Design and synthesis of conformationally and topographically constrained amino acids as peptidomimetics

Abstract

A major goal of peptide research has been to elucidate or understand the relationships between a peptide's three-dimensional structure and its biological activity. De Novo design of peptide mimetics requires assembling all components necessary for molecular recognition and transduction, which needs the proper choice of a template that can place the key side chain residues in 3D space. Two widely used methods are novel β-substituted amino acids and conformationally constrained secondary structure mimetics. In this thesis, we report our efforts to fulfill the aforementioned criteria in synthesizing β-isopropyl aromatic amino acids and constrained reverse turn dipeptide mimetics. Through asymmetric Michael addition reaction, highly topographically constrained β-isopropyl aromatic amino acids have been synthesized. In order to develop a general approach to synthesize these novel amino acids, we re-examined the reaction conditions for Evans' diastereoselective 1,4-addition, and found conditions which gave excellent diastereoselectivities and good chemical yields. A concise and straightforward five-step synthesis of [5.5]-bicyclic reverse turn dipeptide mimetic scaffolds with side chain functionality at the i+1 and i+2 positions has been developed. In the bicyclic structure, two dihedral angles (ψ₂ and φ₃) are greatly restricted. Further development of this synthesis will enable us to prepare various types of reverse turns with different backbone geometry and side chain topography. Enantiomerically pure (S)-trans-cinnamylglycine and (S)-α-trans-cinnamyl-α-alanine have been prepared via reaction of chiral Ni (II)-complexes of glycine and alanine respectively, with cinnamyl halides. Inexpensive and readily available reagents and solvents are used, including a recyclable chiral ligand. The simplicity of the experimental procedures and high stereochemical outcome make this method synthetically attractive for preparing the target amino acids on multi-gram scales. Further studies by incorporating these mimetics into potent peptide analogues will greatly help us to understand the bioactive conformation of the parent peptides.