Cycloaddition ylides

The first report on metal-catalyzed asymmetric azomethine ylide cycloaddition reactions appeared some years before this topic was described for other 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions [86]. However, since then the activity in this area has been very limited in spite of the fact that azomethine ylides are often stabilized by metal salts as shown in Scheme 6.40. 

Type Ilbd pyrrole syntheses fall into three general categories (1) Hinsberg-type (2) azomethine ylide cycloadditions and (3) isocyanide-based cyclocondensations. The Hinsberg pyrrole synthesis, the cyclocondensation between iminodiacetates and oxalates, has been further exploited in the total synthesis of the lamellarins <06T594,06TL3755>. 

Azomethine ylide cycloadditions have been utilized to prepare a number of novel fused pyrroles including pyrrolo[2,1 -a isoquinolincs <06CHJC279, 06TL1469> and pyrrolo[l,2-Zdpyridazines <06SL804>. Fused hydroxypyrroles were obtained in cycloaddition reactions with trimethylsilylketenes (TMS ketene) <06TL1469>. 

Scheme 9. Examples of azomethine ylide cycloaddition by (a) Affymax and (b) Bartlett and coworkers.

As with any modern review of the chemical Hterature, the subject discussed in this chapter touches upon topics that are the focus of related books and articles. For example, there is a well recognized tome on the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction that is an excellent introduction to the many varieties of this transformation [1]. More specific reviews involving the use of rhodium(II) in carbonyl ylide cycloadditions [2] and intramolecular 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions have also appeared [3, 4]. The use of rhodium for the creation and reaction of carbenes as electrophilic species [5, 6], their use in intramolecular carbenoid reactions [7], and the formation of ylides via the reaction with heteroatoms have also been described [8]. Reviews of rhodium(II) ligand-based chemoselectivity [9], rhodium(11)-mediated macrocyclizations [10], and asymmetric rho-dium(II)-carbene transformations [11, 12] detail the multiple aspects of control and applications that make this such a powerful chemical transformation. In addition to these reviews, several books have appeared since around 1998 describing the catalytic reactions of diazo compounds [13], cycloaddition reactions in organic synthesis [14], and synthetic applications of the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition [15]. 

However, the highly stereoselective nature of the dipole intermediate, which was observed in the preceding cases, did not translate to azomethine ylide cycloadditions of 113 and 114, both of which formed mixtures of products derived from endo... 

This represents an interesting study into the use of a C(2) symmetrical stereocontrolling unit for the azomethine ylide cycloadditions of a, p-unsamrated esters. In particular, consideration of the effect of both N-substiments in the... 

Pyridones, as exemplified by ABT-719 (154, Figure 3.8), represent a new class of DNA gyrase inhibitors possessing a broad spectmm of antibacterial activity and, in studies toward such compounds, it was revealed that the C(8) functionality was an important part of the DNA binding action. Azomethine ylide cycloadditions were employed to give a range of proline-type derivatives in order to study stmcture-activity relationships (39). 

Several syntheses of the hepatatoxic alkaloid (+)-retronecine have been reported although the most succinct has utilized a chiral azomethine ylide cycloaddition to construct the bicychc skeleton. The ylide processor 175, which was obtained in five efficient steps from commercially available tran -(l )-4-hydroxy-L-proline, underwent double desilyation in the presence of AgF (described in detail in Section 3.1.1) and in situ cycloaddition with methyl propiolate, to deliver a 3 1 mixture of cycloadducts in favor of the desired regioisomer. DiisobutyMuminum (DIBAL) reduction of 176 furnished enantiopure (-F)-retronecine (Scheme 3.50). 

Chiral bicyclic lactams have been successfully utilized by Meyers as chiral dipolarophiles in highly diastereoselective azomethine ylide cycloadditions (73). Treatment of the ylide precursor 218 with the unsaturated, non-racemic dipolar-ophile 219 in the presence of a catalytic amount of TFA led to the formation of tricyclic adducts 220 and 221 in excellent yields (85-100%). The diastereofacial preference for the reaction was dependent on the nature of R with a methyl group... 

During the synthetic efforts of Heathcock and co-workers toward the complex marine alkaloid sarain-A (Scheme 3.80), he outlined an elegant intramolecular, azomethine ylide cycloaddition, as one of the key stages in the construction of the central core (76). Of the generation methods known for azomethine ylides, thermolysis of aziridines was selected in this instance. The azomethine ylide... 

However, replacement of LiBr with AgOAc inverted the ratio of exo to endo products. For Ar = 334, the major adduct was isolated in 42% yield with an endo/ exo ratio of 1 1.7, while Ar = 335 gave 333 in 36% yield with an endo/exo ratio of 1 2.3. Note that attempts at the thermal reaction met with low yields of complex reaction mixmres containing all possible regio- and stereoisomers. This smdy exemplifies the value of metal mediation in the stereo- and regiocontrol of azomethine ylide cycloadditions. 

Synthetic Aspects of Carbonyl Ylide Cycloaddition Reactions. 

SYNTHETIC ASPECTS OF CARBONYL YLIDE CYCLOADDITION REACTIONS... 

Much of the initial synthetically useful carbonyl ylide work originated from the Ibata group. Exploiting simple disubstituted aromatic diazoketo-esters and structurally diverse dipolarophiles, Ibata and co-workers (64—70) prepared several different cycloadducts 167-169 through an intermolecular ylide cycloaddition (Scheme 4.38). 

In a very recent example, Chiu and co-workers (84-86) used the tandem ylide-cycloaddition methodology to prepare advanced intermediates directed toward the synthesis of the pseudolaric acids. Pseudolaric acids are a family of diterpenes isolated from the root bark of Pseudolarix kaempferi. These novel compounds have shown antimicrobial activity comparable to that of amphotericin B and have demonstrated cyctotoxicity against several cancer cell lines (Fig. 4.5). 

Lycorine is an alkaloid that has attracted attention from both the synthetic community and pharmacologists. Prior synthetic approaches have included inter-and intramolecular Diels-Alder cycloaddition. Based on a similar retrosynthetic disconnection, Padwa and co-workers (106,109) chose to use a push-pull carbonyl ylide cycloaddition with a disubstituted pyrrolidinone core to generate a tricyclic substrate. The major difference for this synthetic smdy was the availability of a labile proton a to the carbonyl moiety (Scheme 4.53). 

Padwa and co-workers (120-122) also utilized this carbonyl ylide cycloaddition strategy to advance to the aromatic pterosin family of compounds. The same intermediates used to approach the nonaromatic illudins and ptaqualosides are also useful for aromatic formation through cleavage and dehydration (Scheme 4.62). 

Friedrichsen and co-workers (135), along with Padwa, has utilized the carbonyl ylide cycloaddition to generate reactive furan moieties that can be further used in inter- or intramolecular Diels-Alder reactions to prepare aza- and carbocyclic compounds. Friedrichsen conducted a number of synthetic and theoretical studies on the reactivity, regioselectivity, and stereoselectivity of substituted furan formation and subsequent Diels-Alder reaction (Scheme 4.69). 

Hashimoto and co-workers (139) further looked at an intermolecular carbonyl ylide cycloaddition screening several different chiral rhodium catalysts. The Hashimoto group chose to study phthaloyl amino acid derivatives for enantiocon-trol of the cycloaddition reactions (Fig. 4.8). Using fluorinated or ethereal solvents with the phthaloyl catalysts gave ee ratios of 20-69%. 

An attempted synthesis of biotin using thiocarbonyl ylide cycloaddition was carried out (131,133,134). The crucial step involves the formation of the tetrahydrothiophene ring by [3 + 2] cycloaddition of a properly substituted thiocarbonyl ylide with a maleic or fumaric acid derivative (Scheme 5.27). As precursors of the thiocarbonyl ylides, compounds 25a, 72, and 73 were used. Further conversion of cycloadducts 74 into biotin (75) required several additional steps including a Curtius rearrangement to replace the carboxylic groups at C(3) and C(4) by amino moieties. 

The reaction mechanism proposed for the LiBr/NEta induced azomethine ylide cycloadditions to a,p-unsaturated carbonyl acceptors is illustrated in Scheme 11.10. The ( , )-ylides, reversibly generated from the imine esters, interact with acceptors under frontier orbital control, and the lithium atom of ylides coordinates with the carbonyl oxygen of the acceptors. Either through a direct cycloaddition (path a) or a sequence of Michael addition-intramolecular cyclization (path b), the cycloadducts are produced with endo- and regioselectivity. Path b is more likely, since in some cases Michael adducts are isolated. 

Although the first attempts at asymmetric azomethine ylide cycloadditions were reported by Padwa s group (92), the acyclic azomethine ylides chosen, bearing an a-chiral alkyl substituent on the nitrogen, showed poor diastereoselectivities (93,94). When the chiral center is fixed in a cyclic structure (95) or when chirality is introduced in an intramolecular cycloaddition system (96-98), high selectivities have been accomplished. There are only a few examples known of asymmetric cycloadditions of achiral azomethine ylides to chiral dipolarophiles where cyclic azomethine ylides (99,100) or cyclic chiral dipolarophiles (94) were used. 

The above azomethine ylide cycloadditions have been extended to an enantioselective version involving amino alcohols both as chiral ligands and amine bases. Thus, reactions of the N-metalated azomethine yhdes derived from achiral methyl 2-(arylmethyleneamino)acetates, cobalt(II) chloride [or manganese(II) bromide], and chiral amino alcohols, 1 and 2 equiv each, with methyl acrylate as solvent have been performed to provide the enantiomer-enriched pyrrolidine-2,4-dicarboxylates with the enantioselectivities of up to 96% enantiomeric excess (ee) (128,129). However, a large excess of the metal ions and the chiral source (ligand and base) have to be employed. 

Reactions of the same carbonyl ylide intermediate with aldehydes are even more fruitful. The Rh2(OAc)2 catalyzed reaction proceeds at room temperature in the presence of 2 mol% of the catalyst, but the diastereoselectivity is disappointingly low (endo/exo = 49 51, Scheme 11.56). However, when 10 mol% of the cocatalyst Yb(OTf)3 is added, the reaction becomes highly exo-selective (endo/ exo = 3 97) (198). Suga has extended this Lewis acid catalyzed carbonyl ylide cycloaddition reaction to catalyzed asymmetric versions. The chiral cocatalyst employed is ytterbium(III) tris(5)-1,1 -binaphthyl-2,2 -diyl phosphonate, Yb[(S) BNP]3 (10 mol%). In the reaction of methyl o-(diazoacetyl)benzoate with benzyloxyacetaldehyde in the presence of Rh2(OAc)2 (2 mol%) at room temperature with the chiral Yb catalyst, the diastereoselectivity is low (endo/exo = 57 43) and the enantiopurity of the endo-cycloadduct is 52% ee. 

Hashimoto and co-workers (206,207) recently published enantioselectivities of up to 92% ee in carbonyl ylide cycloadditions to acetylenic esters in the presence of a chiral rhodium catalyst (Scheme 11.58). 

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