Amino acids, enantioselective synthesis

Juaristi, E., Garcia-Barradas, O. Asymmetric addition of amines to a, 3-unsaturated esters and nitriles in the enantioselective synthesis of P-amino acids. Enantioselective Synthesis of. beta.-Amino Acids 1997, 139-149. 

Enantioselective synthesis of /1-amino acids is important as they are present in various natural products and in many biologically active compounds [26,27]. Several methods exist for the enantioselective synthesis of -substituted /1-amino acids (/l3-amino acids) however, synthesis of a-substituted /1-amino acids (/l2-amino acids) is very limited [28,29]. A report on highly enantioselective hydrogen atom transfer reactions to synthesize /l2-amino acids (Scheme 9) has recently been described [30]. 

Gu, R.-L., Lee, I.S. and Sih, C.J., Chemo-enzymatic asymmetric synthesis of amino acids. Enantioselective hydrolyses of 2-phenyl-oxazolin-5-ones. Tetrahedron Lett., 1992, 33, 1953-1956 Crich, J., Brieva, R., Marquart, P., Gu, R.-L., Flemming, S. and Sih, C.J., Enzymic asymmetric synthesis of a-amino acids. Enantioselective cleavage of 4-substituted oxazolin-5-ones and thiazolin-5-ones. J. Org. Chem., 1993, 58, 3252-3258. 

Reaction of lithiodithianes with acyl chlorides, esters or nitriles leads to the fOTination 1,2-dicarbonyl compounds in which one of the carbonyl groups is protected as the thioacetal. d76043j44 Optically active amino ketones of type (69) are inepared via acylation of dithiane with an oxazoline-protected (5)-serine methyl ester (Scheme 41). Optically active (5)-2-alkoxy-l-(l,3-dithian-2-yl)-l-propanones were prepaid by the reaction of the corresponding methyl (5)-lactate with 2-lithio-l,3-enantioselective synthesis of (-)-trachelanthic acid. Enantioselective synthesis of L-glyceraldehyde involves the acylation of a dithiane glycolic acid derivative followed by bikers yeast mediated reduction. ... 

SCHEME 31.34. Radical addition of fluoro alkyl chain followed by enantioselective proton transfer chiral fluoro amino acid derivative synthesis. 

Asymmetric synthesis is a method for direct synthesis of optically active amino acids and finding efficient catalysts is a great target for researchers. Many exceUent reviews have been pubHshed (72). Asymmetric syntheses are classified as either enantioselective or diastereoselective reactions. Asymmetric hydrogenation has been appHed for practical manufacturing of l-DOPA and t-phenylalanine, but conventional methods have not been exceeded because of the short life of catalysts. An example of an enantio selective reaction, asymmetric hydrogenation of a-acetamidoacryHc acid derivatives, eg, Z-2-acetamidocinnamic acid [55065-02-6] (6), is shown below and in Table 4 (73). 

Depending on the stereoselectivity of the reaction, either the or the 5 configuration can generated at C-2 in the product. This corresponds to enantioselective synthesis of the d md L enantiomers of a-amino acids. Hydrogenation using chiral catalysts has been carefully investigated. The most effective catalysts for the reaction are ihodiiun... 

Early examples of enantioselective extractions are the resolution of a-aminoalco-hol salts, such as norephedrine, with lipophilic anions (hexafluorophosphate ion) [184-186] by partition between aqueous and lipophilic phases containing esters of tartaric acid [184-188]. Alkyl derivatives of proline and hydroxyproline with cupric ions showed chiral discrimination abilities for the resolution of neutral amino acid enantiomers in n-butanol/water systems [121, 178, 189-192]. On the other hand, chiral crown ethers are classical selectors utilized for enantioseparations, due to their interesting recognition abilities [171, 178]. However, the large number of steps often required for their synthesis [182] and, consequently, their cost as well as their limited loadability makes them not very suitable for preparative purposes. Examples of ligand-exchange [193] or anion-exchange selectors [183] able to discriminate amino acid derivatives have also been described. 

Two methods are used in practice to obtain enantiomerically pure amino acids. One way is to resolve the racemic mixture into its pure enantiomers (Section 9.8). A more direct approach, however, is to use an enantioselective synthesis to prepare only the desired 5 enantiomer directly. As discussed in the Chapter 19 Focus Oil, the idea behind enantioselective synthesis is to find a chiral reaction catalyst that will temporarily hold a substrate molecule in an unsymmetrical environment. While in that chiral environment, the substrate may be more... 

The most effective catalysts for enantioselective amino acid synthesis are coordination complexes of rhodium(I) with 1,5-cyclooctadiene (COD) and a chiral diphosphine such as (JR,jR)-l,2-bis(o-anisylphenylphosphino)ethane, the so-called DiPAMP ligand. The complex owes its chirality to the presence of the trisubstituted phosphorus atoms (Section 9.12). 

An application of this method is the enantioselective synthesis of a-amino acids [e.g., (5)-phenyl-glycine (11)]10. Hence, 8 can be regarded as a chiral synthetic equivalent of a carboxyl group. 

With optically active formamide-derived aminocarbene complexes high enantioselectivity was observed in most cases (Table 5). This chemistry was used in the synthesis of 1-carbacephalathin and 3-ANA precursors (Eq. 9) [48], as well as the synthesis of a,a -disubstituted amino acids (Scheme 1) [49]. 

The Rh2(DOSP)4 catalysts (6b) of Davies have proven to be remarkably effective for highly enantioselective cydopropanation reactions of aryl- and vinyl-diazoacetates [2]. The discovery that enantiocontrol could be enhanced when reactions were performed in pentane [35] added advantages that could be attributed to the solvent-directed orientation of chiral attachments of the ligand carboxylates [59]. In addition to the synthesis of (+)-sertraline (1) [6], the uses of this methodology have been extended to the construction of cyclopropane amino acids (Eq. 3) [35], the synthesis of tricyclic systems such as 22 (Eq. 4) [60], and, as an example of tandem cyclopropanation-Cope rearrangement, an efficient asymmetric synthesis of epi-tremulane 23 (Eq. 5) [61]. 

Another approach for the synthesis of enantiopure amino acids or amino alcohols is the enantioselective enzyme-catalyzed hydrolysis of hydantoins. As discussed above, hydantoins are very easily racemized in weak alkaline solutions via keto enol tautomerism. Sugai et al. have reported the DKR of the hydantoin prepared from DL-phenylalanine. DKR took place smoothly by the use of D-hydantoinase at a pH of 9 employing a borate buffer (Figure 4.17) [42]. 

T. C. Boge, G. I. Georg, The medicinal chemistry of / -amino acids paclitaxel as an illustrative example in Enantioselective Synthesis of /3-amino acids, E. Juaristi (Ed.), Wiley-VCH, New York, 1997. 

E. Juaristi (Ed.), Enantioselective Synthesis of f-Amino Acids, Wiley-VCH, New York, 1997. 

The condensation of nitro compounds and imines, the so-called aza-Henry or nitro-Mannich reaction, has recently emerged as a powerful tool for the enantioselective synthesis of 1,2-diamines through the intermediate /3-amino nitro compounds. The method is based on the addition of a nitronate ion (a-nitro carbanion), generated from nitroalkanes, to an imine. The addition of a nitronate ion to an imine is thermodynamically disfavored, so that the presence of a protic species or a Lewis acid is required, to activate the imine and/or to quench the adduct. The acidic medium is compatible with the existence of the nitronate anion, as acetic acid and nitromethane have comparable acidities. Moreover, the products are often unstable, either for the reversibility of the addition or for the possible /3-elimination of the nitro group, and the crude products are generally reduced, avoiding purification to give the desired 1,2-diamines. Hence, the nitronate ion is an equivalent of an a-amino carbanion. 

In many cases, the racemization of a substrate required for DKR is difficult As an example, the production of optically pure cc-amino acids, which are used as intermediates for pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and as chiral synfhons in organic chemistry [31], may be discussed. One of the important methods of the synthesis of amino acids is the hydrolysis of the appropriate hydantoins. Racemic 5-substituted hydantoins 15 are easily available from aldehydes using a commonly known synthetic procedure (Scheme 5.10) [32]. In the next step, they are enantioselectively hydrolyzed by d- or L-specific hydantoinase and the resulting N-carbamoyl amino acids 16 are hydrolyzed to optically pure a-amino acid 17 by other enzymes, namely, L- or D-specific carbamoylase. This process was introduced in the 1970s for the production of L-amino acids 17 [33]. For many substrates, the racemization process is too slow and in order to increase its rate enzymes called racemases are used. In processes the three enzymes, racemase, hydantoinase, and carbamoylase, can be used simultaneously this enables the production of a-amino acids without isolation of intermediates and increases the yield and productivity. Unfortunately, the commercial application of this process is limited because it is based on L-selective hydantoin-hydrolyzing enzymes [34, 35]. For production of D-amino acid the enzymes of opposite stereoselectivity are required. A recent study indicates that the inversion of enantioselectivity of hydantoinase, the key enzyme in the... 

---