Trityl linkers

With the following examples, we will investigate and discuss the following (a) Scale-up phenomena of different solid phase reactions and the corresponding on-bead analytics (b) the effect of loading (an equivalent to concentration in solution-phase chemistry) (c) comparison with the solution-phase alternative and (d) the synthesis and use of new trityl linkers. 

After isolating the product of a solid phase synthesis, the support (resin + linker) is usually discarded as waste, although successful examples of its reuse in further synthetic cycles are known with trityl type linkers (Frechet and Haque 1975). To reduce both volume of operation and amount of waste, the loading of the resin (quantified as millimoles of functionality per gram) has to be increased. Besides theoretical limitations (for polystyrene this is reached when every phenyl ring is substituted by the linker), there may be practical boundaries for using highly loaded resins in solid-phase supported synthesis. This issue was studied... 

For these reasons, an alternative route and more acid labile linkers compared to p-carboxy trityl linker 24a initially used were sought, to avoid high concentrations of TFA for the final cleavage. The synthesis of the alkoxysubstitued linkers 24b (Meisenbach and Voelter 1997) and 24c, which can be synthesised directly on the solid support in five steps, offer the possibility of linkers with tailor-made stability. 

Scheme 7. Synthesis scheme for the preparatin of the 4-methoxy-trityl hydrox-ylamine linker...

The notion of stabilized and sensitized protectors is pertinent to solid-phase synthesis in particular. Practically all of the linkers through which carboxy-terminal residues are attached to the solid support are composed of benzyl that has been substituted with functional groups such as dialkoxy, dimethoxyphenyl, phenyl (ben-zhydryl), diphenyl (trityl), chlorodiphenyl (chlorotrityl, see Section 5.23), or other to modify the stability of the linking bond.9-63-73... 

A van Vliet, RH Smulders, BH Rietman, GI Tesser. Protected peptide intermediates using a trityl linker on a solid support, in R Epton, ed. Innovations and Perspectives in Solid Phase Synthesis. Proceedings of the 2nd Symposium. Intercept, Andover,... 

Alternatively to using prelipidated building blocks palmitoylation on resin is possible with the hydrazine linker. In Scheme 27 the synthesis route for the palmitoylated and farnesylated N-Ras peptide 78 is shown. Here the initial loading of trityl-protected cysteine to the hydrazine linker was mediated by A,A-diisopropylcarbodiimide (DIG) and HOBt. After Fmoc removal the proline was coupled using HBTU and HOBt. The trityl-protected dipeptide 75 was subsequently S-deprotected using TFA with triethylsilane (TES) as a scavenger. Farnesylation of the free thiol was achieved with an excess of farnesyl bromide. 

Benzyl-Type Linkers Including Trityl and Benzhydryl Linkers... 

Tab. 3.1 Structures and properties of benzyl-type linkers including trityl and benzhydryl linkers.

Making use of a O-trityl-hydroxylamine linker, Meloni and Taddei reported the first example of Miller hydroxamate on solid phase (161, Scheme 73). /1-Lactams 162 and 163 were prepared on solid support starting from serine, threonine or other / -hydroxyacids derived from naturally occurring amino acids and a resin bonnd hydroxylamine 159. The ring closure of 160 was carried out under Mitsunobu conditions. 

The trialkoxy benzhydrol linker, developed by Rink in 1987 [46] ( Rink acid resin , Figure 3.4) is a further acid-labile linker for carboxylic acids. Esters of this linker can, like trityl esters, be cleaved with acids as weak as acetic acid or HOBt [47], and care must be taken to avoid loss of the product during synthetic operations. 

Neither the trialkoxybenzhydryl alcohol linker nor other types of benzhydryl alcohols [44,45,48] have found widespread use as linkers for carboxylic acids. These linkers do not seem to offer special advantages compared with benzyl alcohol or trityl linkers. 

Attachment of carboxylic acids to supports as trityl esters is achieved by treatment of the corresponding trityl chloride resin with the acid in the presence of an excess of a tertiary amine (Figure 3.5 see also Section 13.4.2). This esterification usually proceeds more quickly than the acylation of benzyl alcohol linkers. Less racemization is generally observed during the esterification of A-protected a-amino acids with trityl linkers than with benzyl alcohol linkers [47], If valuable acids are to be linked to insoluble supports, quantitative esterification can be accomplished by using excess 2-chlorotrityl chloride resin, followed by displacement of the remaining chloride with methanol [64]. 

Tertiary aliphatic alcohol linkers have only occasionally been used in solid-phase organic synthesis [73], This might be because of the vigorous conditions required for their acylation. Esterification of resin-bound linker 4 with /V-Fmoc-prolinc [72,74] could not be achieved with the symmetric anhydride in the presence of DMAP (20 h), but required the use of /V-Fmoc-prolyl chloride (10-40% pyridine in DCM, 25 °C, 10-20 h [72]). A further problem with these linkers is that they can undergo elimination, a side reaction that cannot occur with benzyl or trityl linkers. Hence, for most applications in which a nucleophile-resistant linker for carboxylic acids is needed, 2-chlorotri-tyl- or 4-acyltrityl esters will probably be a better choice than ferf-alkyl esters. 

Tritylamine linkers have not been extensively used for the attachment of amides, probably because A -tritylamides are difficult to prepare. This is not the case for strongly acidic amides and cyclic imides, which are readily N-tritylated with trityl chlo-... 

Tritylamines can serve as both linkers and protective groups for aliphatic amines because, unlike benzhydrylamines, they do not usually undergo acylation when treated with activated acid derivatives. Tritylation of aliphatic amines is readily accomplished by adding excess amine to a support-bound trityl chloride. Illustrative cleavage reactions are listed in Table 3.21. 

Only a few examples have been reported of the etherification of alcohols with resin-bound diarylmethyl alcohols (Entry 5, Table 3.30 Entry 5, Table 3.31 [564]). Diarylmethyl ethers do not seem to offer advantages over the more readily accessible trityl ethers, which are widely used as linkers for both phenols and aliphatic alcohols. Attachment of alcohols to trityl linkers is usually effected by treating trityl chloride resin or 2-chlorotrityl chloride resin with the alcohol in the presence of a base (phenols pyridine/THF, 50 °C [565] or DIPEA/DCM [566] aliphatic alcohols pyridine, 20-70 °C, 3 h-5 d [567-572] or collidine, Bu4NI, DCM, 20 °C, 65 h [81]). Aliphatic or aromatic alcohols can be attached as ethers to the same type of light-sensitive linker as used for carboxylic acids (Section 3.1.3). 

Usually, it is different to make a clear distinction between linker and spacer. The linker is the minimum part of the resin required for the functional cleavage (for silyl linkers it is the silyl group, for trityl linkers it is the triphenylmethyl moiety, and for the triazene linker it is the 1-aryltriazenyl group, etc.). The spacer is, therefore, the part between the linker and the resin as depicted in Figure 6.1.1. 

Trityl resins are particularly suitable for immobilization of nucleophilic substrates such as acids, alcohols, thiols, and amines. They are quite acid-sensitive and are cleavable even with acetic acid this is useful when acid-labile protecting groups are used. The stability of trityl resin can be tailored by use of substituted arene rings, as shown by chlorotrityl resin, which furnishes a more stable linker than the trityl resin itself. Steric hindrance also prohibits formation of diketopiperazines during the synthesis of peptides. Orthogonality toward allyl-based protective groups was demonstrated in the reverse solid-phase peptide synthesis of oligopeptides [30] (Scheme 6.1.4). 

So far undisclosed in the peer-reviewed literature are contributions by the company Graffinty (www.graffmity.de.) [31]. It has built up a technology platform in which combinatorial libraries are generated by solid-phase methodology using an acid-labile S-trityl linker. After cleavage the free thiols of the small molecules react... 

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