title: A highly enantioselective amino acid-catalyzed route to functionalized alpha-amino acids.
abstract: The development of syntheses providing enantiomerically pure alpha-amino acids has intrigued generations of chemists and been the subject of intense research. This report describes a general approach to functionalized alpha-amino acids based on catalytic asymmetric synthesis. Proline catalyzed Mannich-type reactions of N-PMP-protected alpha-imino ethyl glyoxylate with a variety of unmodified ketones to provide functionalized alpha-amino acids in high yields with excellent regio-, diastereo-, and enantioselectivities. Study of seven examples yielded six with product ee values of > or = 99%. In reactions involving ketone donors where diastereoisomeric products could be formed, two adjacent stereogenic centers were created simultaneously upon carbon-carbon bond formation with complete syn-stereocontrol. Significantly, this methodology utilizes readily available and rather inexpensive starting materials, does not require any preactivation of substrates or metal ion assistance, and can be carried out on a gram scale under operationally simple reaction conditions. The keto-functionality present in the products provides a particularly attractive site for versatile modifications. This study compliments and extends our bioorganic approach to asymmetric synthesis to a versatile synthon class. Given that we have shown that a variety of optically active amino acids can be synthesized with proline catalysis, where an L-amino acid begets other L-amino acids, our results may stimulate thoughts concerning prebiotic syntheses of optically active amino acids based on this route.
authors.affiliation: The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology and the Department of Molecular Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Rd., La Jolla, California 92037, USA.
authors.forename: Armando
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Córdova
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Notz
authors.forename: Guofu
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.forename: Juan M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Betancort
authors.forename: Carlos F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Barbas
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry; D002384:Catalysis; D013237:Stereoisomerism
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids