Mitsunobu activation

Mitsunobu activation of a hydroxy group has been successfully utilized for the construction of depsipeptide units in only a limited number of published synthetic works. Nevertheless, this procedure might be considered as an effective and promising approach to depsipeptide synthesis even in complicated cases due to its simplicity, mild conditions, and absence of racemization. 

The Mitsunobu reaction is usually used to introduce an ester with inversion of configuration. The use of this methodology on an anomeric hydroxyl was found to give only the /3-benzoate, whereas other methods gave mixtures of anomers. Improved yields are obtained in the Mitsunobu esterification when p-nitrobenzoic acid is used as the nucleophile/ Bis(dimethylamino) azodicarboxylate as an activating agent was... 

The Mitsunobu reaction is used to convert an alcohol and an acid into an ester by the formation of an activated alcohol (Ph3P, diethyl diazodicar-boxylate), which then undergoes displacement with inversion by the carboxylate. Although this reaction works very well, it suffers from the fact that large quantities of by-products are produced, which generally require removal by chromatography. 

Cydization of P-hydroxy-a-amino esters under Mitsunobu reaction conditions is an alternative approach to aziridine-2-carboxylic esters [6b, 13-16], In this case the P-hydroxy group is activated by a phosphorus reagent. Treatment of Boc-a-Me-D-Ser-OMe 13 (Scheme 3.5) with triphenylphosphine and diethyl azodicarboxylate (DEAD), for example, gave a-methyl aziridinecarboxylic acid methyl ester 14 in 85% yield [15]. In addition to PPh3/DEAD [13b, 15], several other reagent combi-... 

The role of the DEAD is to activate the triphenylphosphine toward nucleophilic attack by the alcohol. In the course of the reaction the N=N double bond is reduced. As is discussed later, this method is applicable for activation of alcohols to substitution by other nucleophiles in addition to halide ions. The activation of alcohols to nucleophilic attack by the triphenylphosphine-DEAD combination is called the Mitsunobu reaction.76... 

The Mitsunobu conditions also can be used to effect a variety of other important and useful nucleophilic substitution reactions, such as conversion of alcohols to mixed phosphite esters.56 The active phosphitylating agent is believed to be a mixed phospho-ramidite. 

The sequence detailed here provides 3-(S)-((tert-butyldiphenylsilyl)oxy)-2-butanone in high purity and on a preparative scale from inexpensive (S)-ethyl lactate. This optically active ketone should be a useful intermediate for the preparation of a variety of enantiomerically pure materials. It has been used in our laboratory for an asymmetric synthesis of (+)-muscarine3 and in the preparation of various other optically active tetrahydrofurans.4 Mitsunobu inversion of (S)-ethyl lactate followed by protection to provide 2-(R)-((tert-butyldiphenylsilyl)oxy)propanoate5 affords, by this method, ready access to the enantiomer of the title compound. 

Another interesting class of five-membered aromatic heterocycles has recently been published by Tron et al. [54]. These compounds have biological activity in the nM range. An example of the formation of these furazan (1,2,5-oxadiazole) derivatives is shown in Scheme 9. The diol 50 was oxidized to the diketone 51 using TEMPO and sodium hypochlorite. Transformation to the bisoxime 52 was performed in an excess of hydroxylamine hydrochloride and pyridine at high temperature for several days. Basic dehydration of 52 formed two products (53a and b). A Mitsunobu reaction was then employed using toluene as solvent to form compound 53b in 24% yield. 

Asymmetric introduction of azide to the a-position of a carbonyl has been achieved by several methods. These include amine to azide conversion by diazo transfer,2 chiral enolate azidation,3 and displacement of optically active trifluoromethanesulfonates,4 p-nitrobenzenesulfonates,5 or halides.6 Alkyl 2-azidopropionates have been prepared in optically active form by diazo transfer,2 p-nitrobenzenesulfonate displacement,5 and the Mitsunobu displacement using zinc azide.7 The method presented here is the simplest of the displacement methods since alcohol activation and displacement steps occur in the same operation. In cases where the a-hydroxy esters are available, this would be the simplest method to introduce azide. 

An alternative to activating the nitro moiety by forming the nitronate salt is the activation of an oxygen leaving group under Mitsunobu conditions (Eq. 2.15) (155,156). Treatment of methanol with diethyl azodicarboxylate and triphenyl-phosphine in the presence of ethyl nitroacetate provides the nitronate 85 in good yield. Unfortunately, only methanol has been demonstrated to be compatible with this procedure. 

Oxazoline formation under Mitsunobu conditions requires that the amide substituent be in an antipepriplanar orientation to the activated hydroxyl substituent. With flWo-threonines 77, these groups are predisposed in such an orientation in the most stable conformation (transition state 78b). As a result, frani-oxazolines 79 are easily formed. With threonines, the formation of c/i-oxazoline 76 is disfavored because of destabilizing gauche interactions between the ot-carboxyl... 

Most applications of compounds of this class have been noted during the preceding discussion. The [6,5] fused heterocycle in compound 83 was introduced in one step using a Mitsunobu reaction (Equation 25). This compound, and a number of related structures, showed activity as inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinase <2003JME3840>. 

Hydroxy activation of 29a using the Mitsunobu reaction gave the corresponding /3-ester derivatives 139. The Schmidt procedure was also superior (Table 9) <2002EJ0113>. 

ABT-594 is reported to be in clinical trials for the treatment of neuropathic pain (Thatte, 2000 Sorbero et al. 2001). Its precursor (f )-N-Boc-azetidin-2-yl-methanol is accessible in a short sequence starting from commercially available D-aspartic acid dibenzyl ester. The synthesis is concluded by Mitsunobu coupling with 6-chloropyridin-3-ol and subsequent acidic deprotection. On a larger scale the primary alcohol is activated as a mesylate prior to coupling with 6-chloropyridin-3-ol in the presence of potassium hydroxide, so that Mitsunobu conditions can be avoided (Meyer et al., 2000). 

Support-bound, enantiomerically pure alcohols can be converted into phosphonates by Mitsunobu esterification, which results in complete inversion at the stereo-genic center. This strategy has been used to prepare peptidyl phosphonates on solid phase. These are interesting transition-state analogs with potential utility as peptidase inhibitors (Figure 11.3 [12,13]) or tyrosine phosphatase inhibitors [14]. Serine or threonine derivatives can be converted into phosphonates by direct phosphonylation with an activated monoalkyl phosphonate [15] or by treatment with phosphonamidites RP(OR)NR2 in the presence of tetrazole followed by oxidation [16]. 

Standard solid-phase peptide synthesis requires the first (C-terminal) amino acid to be esterified with a polymeric alcohol. Partial racemization can occur during the esterification of N-protected amino acids with Wang resin or hydroxymethyl polystyrene [200,201]. /V-Fmoc amino acids are particularly problematic because the bases required to catalyze the acylation of alcohols can also lead to deprotection. A comparative study of various esterification methods for the attachment of Fmoc amino acids to Wang resin [202] showed that the highest loadings with minimal racemization can be achieved under Mitsunobu conditions or by activation with 2,6-dichloroben-zoyl chloride (Experimental Procedure 13.5). iV-Fmoc amino acid fluorides in the presence of DMAP also proved suitable for the racemization-free esterification of Wang resin (Entry 1, Table 13.13). The most extensive racemization was observed when DMF or THF was used as solvent, whereas little or no racemization occurred in toluene or DCM [203]. 

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