Conformationally constrained substance P analogues: the total synthesis of a constrained peptidomimetic for the Phe7-Phe8 region

Capitalizing on Mediated Electrolyses for the Construction of Complex, Addressable Molecular Surfaces

Synthetic organic chemists are beginning to exploit electrochemical methods in increasingly creative ways. This is leading to a surge in productivity that is only now starting to take advantage of the full-potential of electrochemistry for accessing new structures in novel, more efficient ways. In this perspective, we provide insight into the potential of electrochemistry as a synthetic tool gained through studies of both direct anodic oxidation reactions and more recent indirect methods, and highlight how the development of new electrochemical methods can expand the nature of synthetic problems our community can tackle.

Traceless Solid-Phase Synthesis of [6,7,8 + 5,6,7]-Fused Molecular Frameworks

We report two synthetic strategies for traceless solid-phase synthesis of molecular scaffolds comprising 6- to 8-membered rings fused with 5- to 7-membered rings. Traceless synthesis facilitated preparation of target molecules without any trace of polymer-supported linkers. The cyclization proceeded via acid-mediated tandem N-acylium ion formation followed by the nucleophilic addition of O- and C-nucleophiles. The presented synthetic strategy enabled, through the use of simple building blocks without any conformational preferences, the evaluation of the predisposition of different combinations of ring sizes to form fused ring molecular scaffolds. Compounds with any combination of [6,7 + 5,6,7] ring sizes were accessible with excellent crude purity. The 8-membered cyclic iminium was successfully fused only with the 5-membered cycle and larger fused ring systems were not formed, probably due to their instability.

Enantioselective Organocatalytic Synthesis of 2-Oxopiperazines from Aldehydes: Identification of the Elusive Epoxy Lactone Intermediate

An organocatalytic linchpin catalysis approach was envisaged to convert simple aldehydes into enantioenriched 2-oxopiperazines. A four-step reaction sequence (chlorination, oxidation, substitution, and cyclization) was developed and led to different substitution patterns in high yields and selectivities. The reaction mechanism was studied, and the previously elusive epoxy lactone intermediate was identified by HRMS.

Synthesis of 1- and 4-substituted piperazin-2-ones via Jocic-type reactions with N-substituted diamines

Enantiomerically-enriched trichloromethyl-containing alcohols are transformed regioselectively into enantiomerically-enriched 1-substituted piperazinones by modified Jocic reactions.

The Shono-type electroorganic oxidation of unfunctionalised amides. Carbon-carbon bond formation via electrogenerated N-acyliminium ions

N-acyliminium ions are useful reactive synthetic intermediates in a variety of important carbon–carbon bond forming and cyclisation strategies in organic chemistry. The advent of an electrochemical anodic oxidation of unfunctionalised amides, more commonly known as the Shono oxidation, has provided a complementary route to the C–H activation of low reactivity intermediates. In this article, containing over 100 references, we highlight the development of the Shono-type oxidations from the original direct electrolysis methods, to the use of electroauxiliaries before arriving at indirect electrolysis methodologies. We also highlight new technologies and techniques applied to this area of electrosynthesis. We conclude with the use of this electrosynthetic approach to challenging syntheses of natural products and other complex structures for biological evaluation discussing recent technological developments in electroorganic techniques and future directions.

Recent advances in the electrochemical construction of heterocycles

Due to the fact that the major portion of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals contains heterocyclic units and since the overall number of commercially used heterocyclic compounds is steadily growing, heterocyclic chemistry remains in the focus of the synthetic community. Enormous efforts have been made in the last decades in order to render the production of such compounds more selective and efficient. However, most of the conventional methods for the construction of heterocyclic cores still involve the use of strong acids or bases, the operation at elevated temperatures and/or the use of expensive catalysts and reagents. In this regard, electrosynthesis can provide a milder and more environmentally benign alternative. In fact, numerous examples for the electrochemical construction of heterocycles have been reported in recent years. These cases demonstrate that ring formation can be achieved efficiently under ambient conditions without the use of additional reagents. In order to account for the recent developments in this field, a selection of representative reactions is presented and discussed in this review.

Synthesis of tetrahydroisoquinoline alkaloids via anodic cyanation as the key step

We report a new route to tetrahydroisoquinoline (THIQ) alkaloids involving the alkylation of alpha-aminonitrile 2 as a key step. The latter compound was prepared by anodic cyanation of the corresponding tertiary amine 1. Reductive decyanation of alpha-aminonitriles 6a-c proceeded diastereoselectively (up to 95% de) to deliver the C1-substituted alkaloids precursors 9a-c. The syntheses of (+/-)-carnegine, (+/-)-norlaudanosine, and (+/-)-O,O-dimethylcoclaurine have been achieved.

Intramolecular anodic olefin coupling reactions and the synthesis of cyclic amines

Anodic olefin coupling reactions using a tosylamine trapping group have been studied. The cyclizations are favored by the use of a less-polar radical cation and more basic reaction conditions. The most significant factor for obtaining good yields of cyclic product is the use of the more basic reaction conditions. However, a number of factors including the nature of both the solvent and the electrolyte used can influence the yield of the cyclizations. The cyclizations allow for the rapid synthesis of both substituted proline and pipecolic acid type derivatives.

Stereocontrolled total synthesis of (--)-kaitocephalin

This paper describes the successful implementation of a stereocontrolled strategy for the total chemical synthesis of the pyrrolidine-based alkaloid (--)-kaitocephalin. This scalable synthetic route profits from the strategic utilization of substrate-controlled manipulations for the iterative installation of the requisite stereogenic centers. The key transformations include a diastereoselective modified Claisen condensation, a chemo- and diastereoselective reduction of a beta-keto ester, and the substrate-directed hydrogenation of a dehydroamino ester derivative. During the course of our investigations, an interesting stereoconvergent cyclization reaction was discovered for the efficient assembly of the kaitocephalin 2,2,5-trisubstituted pyrrolidine core.

Structural diversity of bicyclic amino acids

Over the years biomedical research has been constantly oriented towards the development of new therapeutics based on bioactive peptides and their analogues. In particular, the generation of compounds having structures and functions similar to bioactive peptides, named "peptidomimetics", raised much interest among organic and medicinal chemists due to the possibility by using such compounds to improve both potency and stability of peptidic lead compounds. In the context of this research area, unnatural amino acids are of great interest in drug discovery, and their use as new building blocks for the development of peptidomimetics with high diversity level and possessing high-ordered structures is of special interest. In particular, medicinal chemistry has taken advantage of the use of amino acid homologues and of cyclic and polycyclic templates to introduce elements of diversity for the generation of new molecules as drug candidates. Bicyclic amino acids have been developed as reverse turn mimetics and dipeptide isosteres, and the constraint imposed by their structures has been reported as a tool for controlling the conformational preferences of modified peptides. Moreover, synthetic efforts have been driven to the generation of diverse structures based on the modulation of ring size and scaffold decoration by suitable functional groups. Herein is reported an overview of different classes of bicyclic amino acids, taking into account the strategies to achieve structurally diverse templates, and some implications in medicinal chemistry are also disclosed.

Practical Solid-Phase Parallel Synthesis of Δ5-2-Oxopiperazines via N-Acyliminium Ion Cyclization

A practical solid-phase strategy for the synthesis of Delta(5)-2-oxopiperazines via N-acyliminium ion cyclization has been developed. A key step in the library synthesis is tandem acidolytic cleavage with subsequent in situ iminium formation, followed by stable enamide transformation. This approach is exemplified by the preparation of a 192-member pilot library using bromoacetal resins without further purification.

A Highly Practical RCM Approach towards a Molecular Building Kit of Spirocyclic Reverse Turn Mimics

The development of privileged molecular scaffolds efficiently mimicking reverse turn motifs and thus increasing both binding and selectivity and enabling the elucidation of the bioactive conformation of a natural peptide has attracted remarkable interest. The frequent occurrence of proline in various turn patterns initiated the design of proline-based reverse turn mimetics. As a structural hybridization of a highly potent type VI beta-turn inducer 1 with saturated spirocyclic lactams 3 efficiently mimicking type II beta turns, we developed a versatile synthetic route towards unsaturated spirocyclic lactams of type 2, when Seebach's self-reproduction of chirality methodology was combined with a peptide coupling reaction and Grubbs' ring-closing metathesis. By this means, a variety of model peptides with six- up to nine-membered lactam rings were accessible following a uniform pathway. Introduction of suitably protected templates into solid-phase peptide synthesis gave rise to unsaturated spirocyclic analogues of the naturally occurring neuropeptide neurotensin. Spectroscopic investigations as well as DFT calculations on a high level of theory revealed a remarkable dependence of the reverse-turn inducing potency on the ring size. While the secondary structure of the unsaturated spirocyclic epsilon-lactam 12 closely agrees with the reference gamma-lactam 3 a, the unsaturated delta-lactam 11 serves as an extraordinarily potent beta-turn inducer which is even superior to beta-lactams of type 3 b. The eight-membered unsaturated spirocyclic lactam 13 adopts a conformation almost ideally matching the prerequisites for a canonical type II beta turn with the highest stability of the whole series. In contrast, the nine-membered spirolactam 14 represents a scaffold with a high conformational flexibility.

Azabicycloalkenes as Synthetic Intermediates: Application to the Preparation of Diazabicycloalkane Scaffolds

[reaction: see text] A general method to synthesize bicyclic dipeptide mimetics is reported. Key intermediates are azabicycloalkenes 9 and 17, which are prepared via Diels-Alder reactions and subsequent mild deprotection. These unsaturated bicyclic heterocycles are versatile intermediates for different dipeptide mimetics of the aza- and diazabicycloalkane type, which is demonstrated by the synthesis of diazabicycloalkanes 11 and 19 in only 3-6 steps and good overall yield.

Synthesis of modular dipeptide mimetics on the basis of diazabicycloalkanes and derivatives thereof with sulphur containing side chains

We present the synthesis of new modular dipeptide mimetics based on diazabicycloalkane backbones. These diazabicycloalkanes are ligands for the prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA), a well known tumor marker. Our previously described synthetic route to enantiomerically pure diazabicycloalkanes is extended to yield polyfunctional diazabicycloalkanes with a modular character using a new ring closing methodology. This, finally, allows us to attach linker moieties to different positions of the diazabicycloalkane scaffold providing conjugation sites to other functional molecules such as markers or cytostatic compounds. Furthermore, successful synthesis of sulphur-containing dipeptide analogues as for example CysX(AA)- or HCysX(AA)-mimetics on the basis of diazabicycloalkanes is described.

Simple, versatile and highly diastereoselective synthesis of 1,3,4-trisubstituted-2-oxopiperazine-containing peptidomimetic precursors

The selective O-deprotection of (1'S)-4-(tert-butoxycarbonyl)-1-[1'-phenylmethyloxymethyl-2'-[(tert-butyldimethylsilyl)oxy]ethyl]-2-oxopiperazine furnished an enantiomerically pure alcohol whose regio- and diastereoselective C3-alkylation yielded either (3R)- or (3S)-1,3,4-trisubstituted-2-oxopiperazines in high diastereomeric purity. These derivatives were efficiently transformed into (1'R)- or (1'S)-peptide templates utilizable to prepare peptidomimetics. This method provides easy access to each 1,3,4-trisubstituted-2-oxopiperazine diastereomer and facilitates, through the large choice of substituents at the 3-position together with the chemistry that can be performed on the N1 substituent, the preparation of a large number of diastereomerically pure constrained peptidomimetics from a single precursor.

Building functionalized peptidomimetics: new electroauxiliaries and the use of a chemical oxidant for introducing N-acyliminium ions into peptides

[reaction: see text] The removal of electroauxiliaries from peptide substrates with chemical oxidants has been examined as a method for inserting N-acyliminium ions into the peptides. To this end, it was found that both 4-methoxyphenyldimethylsilyl and 2,4-dimethoxyphenyldimethylsilyl electroauxiliaries were readily cleaved with the use of ceric ammonium nitrate. Of the two groups, the 2,4-dimethoxyphenyldimethylsilyl electroauxiliary was the most labile under the oxidative conditions. The oxidation reactions were shown to be compatible with the use of a solid-phase substrate.

Efficient, stereoselective synthesis of oxazolo[3,2-a]pyrazin-5-ones: novel bicyclic lactam scaffolds from the bicyclocondensation of 3-aza-1,5-ketoacids and amino alcohols

[reaction: see text] The bicyclocondensation of 3-aza-1,5-ketoacids and amino alcohols furnished novel oxazolo[3,2-a]pyrazin-5-one scaffolds possessing angular, ring junction substituents in high yield with excellent levels of substrate-based diastereocontrol. Mild oxidation of serinol-derived scaffolds provided access to a new class of constrained dipeptide surrogates. Deprotection of the endocyclic amine contained within these scaffolds allows for further diversification via N-functionalization.

Allylation of exocyclic N-Acyliminium ions generated from chiral N-[1-(phenylsulfonyl)alkyl]oxazolidin-2-ones

N-[1-(Phenylsulfonyl)alkyl]oxazolidin-2-ones are successfully prepared by condensation of the corresponding optically active oxazolidin-2-ones with aldehydes and benzenesulfinic acid. At low temperature, in the presence of titanium tetrachloride, these sulfones are converted into N-acyliminium ions, which react with allyltrimethylsilane with a variable degree of stereoselectivity. The best results are obtained with (R)-5,5-dimethyl-4-phenyloxazolidin-2-one as a chiral auxiliary. Cleavage of the oxazolidin-2-one ring with lithium/ammonia affords the corresponding homoallylamines, which reveal an absolute configuration opposite that expected on the basis of the usual steric effects. A complexation of the Lewis acid with the N-acyliminium ion may be responsible of this rather unusual stereochemical outcome.

Silyl-substituted amino acids: new routes to the construction of selectively functionalized peptidomimetics

[reaction: see text]. Silylated amino acids have been incorporated into peptides and then converted into N-acyliminium ions with the use of an anodic oxidation reaction. The result is a method for selectively incorporating conformational constraints or external nucleophiles within the peptide.

Conformationally restricted TRH analogues: constraining the pyroglutamate region

A modified synthetic route has been developed so that the steric size of constraints added to the pyroglutamate region of TRH (pGluHisProNH(2)) can be varied. Both an analogue with a smaller ethylene bridge and a larger, more flexible propane bridge in this region have been synthesized. These analogues were synthesized in order to probe why the initial incorporation of an ethane bridge into this region of the molecule had led to an analogue with a binding constant and potency three times lower than that of an directly analogous unconstrained analogue. The data for both analogues indicated that the fall off in activity caused by the ethane bridge in the initial analogue was not caused by the size of the bridge.

1,2-Benzothiazine 1,1-dioxide P(2)-P(3) peptide mimetic aldehyde calpain I inhibitors

A series of peptide mimetic aldehyde inhibitors of calpain I was prepared in which the P(2) and P(3) amino acids were replaced by substituted 3,4-dihydro-1,2-benzothiazine-3-carboxylate 1,1-dioxides. The effect of 2, 6, and 7-benzothiazine substituents and the P(1) amino acid was examined. Potency of these inhibitors, 15c-p, against human recombinant calpain I is particularly dependent upon the 2-substituent, with methyl and ethyl generally more potent than hydrogen, isopropyl, isobutyl, or benzyl. The more potent diastereomer of 15m possesses the (S) absolute configuration at the 3-position of the 3,4-dihydro-1,2-benzothiazine. Potency of the best inhibitors in this series (IC(50) = 5-7 nM) compares favorably with that of conventional N-benzyloxycarbonyl dipeptide aldehyde inhibitors bearing L-Leu or L-Val residues at P(2). The achiral unsaturated 1,2-benzothiazine analogues 26a-d are also potent calpain I inhibitors, while 3,4-dihydro-2,1-benzoxathiin (15a,b), 1,2,4-benzothiadiazine (32a,b), and tetrahydroisoquinolinone (36a,b) analogues are less potent.

Rapid and stereocontrolled synthesis of racemic and optically pure highly functionalized pyrrolizidine systems via rearrangement of 1,3-dipolar cycloadducts derived from 2-azetidinone-tethered azomethine ylides

This work describes a convenient procedure for the straightforward preparation of polyfunctionalized enantiopure pyrrolizidine systems. The methodology capitalizes on a HCl(g)-promoted reaction of the 1,3-dipolar cycloadducts derived from 2-azetidinone-tethered azomethine ylides, smoothly affording different types of highly functionalized bi- and tricyclic systems in racemic and optically pure forms. This process involves a selective bond cleavage of the four-membered ring, followed by a rearrangement under the reaction conditions. The synthetic route employed was shown to be compatible with a variety of 4-oxoazetidine-2-carbaldehydes, alpha-amino esters, or dipolarophiles, offering a versatile entry to pyrrolizidine systems.