Amino acids from diketopiperazines

On the other hand, the esters of the polypeptides are of the greatest importance and they are prepared by the action of alcoholic hydrochloric acid. Hydrolysis of the polypeptide does not occur if prolonged heating be avoided, nor does hydrolysis occur when the esters are saponified by dilute cold caustic alkali. The esters have served in particular for the further synthesis of polypeptides and for the isolation of dipeptides from mixtures on treatment with alcoholic ammonia, the dipeptide esters are converted into their diketopiperazines. They are not soluble in petroleum ether and they are soluble with difficulty in ether, and they thus differ from amino acid esters. Chloroform dissolves them, and in this solvent their combination with acid chlorides has been generally effected. 

The smallest cyclic peptides built from amino acids are the so-called diketopiperazines (DKP). In recent research, the DKPs and higher functionalized analogs - the thiodiketopiperazines (TDKP) - have become attractive due to their broad biological activity (390). The DKP or TDKP moiety can be found in a great variety of mycotoxins. Both DKPs and TDKPs can, for example, be isolated from Aspergillus, Candida, Chaetomium, Gliocladium, Penicillium, and Verticillium species (7, 390). The most common structural motifs A-D of this class of compounds are depicted in Fig. 10.1. Many of these natural products show C2 symmetry, which means they consist of two identical amino acids (R = R in Fig. 10.1). 

For the preparation of the 2,5-diketopiperazines 9-57 and 1,4-benzodiazepine-2,5-diones 9-58, respectively, the isocyanide 9-54 was either treated with an aldehyde and an amino acid, or with an aldehyde and an anthranilic acid, to give either 9-55 or 9-56, using the conditions depicted in Scheme 9.11. Further transformations include liberation from the resin with KOtBu forming N-acyloxazolidones and treatment with NaOMe to afford the corresponding esters, which are then cy-clized to the desired products 9-57 and 9-58 under acidic conditions. 

The stepwise polymerisation of activated amino acids leads to the formation of activated dimers, which very often cyclise to diketopiperazines and are thus removed from the chain elongation process (Orgel, 1989). 

The most common bicyclic 5-6 system with one bridgehead N-O and one extra heteroatom described in the period covered in this chapter has been the diketopiperazine derived from proline as it is present in natural products, in biologically active synthetic molecules, and has been used as starting material for the preparation of conformationally constrained peptidomimetics. The classical approach to this class of molecule is the ring closing of the dipeptide derived from proline and another amino acid via nucleophilic attack of the NH2 to the activated carboxylic group. This method has been applied several times to prepare different diketopiperazines for different uses. 

Mycosporine and diketopiperazine types ofpeptides are typical of fimgi but are also found in other taxa, on land and in the sea. Their wide occurrence may be explained by the chemical propensity of amino acids to couple, forming these chemically stable rings (Chart 8.3.P). Similarity of metabolites from terrestrial and marine fungi (Chart 8.3.P) is no surprise in view of the commonness of marine-adapted fungi. 

Figure 15.17. Strategies for the preparation of diketopiperazines from support-bound a-amino acid derivatives.

Diazines other than diketopiperazines can also be prepared on insoluble supports (Table 15.31 see also Figure 3.13 [382]). Most strategies are based on intramolecular nucleophilic substitutions or acylations. Several examples of the solid-phase preparation of quinoxalinones have been reported. In most cases, the compounds have been prepared from support-bound 2-fluoronitrobenzenes according to the strategies outlined in Figure 15.18. Alternatively, a-amino acid esters bound to polystyrene as IV-benzyl derivatives can be N-arylated with 2-fluoronitrobenzene. Reduction of the resulting 2-nitroaniline leads to the formation of quinoxalinones [383]. 1,4-Diazines have been chemically modified by N- or C-alkylation on insoluble supports (Entries 9 and 10, Table 15.31). 

Among the six-membered ring heterocycles, diketopiperazines are most commonly prepared by cyclative cleavage. Indeed, diketopiperazine formation is often observed as an undesirable by-product during peptide synthesis20 and the facile nature of this cyclization makes it an obvious choice for library generation. In an early example from Pfizer,21 a set of 10 immobilized a-amino acids was reductively alkylated with 10 aldehydes, followed by acylation with 10 a-amino acids and cyclization (Fig. 6). By... 

The UDC concept can be further extended by application of ethyl glyoxylate (a convertible aldehyde ). Simple reaction of 48 in the Ugi MCR with /V-Boc anthranilic acids, /V-Boc-rt-amino acids, mono-A-Boc diamines, and niono-A-Boc phenylenediamines, followed by acid treatment and in some cases proton scavenging, affords 1,4-benzodiazepines 49, diketopiperazines 50, ketopiperazines 51, and dihydroquinoxalinones 52, respectively.25 Note that products differ from those obtained from convertible isocyanides in that they contain an additional exocyclic amide... 

This initial observation by Inoue et al. triggered intensive research in this area. Most of the efforts were dedicated to structural variation of the catalyst and to elucidation of the catalytic mechanism. With regard to the former, the many structural variations produced mainly confirmed 1 as the optimum catalyst. Variation of the aromatic amino acids involved [25, 26], side-chain methylation and/or modification [27], N-methylation [28], etc., all afforded catalysts of lower selectivity. In contrast, incorporation of a-Me-Phe led to diketopiperazines of activity and selectivity comparable with those derived from non-methylated Phe (for example 1) [29]. Similarly, attachment to Merrifield-resin or polysiloxane polymers proved detrimental to the enantioselectivity of the Inoue-catalyst 1 [30, 31]. Upon incorporation into a silicon based sol-gel glass matrix, however, the excellent enantioselectivity of the cyclic peptide 1 is preserved, and separation of the spent catalyst can easily be achieved by, e.g., filtration, centrifugation or simply decantation [32], Unfortunately, further catalytic cycles afforded much lower ee (ca. 30-35% max.) [32],... 

Diketopiperazines (the bimolecular self-condensation products of a-amino acids) also react with phosphoryl and phosphorus halides to give halopyrazines. Treatment of 2,5-diketo-3,6-dimethylpiperazine with phosphoryl chloride yields a mixture of 2-chloro- and 2,5-dichloro-3,6-dimethylpyrazines the monochloro compound is the predominant product [Eq. (14a)].134,135 Trichloropyrazine has been isolated from the reaction of triketopiperazine with phosphoryl chloride or phosphorus pentachloride [Eq. (15)].273... 

This article deals with results achieved with the 2,5-dimethoxy-3,6-dihydropyra-zines, the heterocycles of type I. Results obtained with the imidazolinones III are discussed elsewhere 6). At first glance the heterocycles I look rather esoteric. However, the yare nothing but the bis-lactim ethers of the well known 2,5-diketopiperazines, the cyclic dipeptides. — At first, experiments with the symmetrical bis-lactim-ether (6) of cyclo(L-Ala-L-Ala) (5) are described and then results with several mixed bis-lactimethers. Symmetrical bis-lactimethers — i.e. those, build up from two identical amino acids — do have one disadvantage, inherent in the system, namely, only one half of the chiral auxiliary is recovered, the other half is incorporated in the product. But they are easily prepared and, hence, are good models to commence a study. 

Trityl-based resins are highly acid-labile. The steric hindrance of the linker prevents diketopiperazine formation and the resins are recommended for Pro and Gly C-terminal peptides. Extremely mild acidolysis conditions enable the cleavage of protected peptide segments from the resin. These resins are commercially available as their chloride or alcohol precursors. The trityl chloride resin is extremely moisture-sensitive, so reagents and glassware should be carefully dried before use to avoid hydrolysis into the alcohol form. It is necessary to activate the trityl alcohol precursor and it is highly recommended to reactivate the chloride just before use see Note 4). After activation, attachment of the first residue occurs by reaction with the Fmoc amino acid derivative in the presence of a base. This reaction does not involve an activated species, so it is free from epimerization. Special precautions should be taken for Cys and His residues that are particularly sensitive to epimerization during activation (Table 2). 

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