Chiral stereoselectivity

The enhanced stereoselectivity obtained with peptide 19 confirms that conformational rigidity and, therefore, a more stable (i-hairpin conformation is an important requirement for a good chiral stereoselective catalyst (Figure 5.10). 

Within the last decade remarkable progress has been made with highly stereoselective addition reactions to C = C and C = 0 double bonds using chiral reagents. These reagents include ... 

The large sulfur atom is a preferred reaction site in synthetic intermediates to introduce chirality into a carbon compound. Thermal equilibrations of chiral sulfoxides are slow, and parbanions with lithium or sodium as counterions on a chiral carbon atom adjacent to a sulfoxide group maintain their chirality. The benzylic proton of chiral sulfoxides is removed stereoselectively by strong bases. The largest groups prefer the anti conformation, e.g. phenyl and oxygen in the first example, phenyl and rert-butyl in the second. Deprotonation occurs at the methylene group on the least hindered site adjacent to the unshared electron pair of the sulfur atom (R.R. Fraser, 1972 F. Montanari, 1975). 

Alkylation of aldol type educts, e.g., /3-hydroxy esters, using LDA and alkyl halides leads stereoselectively to erythro substitution. The erythro threo ratio of the products is of the order of 95 5. Allylic and benzylic bromides can also be used. The allyl groups can later be ozonolysed to gjve aldehydes, and many interesting oligofunctional products with two adjacent chiral centres become available from chiral aldol type educts (G. Prater, 1984 D. Seebach, 1984 see also M. Nakatsuka, 1990, p. 5586). 

Alcohols can be synthesized by the addition of carbanions to carbonyl compounds (W.C. Still, 1976) or epoxides. Both types of reactions often produce chiral centres, and stereoselectivity is an important aspect of these reactions. 

Open-chain 1,5-polyenes (e.g. squalene) and some oxygenated derivatives are the biochemical precursors of cyclic terpenoids (e.g. steroids, carotenoids). The enzymic cyclization of squalene 2,3-oxide, which has one chiral carbon atom, to produce lanosterol introduces seven chiral centres in one totally stereoselective reaction. As a result, organic chemists have tried to ascertain, whether squalene or related olefinic systems could be induced to undergo similar stereoselective cyclizations in the absence of enzymes (W.S. Johnson, 1968, 1976). 

Another possibility for asymmetric reduction is the use of chiral complex hydrides derived from LiAlH. and chiral alcohols, e.g. N-methylephedrine (I. Jacquet, 1974), or 1,4-bis(dimethylamino)butanediol (D. Seebach, 1974). But stereoselectivities are mostly below 50%. At the present time attempts to form chiral alcohols from ketones are less successful than the asymmetric reduction of C = C double bonds via hydroboration or hydrogenation with Wilkinson type catalysts (G. Zweifel, 1963 H.B. Kagan, 1978 see p. 102f.). 

Another example is a chiral olefinic alcohol, which is disconnected at the double bond by a refro-Wittig transform. In the resulting 4-hydroxypentanal we recognize again glutamic acid, if methods are available to convert regio- and stereoselectively... 

In stereoselective antitheses of chiral open-chain molecules transformations into cyclic precursors should be tried. The erythro-configurated acetylenic alcohol given below, for example, is disconnected into an acetylene monoanion and a symmetrical oxirane (M. A. Adams, 1979). Since nucleophilic substitution occurs with inversion of configuration this oxirane must be trens-conilgurated its precursor is commercially available trans-2-butene. 

A conceptually surprising and new route to prostaglandins was found and evaluated by C.R. Johnson in 1988. It involves the simple idea to add alkenylcopper reagents stereo-selectively to a protected chiral 4,5-dihydroxy-2-cyclopenten-l-one and to complete the synthesis of the trisubstituted cyclopentanone by stereoselective allylation of the resulting enolate. 

Recent syntheses of steroids apply efficient strategies in which open-chain or monocyclic educts with appropiate side-chains are stereoselectively cyclized in one step to a tri- or tetracyclic steroid precursor. These procedures mimic the biochemical synthesis scheme where acyclic, achiral squalene is first oxidized to a 2,3-epoxide containing one chiral carbon atom and then enzymatically cyclized to lanostetol with no less than seven asymmetric centres (W.S. Johnson, 1%8, 1976 E.E. van Tamden, 1968). 

Non-enzymatic cyclizations of educts containing chiral centres can lead to products with additional "asymmetric centres. The underlying effect is called "asymmetric induction . Its systematic exploration in steroid syntheses started when G. Saucy discovered in 1971 that a chiral carbon atom in a cyclic educt induces a stereoselective Torgov condensation several carbon atoms away (M. Rosenberger, 1971, 1972). 

Proton-catalyzed olefin cyclizations of open-chain educts may give tri- or tetracyclic products but low yields are typical (E.E. van Tamelen, 1968, 1977 see p. 91). More useful are cyclizations of monocyclic educts with appropriate side-chains. The chiral centre to which the chain is attached may direct the steric course of the cyclization, and several asymmetric centres may be formed stereoselectively since the cyclizations usually lead to traas-fused rings. 

Convincing evidence for oxidative addition by inversion has been presented by the reaction of chiral (5)-( )-3-acetoxy-l-phenyl-1-butene (4) with Pd(0)(dppe), followed by the treatment with NaBF4 to give optically active the TT-allylpalladium complex (l/ ,25,35) 5 with 81% stereoselectivity[19]. 

Stereoselective All lations. Ben2ene is stereoselectively alkylated with chiral 4-valerolactone in the presence of aluminum chloride with 50% net inversion of configuration (32). The stereoselectivity is explained by the coordination of the Lewis acid with the carbonyl oxygen of the lactone, resulting in the typ displacement at the C—O bond. Partial racemi2ation of the substrate (incomplete inversion of configuration) results by internal... 

Synthetic utility of stereoselective alkylations in natural product chemistry is exemplified by the preparation of optically active 2-arylglycine esters (38). Chirally specific a-amino acids with methoxyaryl groups attached to the a-carbon were prepared by reaction of the dimethyl ether of a chiral bis-lactam derivative with methoxy arenes. Using SnCl as the Lewis acid, enantioselectivities ranging from 65 to 95% were obtained. 

Astemi2ole (10) has further been modified into a series of 4-phenylcyclohexylamine compounds, resulting in the synthesis of cabastine, for example. Cabastine is a highly active compound and its geometric isomers are also active, demonstrating the stereoselectivity of histamine receptors toward chiral ligands. The > S, 4 R-levo antipode of cabastine was the most active, and therefore this isomer, levocabastine (13), has been chosen for further development. Because of high potency, levocabastine has been developed for topical appHcation such as eye drops and nasal spray. 

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