Enantioselective amidation process

Irimescu and Kato have recently described an interesting example of enzymatic KR in ionic liquids instead of organic solvents (Scheme 7.4) [12]. The resolution with CALB is based on the fact that the reaction equilibrium was shifted toward the amide synthesis by the removal of water under reduced pressure. Nonsolvent systems have been also employed in this enantioselective amidation processes, reacting racemic amines with aliphatic acids. The best reaction conditions for the conversion of acids to amides was observed using CALB at 90 °C under vacuum. Meanwhile, no... 

Magnesium amides have also found good utility in enantioselective deprotonation processes. A range of chiral amines has been prepared by Henderson and coworkers and it was found after conversion to their Mg-bisamide derivatives that it react with 4- and 2,6-substituted cyclohexanones with good to excellent selectivities (see Section m). Structures of some chiral magnesium amides are given in Chart 1. 

There are two distinct classes of enzymes that hydrolyze nitriles. Nittilases (EC 3.5.5. /) hydrolyze nittiles directiy to corresponding acids and ammonia without forming the amide. In fact, amides are not substrates for these enzymes. Nittiles also may be first hydrated by nittile hydratases to yield amides which are then converted to carboxyUc acid with amidases. This is a two-enzyme process, in which enantioselectivity is generally exhibited by the amidase, rather than the hydratase. 

In an indirect amination process, acyl halides are converted to amino acids. Reaction of the acyl halide with a chiral oxazolidinone leads to a chiral amide, which reacts with the N=N unit of a dialkyl azodicarboxylate [R"02C—N=N—CO2R ]. Hydrolysis and catalytic hydrogenation leads to an amino acid with good enantioselectivity. ... 

Whilst the addition of a chiral NHC to a ketene generates a chiral azolium enolate directly, a number of alternative strategies have been developed that allow asymmetric reactions to proceed via an enol or enolate intermediate. For example, Rovis and co-workers have shown that chiral azolium enolate species 225 can be generated from a,a-dihaloaldehydes 222, with enantioselective protonation and subsequent esterification generating a-chloroesters 224 in excellent ee (84-93% ee). Notably, in this process a bulky acidic phenol 223 is used as a buffer alongside an excess of an altemativephenoliccomponentto minimise productepimerisation (Scheme 12.48). An extension of this approach allows the synthesis of enantiomericaUy emiched a-chloro-amides (80% ee) [87]. 

Kanegafuchi Chemical Industries produce D-p-hydroxyphenyl glycine, which is a key raw material for the semisynthetic penicillins ampicillin and amoxycillin. Here, an enantioselective hydantoinase is applied to convert the hydantoin to the D-p-hydroxyphenyl glycine. The quantitative conversion of the amide hydrolysis is achieved because of the in situ racemization of the unreacted hydantoins. Under the conditions of enzymatic hydrolysis, the starting material readily racemizes. Therefore, this process enables the stereospecific preparation of various amino acids at a conversion of 100% [38]. 

Hodgson DM, Stent MAH (2003) Overview of Organolithium-Ligand Combinations and Lithium Amides for Enantioselective Processes. 5 1-20 Hodgson DM, Tomooka K, Gras E (2003) Enantioselective Synthesis by Lithiation Adjacent to Oxygen and Subsequent Rearrangement. 5 217-250... 

Hodgson DM, Stent MAH (2003) Overview of Organolithium-Ligand Combinations and Lithium Amides for Enantioselective Processes. 5 1-20... 

In a related process, Johnson and co-workers have developed an asymmetric metallophosphite-catalyzed intermolecular Stetter-hke reaction employing acyl silanes [81, 82], Acyl silanes are effective aldehyde surrogates which are capable of forming an acyl anion equivalent after a [l,2]-Brook rearrangement. The authors have taken advantage of this concept to induce the catalytic enantioselective synthesis of 1,4-dicarbonyls 118 in 89-97% ee and good chemical yields for a,p-unsaturated amides (Table 11). Enantioselectivities may be enhanced by recrystallization. 

Advantageously, in the context of subsequent synthetic manipulation, the acylated products in these processes are carbamates (rather than amides). Fu proposed a mechanistic pathway that involves rapid initial reaction of the catalyst with the 0-carbonyloxyazlactone to form an ion pair, followed by slow transfer of the methoxycarbonyl group from this ion-pair to the amine in the enantioselectivity determining step (Fig. 6) [99]. 

Although modest, the results obtained with nonracemic lithium dialkylamides demonstrated the feasibility of such enantioselective transformations and important work has been undertaken from this date to improve both the yield and the ee values as well as developing a catalytic process. With this objective, both the use of homochiral lithium amide (HCLA) bases and organolithium-homochiral ligand complexes have been explored. This field has been extensively reviewed " and the following section presents a selection of the most outstanding results and recent developments. 

One way to gain fast access to complex stmctures are multicomponent reactions (MCRs), of which especially the isocyanide-based MCRs are suitable to introduce peptidic elements, as the isonitrile usually ends up as an amide after the reaction is complete. Here the Ugi-4 component reaction (Ugi CR) is the most suitable one as it introduces two amide bonds to form an M-alkylated dipeptide usually (Fig. 2). The Passerini-3CR produces a typical element of depsipeptides with ester and amide in succession, and the Staudinger-3CR results in p-lactams. The biggest unsolved problem in all these MCRs is, however, that it is stUl close to impossible to obtain products with defined stereochemistry. On the other hand, this resistance, particularly of the Ugi-reaction, to render diastereo- and enantioselective processes allows the easy and unbiased synthesis of libraries with all stereoisomers present, usually in close to equal amounts. 

This process was developed in order to synthesize unnatural a-amino acids. Naturally occurring, enantiomerically pure amino acids, as well as achiral glycine, have been used as starting materials in order to enantioselectively introduce a-substituents1 14. The resulting cyclic esters and amides have been alkylated and subjected to aldol reactions1-14. 

Nitrene transfer to selenide is also possible. Catalytic asymmetric induction in this process has been studied with Cu(OTf)/bis(oxazoline) catalyst (Scheme 22). When prochiral selenide 206 and TsN=IPh are allowed to react in the presence of Cu(OTf)/chiral bis(oxazoline) 122b, selenimide 207 is obtained with enantioselectivity of 20-36% ee. When arylcinnamyl selenide 208 is applied to this reaction, corresponding selenimide 209 is produced which undergoes [2,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement to afford chiral allylic amides 211 in up to 30% ee. 

Enzyme-based processes for the resolution of chiral amines have been widely reported [2, 3] and are used in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, for example, BASF s process for chiral benzylic amine intermediates. Scheme 13.1 [4]. The methods used are enantioselective hydrolysis of an amide and enantioselective synthesis of an amide, both of which are kinetic resolutions. For high optical purity products the processes depend upon a large difference in the catalyzed reaction rates of each enantiomer. 

Baker s yeast reduction of organic compounds, especially carbonyl compounds, is an extremely useful method of obtaining chiral products255-257. Recently, much effort has been expended to improve the ee obtained in this process. In one very useful example, l-acetoxy-2-alkanones have been reduced enantioselectively into (5 )-l-acetoxy-2-alkanols in 60-90% yields and with 95-99% ee258. The reaction readily occurs in a variety of solvents, both aqueous and nonaqueous. The reduction is fairly selective and so may be brought about in the presence of a-amide, ether, ester and other acid functional groups, in reasonable yields and with excellent ee (equation 65)259 -261. Thus, in the synthesis of the C-13 side chain of taxol, the key step was the reduction of a w-ketoester to the corresponding alcohol in 72% overall yield (equation 66)262. 

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