Acyl intermediates

Substituted imidazoles can be acylated at the 2-position by acid chlorides in the presence of triethylamine. This reaction proceeds by proton loss on the (V-acylated intermediate (241). An analogous reaction with phenyl isocyanate gives (242), probably via a similar mechanism. Benzimidazoles react similarly, but pyrazoles do not (80AHC(27)24l) cf. Section 4.02.1.4.6). 

Figure 10 shows typical examples of burst kinetics observed for the reactions of 29-Zn2+ and 38c-Zn2+ ion complexes under the conditions of excess substrate over ligand. Such burst kinetics can be accounted for a two-step reaction involving an acylated intermediate as in Scheme 4, and the rate constants, ka and kd, can be obtained based on Eqs. 8-11 38,39), where A is the slope of the steady-state line and B is the intercept obtained by extrapolating the steady-state line to time = 0. The ka should be the same with the kc in Table 5. 

Figure 13 indicates burst kinetics. As discussed before, such biphasic curves indicate the reaction to occur through two steps involving an acylated intermediate. The initial slopes for the presteady state can be taken as the measure of acylation rates, and the slopes of the later straight line for steady-state can be taken as the measure of deacylation rates. 

The ratios of these slopes for L- and D-esters are shown in Table 12. The kL/kD values of the acylation step in the CTAB micelle are very close to those in Table 9, as they should be. It is interesting to note that the second deacylation step also occurs enantioselectively. Presumably it is due to the deacylation ocurring by the attack of a zinc ion-coordinated hydroxide ion which, in principle, should be enantioselective as in the hydroxyl group of the ligand. Alternatively, the enantioselectivity is also expected when the free hydroxide ion attack the coordinated carbonyl groups of the acyl-intermediate with the zinc ion. At any rate, the rates of both steps of acylation and deacylation for the L-esters are larger than those for the D-esters in the CTAB micelle. However, in the Triton X-100 micelle, the deacylation step for the D-esters become faster than for the L-esters. 

For many serine and cysteine peptidases catalysis first involves formation of a complex known as an acyl intermediate. An essential residue is required to stabilize this intermediate by helping to form the oxyanion hole. In cathepsin B a glutamine performs this role and sometimes a catalytic tetrad (Gin, Cys, His, Asn) is referred too. In chymotrypsin, a glycine is essential for stabilizing the oxyanion hole. 

The crystal structure of a CODH/ACS enzyme was reported only in 2002.43,44 It reveals a trio of Fe, Ni, and Cu at the active site (6). The Cu is linked to the Ni atom through two cysteine-S, the Ni being square planar with two terminal amide ligands. Planarity and amide coordination bear some resemblance to the Ni porphinoid in MCR. A two-metal ion mechanism is likely for acetyl CoA synthesis, in which a Ni-bound methyl group attacks an adjacent Cu—CO fragment with formation of a Cu-acyl intermediate. A methylnickel species in CODH/ACS has been identified by resonance Raman spectroscopy.45... 

Since Bruce s pioneering work in the area of ruthenium vinylidene chemistry (1), it has been well known that isomerization of a terminal alkyne to a vinylidene on a metal center is not only favorable but also effects a reversal in the reactivity of the carbon atoms. However, hydration catalysis was not possible, because alkyl migration from a proposed acyl intermediate led to an... 

Although kinetic evidence for prior equilibrium inclusion was not obtained, competitive inhibition by cyclohexanol and apparent substrate specificity once again provide strong support for this mechanism. Since the rate of the catalytic reaction is strictly proportional to the concentration of the ionized hydroxamate function (kinetic and spectrophotometric p/Cas are identical within experimental error and are equal to 8.5), the reaction probably proceeds by a nucleophilic mechanism to produce an acyl intermediate. Although acyl derivatives of N-alkylhydroxamic acids are exceptionally labile in aqueous solution, deacylation is nevertheless the ratedetermining step of the overall hydrolysis (Gruhn and Bender, 1969). 

Most hydroformylation investigations reported since 1960 have involved trialkyl or triarylphosphine complexes of cobalt and, more recently, of rhodium. Infrared studies of phosphine complex catalysts under reaction conditions as well as simple metal carbonyl systems have provided substantial information about the postulated mechanisms. Spectra of a cobalt 1-octene system at 250 atm pressure and 150°C (21) contained absorptions characteristic for the acyl intermediate C8H17COCo(CO)4 (2103 and 2002 cm-1) and Co2(CO)8. The amount of acyl species present under these steady-state conditions increased with a change in the CO/ H2 ratio in the order 3/1 > 1/1 > 1/3. This suggests that for this system under these conditions, hydrogenolysis of the acyl cobalt species is a rate-determining step. 

Scheme 7 comprises the following patterns First, a metallacycle gives rise to ketones by CO insertion and reductive elimination. Next, a nickel hydride inserts an unsaturated substrate L, followed by CO. The acyl intermediate can give rise to reductive elimination with formation of acyl halides or acids and esters by hydrolysis, or it can insert a new ligand with subsequent reductive elimination as before. Alternatively, there may be a new insertion of carbon monoxide with final hydrolysis. Third, an intermediate R—Ni—X is formed by oxidative addition. It can react in several ways It can insert a new ligand L, followed by CO to give an... 

A most significant advance in the alkyne hydration area during the past decade has been the development of Ru(n) catalyst systems that have enabled the anti-Markovnikov hydration of terminal alkynes (entries 6 and 7). These reactions involve the addition of water to the a-carbon of a ruthenium vinylidene complex, followed by reductive elimination of the resulting hydridoruthenium acyl intermediate (path C).392-395 While the use of GpRuGl(dppm) in aqueous dioxane (entry 6)393-396 and an indenylruthenium catalyst in an aqueous medium including surfactants has proved to be effective (entry 7),397 an Ru(n)/P,N-ligand system (entry 8) has recently been reported that displays enzyme-like rate acceleration (>2.4 x 1011) (dppm = bis(diphenylphosphino)methane).398... 

In contrast to pheromones that involve single complex compounds, many moth species have been found to utilize a specific blend of relatively simple fatty acid-derived compounds. It appears that the evolution of a unique enzyme, A1 desaturase, used in combination with 2-carbon chain-shortening reactions (Figure 3) has allowed moth species to produce a variety of unsaturated acetates, aldehydes, and alcohols that can be combined in almost unlimited blends to impart species specificity. For example, biosynthetic precursors for the six-component pheromone blend of acetates for the cabbage looper moth (12) (Figure 2) can be determined easily from the cascade of acyl intermediates produced by the A11-desaturase and chain-shortening reactions (Figure 3). 

The CD-mediated cleavage of p-N02C6H4NHC0CF3 proceeds by acyl transfer to a-CD. Since the trifluoracetyl-CD, so produced, hydrolyses fairly quickly even at pFI7, the overall reaction shows true catalysis. Thus, for the reaction in (27), a-CD behaves as a model enzyme and shows three of the features of chymotrypsin (i) it provides a hydrophobic binding site (ii) it catalyses the loss of leaving group and (iii) the reaction proceeds through an acyl intermediate (Komiyama and Bender, 1977 Bender and Komiyama, 1978). 

In the alkoxycarbonylation, the hydride mechanism initiates through the olefin insertion into a Pd - H bond, followed by the insertion of CO into the resulting Pd-alkyl bond with formation of an acyl intermediate, which undergoes nucleophilic attack of the alkanol to give the ester and the Pd - H+ species, which initiates the next catalytic cycle [35,40,57,118]. Alternatively, it has been proposed that a ketene intermediate forms from the acyl complex via /3-hydride elimination, followed by rapid addition of the alcohol [119]. In principle the alkyl intermediate may form also by protonation of the olefin coordinated to a Pd(0) complex [120,121]. 

The hydride reacts immediately with ethene to give the expected ethyl complex selectively and quantitatively, which again is ideal for the catalytic activity. The hydride is very unstable when CO is bubbled into MeOH solution, even at low temperature [115] at room temperature it reacts immediately with ethene giving a cationic ethyl complex. In the presence of both CO and ethene, like under catalytic conditions, decomposition does not occur because the hydride reacts much faster with ethene than with CO. Once the ethyl intermediate is formed, fast insertion of CO occurs with formation of an acyl intermediate, which in turn reacts with MeOH yielding MP with quantitative regeneration of the starting hydride to continue the catalytic cycle [114,115]. The formation of the ethyl and of the acyl intermediates involves facile equi-... 

Because of its nature, DEK must form via a hydride mechanism. Up to the formation of a Pd-acyl intermediate, the paths leading to MP or DEK are similar. DEK forms if the insertion of a second molecule of ethene into the Pd-acyl bond is followed by protonolysis of the Pd - C bond of the resulting Pd-alkylacyl intermediate. 

---