Acyl transfer ester synthesis

Much more important than these reactions, however, are the reactions of CDI and its analogues with carboxylic acids, leading to AAacylazoles, from which (by acyl transfer) esters, amides, peptides, hydrazides, hydroxamic acids, as well as anhydrides and various C-acylation products may be obtained. The potential of these and other reactions will be shown in the following chapters. In most of these reactions it is not necessary to isolate the intermediate AAacylazoles. Instead, in the normal procedure the appropriate nucleophile reactant (an alcohol in the ester synthesis, or an amino acid in the peptide synthesis) is added to a solution of an AAacylimidazole, formed by reaction of a carboxylic acid with CDI. Thus, CDI and its analogues offer an especially convenient vehicle for activation of... 

Kumari, K. A. Sreekumar, K. Polymeric Acyl Transfer Reagents Synthesis of Amides Using Polystyrene Supported Oximino Esters, Polymer 1996,37, 171. 

Flavone formation is believed to proceed through a similar mechanism as the synthesis of chromones, albeit aromatic acid anhydrides and their corresponding salts are used. The first step is benzoylation of 12 to give the ester 14. Enolization and o-alkylation then affords the enolbenzoate 15. Enolbenzoate 15 then undergoes an acyl transfer to yield... 

Diphenylthieno[3,4-d][l,3]dioxol-2-one 5,5-dioxide (304) can serve as an activating agent for peptide synthesis (76AG(E)444). The esters (305) are formed readily on admixture of a carboxylic acid with (304) in an aprotic solvent in the presence of pyridine. The activated esters (305) are stable, crystallizable compounds which react with amines readily to furnish the corresponding amides (Scheme 65). Competition experiments reveal that the esters (305) are more effective acyl transfer agents than the p- and o-nitrophenyl esters often used in peptide synthesis. 

A similar system was also capable to promote acyl transfer allowing the synthesis of a 2/,3/-aminoacyl (ester) oligonucleotide from an aminoacyl (anhydride) 5 -phosphale oligonucleotide [172],... 

Under almost anhydrous conditions in organic medium, lipases can be used in the reverse mode for direct ester synthesis from carboxylic acids and alcohols, as well as transesterifications (acyl transfer reactions) which can be divided into alcoholysis (ester and alcohol), acidolysis (ester and acid), and interesterification (ester-ester interchange). The direct esterification and alcoholysis in particular have been most frequently used in asymmetric transformations involving lipases. The parameters that influence enzymatic catalysis in organic solvents have been intensively studied and discussed. ... 

The mechanism of ester hydrolysis in acid (shown in Mechanism 22.8) is the reverse of the mechanism of ester synthesis from carboxylic acids (Mechanism 22.6). Thus, the mechanism consists of the addition of the nucleophile and the elimination of the leaving group, the two steps common to all nucleophilic acyl substitutions, as well as several proton transfers, because the reaction is acid-catalyzed. 

In principle, the use of amino acid or peptide esters as nucleophilic components in protease-catalyzed synthesis is possible, but with a drastically decreased efficiency. However, acyl transfer to arginine or lysine alkyl esters in ice using a-chymotrypsin with regard to its strong preference for basic residues in the P/ position enabled synthesis of a N-protected tripeptide ester in high yield (Scheme 7, see Section 4.2.1.2.2). Furthermore, it was found to be the method of choice in synthesizing new potential protease substrates (for proteases with a preference for basic residues in the Pj position). Neither enzymatic synthesis at room temperature nor synthesis in organic solvents has been shown to proceed in a successful manner. 

An acyl transfer agent which can be used for the synthesis of acid anhydrides is obtained from the reaction of an acid chloride with 4-benzylpyridine (equation 24). In this way benzoic acid anhydride and cinnamic acid anhydride were obtained in 72% and 57% yields, respectively. As the intermediate, 1-acyl-4-benzylidene-l,4-dihydropyridines, can be isolated, Ais procedure should be well suited for the preparation of mixed anhydrides. Mixed aromatic and aliphatic anhydrides can be prepared with 2-ben-zoylthio-l-methylpyridinium chloride and salts of carboxylic acids. These reactions are carried out in aqueous solution. Iliey make use of the high reactivity of esters of thiocarboxylic esters towards nucleophiles. The mixed anhydrides of benzoic acid with 3-phenylpropanoic acid, phenoxyacetic acid, isobu-tyric acid, p-toluic acid and cinnamic acid were formed in 82, 79,61,91 and 66% yields, respectively. 

I.2 Synthesis of Esters by Acyl Transfer to Alcohols (Carboxy Group Activation, CGA)... 

As well as thiol esters, selenol esters (1) frequently exhibit a high and selective reactivity toward nucleophiles, which is enhanced even further by activation with heavy ions or oxidizing agents. These properties make selenol esters valuable acyl transfer agents. This review deals with general methods for the synthesis of selenol esters and their reactivity as acyl transfer agents. Furthermore, selenoesters (2), isomeric compounds of selenol esters, and their derivatives selenoamides (3) are also described. These compounds show the characteristic reactivity based on the carbon-selenium double bond. 

The resolving agent must now be removed by hydrolysis of the amide. This is a risky business as enolisation would destroy the newly formed stereogenic centre, and a cunning method was devised to rearrange the amide 30 into a more easily hydrolysed ester by acyl transfer from N to O. The rest of the synthesis is as before. By this means the alcohol 28 was obtained almost optically pure, <0.4% of the other enantiomer being present. No further reactions occur at the newly formed stereogenic centre, so the absolute chirality of 22 is as shown. 

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