readily assembled from Sn(OTf)2 and C2-symmetric bis(oxazoline) ligands. The facile synthesis of these ligands commences with optically active 1,2-diamino alcohols, which are themselves readily available from the corresponding a-amino acids. The Sn(II)-bis(oxazoline) complexes were shown to function optimally as catalysts for enantioselective aldol addition reactions with aldehydes and ketone substrates that are suited to putatively chelate the Lewis acid. For example, use of 10 mol % Sn(II) catalyst, thioacetate, and thiopropionate derived silyl ketene acetals added at -78 °C in dichloromethane to glyoxaldehyde to give hydroxy diesters in superb yields, enantioselectivity, and diastereoselectivity (Eq. 27). The process represents an unusual example wherein 2,3-ant/-aldol adducts are obtained stereoselec-tively. 

Copper Lewis acids have found many applications in the last decade in a variety of organic transformations and more notably in enantioselective reactions. In particular, Cu(OTf)2 and Cu(SbFg)2 in conjunction with chiral bisoxazolines are the chiral Lewis acids of choice for cycloadditions, aldol reactions, ene reactions, and other selective transformations. Moderately Lewis acidic copper salts are also reagents for transesterifications, dehydrations, and hydrolysis. The thiophilic nature of copper makes them ideal for selective deprotection of thio acetals and thioesters and offer practical advantages over mercury salts. 

The BINAP silver(I) complex can be further applied as a chiral catalyst in the asymmetric aldol reaction. Although numerous successful methods have been developed for catalytic asymmetric aldol reaction, most are the chiral Lewis acid-catalyzed Mukaiyama aldol reactions using silyl enol ethers or ketene silyl acetals [32] and there has been no report which includes enol stannanes. Yanagisawa, Yamamoto, and their colleagues found the first example of catalytic enantioselective aldol addition of tributyltin enolates 74 to aldehydes employing BINAP silver(I) complex as a catalyst (Sch. 19) [33]. 

Lanthanide Lewis acids catalyze many of the reactions catalyzed by other Lewis acids, for example, the Mukaiyama-aldol reaction [14], Diels-Alder reactions [15], epoxide opening by TMSCN and thiols [14,10], and the cyanosilylation of aldehydes and ketones [17]. For most of these reactions, however, lanthanide Lewis acids have no advantages over other Lewis acids. The enantioselective hetero Diels-Alder reactions reported by Danishefsky et al. exploited one of the characteristic properties of lanthanides—mild Lewis acidity. This mildness enables the use of substrates unstable to common Lewis acids, for example Danishefsky s diene. It was recently reported by Shull and Koreeda that Eu(fod)3 catalyzed the allylic 1,3-transposition of methoxyace-tates (Table 7) [18]. This rearrangement did not proceed with acetates or benzoates, and seemed selective to a-alkoxyacetates. This suggested that the methoxy group could act as an additional coordination site for the Eu catalyst, and that this stabilized the complex of the Eu catalyst and the ester. The reaction proceeded even when the substrate contained an alkynyl group (entry 7), or when proximal alkenyl carbons of the allylic acetate were fully substituted (entries 10, 11 and 13). In these cases, the Pd(II) catalyzed allylic 1,3-transposition of allylic acetates was not efficient. 

The first enantioselective total synthesis of tetracyclic sesquiterpenoid (+)-cyclomyltaylan-5a-ol, isolated from a Taiwanese liverwort, was accomplished by H. Hagiwara and co-workers. They started out from Hajos-Parrish ketone analogue, (S)-(+)-4,7a-dimethyl-2,3,7,7a-tetrahydro-6/-/-indene-1,5-dione, that could be synthesized from 2-methylcyclopentane-1,3-dione and ethyl vinyl ketone in an acetic acid-catalyzed Michael addition followed by an intramolecular aldol reaction. The intramolecular aldol reaction was carried out in the presence of one equivalent (S)-(-)-phenylalanine and 0.5 equivalent D-camphorsulfonic acid. The resulting enone was recrystallized from hexane-diethyl ether to yield the product in 43% yield and 98% ee. Since the absolute stereochemistry of the natural product was unknown, the total synthesis also served to establish the absolute stereochemistry. 

The pioneering discovery by Mukaiyama in 1974 of the Lewis acid mediated aldol addition reaction of enol silanes and aldehydes paved the way for subsequent explosive development of this innovative method for C-C bond formation. One of the central features of the Mukaiyama aldol process is that the typical enol silane is un-reactive at ambient temperatures with typical aldehydes. This reactivity profile allows exquisite control of the reaction stereoselectivity by various Lewis acids additionally, it has led to the advances in catalytic, enantioselective aldol methodology. Recent observations involving novel enol silanes, such as enoxy silacyclobutanes and O-si-lyl M(9-ketene acetals have expanded the scope of this process and provided additional insight into the mechanistic manifolds available to this versatile reaction. 

Chiral auxiliary-bound substrates have also been used for the asymmetric process. The aldol reaction of chiral pyruvates such as 46 is a reliable method for highly enantioselective synthesis of functionalized tertiary alcohols (Scheme 10.38) [112]. The Lewis acid-catalyzed aldol-type reactions of chiral acetals with silyl enolates are valuable for the asymmetric synthesis of -alkoxy carbonyl compounds ]113, 114]. 

The enantiomeric purity of our synthetic (S)-141, however, was only 59% ee. Acid treatments (H I and 1 141) in the course of the synthesis caused partial racemization due to retro-aldol/aldol and/or retro-Michael/Michael reactions. Unfortunately, milder methods of deprotection such as hot dilute acetic acid or trifluoroacetic acid in dichloromethane were not effective enough to give 141 in appreciable yield. In enantioselective syntheses, retro-aldol/aldol and/or retro-Michael/Michael processes are most dangerous reactions to cause partial racemization. 

The development of a catalytic, enantioselective Mannich-type reaction of si-lyl ketene acetals lagged far behind the now-well-established enantioselective Mukaiyama directed aldol addition. The major consideration for the invention of such a transformation is obviously the selection of an appropriate Lewis acid activator. This is a challenging problem in view of the basicity of the imine nitrogen, the ambiguity in complexation geometry, and most importantly the release of the catalyst to effect turnover. Thus, it is not surprising that the first successful catalytic, enantioselective Mannich reaction was reported only in 1997. 

In a landmark study of Mukaiyama aldol addition reactions, Heathcock proposed that the observed stereochemical outcome of the products in the Lewis acid-mediated addition of silyl ketene acetals to aldehydes was consistent with extended, open transition-state structures [38a, 38b]. This analysis has gained wide acceptance as a consequence of its predictive power. Alternative models involving cyclic, closed structures have also been postulated, in particular, the latter have been invoked with increasing regularity in the analyses of catalytic, enantioselective aldol addition reactions [7,30b,39a,39b. ... 

The catalytic process has found successful application in several natural product total syntheses. In 1996, Simon reported a synthesis of the antitumor dep-sipeptide FR-9001,228 in which the aldol addition reaction of 168 and the ethyl acetate-derived enol silane furnished a key synthetic intermediate (Eq. 23). The enantioselective aldol addition reaction of 168 was conducted with 165 and its enantiomer ent-165 to separately provide both enantiomers of the aldol adducts 169 and 170 (Scheme 14). These were then utilized in the preparation of diastereomeric seco acids 171 and 172 [101]. Macrocyhzation of 172 through a Mitsonobu reaction yielded the desired natural product 173. 

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