Combinatorial synthesis of small-molecule libraries using 3-amino-5-hydroxybenzoic acid

Solid-Phase Synthesis of Tetrahydro-1,4-benzodiazepine-2-one Derivatives as a β-Turn Peptidomimetic Library

The beta-turn has been implicated as an important conformation for biological recognition of peptides or proteins. We adapted the concept of general Calpha atom positioning from the cluster analysis and recombination of each ideal beta-turn conformation pattern by Garland and Dean (J. Comput.-Aided Mol. Des. 1999, 13, 469) as one strategy of designing non-peptide beta-turn scaffolds. Herein, the Calpha positions of tetrahydro-1,4-benzodiazepin-2-one scaffold were analyzed after the calculation of the low-energy conformer using a semiempirical protocol. Three points of corresponding Calpha carbons for diverse substitutions in the scaffold were designated, and an efficient solid-phase synthesis of the peptidomimetic library was developed. The scaffold itself was synthesized in solution phase starting from 5-hydroxy-2-nitrobenzaldehyde and loaded to the 4-formyl-3,5-dimethoxyphenoxy (PL-FDMP) resin with high efficiency of reductive amination. Various building blocks for the derivatization of the 7-hydroxyl and N-1 amide nitrogen could be introduced via selective alkylation. Cleavage, parallel column chromatography, and NMR analysis of 62 final compounds confirmed the feasibility of this peptidomimetic library synthesis.

Physico-chemical and biological analysis of true combinatorial libraries

Combinatorial libraries offer new sources of compounds for the research of pharmacological agents such as receptor ligands, enzyme inhibitors or substrates and antibody-binding epitopes. The present review stresses the main roles played by both physico-chemical analysis, particularly when complex mixture of compounds are synthesized as libraries, and biological analysis from which active compounds are identified. After a brief discussion of semantic problems related to the designation of the product mixtures, the physico-chemical analysis of mixtures is reviewed with special emphasis on mass spectrometric techniques. These methods are able both to give a representative view of a library composition and to identify single critical compounds in large libraries. Then the biological screening of such combinatorial libraries is critically discussed with respect to the power and limitations of the methods used for the identification of the active components. Special attention is given to the complex process of library deconvolution. It is pointed out that while combinatorial techniques have evolved towards sophisticated high-tech methods, simple and robust biochemical tests should be used to deconvolute. From a large panel of published examples, a set of trends are identified which should help investigators to choose the most appropriate assay for the discovery of new entities.

Phosphorus-based combinatorial libraries: use of amino acid derivatives as synthons

Phosphorus has been used as a scaffold to prepare combinatorial libraries of phosphoramidates in which one of the diversity elements resulted from derivatives of amino acids. A small library was prepared for analytical and characterization purposes, followed by a larger library of approximately 8800 compounds. Libraries were assembled on solid supports using the conventional pool-and-divide method, followed by cleavage from the supports at the end of the synthesis. Mass spectrometry was used to confirm that library synthesis had been successful. Individual compounds were also prepared to study the stability of compounds of this type.