Amino acids hydrolysis, stereoselectivity

Both pure L- and D-amino acids can be made using hydantoinase enzymes. These enzymes catalyze the stereoselective hydrolysis of racemic hydantoins such as (50) which is used for the production of D-alanine (15) (58). 

A very simple and elegant alternative to the use of ion-exchange columns or extraction to separate the mixture of D-amino add amide and the L-amino add has been elaborated. Addition of one equivalent of benzaldehyde (with respect to die D-amino add amide) to the enzymic hydrolysate results in the formation of a Schiff base with die D-amino add amide, which is insoluble in water and, therefore, can be easily separated. Add hydrolysis (H2SQ4, HX, HNO3, etc.) results in the formation of die D-amino add (without racemizadon). Alternatively the D-amino add amide can be hydrolysed by cell-preparations of Rhodococcus erythropolis. This biocatalyst lacks stereoselectivity. This option is very useful for amino adds which are highly soluble in die neutralised reaction mixture obtained after acid hydrolysis of the amide. 

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... 

Chiral stationary phases for the separation of enantiomers (optically active isomers) are becoming increasingly important. Among the first types to be synthesized were chiral amino acids ionically or covalently bound to amino-propyl silica and named Pirkle phases after their originator. The ionic form is susceptable to hydrolysis and can be used only in normal phase HPLC whereas the more stable covalent type can be used in reverse phase separations but is less stereoselective. Polymeric phases based on chiral peptides such as bovine serum albumin or a -acid glycoproteins bonded to... 

Enantiomerically pure 4,5,6-trihydroxy-norleucins (for instance 325) were obtained (197) from the hex-2-enono-1,4-lactone-2-mesylates (such as 152). These butenolides were stereoselectively hydrogenated to afford, upon treatment with sodium azide, the C-2-inverted derivatives, such as 324. Reduction of the azide function and hydrolysis of the acetal group gave the amino acids (namely 325), which were converted into lactones in acid media. 

This unnatural acid is used as a chiral intermediate for the synthesis of a number of products. Chemical asymmetric synthesis was very difficult and so the stereoselective synthetic properties of enzymes were exploited to carry out a selective reduction reaction. The stereoselective hydrolysis of protein amino acid esters had already been commercialised by Tanabe in Japan using immobilised aminoacylase, and selective reduction reactions using whole yeast cells are already used in a number of processes, such as the selective reduction of the anti-cancer drag Coriolin. 

Kolb and Barth 229) synthesized oc-substituted optically active amines or amino acids (223). Again the authors employed a derivative of naturally occurring (S)-proline, namely (—)-(S)-l-dimethoxymethyl-2-methoxymethyl-pyrrolidine (221) as chiral auxiliary agent. The metalation of the amidines (160) leads to azaallyl anions homologous with (222). After alkylation and hydrolysis, the desired a-substituted amines and amino acids, respectively, are obtained with some stereoselectivity. 

Asymmetric transformations of ot-amino acids promoted by optically active metal complexes have been reported by several groups 269). The control of the stereoselective hydrolysis reactions of racemic esters by chiral micellar compounds prepared from amino acids has been intensively investigated 270). 

This section deals mainly with the metalation of lactim ethers and subsequent reaction with electrophiles to generate new C—C bonds at position 3 or 6. Hydrolysis of the products leads to new amino acid esters. The chief attraction of this synthetic route is the high degree of stereoselectivity in the carbon—carbon bond-forming step. It is known as the Schollkopf method for the chiral synthesis of amino acids. 

The method of Kim et al.[89-93] starts from the synthesis of the three-carbon phosphonium salt according to the modified method of Corey et alJ94,95] The Wittig reaction of the phosphonium salt with a Z-protected a-amino aldehyde using potassium hexamethyldisilazanide provides the ds-alkene without racemization. Efficient hydrolysis of the orthoester without double bond migration is achieved by acidolytic hydrolysis with aqueous hydrochloric acid in tert-butyl alcohol under reflux conditions. Then, an a-amino acid methyl ester is coupled. The desired epoxide product is obtained by treatment with 3-chloroperoxybenzoic acid. The epoxidation reaction is stereoselective and predominantly provides one isomer (R,S S,R = 4-10 1). The trans-epoxide can also be prepared using a trans-alkene-containing peptide. A representative synthetic procedure to obtain the ds-epoxide isostere is detailed below. 

One reason for an otherwise apparently excessive interest in Co(trien)X2+ systems is the use of ds-Co(OH)(trien)(OH2)2+ in the hydrolysis of amino acid esters, amino acid amides and peptides785 to form cis-px- and cis-/J2-Co(trien)(aa)2+ (aa = amino acid) complexes.16 In principle, a peptide could be degraded in a stepwise manner and each amino acid residue successively characterized. By the introduction of a chiral center into the backbone of the trien moiety, it was hoped to make such reactions stereoselective. Consequently, while fully A-alkylated trien systems have been widely investigated for M11 central ions, the C-alkylated trien systems have been almost exclusively the reserve of the Co111 chemist (Table 11). 

The coordination of optically active amino acids and their methyl esters to nickel(II) complexes of l,2-bis(2-(5)-aminomethyl-l-pyrrolidinyl)ethane (24 R = H) and l,2-bis(2-(S)-N-methyl-aminomethyl-l-pyrrolidinyl)ethane (24 R=Me) has been studied.98 Some amino acidate ions coordinate stereoselectivity, as do their methyl esters, so that base hydrolysis of the esters proceeds stereoselectively. 

Asymmetric 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of nitrones to ketene acetals is effectively catalyzed by chiral oxazaborolidines derived from N-tosyl-L-a-amino acids to afford 5,5-dialkoxyisoxa-zolidines with high regio- and stereoselectivity [70] (Eq. 8A.46). Hydrolysis of the N-O bond of the resulting chiral adducts under mild conditions yields the corresponding [1-amino esters quantitatively. 

Cyclization to a morpholinolactone (59) occurs in the hydrolysis reaction of the di-A -hydroxylethylated compound (60). Compound (59) is rapidly hydrolysed by water to (61) but in the presence of equimolar amounts of amines (RNH2) or amino acid derivatives (62) forms.56 A novel reaction of cyclic 2-diazo-1,3-dicarbonyl compounds (63) with lactones (64) affords the products (65) in the presence of rhodium acetate, Rh2(OAc)4.57 Lewis acid-promoted intramolecular additions of allylsilanes to [1-lactones gave substituted cyclopentanes.58 A proposed transition state guided efforts to improve the stereoselectivity of the reaction. The reaction of a series of /i-lactone derivatives, such as (66)-(68), has been studied and they have been ring cleaved the reaction outcome is both Lewis acid and structure dependent.59... 

The sequence of Ugi-4CR + hydrolysis of the amino substituent has been employed in the stereoselective synthesis of chiral a-amino acid derivatives, by using a chiral amine component. Then the chiral template was covalently bound in close proximity to the newly synthesized chiral center. The amine residue of the product must be removable under mild conditions to avoid decomposition of the desired product. Chiral a-ferrocenylamines have been employed with some success [34], but the most useful auxiliaries were carbohydrate amines [35]. 

This Primary Pump scenario is a model of protometabolism [147]. Its features served to build a theoretical model (limited to dipeptides, Scheme 38) by which homo chirality could have emerged from a racemic amino acid world without needing autocatalysis [196]. Actually, this model shows that stereoselectivity at three different stages (with corresponding selectivity ratios in brackets) NCA coupling with AA (a), dipeptide hydrolysis (fi), and dipeptide epimerization (y) is enough to promote homochirality. The racemic composition is not stable for certain values of the set of selectivity ratios a, ft, y (taken as parameters) and provided the system is supplied with chemical energy to continuously recycle the amino acid into NCA. 

L-Amino acids 11 are available by the same methodology using tri-0-pivaloyl-a-D-arabinosylamine 10 as the chiral auxiliary [19b], The stereoselectivity L D 7-10 1 is slightly lower compared to that observed for the syntheses of / -aminonitriles 8 with galactosyl imines 7. The free a-amino acid is released from the auxiliary by hydrolysis with HCI in formic acid. 

The second synthesis of lasubine II (6) by Narasaka et al. utilizes stereoselective reduction of a /3-hydroxy ketone O-benzyl oxime with lithium aluminum hydride, yielding the corresponding syn-/3-amino alcohol (Scheme 5) 17, 18). The 1,3-dithiane derivative 45 of 3,4-dimethoxybenzaldehyde was converted to 46 in 64% yield via alkylation with 2-bromo-l,l-dimethoxyethane followed by acid hydrolysis. Treatment of the aldol, obtained from condensation of 46 with the kinetic lithium enolate of 5-hexen-2-one, with O-benzylhydroxylamine hy-... 

DSM developed a slightly different approach towards enantiopure amino acids. Instead of performing the Strecker synthesis with a complete hydrolysis of the nitrile to the acid it is stopped at the amide stage. Then a stereoselective amino acid amidase from Pseudomonas putida is employed for the enantioselective second hydrolysis step [83], yielding enantiopure amino acids [34, 77, 78]. Although the reaction is a kinetic resolution and thus the yields are never higher than 50% this approach is overall more efficient. No acylation step is necessary and the atom efficiency is thus much higher. A drawback is that the racemisation has to be performed via the Schiff s base of the D-amide (Scheme 6.23). 

The enzymes of the nucleic acid metabolism are used for several industrial processes. Related to the nucleobase metabolism is the breakdown of hydantoins. The application of these enzymes on a large scale has recently been reviewed [85]. The first step in the breakdown of hydantoins is the hydrolysis of the imide bond. Most of the hydantoinases that catalyse this step are D-selective and they accept many non-natural substrates [78, 86]. The removal of the carbamoyl group can also be catalysed by an enzyme a carbamoylase. The D-selective carbamoylases show wide substrate specificity [85] and their stereoselectivity helps improving the overall enantioselectivity of the process [34, 78, 85]. Genetic modifications have made them industrially applicable [87]. Fortunately hydantoins racemise readily at pH >8 and additionally several racemases are known that can catalyze this process [85, 88]. This means that the hydrolysis of hydantoins is always a dynamic kinetic resolution with yields of up to 100% (Scheme 6.25). Since most hydantoinases are D-selective the industrial application has so far concentrated on D-amino acids. Since 1995 Kaneka Corporation has produced 2000 tons/year of D-p-hydroxyphenylglycine with a D-hydantoinase, a d-carbamoylase [87] and a base-catalysed racemisation [85, 89]. 

The amino acid synthesis from Strecker has been known since 1850 [25]. Stereoselective versions of this synthesis start with chiral amines, which are condensed with carbonyl compounds to form imines. Addition of hydrogen cyanide and subsequent hydrolysis of the amino nitriles yields the amino acids. When ketones are used for the condensation, a-alkylated amino acids are obtained in high yields and optical purities... 

---