Cysteine, reaction with cations

Scott Oakes et al. (1999a, b) have shown how adoption of SC conditions can lead to a dramatic pressure-dependent enhancement of diastereoselectivity. In the case of sulphoxidation of cysteine derivatives with rert-butyl hydroperoxide, with cationic ion-exchange resin Amberlyst-15 as a catalyst, 95% de was realized at 40 °C and with SC CO2. By contrast, with conventional solvents no distereoselectivity was observed. Another example is the Diels-Alder reaction of acrylates with cyclopentadiene in SC CO2 at 50 °C, with scandium tris (trifluoromethanesulphonate) as a Lewis acid catalyst. The endoiexo ratio of the product was as high as 24 1, while in a solvent like toluene it was only 10 1. 

Nitrate is frequently measured using the Griess reagent as an index of NO produced. NO itself participates in both reduction and oxidation reactions. Single electron reduction of NO yields the nitroxyl anion, whereas oxidation reactions yield the nitrosonium cation and N2O3+, via autoxidation. Both the NO radical and nitrosonium cation can be involved in direct reactions with biological systems, specifically with amino acid residues such as cysteine, with the resultant production of nitrosothiols (see later). 

Of those in common usage, the 2-chlorotrityl 28 [74] and 4-carboxytrityl 29 [75] linkers give the least stabilized cations and are suitable for immobilization of carboxylic acids. They are ideal for Fmoc/tBu-based SPPS as their use avoids many of the side reactions that occur with standard benzyl-based linkers. Firstly, race-mization does not occur during loading of the resin with the C-terminal residue [79], as is the case with esterification to hydroxy-functionalized resins. Secondly, the bulky trityl cation does not cause alkylation side reactions with nucleophilic amino-acid side-chains. Thirdly, cysteine does not undergo racemization [80, 81]... 

Alternatively many thioether derivatives of cysteine and other thiols have been prepared by reaction of the thiol group with a cation generated from the corresponding alcohol, olefin, or halide. For example, treatment of iV-phthaloyl-L-cysteine (2) with isobutylene using a sulfuric acid catalyst provided a... 

L-Cysteine is a high value a-amino acid used world-wide in a scale of 1200-15001 year-1 as additive in foodstuffs, cosmetics or as intermediate or active agent (as antidote to several snake venoms) in the pharmaceutical industry. Chemical routes generally lack the efficiency of electrochemical techniques, or they produce mixtures of l- and d- forms rather than the L-isomer. The most common electrochemical route is the cathodic reduction of L-Cystine in acid (usually HC1) solution to produce the stable hydrochloride. In Table 10, the charateristic data for a laboratory bench, laboratory pilot and a product pilot reaction using a DEM filter press are compared [13]. A production scale study was carried out in a filterpress reactor divided by a cation exchange membrane with a total area of 10.5 m2. The typical product inventory was 450 kg/24-hour batch time. For more details see Ref. [13]. 

FIGURE 5.22 (A) Reaction of an Fmoc-amino acid with 2-chlorotrityl chloride resin.56 The ester bond formed is cleavable by the mild acid, which does not affect tert-butyl-based protectors. (B) Generation of a protected peptide containing cystine by detachment of a chain, deprotection of cysteine residues, and oxidation of the sulfhydryls by the reagent containing iodine. The cations produced are trapped by CF3CH2OH. 

A reasonable mechanism for the iodine oxidation of 5-Trt cysteine peptides is given in Scheme 6. 45 Reaction of iodine with the divalent sulfur atom leads to the iodosulfonium ion 5 which is then transformed to the sulfenyl iodide 6 and the trityl cation. Sulfenyl iodides are also postulated as intermediates in the iodine oxidation of thiols to disulfides. The disulfide bond is then formed by disproportionation of two sulfenyl iodides or by reaction between the electrophilic sulfur atom of R -S-I and the nucleophilic S-atom of a second R -S-Trt molecule. The proposed mechanism suggests that any sulfur substitution (i.e., thiol protecting group) capable of forming a stabilized species on cleavage, such as the trityl cation, can be oxidatively cleaved by iodine. 

The proposed mechanism of the oxidative cleavage of S-protecting groups by the chlorosilane/sulfoxide procedure is outlined in Scheme 8. 95 The first reaction is considered to be formation of the sulfonium cation 9 from diphenyl sulfoxide (7) and the oxygenophilic silyl compound 8. The formation of a sulfonium ion of this type is known and has been utilized for the reduction of sulfoxides. 97 Subsequent electrophilic attack of 9 on the sulfur atom of the S-protected cysteine residue leads to the formation of intermediate 10, whereby the nature of the silyl chloride employed should be the main factor that influences the electrophilicity of 9. The postulated intermediate 10 may then act as the electrophile and react with another S-protected cysteine residue to generate the disulfide 11 and the inert byproduct diphenyl sulfide (12). This final step is analogous to the reaction of a sulfenyl iodide as discussed in Section 6.1.1.2.1. 

The active sites of these enzymes can have a nitrogen ligand, usually as histidine (acid phosphatases and some protein phosphatases), a nucleophilic serine residue (alkaline phosphatases), a cysteine residue in which the thiol group can form a covalent species with the phosphate ester (protein phosphatases), or an aspartate-linked phosphate (plasma membrane ion pumps). The inhibitory form of vanadium is usually anionic vanadate V(V), but cationic vanadyl V(IV) has also shown strong inhibition of some types of phosphorylase reactions. Above neutral pH, speciation of vanadyl ions produces anionic V(IV) species capable of inhibition of enzymes in the traditional transition-state analogue manner [5],... 

---