Imidazole-4-carboxylic acid, preparation

From 133-tiiazines 23 and 5-amino-4-imidazole-carboxylic acids 24 a variety of purines and purine nucleosides 25 have been prepared via an inverse electron demand Diels-Alder reaction <99JA5833>. 

Angiotensinogen analogs such as renin inhibitory peptide requires a key intermediate 199, which is prepared from imidazole carboxylic acid 197 and amine 198 in the presence of DEPC.75... 

PSM protocols can be used to prepare ligands that cannot be synthesized using conventional methods. For example, 2-vinyl-l/f-benzo[J imidazole-carboxylic acid had not previously been reported before its synthesis within a MOF by alcohol dehydration on the zinc MOF [Zn3(L )2(OH)2] (equation 13). Subsequent attempts to prepare the acid without the use of the MOF as a protecting group were hindered by competing polymerization reactions. ... 

For quantitative work, it is necessary to estimate the concentration of 5-amino-l-(P-D-ribofuranosyl)imidazole in aqueous solution. It seems that the only available method is the Bratton-Marshall assay, which was originally developed for the estimation of arylamines in biological fluids. The principle of the method is the spectrometric estimation of a salmon-pink colored dyestuff obtained by diazotation in situ, followed by coupling with /V-( 1 -naphthyl)ethyl-enediamine.65 The only remaining problem then is to know the molar extinction of this dye because pure samples of AIRs are not available. A value of 16800 at 520 nM was obtained for the dyes prepared from a model compound, 5-amino-l-cyclohexylimidazole-4-carboxylic acid (54), which is crystalline. A comparable molar extinction can be expected for the dye prepared from imidazole 55, if the carboxyl group does not exert too much influence on the chromophore. Actually, its influence is perceptible even with the naked eye, the dyestuff prepared from 53 having a somewhat different, wine-red color, with max>520 nM. The molar extinction for 55 is 17400 at 500 nM. When the decarboxylation of 54 was conducted under mild acidic conditions (pH 4.8, 50°C, 1 hour), estimation of 5-aminoimidazole 55 by the Bratton-Marshall method led to the conclusion that the reaction was almost quantitative.66 Similar conditions for the final decarboxylation were adopted in the preparation of samples of AIRs labeled with stable isotopes.58... 

The imidazole ring is a privileged structure in medicinal chemistry since it is found in the core structure of a wide range of pharmaceutically active compounds efficient methods for the preparation of substituted imidazole libraries are therefore of great interest. Recently, a rapid synthetic route to imidazole-4-carboxylic acids using Wang resin was reported by Henkel (Fig. 17) [64]. An excess aliphatic or aromatic amine was added to the commercially available Wang-resin-bound 3-Ar,M-(dimethylamino)isocyano-acrylate, and the mixture was heated in a sealed vial with microwave irradi-... 

In addition to acyl halides and acid anhydrides, there are a number of milder and more selective acylating agents that can be readily prepared from carboxylic acids. Imidazolides, the (V-acyl derivatives of imidazole, are examples.115 Imidazolides are isolable substances and can be prepared directly from the carboxylic acid by reaction with carbonyldiimidazole. 

The preparation of imidazolides by acylation of imidazole with acid chlorides is sometimes limited by the inaccessibility or instability of the required acid chlorides (e.g., formyl chloride, highly unsaturated acid chlorides, etc.) or by side-reactions in the case of multifunctional systems. For these reasons and due to the availability of an easy and convenient procedure involving very mild conditions, imidazolides today are usually prepared directly from the corresponding carboxylic acids with jV -carbonyldiimida-zole (CDI) or one of its analoga (see page 16). Use of these reagents has become more and more the preferred method for activation of carboxylic acids to azolides and their further transacylation to esters, amides, peptides, etc. (see subsequent Chapters). 

A V -Carbonyldiimidazole (CDI) is prepared in a convenient and safe procedure from phosgene and imidazole as a non-toxic crystalline compound (m.p. 116-118 °C).[5],[6] It reacts almost quantitatively at room temperature or by short and moderate heating with an equimolar quantity of a carboxylic acid in tetrahydrofuran, chloroform, or similar inert solvents within a few minutes to give the corresponding carboxylic acid imidazolide, which is formed under release of carbon dioxide, together with one equivalent of readily separable and recyclable imidazole.Thus, this reaction leads under very mild conditions to the activation of a carboxylic acid appropriate for transacylation onto a nucleophile with an alcohol to an ester, with an amino compound to an amide or peptide, etc. 

Amides prepared from carboxylic acids and primary amines using azolides obtained from acid chloride/imidazolea) or ketene/imidazole systems.b)... 

Amides prepared from secondary amines and acylchloride/imidazole,[391 carboxylic acid/oxalyldiimidazole,[41 ] carboxylic acid/sulfinyldiimidazole[61 ] or isolated imidazo-... 

Attempts have been made to prepare aminoisocyanates from suitable hydrazidocarbo-nylimidazoles. However, because of the high reactivity of the expected product, a dimerization occurred instead, as illustrated by the thermolysis of imidazole-A-carboxylic acid (l,l-pentamethylene)hydrazide.[17]... 

Imidazolides of aromatic sulfonic acids react much more slowly in alcoholysis reactions than the carboxylic acid imidazolides. Although the reaction with phenols is quantitative when a melt is heated to 100 °C for several hours, with alcohols under these conditions only very slight alcoholysis is observed. In the presence of 0.05 equivalents (catalytic amount) of sodium ethoxide, imidazole sodium, of NaNH2, however, imidazolides of sulfonic acids react with alcohols almost quantitatively and exothermically at room temperature in a very short time to form sulfonic acid esters (sulfonates). (If the ratio of sulfonic acid imidazolide to alcoholate is 1 2, ethers are formed see Chapter 17). The mechanism of catalysis by base corresponds to that operative in the synthesis of carboxylic esters by the imidazolide method. Because of the more pronounced nucleophilic character of alkoxide ions, sulfonates can also be prepared in good yield by alcoholysis of their imidazolides in the presence of hydroxide ions i.e., with alcoholic sodium hydroxide. 45 Examples of syntheses of sulfonates are presented below. 

The only problem for the matrix-isolation of 21 consisted in the non-availability of a reasonable diazo precursor molecule suited for this technique. But since we already had experience with the preparation of 2,3-dihydrothiazol-2-ylidene46 (see below) by photofragmentation of thiazole-2-carboxylic acid we tried the same method with imidazole-2-carboxylic acid (20). Indeed, irradiation of 20 with a wavelength of 254 nm leads to decarboxylation and the formation of a complex between carbene 21 and CO2. This is shown by the observation that the experimental IR spectrum fits only with the calculated spectrum of complex 21-CC>2 (calculated stabilization energy relative to its fragments 4.3 kcal mol-1). The type of fixation of CO2 to 21 is indicated in the formula S-21 C02. 

Irradiation of matrix-isolated imidazole-2-carboxylic acid gave the 2,3-dihydro-imidazol-2-ylidene-C02 complex (31) characterized by IR spectroscopy and calculated to lie 15.9 kcal mol above the starting material. A series of non-aromatic nucleophilic carbenes (32) were prepared by desulfurization of the corresponding thiones by molten potassium in boiling THF. The most hindered of the series (32 R = Bu) is stable indefinitely under exclusion of air and water and can be distilled without decomposition. The less hindered carbenes slowly dimerize to the corresponding alkenes. Stable aminoxy- and aminothiocarbenes (33 X = O, S) were prepared by deprotonation of iminium salts with lithium amide bases. The carbene carbon resonance appears at 260-297 ppm in the NMR spectrum and an X-ray structure determination of an aminooxycarbene indicated that electron donation from the nitrogen is more important than that from oxygen. These carbenes do not dimerize. 

The reagent is prepared by reaction of sulfuryl chloride with imidazole. It is hydrolyzed by acid only at elevated temperatures, and does not react with carboxylic acids to form imidazolides.1... 

In an opposite manner to bases such as 1 and 2 in terms of reactivity, polymer-supported tosyl chloride equivalent 14 is able to capture alcohols as polymer-bound sulfonates 15, which are released as secondary amines, sulfides and alkylated imidazoles with primary amines, thiols and imidazoles as nucleophiles in a substitution process (Scheme 6) [24]. This technique has further been extended for the preparation of tertiary amines [25] and esters [26]. Excess of amine was scavenged by polymer-supported isocyanate 16 [27, 28] while excess of carboxylic acid was removed by treatment with aminomethylated polystyrene 17. 

If we copy Nature rather more exactly, the Claisen ester condensation can be carried out under neutral conditions. This requires rather different reagents. The enol component is the magnesium salt of a malonate mono-thiol-ester, while the electrophilic component is an imidazolide—an amide derived from the heterocycle imidazole. Imidazole has a pK of about 7, Imidazolides are therefore very reactive amides, of about the same electrophilic reactivity as thiol esters. They are prepared from carboxylic acids with carbonyl diimidazole (CDI). 

The Step 1 co-reagent, 3,5-dimethyl-3H-imidazole-4-carboxylic acid, was prepared according to the method of Leone-Bay (2). 

Hydrolysis (especially with bromoacetic acid)28 of the dicarboxylic esters can be followed by decarboxylation and it is possible to remove one carboxyl group at a time to prepare the imidazole-4-carboxylic acid. The decarboxylation of imidazolecarboxylic acids has been discussed by Schipper and Day.2... 

The use of a-ketol esters with formamide has been reported by Novelli and de Santis72 for the synthesis of oxazoles and imidazoles. It appears that in this case the reaction proceeds through reaction of the oxazole with formamide. The a-ketol esters are prepared by treating the corresponding a-bromoketones with the potassium salt of the appropriate carboxylic acid. 

Silyl esters are generally prepared from the carboxylic acid and the corresponding silyl chloride or silyl triflate in the presence of base (pyridine, triethylamine, imidazole, etc.) in DMF or THF as shown in Scheme 6.111235 and Scheme 6.112 242... 

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