Selenols reductions

These reactions could proceed either via (1) insertion of the alkyne or the allene into the M-Se bonds, and (2) C-H bond-forming reductive elimination (or protolysis by selenol) or via (1) insertion of the alkyne or the aUene into the M-H bond, and (2) C-Se bond-forming reductive elimination. 

Unfortunately, the appeal of solid phase extractions on small scale fades as the scale increases due to the cost and inconvenience of using large amounts of fluorous silica gel. Here, modified techniques to reduce the tedium of repeated extractions are attractive. For example, Crich has recently introduced the minimally fluorous selenide C6Fi3CH2CH2C6H4SeH[171. This selenol is added in catalytic quantities to tin hydride reductions of reactive aryl and vinyl radicals. The high reducing capacity of the aryl selenide suppresses undesired reactions of product radicals without suppressing the reactions of the aryl and vinyl radicals themselves. After the reaction is complete, the selenol can be recovered by a modified continuous extraction procedure. 

Although in humans only MsrBl is a selenoprotein, the depletion of selenium from the diet of mice led to increases in both R and S stereoisomers. This was not initially explained, yet a subsequent study has shown that small molecule selenols (organic selenocysteine homologues) could act as efficient electron donors in vitro for MsrA enzymes. ° This effect has only been shown in vitro, but the possibility that small molecular selenium reductants, or more likely that some selenoproteins that contain reduced selenols (in redox-active motifs) is quite intriguing. Several small selenoproteins do not have real roles and reside in nearly all subcompartments of the cell (mitochondria, ER) where electron donors for Msr enzymes are probably critical to maintain protein stability. Low selenium nutritional status would then have a significant impact on all methionine oxidation, as Future studies to address selenium nutrition and methionine oxidation could prove to be... 

Selenoprotein A is remarkably heat stable, as seen by the loss of only 20% of activity on boiling at pH 8.0 for lOmin (Thrner and Stadtman 1973). Although selenoprotein A contains one tyrosine and no tryptophan residues, it contains six phenylalanine residues and thus has an unusual absorbance spectrum (Cone et al. 1977). Upon reduction, a unique absorption peak emerges at 238 nm, presumably due to the ionized selenol of selenocysteine, which is not present in the oxidized enzyme. The activity of selenoprotein A was initially measured as its ability to complement fractions B and C for production of acetate from glycine, in the presence of reducing equivalents (e.g., dithiothreitol). Numerous purification schemes were adopted for isolation of selenoprotein A, all of which employed the use of an anion exchange column to exploit the strongly acidic character of the protein. 

An alternative procedure has been proposed for the direct synthesis of Fmoc-SeC-(Mob)-OH that is based on activation of Fmoc-Ser-OAL as the O-tosylate followed by reaction with 4-methoxybenzyldiselenide reduced in situ with hypophosphoric add to the selenol. 59 Selective reductive cleavage of the allyl ester generates Fmoc-SeC(Mob)-OH in good yields. 

As the rate of cyclization becomes slower, the reactivity of the precursor becomes more important. To ensure that the radical generation step does not break the chain, it is important to use the most reactive precursor available. For very slow cyclizations, the advice is simple use iodides whenever possible. The purity of the precursor is also critical for slow cyclizations because tin hydride can sometimes react with impurities to generate hydrogen atom sources that are much more reactive than itself. Any impurities that might generate thiols or selenols may cause undue amounts of reduction (thus, the purity of phenyl sulfides and selenides is especially important). Metal impurities, which may form transition metal hydrides, can be devastating, even for fast cyclizations.41 Empirically, it seems that breaking of the chain is less of... 

TrxRs are homodimeric flavoproteins [80] that catalyze the NADPH-dependent reduction of thioredoxin (Trx), a ubiquitous 12 kDa protein that is the major protein disulfide reductase in cells [81], and belongs to the pyridine nucleotide-disulfide oxidoreductase family [82]. Each monomer includes an FAD prosthetic group, a NADPH binding site and an active site containing a redox-active selenol group. Electrons are transferred from NADPH via FAD to the active-site selenol of TrxR, which then reduces the substrate Trx [83]. The crystal structure of TrxR is shown in Fig. 13 [84],... 

Various reducing agents have been used for the generation of selenolates from diselenides or selenocyanates. Alkali metals M (M = Li, Na, K)149,150 or alkali hydrides MH (M = Li, Na, K)151,152 can generate the corresponding selenolate anions such as 80 these are more reactive than the borane complexes of type 77 (Scheme 15). Diaryl diselenides are easier reduced than dialkyl diselenides, but the mechanism for the reduction of selenocyanates is complex and can lead to either diselenides or selenolates.153,154... 

As shown in Scheme 1, the reduction of diselenides generates selenols and selenolates, while their oxidation results in the formation of selenenic and seleninic acids and related compounds (see Section 7). Halogenation of diselenides with... 

Selenocyanates produce selenols or diselenides upon either reduction (e g. with sodium borohydride) or hydrolysis (see Scheme 1). They undergo displacement of the cyanide ion by various nucleophiles and add to alkenes in a maimer similar to selenenyl halides (see equation 14), except that catalysis with Lewis acids is required in the case of unactivated alkenes. The selenocyanates are also popular reagents for the preparation of selenides from alcohols, and (8) from carboxylic acids, as indicated in Scheme 3. 

This naked selenolate is more reactive than the one complexed with borane 1 [1]. For example, in the presence of HMPA, 4 undergoes an SN2-type ester cleavage to produce the corresponding acids and alkyl phenyl selenides (Sect. 3.3) [6 a]. Uncomplexed selenolate 4 can also be prepared by the reduction of benzeneselenol (PhSeH) with sodium hydride (NaH) (Scheme 4b) [6aj. 

Reduction of selenocyanates 5 by alkali hydrides also produces the corresponding reactive selenolates 6, but the mechanism is not simple. Krief et al. reported that the reduction of 5 with one equivalent of alkali hydride produces the diselenide 7, whereas in the reduction using two equivalents of the alkali hydride the product is the selenolate 6 [8]. These results indicate that the reduction from 5 to 6 proceeds via the formation of diselenide 7 (Scheme 6). In this mechanism, air oxidation is not necessary to produce the diselenide from the selenocyanate when an equimolar amount of hydride is used. 

Ring opening of epoxides using selenolates that are generated by other methods, such as reduction with samarium reagents [19], electrochemical reduction [22], reduction with phosphine [25] or reduction with NaBH4 under microwave irradiation [34], have also been reported. 

The reaction with a, -epoxy carbonyl compounds 12 leads to the corresponding reductive ring-opened products, -hydroxy carbonyl compounds 13, in good yields (Scheme 22). Electrochemically generated benzeneselenolate [21,22] and sodium phenylseleno(triethoxy)borate (1) [35, 36], have been applied for this type of reaction as a nucleophilic selenolate. In the latter case, the reaction mechanism was suggested as shown in Scheme 23 [36]. Reaction of 1 with 12 first produces the ring-opened adduct 14, which is then reacted with an excess amount of 1 to produce the final product 13. This method is important as a simple synthetic procedure to aldols and -hydroxy esters that are rather difficult to obtain by other methods. The reactions have been extended to the reduction of more functionalized a, -epoxy carbonyl compounds [37] and have been successfully applied for the synthesis of several natural products [38]. 

Selenolate 1 [1,2], prepared from diphenyl diselenide by reduction with NaBH4 in ethanol, is not reactive enough towards esters and lactones. However, application of more rigorous conditions, i. e. at 110-120 °C in dry DMF for lactones 15, affords the corresponding ring-opened products, cu-phenylselenyl carboxylic acids 16, in good yields [44]. Compounds 16 can be easily converted to co-ole-finic methyl esters 17 by treatment with diazomethane followed by oxidative elimination of the phenylseleno group (Scheme 25). By contrast, the uncomplex-... 

Treatment of a, -unsaturated carbonyl compounds 18 with nucleophilic selenium species affords -seleno carbonyl compounds 19 in good yields via Michael addition (Scheme 27) [46]. This reaction has been applied to protect a, -unsa-turated lactones [47], in natural product synthesis [48], and in asymmetric Michael additions in the presence of an alkaloid [49]. Michael addition also proceeds with selenolates that are prepared from diphenyl diselenide by cathodic reduction [22], reduction with the Sm-Me3SiCl-H20 system [19], and reduction with tributyl phosphine [25]. 

Addition of the selenolate that is prepared from diphenyl diselenide by reduction with NaBH4 to conjugate enyne sulfones 20 occurs at the d-position of the sulfonyl group to give 4-phenylseleno-l-sulfonylbuta-1,3-dienes 21 regio- and stereoselectively (Scheme 28) [50]. On the other hand, addition of PhSeNa to the conjugated alkynyl sulfone 22 that has a -phenylseleno substituent affords the anti-Michael adduct 23 preferentially (Scheme 29) [51]. 

Selenolates prepared from diphenyl or dimethyl diselenide by reduction with NaBH4 smoothly transform various benzylic alcohols 24 into the corresponding selenides 25 in the presence of aluminum chloride (Scheme 30 a) [41]. AICI3 is considered to activate the alcohol substrate by coordinating to the oxygen. Similar transformations are possible by the reaction of alcohols with phenyl selenocyanate in the presence of tributyl phosphine [52]. When the selenolate is reacted with aromatic aldehydes or ketones 26 in the presence of AICI3, the corresponding benzylic selenides 27 are obtained in moderate yields (Scheme 30b) [41]. 

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