Thienamycin, preparation

To complete the synthesis of thienamycin, it only remains to cleave the carbamate and ester functions in 23. Catalytic hydrogenation of 23 accomplishes both of these objectives, and furnishes (+)-thienamycin (1). Synthetic (+)-thienamycin, prepared in this manner, was identical in all respects with natural thienamycin. 

Reactions. Although carbapenems are extremely sensitive to many reaction conditions, a wide variety of chemical modifications have been carried out. Many derivatives of the amino, hydroxy, and carboxy group of thienamycin (2) have been prepared primarily to study stmcture—activity relationships (24). The most interesting class of A/-derivatives are the amidines which are usually obtained in good yield by reaction of thienamycin with an imidate ester at pH 8.3. Introduction of this basic but less nucleophilic moiety maintains or improves the potency of the natural material while greatiy increasing the chemical stabiUty. Thus /V-formimidoyl thienamycin [64221-86-9] (MK 0787) (18), C 2H yN204S, (25) was chosen for clinical evaluation and... 

The nitrobenzyl caibonates were prepared to protect a secondary hydroxyl group in a thienamycin precursor. The o-nitrobenzyl carbonate was prepared from the chloroformate (DMAP, CH2CI2, 0° - 20°, 3 h) and cleaved by irradiation, pH 7. The p-nitrobenzyl carbonate was prepared from the chloroformate (—78°, n-BuLi, THE, 85% yield) and cleaved by hydrogenolysis (H2/Pd-C, dioxane, H2O, EtOH, K2HP04). It is also cleaved by electrolytic reduction. ... 

Recently Ikegami used the thiol addition reaction in the preparation of optically pure 4-phenylthioazetidin-2-one, the starting material for an elegant ( + )-thienamycin synthesis (58). When 4-phenylsulfonylazetidin-2-one was treated with cinchonidine and thiophenol, the intermediate azetinone underwent a thiol addition reaction and the 4-phenylthioazetidin-2-one was obtained in 54% optical and 96% chemical yield (eq. [13]). Recrystallization of the optically active aze-tidinone allows isolation of the pure enantiomer from the mother liquor. The phenylthio group is eliminated later in the synthesis of thienamycin. 

The continued importance of 3-lactam ring systems in medicine has encouraged a number of research groups to investigate their synthesis via a nitrone cycloaddition protocol. Kametani et al. (60-62) reported the preparation of advanced intermediates of penems and carbapenems including (+)-thienamycin (29) and its enantiomer (Scheme 1.7). They prepared the chiral nitrone 30 from (—)-menthyl... 

This method has been used to prepare the antibiotic thienamycin. The magnesium enolate of the /3-lactam was prepared from the 6-iodo derivative in THF (equation 9/ . 

Reactions. Although carbapenems are extremely sensitive to many reaction conditions, a wide variety of chemical modifications have been carried out. Many derivatives of the amino, hydroxy, and carboxy group of thienamycin have been prepared primarily to study structure-activity relationships. 

As early as 1977 Pracejus et al. investigated alkaloid-catalyzed addition of thiols to a-phthalimido acrylates, methylene azlactones, and nitroolefins [56a]. In the former approach, protected cysteine derivatives were obtained with up to 54% ee. Mukaiyama and Yamashita found that addition of thiophenol to diisopropyl mal-eate in the presence of cinchonine (10 mol%) proceeds in 95% yield and that the product, (S)-phenylthiosuccinate, was formed with 81% ee [56b]. The latter Michael adduct was used as starting material for preparation of (R)-(+)-3,4-epoxy-1-butanol. In the course of an asymmetric total synthesis of (+)-thienamycin Ike-gami et al. studied the substitution of the phenylsulfonyl substituent in the azetidi-none 69 by thiophenol in the presence of cinchonidine (Scheme 4.34) [56c]. This substitution probably proceeds via the azetinone 70. In this reaction the phenyl-thioazetidinone 71 was obtained in 96% yield and 54% ee. Upon crystallization, the optically pure substitution product 71 was obtained from the mother liquor... 

Vinyloxiranes are used for facile 7i-allyl complex formation [14], The -allylic ferralactone complex 41 was prepared by oxidative addition of Fe2(CO)9 to the functionalized vinyloxirane 40 and CO insertion. Treatment of the ferralactone complex 41 with optically active a-methylbenzylamine (42) in the presence of ZnCl2 gave the 7r-allylic ferralactam complex 45 via 44. In this case, as shown by 43, the amine attacks the terminal carbon of the allylic system and then the lactone carbonyl. Then, elimination of OH group generates the 7r-allylic ferralactam complex 45. Finally the /1-lactam 46 was obtained in 64% yield by oxidative decomplexation with Ce(TV) salt. The <5-lactam 47 was a minor product (24%). The precursor of the thienamycin 48 was prepared from 46 [15,16]. This mechanistic explanation is supported by the formation of both 7r-allyllactone and lactam complexes (49 and 51) from the allylic amino alcohol 50 [17]. 

Radical methods have found limited use in the preparation of four-membered heterocycles. Intramolecular cyclization of a-bromoeneamide (5) has been examined for the synthesis of p-lactams. The reaction proceeds cleanly through a 4-exo-trig pathway to furnish 6. As had been previously established, this regioselectivity is dependent on the nature of the substituent on the olefin. This methodology has been applied in the synthesis of p-lactam antibiotics ( )-PS-5 (7) and (+)-thienamycin [95JOC1276] [95SL912],... 

Nowadays, all the therapeutically relevant penems are equipped with the lf/ 3-hydroxyethyl side chain, characteristic of the thienamycin (carbapenem) family (see Table 1). Accordingly, they are prepared by hemisynthesis from the chiral acetoxyazetidinone 76, which is industrially produced on a large scale by chemical methods (see Section 2.03.9). This chiron plays a similar role as 6-APA for the synthesis of semisynthetic penicillins, but here for the synthesis of non-natural penems and carbapenems <1996T331>. 

Fused ring ketones have been utilized as templates for stereocontrolled elaboration of substituents fused to smaller rings. Ohno and coworkers have described a regio- and stereo-controlled process for the preparation of the thienamycin intermediate (48 Scheme 13). Oxidation of ketone (46) provided lactone (47), which has three of the required chiral centers of thienamycin. 

This method can be effectively applied to the preparation of /S-lactam compounds. The ester enolate-imine condensation approach to j8-lactam formation has been developed over the past decade. Thienamycin and related carbapenems have been the focus of particular attention because of their structural uniqueness and potent antibacterial activity. 

A new efficient methodology for the preparation of a chiral 2-azetidinone intermediate applicable to the total synthesis of (+)-thienamycin and l)S-substituted carbapenems has been developed (86JAa673). This is based on the highly diastereoselective aldol-type reaction employing C4-chiral 3-acyl-l,3-thiazolidine-2-thiones and 4-acetoxy-2-azetidinones. 

Thienamycin and its derivatives are exciting new antibiotics. Then-clinical use is limited, however, by their susceptibility to the kidney enzyme dehydropeptidase I. Reversible inhibition of this enzyme is provided by cilastatin [11]. The preparation of the S-cyclopropane portion [10] of cilastatin is achieved (16) by decomposition of ethyl diazoacetate in isobutylene [9] in the presence of the chiral copper catalyst R-7644. The product [10] is obtained in 92% e.e. and then further processed to cilastatin. Cilastatin is now marketed in combination with the thienamycin derivative imipenem as a very-broad-spectnim antibiotic. 

Decarboxylative acetoxylation and methoxylation of a-aminocarboxylic acids proceed smoothly, yielding synthetically useful intermediates. For example, the versatile intermediate (LX) for the synthesis of thienamycine is prepared by electrodecarboxylative acetoxylation of 4-carboxy-2-azetidinone (LIX) in an AcOH-MeCN-AcONa-(Pt) system [134] ... 

The Nicholas reaction was used to synthesize the p-lactam precursor of thienamycin in the laboratory of P.A. Jacobi and thereby accomplish its formal total synthesis. The necessary p-amino acid was prepared by the condensation of a boron enolate (derived from an acylated oxazolidinone) with the cobalt complex of an enantiopure propargylic ether. The resulting adduct was oxidized with ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN) to remove the cobalt protecting group from the triple bond, and the product was obtained with a 17 1 anti.syn selectivity and in good yield. 

The above reaction type was also applied to the acetoxyazetidinone (81).Heating of (81) with diene (82) and ZnCh in acetonitrile at reflux gives co. 60% of (formal) cycloadduct (83) as a single trans stereoisomer (equation 40). From (83) the carbapenam skeleton was readily prepared in three steps. The reaction was repeated for silyloxydiene (84) in order to gain access to the more potent l -methyl analog of thienamycin. In refluxing acetonitrile the monocycle (86) is formed as the major product (equation 41). 

The key intermediate 66h for the synthesis of (+)-Thienamycin has been prepared by heating a solution of carbamylcobalt salophen 65d in toluene (Scheme 25) [26],... 

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