Mixed anhydride coupling method

A more elaborate but general procedure for esterification involves reaction of the A-alkoxycarbonylamino acid with the alkyl chloroformate of the alcohol to be esterified in the presence of triethylamine and a catalytic amount of 4-dimethylami-nopyridine (see Section 4.19) (Figure 3.21). The product probably arises by acylation of the alcohol by the acylpyridinum ion, both originating from decomposition of the mixed anhydride. The method can be used also to prepare activated esters (see Section 2.09), though the latter are usually obtained using the common coupling techniques (see Section 7.7).47 57... 

Peptide assembly commenced with Boc-Glu(OBzl)-NHMe, Boc-Glu(OBzl)-OH, Boc-Ser-[PO(OPh)2]-OH, Boc-Leu-OH, and AcOH being coupled as their isobutoxycarbonyl mixed anhydrides [repetitive excess mixed anhydride (REMA) method] and the Boc group cleaved by 40% TFA/CH2C12 (30 min). 

Mixed Anhydride Coupling. This very popiilar method, involving the use of alkyl chloroformates as reagents to make anhydrides v/ith acylamino acids or acylpeptides, has been reinvestigated. Determann, Heuer, Pfaender and Reinartz o have shown that exposinre of the mixed anhydride... 

Mixed anhydrides (see Section 2.6) The mixed-anhydride method provides efficient coupling of peptides with minimal isomerization if the established protocol is strictly adhered to. This includes a short activation time at low temperature, isopropyl chloroformate as the reagent, and A-methylmorpho-line or /V-mcthylpipcridinc as the tertiary amine (Figure 2.25, path D). In what is an apparent anomaly with respect to conventional wisdom, a polar solvent such as dimethylformamide seems to be preferable to apolar solvents for minimizing isomerization. Aminolysis at the wrong carbonyl of the anhydride of a peptide (path F) is less than that for the anhydride from the corresponding /V-alkoxycarbonylamino acid. 

The reagents and methods employed for coupling in solid-phase synthesis are the same as for synthesis in solution, but a few are excluded because they are unsuitable. The mixed-anhydride method (see Section 2.6) and l-ethoxycarbonyl-2-ethoxy-l,2-dihydroquinoline (see Section 2.15) are not used because there is no way to eliminate aminolysis at the wrong carbonyl of the anhydride. Acyl azides (see Section 2.13) are too laborious to make and too slow to react. The preparation of acyl chlorides (see Section 2.14) is too complicated for their routine use this may be rectified, however, by the availability of triphosgene (see Section 7.13). That leaves the following choices, bearing in mind that a two to three times molar excess of protected amino acid is always employed. 

There have been reports that urethane was produced when the mixed-anhydride method was employed for the coupling of segments. However, studies on urethane formation during the aminolysis of mixed anhydrides of peptides have never been carried out. The anhydrides are too unstable to be isolated. The activated moiety of the peptide cyclizes too quickly to the 2,4-dialkyl-5(4//)-oxazolonc (see Section 2.23), and since the time allowed to generate the anhydride in segment couplings is always limited to avoid epimerization, one cannot exclude the possibility that the urethane that was produced originated by aminolysis of unconsumed chloroformate. 

The traditional method for preparing activated esters of A -protected dipeptides is combination of the A-protected amino acid with the amino acid ester (Figure 7.16). The latter is obtained by A-deprotection of the diprotected amino acid in an acidic milieu. Coupling is achievable using the carbodiimide, mixed-anhydride, and acyl-azide methods. Success with this approach indicates that the esterified residues react preferentially with the other derivatives and not among themselves. The chain cannot be extended to the protected tripeptide ester because the dipeptide ester cyclizes too... 

NL Benoiton, YC Lee, FMF Chen. A new coupling method allowing epimerization-free aminolysis of segments. Use of succinimidyl esters obtained through mixed anhydrides, in HLS Maia, ed. Peptides 1994. Proceedings of the 23rd European Peptide Symposium, Escom, Leiden, 1995, pp 203-204. 

In solution-phase peptide synthesis, acylation of amino acids or peptides with N-protected azetidine-2-carboxylic acid is performed via the active esters, e.g. A-hydroxysuccin-imide 100 111-112 or pentachlorophenyl ester, m 117 as well as by the mixed anhydride 101114 or carbodiimide 118 methods. An attempt to prepare the A-carbonic acid anhydride by cycli-zation of A-(chloroformyl)azetidine-2-carboxylic acid with silver oxide in acetone or by addition of triethylamine in situ failed, presumably due to steric hindrance. 111 In SPPS, activation of the Fmoc-protected imino acid by HBTU 119,120 is reported. In solution-phase peptide synthesis, coupling of N-protected amino acids or peptides to C-protected azetidine-2-carboxylic acid or related peptides may be performed by active esters, 100 118 121 mixed anhydrides, 95 or similar methods. It may be worth mentioning that the probability of pip-erazine-2,5-dione formation from azetidine-2-carboxylic acid dipeptides is significantly reduced compared to proline dipeptides. 111 ... 

Couplings with N-protected isoxazolidine-3-carboxylic acid can be performed without particular restrictions of the method, and the use of a mixed anhydride for acylation of amino acids or amide formation has been reported. 179 A similarly free choice of coupling methods is available for the acylation of isoxazolidine-3-carboxylic acid derivatives so far the use of carbodiimide and mixed anhydrides have been reported. 168179 Isoxazolidine-3-carboxylic acid derivatives are listed in Table 7. 

As mentioned above, thiazolidine-4-carboxylic acid is characterized by an anomalously low basicity and thus difficult acylation in peptide synthesis. 189 Therefore, the incorporation of this amino acid residue into a growing peptide chain is preferentially preformed via dipeptide derivatives. 139 Suitably N-protected amino acids are coupled directly to the thiazolidine-4-carboxylic acid by the acid fluoride 139 or iV-carboxyan hydride 1392111 methods. The resulting dipeptides are used as building blocks without risk of racemization 139 and standard coupling procedures are applied as pentachlorophenyl esters prepared by the mixed anhydride procedure 121 or PyBOP. 171 ... 

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