Amino acid proline

The most successful of the Lewis acid catalysts are oxazaborolidines prepared from chiral amino alcohols and boranes. These compounds lead to enantioselective reduction of acetophenone by an external reductant, usually diborane. The chiral environment established in the complex leads to facial selectivity. The most widely known example of these reagents is derived from the amino acid proline. Several other examples of this type of reagent have been developed, and these will be discussed more completely in Section 5.2 of part B. 

Synthetic experiments have established the constitution of the polypeptide and the succession of the amino-acids, proline being always at the distal end and the second amino-acid in the middle. 

Since most often the selective formation of just one stereoisomer is desired, it is of great importance to develop highly selective methods. For example the second step, the aldol reaction, can be carried out in the presence of a chiral auxiliary—e.g. a chiral base—to yield a product with high enantiomeric excess. This has been demonstrated for example for the reaction of 2-methylcyclopenta-1,3-dione with methyl vinyl ketone in the presence of a chiral amine or a-amino acid. By using either enantiomer of the amino acid proline—i.e. (S)-(-)-proline or (/ )-(+)-proline—as chiral auxiliary, either enantiomer of the annulation product 7a-methyl-5,6,7,7a-tetrahydroindan-l,5-dione could be obtained with high enantiomeric excess. a-Substituted ketones, e.g. 2-methylcyclohexanone 9, usually add with the higher substituted a-carbon to the Michael acceptor ... 

Reductive animations also occur in various biological pathways, fn the biosynthesis of the amino acid proline, for instance, glutamate 5-semjaldehyde undergoes internal imine formation to give 1-pyrrolinium 5-carboxylate, which is then reduced by nucleophilic addition of hydride ion to the C=N bond. 

The amino acids proline and hydroxyproline exert a stabilizing influence on the triple helix as described in detail in Sect. 4.5. By examining the CB peptides of collagen, a structural stability which is directly proportional to the itnino acid content may thus be found. It has, however, not been possible to synthesize model peptides displaying structural stability comparable to that of the native peptides having corresponding amino acid contents. 

Catalytic Enantioselective Reduction of Ketones. An even more efficient approach to enantioselective reduction is to use a chiral catalyst. One of the most developed is the oxazaborolidine 18, which is derived from the amino acid proline.148 The enantiomer is also available. These catalysts are called the CBS-oxazaborolidines. 

Dipolar cycloadditions of the unusual dipolarophiles 9-arylidenefluorenes 446 with the dipoles generated from isatin 432a and cyclic amino acid proline 433a were carried out under four different conditions to yield a series of novel dispiro oxindole derivatives 50a-f via [3+2] cycloaddition (Scheme 100) <2002T8981>. 

Herbivores that commonly feed on tannin-rich plants have evolved interesting methods to lessen the effect of ingested tannins on their digestive systems. For example, the salivary proteins of rabbits and other rodents are high in the amino acid proline, which has a very high affinity for tannins. Eating food high in tannins stimulates the secretion of these proteins and diminishes the toxic effect of the tannins. 

So what does this magical molecule do Actually, it does two things, one rather more crystalline clear than the other. The crystal clear thing that ascorbic acid does is act as coenzyme for an enzyme known as prolyl hydroxylase. This enzyme catalyzes the conversion of the amino acid proline to hydroxyproline, a major, if exotic, amino acid in the structural protein collagen ... 

Vitamin C is essential for the formation of collagen, the principal structural protein in skin, bone, tendons, and ligaments, being a cofactor in the hydroxylation of the amino acids proline to 4-hydroxyproline, and of lysine to 5-hydroxylysine. These hydroxyamino acids account for up to 25% of the collagen structure. Vitamin C is also associated with some other hydroxylation reactions, e.g. the hydroxylation of tyrosine to dopa (dihydroxyphenylalanine) in the pathway to catecholamines (see Box 15.3). Deficiency leads to scurvy, a condition characterized by muscular pain, skin lesions, fragile blood vessels, bleeding gums, and tooth loss. Vitamin C also has valuable antioxidant properties (see Box 9.2), and these are exploited commercially in the food industries. 

Many of the simple heterocycles occur naturally within human biochemistry. For example, the amino acids proline, histidine, and tryptophan contain, respectively, a pyrrolidine, an imidazole, and an indole ring. The nucleic acids contain purine and pyrimidine rings. Vitamins are heterocyclic compounds vitamin Bg (8.8) is a substituted pyridine vitamin Bj (8.9) contains a pyrimidine ring. Simple heterocycles are therefore important to human biochemistry and thus to drug design. 

The earliest report on such lactim ether formation was from Sammes [72JCS(P1)2494], who converted piperazine-2,5-dione to 2,5-diethoxy-3,6-dihydropyrazine (173) with an excess of triethyloxonium fluoroborate. Subsequently, Rajappa and Advani (73T1299) converted proline-based piperazine-2,5-diones into the corresponding monolactim ethers. The starting material was a piperazinedione in which one of the amino acid units was the secondary amino acid proline, and the other a primary amino acid. This naturally led to the regiospecific formation of a monolactim ether (169) (on O-alkylation) from the secondary amide, whereas the tertiary amide remained intact. This was later extended to piperazine-2,5-diones in which the secondary amino acid was sarcosine [74JCS(P 1)2122], leading to the monolactim ethers (170). 

These alkaloids contain pyrrole or modified pyrrole, e.g. pyrrolidine, ring system. The simplest example of this class is nicotine. A pyrrolidine ring is the central structure of the amino acids proline and hydroxyproline. These alkaloids are also found in many drug preparations, e.g. procyclidine hydrochloride, which is an antichohnergic drug mainly used for the treatment of drug-induced Parkinsonism, akathisia and acute dystonia. 

Based on the properties of the side chains, the 20 amino acids can be put into six general classes. The first class contains amino acids whose side chains are aliphatic, and is usually considered to include glycine, alanine, valine, leucine, and isoleucine. The second class is composed of the amino acids with polar, nonionic side chains, and includes serine, threonine, cysteine, and methionine. The cyclic amino acid proline (actually, an imino acid) constitutes a third class by itself. The fourth class contains amino acids with aromatic side chains tyrosine, phenylalanine, and tryptophan. The fifth class has basic groups on the side chains and is made up of the three amino acids lysine, arginine, and histidine. The sixth class is composed of the acidic amino acids and their amides aspartate and asparagine, and glutamate and glutamine. 

The saga of efficient enantioselective catalysis by the amino acid proline continues. Nearly simultaneously, Dave MacMillan of Caltech and Yujiro Hayashi of the Tokyo University of Science reported (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 125 10808,2003 Tetrahedron Lett. 44 8293, 2003) that exposure of an aldehyde 1 or ketone 4 to nitrosobenzene and catalytic proline gives the examination products 2 and 5 in excellent yield and . Reduction of 2 is reported to give the terminal diol 3 in 98% . The N-O bond can also be reduced with CuSO,. The importance of prompt publication is underlined by these two publications - the MacMillan paper was submitted in July, and the Hayashi paper in August. 

Quantitation of the amino acids proceeds through the postcolumn reaction with ninhydrin at 120-135°C, yielding a purple complex for the primary amino acids (absorbance measured at 570 nm) and a yellow complex for the amino acids proline and hydroxyproline (absorbance at 440 nm). 

FIGURE 3-2 General structure of an amino acid. This structure is common to all but one of the a-amino acids. (Proline, a cyclic amino acid, is the exception.) The R group or side chain (red) attached to the a carbon (blue) is different in each amino acid. 

The carbon skeletons of five amino acids (proline, glutamate, glutamine, arginine, and histidine) enter the citric acid cycle as a-ketoglutarate (Fig. 18-26). Proline, glutamate, and glutamine have five-carbon skeletons. The cyclic structure of proline is opened by oxidation... 

Write the chemical reactions whose equilibrium constants are Kbl and Kb2 for the amino acid proline. Find the values of Kbl and Kbl. 

The soluble enzyme system responsible for its synthesis contains a large 280-kDa protein that not only activates the amino acids as aminoacyl adenylates and transfers them to thiol groups of 4 -phosphopantetheine groups covalently attached to the enzyme but also serves as a template for joining the amino acids in proper sequence.211-214 Four amino acids—proline, valine, ornithine (Om), and leucine—are all bound. 

A large number of 13C NMR studies on proline derivatives and proline peptides have appeared in the literature [815-830]. As the electron charge density of cis-proline carbons is different from that of franx-prolinc carbons, these isomers can be differentiated by nCNMR spectroscopy [826, 830]. On the basis of calculations Tonelli [831] predicted four conformations for the dipeptide Boc-Pro-Pro-OBzl, three of which could be detected by 13C NMR spectroscopy [826, 830], In proline-containing peptides the stereochemistry of the proline residue plays an important role for the conformation of these oligomers. The 13C chemical shift data of cis and trans proline derivatives, collected in Table 5.29, are useful to determine the stereochemistry of the amino acid-proline bond, e.g. in cyclo-(Pro-Gly)3, melanocyte-stimulating hormone release-inhibiting factor or thyrotropin-releasing hormone. 

Detection of amino acids is typically by UV absorption after postcolumn reaction with nin-hydrin. Precolumn derivatization with ninhydrin is not possible, because the amino acids do not actually form an adduct with the ninhydrin. Rather, the reaction of all primary amino acids results in the formation of a chromophoric compound named Ruhemann s purple. This chro-mophore has an absorption maximum at 570 nm. The secondary amino acid, proline, is not able to react in the same fashion and results in an intermediate reaction product with an absorption maximum at 440 nm. See Fig. 5. Detection limits afforded by postcolumn reaction with ninhydrin are typically in the range of over 100 picomoles injected. Lower detection limits can be realized with postcolumn reaction with fluorescamine (115) or o-phthalaldehyde (OPA) (116). Detection limits down to 5 picomoles are possible. However, the detection limits afforded by ninhydrin are sufficient for the overwhelming majority of applications in food analysis. 

Certain acidic and basic properties are common to all amino acids found in proteins except for the amino acid proline. 

HDF has been identified as reaction product of a thermal treatment of sugars, especially the 6-desoxy sugar rhamnose [90], Analysis of the free sugars in the LMW-fraction revealed fructose-1,6-biphosphate (FBP) as the predominating carbohydrate in the LMW fraction (5.75 g/kg yeast), but no rhamnose was present [88]. To elucidate the contribution of FBP as precursors of HDF in the yeast fraction, the sugar phosphate was thermally degraded under the same conditions as used for the LMW fraction of yeast. The results revealed FBP, as effective precursor of HDF in aqueous model systems at lower reaction temperatures (100°C Table 19). It should be stressed that additions of the amino acids proline or alanine did not increase the concentrations of HDF from the carbohydrates listed in Table 19 (unpublished results). The data implied that FBP which was the predominant carbohydrate in yeast, is the... 

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