Carboxylic aminolysis

Condensa.tlon, A variety of condensation reactions involving the hydroxyl or the carboxyl or both groups occur with lactic acid. The important reactions where products can be obtained ia high yields are esterificatioa (both iatramolecular and with another alcohol or acid), dehydration, and aminolysis. 

There are two basic strategies for enzyme-catalyzed peptide synthesis equiUbrium- and kineticaHy controlled synthesis. The former is the direct reversal of proteolysis and involves the condensation of an amino component with unactivated carboxyl component. The latter proceeds by the aminolysis of an activated peptide ester. 

The aminolysis of esters of pyrimidine occurs normally to yield amides. The reagent is commonly alcoholic ammonia or alcoholic amine, usually at room temperature for 20-24 hours, but occasionally under refiux aqueous amine or even undiluted amine are used sometimes. The process is exemplified in the conversion of methyl pyrimidine-5-carboxylate (193 R = Me) or its 4-isomer by methanolic ammonia at 25 °C into the amide (196) or pyrimidine-4-carboxamide, respectively (60MI21300), and in the butylaminolysis of butyl ttracil-6-carboxylate (butyl orotate) by ethanolic butylamine to give A-butyluracil-5-carboxamide (187) (60JOC1950). Hydrazides are made similarly from esters with ethanolic hydrazine hydrate. 

The efficiency of this method was demonstrated by the elegant two-step synthesis of aspartame [87], Protection of the a-amino group and activation of the a-carboxylic group are accomplished in only one step Deprotection of the amino functionality occurs during aminolysis, such as with methyl phenylalaninate (H-Phe-OMe in equation 15)... 

The most common reactions of carboxylic acid derivatives are substitution by water (hydrolysis) to yield an acid, by an alcohol (alcoholysis) to yield an ester, by an amine (aminolysis) to yield an amide, by hydride ion to yield an alcohol (reduction), and by an organometallic reagent to yield an alcohol (Grignard reaction). 

Although the aminolysis of esters to amides is auseful synthetic operation, usually it presents some disadvantages in terms of drastic reaction conditions, long reaction times or strong alkali metal as catalyst, which are usually not compatible with other functional groups in the molecule [6]. For this reason, enzymatic aminolysis of carboxylic acid derivatives offers a clean and ecological way for the preparation of different kind of amines and amides in a regio-, chemo-, and enantioselective manner. 

Although, the enzymatic reaction of esters with amines or ammonia have been well documented, the corresponding aminolysis with carboxylic acids are rarer, because of the tendency of the reactants to form unreactive salts. For this reason some different strategies have been used to avoid this problem. Normally, this reaction has been used for the preparation of amides of industrial interest, for instance, one of the most important amides used in the polymer industry like oleamide has been produced by enzymatic amidation of oleic acid with ammonia and CALB in different organic solvents [10]. 

Thus, the family of azolides represents a versatile system of reagents with graduated reactivity, as will be shown in the following section by a comparison of kinetic data. Subsequent chapters will then demonstrate that this reactivity gradation is found as well for alcoholysis to esters, aminolysis to amides and peptides, hydrazinolysis, and a great variety of other azolide reactions. The preparative value of azolides is not limited to these acyl-transfer reactions, however. For example, azolides offer new synthetic routes to aldehydes and ketones via carboxylic acid azolides. In all these reactions it is of special value that the transformation of carboxylic acids to their azolides is achieved very easily in most cases the azolides need not even be isolated (Chapter 2). 

For the mechanism of azolide hydrolysis under specific conditions like, for example, in micelles,[24] in the presence of cycloamyloses,[25] or transition metals,[26] see the references noted and the literature cited therein. Thorough investigation of the hydrolysis of azolides is certainly important for studying the reactivity of those compounds in chemical and biochemical systems.[27] On the other hand, from the point of view of synthetic chemistry, interest is centred instead on die potential for chemical transformations e.g., alcoholysis to esters, aminolysis to amides or peptides, acylation of carboxylic acids to anhydrides and of peroxides to peroxycarboxylic acids, as well as certain C-acylations and a variety of other preparative applications. 

Based on earlier experiences ring opening of the pyridine moiety in methyl 4-tetrazolo[l,5- ]pyridine carboxylate 70 on reaction with allylamine was predicted by Okawa et al. <1997T16061> (Scheme 19). Instead of the expected major structural change, however, a routine aminolysis was found to yield the allylamide 71. 

Dimethyl allene-l,3-dicarboxylate 476 can react with a variety of nucleophiles with an N=C-NH2 substructure to afford monocyclic or bicyclic compounds 501. In this reaction the iminyl nitrogen first attacks the center carbon atom of the allene moiety to afford 3-amino-4-(methoxycarbonyl)-2-butenoate, in which the other nitrogen atom and the conjugated carboxylate undergo an aminolysis reaction to afford the cyclic product [226],... 

St. Pierre and Jencks, 1968. The reference intermolecular reaction is the carboxylate-catalysed aminolysis of phenyl acetate, corrected for the pK, of the general base... 

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