Racemic mixture screening,

The discovery of oxazoline hydroxamates as potential inhibitors of LpxC was the result of high-throughput screening of large libraries of compounds at the Merck Research Laboratories in collaboration with the Department of Biochemistry, Duke University Medical Center [95]. The lead compound, L-573,655, was a racemic mixture of 4-carbohydroxamido-2-phenyl-2-oxazoline, which had been previously made by Stammer et al. [96] as a precursor in the chemical synthesis of cyclosporine. Namely, (R,S)-serine methyl ester hydrochloride (149) is converted into (R,S)-4-carbomethoxy-2-phenyl-2-oxazoline (150) via treatment with ethyl benzimidate using the Elliot procedure [97]. Treatment of this ester with one equivalent each of hydroxylamine and sodium methoxide in methanol at room temperature affords the desired (R,S)-4-carbohydroxamido-2-phenyl-2-oxazoline (151), as depicted in Scheme 30. 

Conversion of racemic mixtures with one of the enantiomers carrying a labeling group. This approach is well suited for screening by mass spectrometry (Sect. 4.2). 

Reetz and coworkers developed a highly efficient method for screening of enantioselectivity of asymmetrically catalyzed reactions of chiral or prochiral substrates using ESI-MS [60]. This method is based on the use of isotopically labeled substrates in the form of pseudo-enantiomers or pseudo-prochiral compounds. Pseudo-enantiomers are chiral compounds which are characterized by different absolute configurations and one of them is isotopically labeled. With these labeled compounds two different stereochemical processes are possible. The first is a kinetic separation of a racemic mixture, the second the asymmetric conversion of prochiral substrates with enantiotopic groups. The conversion can be monitored by measuring the relative amounts of substrates or products by electrospray mass spectrometry. Since only small amounts of sample are required for this method, reactions are easily carried out in microtiter plates. The combination of MS and the use of pseudo-enantiomers can be used for the investigation of different kinds of asymmetric conversion as shown in Fig. 3 [60]. 

After completing his initial intramolecular cycloaddition, Hodgson utilized conditions that had been optimized for the intermolecular cycloaddition of DMAD with simple cyclic carbonyl ylides used by Hashimoto and co-workers (139). Hodgson et al. (140) found that the reaction indeed gave excellent overall chemical yield, but the enantioselectivity dropped to 1%, giving essentially a racemic mixture. It appeared that ee ratios were sensitive to the electronic nature of the dipole. Hodgson chose to screen several binaphthol derived rhodium catalysts of the type developed by McKervey and Pirrung, due in part to the reports of... 

Despite the fact that solvent effects on enzyme enantioselectivity appear to resist our efforts to rationalize their outcome using commonly accepted solvent descriptors, the effects are certainly there. An impressive example is provided in a report on the successful resolution of ds/trans-( 1 R,5 R)-bicyclo[3.2.0]hept-6-ylidene-acetate ethyl esters, intermediates in the synthesis of GABA (y-aminobutyric acid) analogs, by the Pfizer Bio transformations and Global R D groups (Scheme 2.2) [136]. From a screening protocol, CaLB was identified as a reactive catalyst for the hydrolysis of the racemic mixture of / //-os lor enantiomers with approximately equal activity for the ds- and tmns-isomers and a rather modest (E = 2.7) preference for the /Z-(lR,5R)-enantiomers. Application of medium engineering resulted in a phenomenal increase in the enantioselectivity (addition of 40% acetone, E > 200), while the ds- and trans-isomers were still converted at an almost equal rate. 

In order to reduce the time needed to perform a complete kinetic resolution Lindner et al53 reported the use of the allylic alcohol 30 in enantiomerically enriched form rather than a racemic mixture in kinetic resolution. Thus, the kinetic resolution of 30 was performed starting from the enantiomerically enriched alcohol (R) or (S)-30 (45%) ee obtained by the ruthenium-catalyzed asymmetric reduction of 32 with the aim to reach 100 % ee in a consecutive approach. Several lipases were screened in resolving the enantiomerically enriched 30 either in the enantioselective transesterification of (<5)-30 (45% ee) using isopropenyl acetate as an acyl donor in toluene in non-aqueous medium or in the enantioselective hydrolysis of the corresponding acetate (R)-31, (45% ee) using a phosphate buffer (pH = 6) in aqueous medium. An E value of 300 was observed and the reaction was terminated after 3 h yielding (<5)-30 > 99% ee and the ester (R)-31 was recovered with 86% ee determined by capillary GC after 50 % conversion. 

Finally, libraries aimed to chiral resolution of racemates will be covered here in particular, the use of chiral stationary phases (CSPs) has recently been reported for the identification of materials to be used for chiral separation of racemates by HPLC. The group of Frechet reported the selection of two macroporous poly methacrylate-supported 4-aryl-1,4-dihydropyrimidines (DHPs) as CSPs for the separation of amino acid, anti-inflammatory drugs, and DHP racemates from an 140-member discrete DHP library (214,215) as well as a deconvolutive approach for the identification of the best selector phase from a 36-member pool library of macroporous polymethacrylate-grafted amino acid anilides (216,217). Welch and co-workers (218,219) reported the selection of the best CSP for the separation of a racemic amino acid amide from a 50-member discrete dipeptide iV-3,5-dinitrobenzoyl amide hbrary and the follow-up, focused 71-member library (220). Wang and Li (221) reported the synthesis and the Circular Dichroism- (CD) based screening of a 16-member library of CSPs for the HPLC resolution of a leucine ester. Welch et al. recentiy reviewed the field of combinatorial libraries for the discovery of novel CSPs (222). Dyer et al. (223) reported an automated synthetic and screening procedure based on Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) for the selection of chiral diastereomeric salts to resolve racemic mixtures by crystallization. Clark Still rejxrrted another example which is discussed in detail in Section 9.5.4. 

Weingarten et al. (228) reported the synthesis of an encoded SP 60-member pool hbrary L38 that was screened to find the best chiral selector for the resolution of racemate mixtures of dye-containing amino acid Pfp esters 9.144a (L-enantiomer, blue dye) and 9.144b (D-enantiomer, red dye. Fig. 9.55). The structures of the library L38 and of the three monomer sets Mi (15 representatives, A-Fmoc a-amino acids), M2... 

Mustillo and CiurczakP" presented a paper discussing the spectral effect of optically active solvents on enantiomer mixes. This information was used as a technique to screen for polar modifiers in normal-phase chromatography of racemic mixtures. In 2000, the enantiomeric composition of ibuprofen in solid-state mixtures was performed by Agatonovic-Kurstrin, Beresford, Razzak. ... 

Likewise, once the initial screening of ADHs was performed, we took a closer look at the catalytic properties of the new ADH. We selected two secondary alcohols as substrates for the enzymatic oxidation and measured the rate of NADH formation for both enantiomers individually, so the enantiodiscrimination of the enzyme could be estimated. While this is not a true enantioselectivity value since the competition factor between enantiomers has been eliminated by making separate reactions for each isomer instead of the racemic mixture, it gives an estimate and allows a quick identification of highly selective enzymes. Table 5 shows the results of this screening. Most of the enzymes found were selective for the S-alcohol isomer, except AD99, which shows reversed selectivity towards the 7 -alcohol. 

Looking a bit further in time, probably new APAs possessing higher therapeutic effect will be described. In that case, the actually accessible lipases may not be sufficiently effective to resolve the racemic mixtures, so that the screening of new lipase-producing microorganisms appears to be a rational alternative for obtaining biocatalysts with improved efficiency. 

Our approach for chiral resolution is quite systematic. Instead of randomly screening different chiral acids with racemic 7, optically pure N-pMB 19 was prepared from 2, provided to us from Medicinal Chemistry. With 19, several salts with both enantiomers of chiral acids were prepared for evaluation of their crystallinity and solubility in various solvent systems. This is a more systematic way to discover an efficient classical resolution. First, a (+)-camphorsulfonic acid salt of 19 crystallized from EtOAc. One month later, a diastereomeric (-)-camphorsulfonic acid salt of 19 also crystallized. After several investigations on the two diastereomeric crystalline salts, it was determined that racemic 7 could be resolved nicely with (+)-camphorsulfonic acid from n-BuOAc kinetically. In practice, by heating racemic 7 with 1.3equiv (+)-camphorsulfonic acid in n-BuOAc under reflux for 30 min then slowly cooling to room temperature, a cmde diastereomeric mixture of the salt (59% ee) was obtained as a first crop. The first crop was recrystallized from n-BuOAc providing 95% ee salt 20 in 43% isolated yield. (The optical purity was further improved to -100% ee by additional recrystallization from n-BuOAc and the overall crystallization yield was 41%). This chiral resolution method was more efficient and economical than the original bis-camphanyl amide method. 

The ester was screened against a panel of enzymes for hydrolysis activity from which only Novozym 435 efficiently hydrolysed the desired (5)-enantiomer." After significant optimization studies using Novozym 435, a process was established where a 100 g slurry of racemic ester in commercial tert-butanol (which is supplied as a mixture containing 12 % water - anhydrous terf-butanol could not be used due to its higher melting point), furnished the desired acid in 43% yield and >99% ee (Scheme 1.36). The reaction was performed at 50 °C as a compromise that gave satisfactory substrate concentration... 

Geiser et al. [50,51] illustrated the screening of different chiral stationary phases and the separation of highly polar amine hydrochlorides using EEL methanol/C02 mixtures and the columns, Chiralpak-AD-H, Chiralpak-AS. This method is advantageous because no acid or base additive was required to achieve base line separation of the racemates and conversion to free base form for enantiomer separation was not required. Preparative-scale separations of the amine-hydrochloride were accomplished using similar mobile phase conditions [51], Furthermore, this is believed to be the first chiral separation of highly polar solutes without the addition of acid or base additive to effect the separation. 

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