Hydantoins with nucleophiles

As would be expected, hydantoins and thiohydantoins can react with nucleophilic and electrophilic as well as with other types of reagents. 

Hydantoins can react with electrophiles at both nitrogen atoms and at C-5. The electrophilic carbonyl groups can be attacked by nucleophiles, leading to hydrolysis of the ring or to partial or total reduction of the carbonyl system. Other reactions are possible, including photochemical cleavage of the ring. 

The soluble polymer support was dissolved in dichloromethane and treated with 3 equivalents of chloroacetyl chloride for 10 min under microwave irradiation. The subsequent nucleophilic substitution utilizing 4 equivalents of various primary amines was carried out in N,N-dimethylformamide as solvent. The resulting PEG-bound amines were reacted with 3 equivalents of aryl or alkyl isothiocyanates in dichloromethane to furnish the polymer-bound urea derivatives after 5 min of micro-wave irradiation (Scheme 7.75). After each step, the intermediates were purified by simple precipitation with diethyl ether and filtration, so as to remove by-products and unreacted substrates. Finally, traceless release of the desired compounds by cyclative cleavage was achieved under mild basic conditions within 5 min of micro-wave irradiation. The 1,3-disubstituted hydantoins were obtained in varying yields but high purity. 

Peach et al. developed a general, racemization free, and high yield procedure for the synthesis of O-desyl peptide esters from the poorly nucleophilic benzoin.1261 Employing the cesium salt of the model dipeptide Z-Gly-Phe-OH in acetone the intramolecular hydantoin formation obtained in polar aprotic solvents, such as DMF and DMSO, can be suppressed and a high yield of Z-Gly-Phe-O-desyl with ee >90% can be generated. 261 ... 

A novel reaction of pyroglutamate (6) and an isocyanate promoted by NaH in THF leads to functionalized hydantoins (7) in good yields. The reaction involves the ring closure of intermediate (8) by a nucleophilic attack on the carbonyl of the ester function followed by expulsion of an alkoxide anion resulting in the formation of the bicyclic intermediate (9). The alkoxide anion in turn can open this bicyclic intermediate with formation of anions (10) and (11) leading to the final racemic hydantoins (7) (Scheme 3).8... 

The amino acid ester forms the hydantoin 33 with the isocyanate 41. The free amine 32 attacks the isocyanate carbon and the nucleophilic isocyanate nitrogen in 42 then reacts with the electrophilic ester moiety. The carbonate base prevents protonation of the amine. 

The hydantoin is deprotonated with the non-nucleophilic base LiHMDS. Thus, the nucleophilicity of the nitrogen is increased. It attacks the iodomethane in an SN-type reaction to give 1 in 94 % yield. 

Classical reactions involving nucleophiles such as saponification ("OH as the nucleophile), aminolysis (with amines also ammonia in ammonolysis reactions), transesterification (alkoxides, "OR) and others (hydrazinolysis, hydroxamic acid synthesis, etc.) have been adapted to solid phane and used to obtain, for instance, carboxylic acids, amides and esters. Internal or intramolecular nucleophilic attack has been employed to obtain cyclic products such as lactones, lactams (including cyclic peptides) and a great variety of heterocycles (hydantoins, diketopiperazines, benzodiazepinones, etc.). 

Condensation of urea with carbonyl compounds A rapid and efficient MW-assisted synthesis of hydantoins and thiohydantoins was described by Muccioli et al. [117]. The most straightforward conditions for synthesis of phenytoin are the base-catalyzed condensation using benzil and urea, known as the Biltz synthesis (Eq. 33). MW activation of the Biltz synthesis of phenytoin improved both yield and reaction time. The first step consists in MW activation of the reaction of benzil with (thio)urea the second includes the conversion of the resulting 2-(thio)hydantoin to hydantoin using hydrogen peroxide. When reactions were performed at the same temperature under both reaction conditions, yields were by far better under the action of MW and emphasized the evident specific MW effects. These are perfectly expected when one considers the polar TS involved in the first step (nucleophilic addition of neutral NH2 group on carbonyl moiety). 

For example, Yu et al. showed that polystyrene-bound peptides could be hydrolyzed in 7 min in a domestic MW oven, a process normally taking 24 h. Furthermore, traditional soHd-phase peptide couplings were achieved in 4 min in 99-100% conversion with no detected racemization. A broad range of solid-phase reactions was found to undergo substantial rate acceleration, including Claisen and Knoeve-nagel condensations, nucleophilic substitutions, sucdnimide and hydantoin formation, and Suzuki coupHngs. 

Addition of 2,5-dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-5,5-bis(propylthio)-l,3,4-oxadiazole in refluxing benzene and an aryl isocyanate releases the bis(propylthio)carbene in situ which then adds easily to the aryl isocyanate to yield a substituted isatin with the ketone functionality protected as a thioacetal (eq 4)7 Ring closure also occurred when the 2,5-dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-5,5-bis(propylthio)-1,3,4-oxadiazole carbene precursor was added to 1-naphthyl isocyanate in refluxing acetonitrile (eq 5)7 Formation of thioacetal protected isatin products are unique to the bis(propylthio)carbene as other nucleophilic carbenes added to aryl isocyanates afforded only modest yields of hydantoin products. ... 

Moreover, in the past 10 years, a number of works involving a nucleophilic attack of a nitrogen nucleophile over an acylpalladium intermediate, generated in situ from simple and easily prepared starting compounds, has been reported to be dealing with the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds, that is, 2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-lH-2,4-benzodi-azepine-l,3-dione derivatives 30 [39], tetrahydro-P-carboline/tetrahydriisoquinoline fused 5-lactam derivatives 31 and 32, respectively [40], and substituted hydantoins 33 [41] (Scheme 13.14). 

Cyclization can also be performed via nucleophilic attack of nitrogen nucleophiles as shown for the release of cyclic urea derivatives. Dressman et al. examined a methodology to cleave hydantoins 222 via treatment of carbamate linkers with an intramolecular amide functionahty and base [188]. In the case of resin-bound substrate 221 (Scheme 33), the resulting heterocycle is a five-membered ring system but other heterocycles containing a urea-type unit can also be synthesized as published by diverse other groups (c.f. benzimidazolone-synthesis of li et al. [199]). 

Reactions.— The nucleophilic reactivity of the thiocarbonyl sulphur atom in thioureas has been further exemplified in a series of papers reporting on S-alkylation reactions of open-chain " as well as cyclic thioureas using alkyl halides. Ried and his co-workers have reported that (4-quinazolyl)thioureas (315) react smoothly with methylene iodide in the presence of triethylamine to yield the 1,3-thiazetidines (316). The ready formation of (316) was attributed to the special effect of the intramolecular hydrogen bonding in (315), as common thioureas usually did not enter into this reaction in a well-defined and profitable way. 5,5-Diphenyl-2-thio-hydantoin reacted with symmetrical ao>-dibromo-alkanes to yield the cyclization products (317). The action of excess of methyl iodide on N -substituted N-(o-aminophenyl)thioureas afforded the benzimidazoles (318), alternatively obtainable by treatment of the same thioureas with mercuric chloride." " In a similar manner, l-amino-6,7-dimethoxy-3,4-di-hydroisoquinolines were formed by the action of mercuric chloride on the thioureas (319)" or their S-methyl derivatives (320). " A recent paper by Klayman and his co-workers deals with the reactivity of S-methiodide derivatives of thioureas that are activated by electron-withdrawing groups towards hydroxylic compounds. "... 

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