Solid-phase organic synthesis library development

Two complementary procedures have been developed for alkylation of secondary amines [11] - both of which involve the use an excess of amine to drive the reaction to completion. The remaining amine was removed from the required tertiary amine using a polymer supported isocyanate 5 as a nucleophilic scavenger (under thermodynamic control) (Table 1 entry 2). The use of this amine scavenger has subsequently been applied in the purification of urea-based libraries prepared by solid-phase organic synthesis [12],... 

However, it was not until Merrifield developed a polystyrene matrix for peptide synthesis that a broad range of functionalized solid supports became available [91], leading to solid phase organic synthesis (SPOS) and eventually to polymer-assisted solution synthesis (PASS). Both of these techniques are heavily utilized by industry, especially for rapid library synthesis. 

In recent years, combinatorial chemistry has proved to be one of the best approaches for acceleration in drug development [1-6]. Solid-phase organic synthesis (SPOS) [7-9] plays a most important role for production of combinatorial libraries. 

One of the most developed methods used in combinatorial chemistry libraries preparation is solid-phase organic synthesis (SPOS) based on the Merrifield method for peptide synthesis [128]. A great number of such libraries have been prepared on a solid support, generally a functionalized polystyrene resin cross-linked with a small amount of divinylbenzene. Recently, it was demonstrated that micro-wave irradiation can be applied to solid-phase immobilized reagents to reduce significantly the reaction time. Those readers who are interested in such processes we would like to refer to more extensive reviews published by Chamberlin et al. [129] and Kappe [130], while in this chapter we are giving most common examples. 

Out of the combinatorial chemistry boom came the framework for modem solid-phase organic synthesis. While a lot of the early work with SPOS focused on reliable and relatively straightforward peptide coupling reactions, the ambitious library syntheses of the 1990s required access to a much more extensive array of solid-phase reactions. That decade saw initial strides made in adapting many well-known solution-phase reactions for use in the solid-phase arena, development that continues to the present day, " and a move beyond peptide and nucleotide chemistry toward preparation of small molecule libraries on solid phase. 

In preparing these various libraries, extensive use is made of solid phase synthetic methods. These methods are all derived from the solid phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) method developed by Merrifield in 1963. When performing a large number of syntheses, it is preferable to perform the synthetic steps on a solid bead rather than completing the entire synthesis in the solution phase. The solid-phase technique makes byproduct removal and final compound purification easier. The organic chemistry literature contains a wealth of different types of solid-phase supports and novel linkers for attaching the synthetic substrate to the bead. 

Menifield s concept of a solid-phase method for peptide synthesis and his development of methods for canying it out set the stage for an entirely new way to do chemical reactions. Solid-phase synthesis has been extended to include numerous other classes of compounds and has helped spawn a whole new field called combinatorial chemistry. Combinatorial synthesis allows a chemist, using solid-phase techniques, to prepare hundreds of related compounds (called libraries) at a time. It is one of the most active areas of organic synthesis, especially in the pharmaceutical industry. 

Combinatorial chemistry, a new chapter of organic synthesis, is now developing rapidly. This new approach to synthesizing large designed or random chemical libraries through application of solid phase synthetic methods, promises to revolutionize the process of drug discovery in the pharmaceutical industry.24... 

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