Nucleophilic imidazole ring acids

An imidazole ring is a structural unit m the ammo acid histidine (Section 27 1) and is involved m a large number of biological processes as a base and as a nucleophile... 

A still different scheme is used for the preparation of the benzimidazole buterizine (74). Alkylation of benzhydrylpiperazine with substituted benzyl chloride 70 gives the intermediate 7U Nucleophilic aromatic displacement on this compound by means of ethyl amine leads to reduction of the nitro group then gives the diamine T. Treatment of that with the orthoformate ester of pentanoic acid serves to form the imidazole ring. There is thus obtained the peripheral vasodilating agent buteri zi ne (74). ... 

The cleavage mechanism of the caspases is shown schematically in Fig. 15.5. They use a typical protease mechanism with a catalytic diad for cleavage of the peptide bond. The nucleophilic thiol of an essential Cys residue forms a covalent thioacyl bond to the substrate during the catalysis. The imidazole ring of an essential histidine is also involved in catalysis and this facilitates hydrolysis of the amide bond in the sense of an acid/base catalysis. 

Only very few among the common amino acids possess a pK within the range 5.8-7.0. Therefore, the imidazole ring of histidine was suspected very early to represent the group responsible for nucleophilic attack on the substrate (38). The pK of free imidazol is 6.9 (39) that of imidazol, contained in histidine or its peptides, varies between 5.6 and 7.1 (40). Imidazol is well known to form unstable acyl derivatives, which undergo spontaneous hydrolysis because of the presence of the resonating triad unit —-N—C= N— (41). In addition, imidazol and its derivatives catalyze the hydrolysis of certain esters, especially those derived from phenols (42). Likewise, the behavior of imidazol towards thio esters reflects exactly the specificity of ChE s (see IV, 4). Thus, thiol esters are split (43), whereas thiono esters are resistant (21). 

Nucleophilic reactions of this type are a result of the weakly acidic nature of the pyrrole-type nitrogen in the imidazole ring. These acidic properties are slightly more pronounced than those of pyrrole... 

When the imidazole ring is considered to be something resembling a pyrrole-pyridine combination (1) it would appear that any electrophilic attack should take place preferably at C-5 (pyrrole-or, pyridine-j8). Such a model, though, fails to take account of the tautomeric equivalence of C-4 and C-5 (Section 4.06.5.1). The overall reactivities of imidazole and benzimidazole can be inferred from sets of resonance structures in which the dipolar contributors have finite importance (Section 4.06.2) or by mesomeric structures such as (2). These predict electrophilic attack in imidazole at N-3 or any ring carbon atom, nucleophilic attack at C-2 or C-1, and also the amphoteric nature of the molecule. In benzimidazole the acidic and basic properties, the preference for nucleophilic attack at C-2 and the tendency for electrophiles to react at the fused benzene ring can be readily rationalized. 

While there are a number of examples of nucleophilic displacement of nitro groups attached to imidazole rings (Section 4.07.1.5), the nitro groups themselves facilitate the nucleophilic displacement of other functional groups, and also have a profound effect on the orientation of such reactions as alkylation (Section 4.07.1.3). The strongly baseweakening effects are well known and may even prevent the formation of salts with acids. 

The other nitrogen nucleophile available to enzymes is the versatile imidazole ring of histidine. This group is used more often for acid/base chemistry, but it is used occasionally as a nucleophile in, for example, phosphotransfer reactions. The serine proteases, such as a-chymotrypsin, which is illustrated in Figs. 2a and (2)b, are classic examples of the participation of serine as a nucleophile. Additional examples exist of nucleophilic mechanisms that employ the hydroxyl groups of threonine and tyrosine and the carboxylate groups of aspartate and glutamate. 

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