Epimerization steroids

An asymmetric synthesis of estrone begins with an asymmetric Michael addition of lithium enolate (178) to the scalemic sulfoxide (179). Direct treatment of the cmde Michael adduct with y /i7-chloroperbenzoic acid to oxidize the sulfoxide to a sulfone, followed by reductive removal of the bromine affords (180, X = a and PH R = H) in over 90% yield. Similarly to the conversion of (175) to (176), base-catalyzed epimerization of (180) produces an 85% isolated yield of (181, X = /5H R = H). C8 and C14 of (181) have the same relative and absolute stereochemistry as that of the naturally occurring steroids. Methylation of (181) provides (182). A (CH2)2CuLi-induced reductive cleavage of sulfone (182) followed by stereoselective alkylation of the resultant enolate with an allyl bromide yields (183). Ozonolysis of (183) produces (184) (wherein the aldehydric oxygen is by isopropyUdene) in 68% yield. Compound (184) is the optically active form of Ziegler s intermediate (176), and is converted to (+)-estrone in 6.3% overall yield and >95% enantiomeric excess (200). 

Protonation of the a-carbanion (50), which is formed both in the reduction of enones and ketol acetates, probably first affords the neutral enol and is followed by its ketonization. Zimmerman has discussed the stereochemistry of the ketonization of enols and has shown that in eertain cases steric factors may lead to kinetically controlled formation of the thermodynamically less stable ketone isomer. Steroidal unsaturated ketones and ketol acetates that could form epimeric products at the a-carbon atom appear to yield the thermodynamically stable isomers. In most of the cases reported, however, equilibration might have occurred during isolation of the products so that definitive conclusions are not possible. 

The reduction of an asymmetric cyclohexanone (e.g. a steroidal ketone) can lead to two epimeric alcohols. Usually one of these products predominates. The experimental results for the reduction of steroidal ketones with metal hydrides have been well summarized by Barton and are discussed in some detail in a later section (page 76) unhindered ketones are reduced by hydrides to give mainly equatorial alcohols hindered ketones (more accurately ketones for which axial approach of the reagent is hindered " ) are reduced to give mainly axial alcohols. 

By a suitable choice of conditions (metal hydrides or metal/ammonia) ketones at the 1-, 2-, 4-, 6-, 7-, 11-, 12- and 20-positions in 5a-H steroids can be reduced to give each of the possible epimeric alcohols in reasonable yield. Hov/ever, the 3- and 17-ketones are normally reduced to give predominantly their -(equatorial) alcohols. Use of an iridium complex as catalyst leads to a high yield of 3a-alcohol, but the 17a-ol still remains elusive by direct reduction. 

If the ketone function is adjacent to a hydrogen-bearing asymmetric center, the compound can undergo epimerization. In steroids with a normal skeletal configuration (8/3, 9a, 14a) there is no detectable epimerization at C-8 or C-9 during the exchange of and 11- ketones. 

With the 4-, 6-" and 15- ° keto steroids the degree of epimerization at C-5 and C-14 depends on the presence of other functional groups and substituents. Exchange of the 16- " and 20- keto pregnanes yields the 17/5-epimer as the main product. 

The treatment of ketoximes with lithium aluminum hydride is usually a facile method for the conversion of ketones into primary amines, although in certain cases secondary amine side products are also obtained. Application of this reaction to steroidal ketoximes, by using lithium aluminum deuteride and anhydrous ether as solvent, leads to epimeric mixtures of monodeuterated primary amines the ratio of the epimers depends on the position of the oxime function. An illustrative example is the preparation of the 3(x-dj- and 3j5-di-aminoandrostane epimers (113 and 114, R = H) in isotopic purities equal to that of the reagent. 

Steroids possessing an epoxide grouping in the side chain have likewise been converted to fluorohydrins. Thus, 20-cyano-17,20-epoxides of structure (19) furnish the 17a-fluoro-20-ketones (20) after treatment of the intermediate cyanohydrins with boiling collidine. The epimeric 5a,6a 20,21-oxides (21) afford the expected bis-fluorohydrins (22). The reaction of the allylic... 

The epimeric 3-methyl and 3-phenyl steroids (17) and (18) have been obtained by reaction of methyl and phenyl Grignard reagents with 4-chloro-17l -hydroxyandrost-4-en-3-one (16). 

The first substance examined in the steroid field was 3j6-hydroxycholest-4-ene (1) and the epimeric 3a-alcohol (3). These compounds react stereospecifically in dry ether with the Simmons-Smith reagent to yield the isomeric cyclopropyl carbinols (2) and (4) in 90 % and 67 % yields, respectively. The rate of this reaction is about one fifth of that observed with simple cyclic car-binols. ... 

Oxidation of the hydroxy group in (10) to the ketone followed by isomerization affords the 10oc-methyl-A -3-ketone (11). In contrast, methylenation of 3)5-hydroxy-A ° -compounds proceeds in refluxing ether solution to give, after oxidation and acid rearrangement, the natural 10/5-methyl-A -3-keto steroids. With an epimeric mixture of 3fi- and 3a-A ° -alcohols only the )5-alcohol reacts under these imild conditions. ... 

Oxidation of 4/5-hydroxy steroids is accompanied by epimerization at C-4 and C-5. Nevertheless the yield of 4/5,19-ether is still 60-74%. ... 

The thermal reversal of the photochemical a-cleavage, i.e., the direct recombination of the resulting radical pair or diradical, can be recognized as such only when at least one of the a-atoms is chiral and is epimerized in the process. In fact, the frequently rather low quantum yields observed in the phototransformations of nonconjugated steroidal ketones may be largely due to the reversal of a-cleavage. 

The first, and to this writing still only case of a ketone a-cleavage-recombi-nation sequence in the steroid field was reported by Butenandt, who found that 17-ketones epimerize at C-13. Ultraviolet irradiation of either stereoisomer produces an equilibrium mixture in which the thermodynamically more favored 13a-compound cf. (15)] with cw-fusion of rings C and D predominates at room temperature. As ultraviolet absorption energies and intensities of the two isomeric ketones are practically identical, the equilibrium composition depends largely on the rate of the competing recombination process from (14). For further examples of the photoisomerization at C-13 of 17-ketosteroids, see ref. 8, 12, 15 and 43. 

Cava and Muller " independently showed that epimerization at C-13, which can occur during irradiation of 17-keto steroids, is not observed with diazoketones (94) or (96). 

The facile and selective oxidation of both primary and secondary hydroxy groups with certain nucleotides led Pfitzner and Moffatt (48) to explore the scope of the carbodiimide-methyl sulfoxide reagent with steroid and alkaloid alcohols. Relatively minor differences were apparent in the rate of oxidation of epimeric pairs of 3- and 17- hydroxy steroids whereas the equatorial lLx-hydroxyl group in several steroids was readily oxidized under conditions where the axial epimer was unreactive [cf. chromic oxide oxidation (51)]. 

The most plausible mechanism for the interconversion of la and Ih is shown in Scheme 2. Similar mechanism has been put forward for epimerization of a-substituted ketones under basic conditions and for the equilibration via an enolate prior to nucleophilic substitution was observed by Numazawa et al. (ref. 13). The same mechanism seems to operate in the reduction of some steroid a-haloketones (ref. 14) or tra/ty-3-chloroflavanone (ref. 15) with sodium borohydride where an inversion of configuration takes place at the a carbon parallel to the reduction of the... 

Formal isomerization of the double bond of testosterone to the 1-position and methylation at the 2-position provides yet another anabolic/androgenic agent. Mannich condensation of the fully saturated androstane derivative 93 with formaldehyde and di-methylamine gives aminoketone 94. A/B-trans steroids normally enolize preferentially toward the 2-position, explaining the regiospecificity of this reaction. Catalytic reduction at elevated temperature affords the 2a-methyl isomer 95. It is not at all unlikely that the reaction proceeds via the 2-methylene intermediate. The observed stereochemistry is no doubt attributable to the fact that the product represents the more stable equatorial isomer. The initial product would be expected to be the p-isomer but this would experience a severe 1,3-diaxial non-bonded interaction and epimerize via the enol. Bromination of the ketone proceeds largely at the tertiary carbon adjacent to the carbonyl (96). Dehydrohalogenation... 

The ability of a chiral molecule to distinguish between the enantiomers of a second (different) chiral molecule was defined in Sect. II as a diastereomer discrimination. This phenomenon may be observed in a mixed monolayer of two chiral surfactants and may also occur when a chiral substance is dissolved in the aqueous subphase under the monolayer of a second chiral substance. As before, examples of such chiral discrimination would not include those whose difference in monolayer behavior results only from the gross structural differences of diastereomers such as the different force-area characteristics exhibited by mixed monolayers of l-oleoyl-2-stearoyl-3-s -phospha-tidylcholine with epimeric steroids (120). The relevant experiment, that of comparing the monolayer behavior of mixed monolayers of cholesterol with enantiomeric phospholipids, has been reported (121). As might be anticipated from our previous discussion of... 

The recently introduced lanthanide-induced shift (LIS) technique has also found useful application in configurational studies of sulfur compounds. For example, the absolute configurations of a new type of bridged steroidal sulfoxide 203, which is epimeric at sulfur, were... 

In contrast to this, the introduction of longer alkyl chains with the aid of copper-promoted 1,6-addition reactions to A" -steroids normally proceeds with unsatisfactory aiyS ratios [15b, 16], In some cases, improvement of the diastereoselectivity by fine tuning of the reaction conditions has been possible. The ratio of the epimeric products 15 and 16 in the copper-catalyzed 1,6-addition of 4-pentenylmagnesium bromide to dienone 14, for example, was improved from 58 42 to 82 18 by adjustments to the quantity of nucleophile and the solvent composition (Eq. 4.6) [16f ]. 

Hydroxy ketones and hydroxy-a,/3-unsaturated ketones in the steroids such as estrone and testosterone, respectively, can be reduced to diols biochemically. Estrone acetate gave 68% yield of a-estradiol on incubation with baker s yeast at room temperature after five days [909]. Testosterone was reduced by bacteria to the saturated hydroxy ketones, etiocholan-17-ol-3-one and androstan-17-ol-3-one, and further to the diols, ep/-etiocholane-3,17-diol and the epimeric isoandrostane-3,17-diol, both in low yields [329]. 

Due to the 18-CH3 —> 17-CH3 shift, a carbocation centered at C13 is formed, and further 14a-H elimination originates the A13-double bond. 16p-Epimers can be formed due to an acid-catalyzed retro-aldol equilibrium involving the 16-hydroxy-20-keto function of the rearranged steroid, under the reaction conditions employed, which is responsible for the epimerization at C16, as previously discussed by Herzog et al. [125, 126] and reviewed by Wendler (Scheme 34) [111]. 

Other Reactions of Olefinic Steroids.—Reaction of cholest-5-en-3-one with air and acetic acid shows that isomerization to the A -3-oxo-compound is accompanied by autoxidation to the 6a- and 6/8-hydroxy-3-oxo-A -compounds and the 3,6-dioxo-A -compound. The oxidation appears to be controlled by heterolysis of the 4/3-proton and formation of the intermediate ion pair (73). Sitosterol was autoxi-dized at C-7 to give the 7-oxo- and the epimeric 7-hydroxy-derivatives. Oxidation of a 17-methylene steroid with Pb, Tl" , and Hg acetates in methanol gave a wide variety of products. The reaction with Pb(OAc)4 gave the rearranged products (74), (75), and (76) whereas the Tl and Hg products retained the... 

The reaction of 3/3-acetoxy-5a-cholest-8(14)-en-7-one with EtjAlCN was the key reaction in a synthesis of cholestanes containing an oxygenated 14a-substi-tuent. Cholest-4-en-3-one reacted smoothly with KCN-acetone cyanohydrin in benzene or acetonitrile containing 18-crown-6 to give the epimeric 5-cyano-cholestan-3-ones. An 11 -hydroxy-group increased the proportion of a-epox-ide produced in the reaction of 3-oxo-A -steroids with H202-0H . A 9a-fluorine substituent also influenced the stereochemistry of the reaction products and a... 

The first synthesis of 15-oxygenated-14/3-A -steroids employed the BF3-catalysed rearrangement of a 14a, 15a-epoxy-A -compound (252) to the 15-oxo-14/3-A -compound (253) which on hydride reduction gave the epimeric 15-... 

Another structural factor that influences the sign and magnitude of the n-7t and n-n Cotton effects is the presence of an allylic axial substituent56 57 (Table 3). The 6/7-substituent in steroidal 4-en-3-ones 3-8 is ideally oriented for an effective overlap with the 7r-orbital, left-handed helicity of the R-C-C = C system giving rise to the strong negative contribution to the 7T-7t Cotton effect and, relatively smaller, positive contribution to the n-7i Cotton effect. The effect is not observed with epimeric 4-en-3-ones substituted in the equatorial 6a-position. 

The amplitude (A) of the exciton Cotton effect is inversely proportional to the square of the interchromophoric distance. Thus, weak exciton split Cotton effects are expected for remote dibenzoates. Nevertheless, exciton Cotton effects were used for the assignment of the configuration of dibenzoates in a steroidal skeleton separated by as many as seven or eight C—C bonds158. In one application, the absolute configuration of Wieland-Miescher ketone (—)-2 was established by the use of the dibenzoate chirality rule for the 4-bromobenzoylated derivatives of the epimeric 1,5-diols 3 and 4, obtained by reduction of (-)-2159. 

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