Amino unnatural

En me Mechanism. Staphylococcal nuclease (SNase) accelerates the hydrolysis of phosphodiester bonds in nucleic acids (qv) some 10 -fold over the uncatalyzed rate (r93 and references therein). Mutagenesis studies in which Glu43 has been replaced by Asp or Gin have shown Glu to be important for high catalytic activity. The enzyme mechanism is thought to involve base catalysis in which Glu43 acts as a general base and activates a water molecule that attacks the phosphodiester backbone of DNA. To study this mechanistic possibiUty further, Glu was replaced by two unnatural amino acids. 

Resolution of Racemic Amines and Amino Acids. Acylases (EC3.5.1.14) are the most commonly used enzymes for the resolution of amino acids. Porcine kidney acylase (PKA) and the fungaly3.spet i//us acylase (AA) are commercially available, inexpensive, and stable. They have broad substrate specificity and hydrolyze a wide spectmm of natural and unnatural A/-acyl amino acids, with exceptionally high enantioselectivity in almost all cases. Moreover, theU enantioselectivity is exceptionally good with most substrates. A general paper on this subject has been pubUshed (106) in which the resolution of over 50 A/-acyl amino acids and analogues is described. Also reported are the stabiUties of the enzymes and the effect of different acyl groups on the rate and selectivity of enzymatic hydrolysis. Some of the substrates that are easily resolved on 10—100 g scale are presented in Figure 4 (106). Lipases are also used for the resolution of A/-acylated amino acids but the rates and optical purities are usually low (107). 

Polypeptides. These are a string of a-amino acids usually with the natural 5(L) [L-cysteine is an exception and has the R absolute configuration] or sometimes "unnatural" 7f(D) configuration at the a-carbon atom. They generally have less than -100 amino acid residues. They can be naturally occurring or, because of their small size, can be synthesised chemically from the desired amino acids. Their properties can be very similar to those of small proteins. Many are commercially available, can be custom made commercially or locally with a peptide synthesiser. They are purified by HPLC and can be used without further purification. Their purity can be checked as described under proteins. 

Amino acid separations represent another specific application of the technology. Amino acids are important synthesis precursors - in particular for pharmaceuticals -such as, for example, D-phenylglycine or D-parahydroxyphenylglycine in the preparation of semisynthetic penicillins. They are also used for other chiral fine chemicals and for incorporation into modified biologically active peptides. Since the unnatural amino acids cannot be obtained by fermentation or from natural sources, they must be prepared by conventional synthesis followed by racemate resolution, by asymmetric synthesis, or by biotransformation of chiral or prochiral precursors. Thus, amino acids represent an important class of compounds that can benefit from more efficient separations technology. 

In subsequent studies,22 Sheehan et al. demonstrated that the action of diisopropylcarbodiimide on penicilloate 24, prepared by protection of the free primary amino group in 23 with trityl chloride (see Scheme 6b), results in the formation of the desired -lactam 25 in a very respectable yield of 67 %. In this most successful transformation, the competing azlactonization reaction is prevented by the use of a trityl group (Ph3C) to protect the C-6 amino function. Hydrogenolysis of the benzyl ester function in 25, followed by removal of the trityl protecting group with dilute aqueous HC1, furnishes 6-aminopenicillanic acid (26), a versatile intermediate for the synthesis of natural and unnatural penicillins. 

The substrate scope is limited, as electron-withdrawing groups (X = p-N02 or p-CF3) on the aromatic substituent are not tolerated. However, this route does provide valuable intermediates to unnatural a-amino phosphonic acid analogues and the sulfimine can readily be oxidized to the corresponding sulfonamide, thereby providing an activated aziridine for further manipulation, or it can easily be removed by treatment with a Grignard reagent. 

Aziridine lactone 235 (Scheme 3.87) underwent ring-opening with allyl alcohol to give a 53% yield of a-amino lactone 236, which was successfully transformed to the unnatural enantiomer of polyoxamic acid (—)-237 [32],... 

Photodriven reactions of Fischer carbenes with alcohols produces esters, the expected product from nucleophilic addition to ketenes. Hydroxycarbene complexes, generated in situ by protonation of the corresponding ate complex, produced a-hydroxyesters in modest yield (Table 15) [103]. Ketals,presumably formed by thermal decomposition of the carbenes, were major by-products. The discovery that amides were readily converted to aminocarbene complexes [104] resulted in an efficient approach to a-amino acids by photodriven reaction of these aminocarbenes with alcohols (Table 16) [105,106]. a-Alkylation of the (methyl)(dibenzylamino)carbene complex followed by photolysis produced a range of racemic alanine derivatives (Eq. 26). With chiral oxazolidine carbene complexes optically active amino acid derivatives were available (Eq. 27). Since both enantiomers of the optically active chromium aminocarbene are equally available, both the natural S and unnatural R amino acid derivatives are equally... 

Two aPNAs were used in this study, L-CTCCT(b2) as well as its antipode D-CTCCT(b2) made up of unnaturally configured amino acids. A control peptide lacking nucleobases, Ac-Trp-Cys " -Lys-Ser-(Ala2-Lys-Ser)4-Gly-Lys-NH2, was also... 

This route has been widely exploited because of the availability of a-amino azomethine compoimds from natural (S)-a-amino acids, through the corresponding a-amino aldehydes, which are configurationally stable provided that the amino function is suitably protected. Moreover, some a-amino acids are available with the R configuration and a number of enzymatic and chemical transformations have been described for the preparation of optically active unnatural a-amino acids. Overall, the route suffers from the additional steps required for protection/deprotection of the amino function and, in the case of hydrazones and nitrones, cleavage of the N - N or N - O bond. 

A polynucleoside with an unnatural polymeric backbone was synthesized by SBP-catalyzed oxidative polymerization of thymidine 5 -p-hydroxyphenylacetate. Chemoenzymafic synthesis of a new class of poly(amino acid), poly(tyrosine) containing no peptide bonds, was achieved by the peroxidase-catalyzed oxidative polymerization of tyrosine ethyl esters, followed by alkaline hydrolysis. Amphiphile higher alkyl ester derivatives were also polymerized in... 

More recently, catalytic asymmetric allylations of imines and imine derivatives in aqueous media have been studied. An /V-spiro C2-symmetrical chiral quaternary ammonium salt (5,5)-I-Br (,S, .S )-()-Np-NAS-Br] has been evaluated in the allylation of glycine tert-Bu ester benzophenone Schiff base [Ph2C=NCH2COOCMe3] for synthesis of both natural and unnatural a-amino acids (Eq. 11,45).76... 

Pyroglutamic acid is a useful starting material for the synthesis of several natural products, such as pyrrolidine alkaloids, kainoids, and other unnatural amino acids. Interesting chemose-lective Michael additions of anions derived from pyroglutamates have been reported (see Eqs. 4.54 and 4.55).69... 

Fotheringham, I., Archer, I., Carr, R. et al. (2006) Preparative deracemization of unnatural amino acids. Biochemical Society Transactions, 34 (2), 287-290. 

Strpmgaard, A. Jensen, A. A. Strpmgaard, K., Site-specific incorporation of unnatural amino acids into proteins, ChemBioChem 2004, J, 909-916. 

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