Stereoselective Carbonyl Reductions

Alternative diastereoselection modes in the reduction of a-alkoxyacetylenic ketones have been achieved by using zinc borohydride in ether at -30 °C, to furnish mainly the threo-product 

Reagents i, -protected amino-acid ( 2 equiv.), Hg( N02)2 (1 quiv.), CH2CI ii.aq.NaOH iii, NaBH  

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Stereoselective Carbonyl Reductions. L-selectride reduction of U-acyl-Y-lactones has been shown to furnish the syn-reduction products in good yield and high diastereoselection which may be hydrolysed to threo-diols. The stereochemistry appears to be largely independent of the size of the acyl group and is in accord with reduction following the Felkin-Ahn transition-state model (Scheme 2). ... 

The biocatalytic counterpart for this transformation is done by the alcohol dehydrogenases [ADHs, EC 1.1.1.x., also called ketoreductases (KREDs) or carbonyl reductases (CRs)], which are able to perform stereoselective carbonyl reductions or enantioselective alcohol oxidations [5-8]. These enzymes are probably the most employed oxidoreductases and make use of a nicotinamide cofactor such as NADH or NADPH to transfer electrons into and from the target substrate. Depending on their substrate scope, ADHs can be divided into primary alcohol dehydrogenases, preferentially reducing aldehydes, and secondary alcohol dehydrogenases that have... 

Chelation Control. The stereoselectivity of reduction of carbonyl groups can be controlled by chelation when there is a nearby donor substituent. In the presence of such a group, specific complexation among the substituent, the carbonyl oxygen, and the Lewis acid can establish a preferred conformation for the reactant. Usually hydride is then delivered from the less sterically hindered face of the chelate so the hydroxy group is anti to the chelating substituent. 

Zhu, D., Yang, Y., Buynak, J.D. and Hua, L. (2006) Stereoselective ketone reduction by a carbonyl reductase from Sporobolomyces salmonicolor. Substrate specificity, enantioselectivity and enzyme—substrate docking studies. Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, 4 (14), 2690-2695. 

The stereoselectivity of reduction of carbonyl groups is effected by the same combination of steric and stereoelectronic factors which control the addition of other nucleophiles, such as enolates and organometallic reagents to carbonyl groups. A general discussion of these factors on addition of hydride is given in Section 3.10 of Part A. 

Johnson in 1993 described an approach to racemic p-amyrin involving application of a biomimctic polyene cyclization.7 In the same year Corey accomplished the enantioseleetive synthesis of compound 4. a key intermediate that opened the way to stereoselective preparation of compounds I, 2. and 3 8 A key step in the synthesis of P-amyrin (1) was the introduction of chiral oxazaboroli-dines for enantioseleetive carbonyl reduction. Ba ed on these methods, generation of an enantiomerically pure epoxide and its stereoselective cationic cyclization led to the pentacyclic system of structure 1 Diastereoselective cyclopropanation and an intramolecular protonation of a carbanion represent other interesting steps in this total synthesis. 

The above described total synthesis features the first enantiodivergent approach to (+)- and (—)-scopadulcic acid A. The central transformations are the stereoselective carbonyl group reduction with (S)-Alpine Borane , the use of enolization stereoselection to dictate which enantiomer is produced, and the palladium-catalyzed bis-Heck cyclization which occurs with complete stereo- and regiocontrol to establish the scopadulan scaffold. 

Chemical transformations carried out by biological reagents such as purified enzyme preparations and by intact organisms such as fungi and bacteria have done much to ease the lot of the synthetic chemist in recent years. Regio- and stereoselective reactions such as C-hydroxylation (1, 2), S-oxidation (3, 4), carbonyl reduction (5, 6) and oxidation (7, 5), N- and O-dealkylation (9), N-oxidation (10), and hydrolytic reactions carried out by biological systems have been widely used in many areas of organic chemistry (11, 12). 

Hence model substrate 2 was chosen, since stereoselectivity of carbonyl reduction could be studied directly [34]. 

In addition to accelerating the rate of carbonyl reduction, chelation can be used to control the diastereoselectivity of reductions and carbon-carbon bondforming reactions through highly organised transition states. Keck showed that appropriately subsituted p-hydroxy ketones are stereoselectively reduced by... 

In order to achieve chemodifferentiation of the two ketone groups, carbonyl reduction may be carried out prior to NBS-mediated hydrolysis. Reduction with L-Selectride was found to be highly efficient and stereoselective, producing only one diastereoisomer of the product alcohol (Scheme 12). 

There are many examples of the stereoselective addition of nucleophiles to carbonyl groups in which chelation to the titanium center should be critical—reported examples include the stereoselective hydride reduction of a- or /3-hydroxyketones (Eq. 305) [684-686], of a-phosphino ketones [687], of a-sulfonylketones [688], and of an a,/3-unsaturated carbonyl compound in a 1,4-fashion [689]. The stereoselective addition of organometallic compounds such as Grignard [669,690], zinc [691,692], copper [693], and other reagents [11] to carbonyl and related compoimds Ijy taking advantage of titanium chelation is a well established method in the stereoselective... 

Commercial hexythiazox is a racemic mixture of the two trans enantiomers Scheme 26.2.2 shows the main synthetic pathways [11, 17, 19]. Starting from 4-chloro propiophenone the key intermediate erythro amino alcohol may be obtained by stereoselective catalytic reduction of the corresponding hydroxy imi-noketone or by sodium borohydride reduction of the aminoketones obtained via Gabriel synthesis. Different routes lead from this aminoalcohol to the trans-thiazolidinone system the basis of all routes is activation of the hydroxy group, e.g., in form of the sulfonate and a ring forming reaction with carbon disulfide or carbonyl sulfide. The final acylation of the NH group with cyclohexyl isocyanate leads to hexythiazox. 

Following the most successful route, deprotection of all secondary hydroxyl groups preceded the stereoselective carbonyl group reduction at C19 and the final demethylations (Scheme 30). Peripheral hydride attack in the NaBH4 reduction of heptaenone 181 resulted in a single stereoisomer 214 used in the conversion to amphotericin B. 

Other enzymes called hydrogenases have been used to effect enantioselective versions of carbonyl reductions like that in Section 5.10A. We shall have more to say about the stereoselectivity of enzymes in Chapter 12. 

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