Aldol additions applications

As these freely reversible aldol additions often have less favorable equilibrium constants [30,34], synthetic reactions usually have to be driven by an excess of pyruvate to achieve satisfactory conversions. A few related enzymes have been identified that utilize phosphoenolpyruvate instead of pyruvate, which upon C—C bond formation releases inorganic phosphate, and thus renders the aldol addition essentially irreversible (Figure 10.4) [16]. Although attractive from a synthetic point ofview, the latter enzymes have been less studied as yet for preparative applications [35]. 

NeuA, has broad substrate specificity for aldoses while pyruvate was found to be irreplaceable. As a notable distinction, KdoA was also active on smaller acceptors such as glyceraldehyde. Preparative applications, for example, for the synthesis of KDO (enf-6) and its homologs or analogs (16)/(17), suffer from an unfavorable equilibrium constant of 13 in direction of synthesis [34]. The stereochemical course of aldol additions generally seems to adhere to a re-face attack on the aldehyde carbonyl, which is complementary to the stereoselectivity of NeuA. On the basis of the results published so far, it may be concluded that a (31 )-configuration is necessary (but not sufficient), and that stereochemical requirements at C-2 are less stringent [71]. 

Figure 10.32 Applications of bidirectional chain extension for the synthesis of disaccharide mimetics and of annulated and spirocyclic oligosaccharide mimetics using tandem enzymatic aldol additions, including racemate resolution under thermodynamic control.

The stereogenic centers may be integral parts of the reactants, but chiral auxiliaries can also be used to impart facial diastereoselectivity and permit eventual isolation of enantiomerically enriched product. Alternatively, use of chiral Lewis acids as catalysts can also achieve facial selectivity. Although the general principles of control of the stereochemistry of aldol addition reactions have been well developed for simple molecules, the application of the principles to more complex molecules and the... 

Domino Michael/aldol addition processes unquestionably represent the largest group of domino transformations. Numerous synthetic applications - for example, in natural product synthesis as well as for the preparation of other bioactive compounds - have been reported. Thus, the procedure is rather flexible and allows the use of many different substrates [12]. In this process it is possible, in theory, to establish up to two new C-C-bonds and three new stereogenic centers in a single step. For example, Collin s group developed a three-component approach. 

Though several intermolecular catalytic reductive aldol additions are reported, corresponding reductive cyclizations have received less attention. The first reported reductive aldol cyclization involves use of a (diketonato)cobalt(ll) precatalyst in conjunction with PhSiHj as terminal reductant.48,486 The reductive cyclization is applicable to aromatic and heteroaromatic enone partners to form five- and six-membered rings. As demonstrated by the reductive cyclization of mono-enone mono-aldehyde 65a to afford aldol 65b, exceptionally high levels of ty -diastereoselectivity are observed. Interestingly, exposure of the substrate 65a to low-valent nickel in the presence of excess Et2Zn provides the isomeric homoaldol cyclization product 65c via reductive coupling to the enone /3-position (Scheme 43).47a... 

The addition of doubly deprotonated HYTRA to achiral4 5 as well as to enantiomerically pure aldehydes enables one to obtain non-racemic (3-hydroxycarboxylic acids. Thus, the method provides a practical solution for the stereoselective aldoi addition of a-unsubstituted enolates, a long-standing synthetic problem.7 As opposed to some other chiral acetate reagents,7 both enantiomers of HYTRA are readily available. Furthermore, the chiral auxiliary reagent, 1,1,2-triphenyl-1,2-ethanediol, can be recovered easily. Aldol additions of HYTRA have been used in syntheses of natural products and biological active compounds, and some of those applications are given in Table I. (The chiral center, introduced by a stereoselective aldol addition with HYTRA, is marked by an asterisk.)... 

Rare or unnatural monosaccharides have many useful applications as nonnutritive sweeteners, glycosidase inhibitors and so on. For example, L-glucose and L-fructose are known to be low-calorie sweeteners. In addition, rare or unnatural monosaccharides are potentially useful as chiral building blocks for the synthesis of biologically active compounds. Therefore, these compounds have been important targets for the development of enzymatic synthesis based in the use of DHAP-dependent aldolases alone or in combination with isomerases. Fessner et al. showed that rare ketose-1-phosphates could be reached not only by aldol addition catalyzed by DHAP-dependent aldolases, but by enzymatic isomerization/ phosphorylation of aldoses [35]. Thus, for example, L-fructose can be prepared... 

Early-on it was discovered that these Salen compounds, and the related six-coordinate cations [6], were useful as catalysts for the polymerization of oxiranes. These applications were anticipated in the efforts of Spassky [7] and in the substantial work of Inoue [8]. Subsequently, applications of these compounds in organic synthesis have been developed [9]. Additional applications include their use in catalytic lactide polymerization [10], lactone oligomerization [11], the phospho-aldol reaction [12], and as an initiator in methyl methacrylate polymerization [13]. 

In several recent applications of enzyme catalysis, the snbstrates on which the enzymes act are not the kind of snbstrates that are natnral to the enzyme. However, enzyme catalysed synthesis of hexoses in the laboratory depends solely on enzymes acting on natural or near natnral snbstrates. The relevant enzymes are the aldolases (EC 4.1.2 aldehyde-lyases) since they catalyse an aldol type of C-C bond forming aldol addition reaction. The aldolases most commonly join two C-3 units, called donor and acceptor, and two new stereocentra are formed with great stereoselectivity. 

Asymmetric C-C bond formation is the most important and most challenging problem in synthetic organic chemistry. In Nature, such reactions are facilitated by lyases, which catalyze the addition of carbonucleophiles to C=0 double bonds in a manner that is classified mechanistically as an aldol addition [1]. Most enzymes that have been investigated lately for synthetic applications include aldolases from carbohydrate, amino acid, or sialic acid metabolism [1, 2]. Because enzymes are active on unprotected substrates under very mild conditions and with high chemo-, regio-, and stereoselectivity, aldolases and related enzymes hold particularly high potential for the synthesis of polyfunctionalized products that are otherwise difficult to prepare and to handle by conventional chemical methods. 

A most important property of enolate anions, at least as far as synthesis is concerned, is their excellent nucleophilicity, which enables them to add to double bonds and to participate in nucleophilic substitution. When the addition is to a carbonyl double bond, it is called an aldol addition (Equation 17-4). Additions of enolate anions to carbon-carbon double bonds usually are classified as Michael additions (Equation 17-5), and these are discussed in Sections 17-5B and 18-9D. The principles of SN nucleophilic reactions of enolate anions (Equation 17-6) will be considered in Section 17-4, and their synthetic applications in detail in Chapter 18. 

List gave the first examples of the proline-catalyzed direct asymmetric three-component Mannich reactions of ketones, aldehydes, and amines (Scheme 14) [35], This was the first organocatalytic asymmetric Mannich reaction. These reactions do not require enolate equivalents or preformed imine equivalent. Both a-substituted and a-unsubstituted aldehydes gave the corresponding p-amino ketones 40 in good to excellent yield and with enantiomeric excesses up to 91%. The aldol addition and condensation products were observed as side products in this reaction. The application of their reaction to the highly enantioselective synthesis of 1,2-amino alcohols was also presented [36]. A plausible mechanism of the proline-catalyzed three-component Mannich reaction is shown in Fig. 2. The ketone reacts with proline to give an enamine 41. In a second pre-equilib-... 

The acetate aldol addition reactions using catalyst 72 have found application in a number of syntheses. S imon and co-workers util ized aldol adduct 74 as a key building block in the total synthesi s... 

Heathcock, C.H., Finkelstein, B.L., Jarvi, E.T., Radel, PA. and Hadley, C.R. (1988). 1,4-and 1,5-Stereoselection by sequential Aldol addition to a,6-unstaurated aldehydes followed by Claisen rearrangement. Application to total synthesis of the vitamin E side chain and the archaebacterial C40 diol. J. Org. Chem., 53,1922-1942. 

The addition of a chiral ketone enolate to an aldehyde displays not only simple diastereoselectivlty, but also highly induced stereoselectivity, as shown by Fecik and coworkers for the formal total synthesis of the polyketide macrolactone narbonoMe (92, equation 27). This reaction demonstrates the successful application of titanium in aldol additions for the highly stereoselective construction of two new stereogenic centers by addition of aldehyde 90 to the titanium enolate of Evans S-keto imide 89 the iyw-aldol product 91 was obtained exclusively in 74% yield. Interestingly, there is no detectable loss of stereochemistry via enolization at the potentially labile C2-methyl-bearing stereocenter in 89 ... 

In addition, there have been some recent applications of FruA in the field of pheromones [17]. The two independent stereogenic centers of the condensation product were stereospecifically generated by FruA-catalyzed aldol addition of 5-oxohexanal to DHAP. Further, enzymatic dephosphorylation and a series of straightforward chemical transformations yielded (-i-)-exo-brevicomm, the sex aggregation pheromone of the bark beetle. 

Many interesting, powerful applications of inter- and intra-molecular aldol addition reactions have been reported in the context of complex molecule synthesis. These demonstrate the power of aldol bond construction in providing rapid access to stereochemically complex fragments in a stereocontrolled manner. While a comprehensive review of these is well beyond the scope of any one chapter, some recent examples merit examination as they provide insight into interesting and unusual reaetivities that may result in the design of novel stereoselective aldol processes. 

In suitable cases the application of stoichiometric chiral auxiliaries may be advantageous even on the industrial kilogram-scale. Scheme 49 provides as an example the synthesis of a thromboxane antagonist (ICI D1542) via the Evans aldol strategy [114]. Thus, the chiral auxiliary 49-1 is converted into the amide 49-3 and then submitted to a boron mediated aldol addition leading to 49-4 in dias-tereomerically pure crystalline form. The auxiliary is removed by reduction and... 

The rapid evolution of catalytic reaction methods for enantioselective aldol additions affords newer processes that are increasingly practical in their execution for a broad range of substrates prescribing minuscule amounts of catalyst. However, when compared to other catalytic asymmetric processes such as hydrogenation, dihydroxylation, and epoxidation it is evident that there is much room for further optimization. Without doubt, discovery and innovation in this area of C-C bond-forming reactions will lead to the development of catalysts and processes indispensable to the synthesis of optically active, stereochemically complex structures with applications in materials science and medicine. 

The most intensely studied aldol addition mechanisms are those beUeved to proceed through closed transition structures, which are best understood within the Zimmerman-Traxler paradigm (Fig. 5) [Id]. Superposition of this construct on the Felkin-Ahn model for carbonyl addition reactions allows for the construction of transition-state models impressive in their abiUty to account for many of the stereochemical features of aldol additions [50a, 50b, 50c, 51]. Moreover, consideration of dipole effects along with remote non-bonding interactions in the transition-state have imparted additional sophistication to the analysis of this reaction and provide a bedrock of information that may be integrated into the further development and refinement of the corresponding catalytic processes [52a, 52b]. One of the most powerful features of the Zimmerman-Traxler model in its application to diastereoselective additions of chiral enolates to aldehydes is the correlation of enolate geometry (Z- versus E-) with simple di-astereoselectivity in the products syn versus anti). Consequently, the analyses of catalytic, enantioselective variants that display such stereospecificity often invoke closed, cyclic structures. Further studies of these systems are warranted, since it is not clear to what extent such models, which have evolved in the context of diastereoselective aldol additions via chiral auxiliary control, are applicable in the Lewis acid-catalyzed addition of enol silanes and aldehydes. 

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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