Intramolecular biological reactions

There are numerous examples of intramolecular Heck reactions,151 such as in Entries 10 to 14. Entry 11 is part of a synthesis of the antitumor agent camptothecin. The Heck reaction gives an 11 1 endocyclic-exocyclic mixture. Entries 12-14 are also steps in syntheses of biologically active substances. Entry 12 is part of a synthesis of maritidine, an alkaloid with cytotoxic properties the reaction in Entry 13 is on a route to galanthamine, a potential candidate for treatment of Alzheimer s disease and Entry 14 is a key step in the synthesis of a potent antitumor agent isolated from a marine organism. 

The fundamental approach to a proton transfer process, which is crucial to mimic many chemical and biological reactions, has relied deeply on studies of excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) reactions in the condensed phase. 

The intramolecular aminolysis reaction was also shown to be involved in the formation of (Gly-Gly) and the biosynthetic pathway of the biologically active cyclic dipeptide cyclo(His-Pro), found throughout the CNS, peripheral tissue, and body fluids. ... 

Extension of the linkage to hve atoms as in 285 provides routes to pyrazolines or pyrazoles 286, or 1,2,4-triazoles 287, fused to a seven-membered ring. The products are potentially biologically active and examples have been reported for X=N (177-181), X = 0 (181-185) and for a pyrazolo fused analogue (186) and X = S (187). In some cases, [e.g., (183)], these reactions are accompanied by tandem intramolecular-intermolecular reactions leading to the formation of macrocycles (see the section Tandem Intermolecular-Intramolecular Cycloaddition Reactions). 

The study of carbocations has now passed its centenary since the observation and assignment of the triphenylmethyl cation. Their existence as reactive intermediates in a number of important organic and biological reactions is well established. In some respects, the field is quite mature. Exhaustive studies of solvolysis and electrophilic addition and substitution reactions have been performed, and the role of carbocations, where they are intermediates, is delineated. The stable ion observations have provided important information about their structure, and the rapid rates of their intramolecular rearrangements. Modem computational methods, often in combination with stable ion experiments, provide details of the stmcture of the cations with reasonable precision. The controversial issue of nonclassical ions has more or less been resolved. A significant amount of reactivity data also now exists, in particular reactivity data for carbocations obtained using time-resolved methods under conditions where the cation is normally found as a reactive intermediate. Having said this, there is still an enormous amount of activity in the field. 

In conclusion, there have been many reports of the high synthetic potential of the intramolecular aldol reaction in the enantioselective construction of cyclic enones. In particular the proline-catalyzed desymmetrization of triketones has been widely used for formation of optically active bicyclic systems which are versatile building blocks for steroids and other biologically active compounds. 

On account of their very important biological activity, /9-lactams are important synthetic targets [4-9]. Fused polycyclic -lactam subunits appear in many natural products such as penicillins [4-6] and trinems/tribac-tams [10-13]. Fu et al. reported that such frameworks can be prepared with high levels of enantioselectivity via the intramolecular Kinugasa reaction [ 14, 15] of alkyne-nitrone in the presence of a planar chiral Cu/phosphaferrocene-oxazoline catalyst [16]. For instance, compound 1 was transformed into tricyclic /9-lactam 3 in good stereoselectivity and yielded (88% ee and 74% yield) using 5 mol % of CuBr and 5.5 mol % of complex 2 (Scheme 1). 

Many biologically active peptides are cyclic in nature, and the SPS of this class of peptides, exemplified by 2.7, has also received attention with several different strategies for the final cyclization. The phenomenon of pseudodilution on bead in which each resin site is essentially isolated from its neighbors favors the intramolecular cyclization reaction compared to the intermolecular dimerization, which occurs in solution even at high dilutions. The SPS of cyclic peptides has recently been covered in two excellent reviews (31, 32). The technique of cyclative cleavage via the N- or the C-terminus (see Section 1.2.7) has been used, as has anchoring through amino acid side chains with sequential cyclization and peptide release. 

Enzymes, we have said, are proteins that act as enormously effective catalysts for biological reactions. To get some idea of how they work, let us examine the action of just one chymotrypsin, a digestive enzyme whose job is to promote hydrolysis of certain peptide links in proteins. The sequence of the 245 amino acid residues in chymotrypsin has been determined and, through x-ray analysis, the conformation of the molecule is known (Fig. 37.1). It is, like all enzymes, a soluble globular protein coiled in the way that turns its hydrophobic parts inward, away from water, and that permits maximum intramolecular hydrogen bonding. 

Later, the scope of this methodology was successfully extended to the intramolecular version by List and coworkers [14]. By employing 9-amino-9-deoxyepiquinine 24 as a catalyst (20 mol%) and an acid cocatalyst (AcOH, 60 mol%), 5-substituted-3-methyl-2-cydohexene-l-ones (26) were obtained with high enantioselectivity (up to 94% ee) from the diketones 25 via the intramolecular aldol reaction (Scheme 8.8). The chiral enones 26 are valuable synthetic building blocks for the synthesis of many biologically important compounds (e.g., HIV-1 protease-inhibitive didemnaketals). The pseudoenantiomeric quinidine analogue 23 of 24 also provided the opposite... 

The proper design of intramolecular reactions that simulate desired features of biological reactions is thus a major line of approach in using model reactions to investigate biochemical processes in general and hydride-transfer reactions in particular. 

Macrocyclic motifs are usually essential for the unique biological properties of natural products. In most cases, linear NRP and PK scaffolds are cyclized to form macrolactones or macrolactams prior to further post-modification. Macrocyclization is usually carried out by cyclases towards the end of elongation. For example, in the biosynthesis of the antibiotic tyrocidine A, a linear enzyme-bound decapeptide is cyclized via an intramolecular SN2 reaction between the N-terminal amine nucleophile and the C-terminal thioester, which is covalently linked to the synthase [reactions (a) and (b), Scheme 8.3] [22], This cyclase shows great versatility. Not only does it catalyze the formation of macrolactams of ring sizes from 18 to 42 atoms from... 

An ordinary type of intramolecular chemical reaction in biological systems is ligand-binding to heme proteins, such as... 

Cascade reactions are useful method for the construction of polycyclic skeletons, which are important cores for biological activities [50]. Recently, several publications involving intramolecular cycloaddition reactions are reported. 

---