Stereoselective hydrolysis of amino acid esters have attracted considerable attention in connection with understanding the origins of the stereoselectivity observed with proteolytic enzymes. In the course of our study on the enantioselective hydrolysis (deacylation) of amino acid esters with the functional molecular assemblies composed of surfactants and reactive species, we emphasized that the stereochemical control could be attained by changing the composition of the coaggregates 1-4) and regulating ionic strength 5,6) and temperature. 7,8) Furthermore, since cyclodextrins (CyDs) have been noted as useful enzyme mimics, 9-12) we employed CyDs as host molecules and a markedly high stereoselectivity was attained in the diastereoselective deacylation of dipeptide esters.13) On the other hand, Ueno reported the high D-enantiomer-selective deacylation of amino acid esters mediated by modified b-CyDs.14) However, little has been known about the significant enantioselectivity for the deacylation of amino acid esters with unmodified CyDs. 15) In this study, we report the successful experimental results with marked enantioselectivity for the deacylation of Z-D(L)-amino acid esters (N-(benzyloxycarbonyl)-D(L)-amino acid pnitrophenyl esters) as mediated by unmodified CyDs, and the computer modeling (molecular mechanics) studies on the inclusion complexes of g-CyD with the specific substrates are also presented.
Results and DiscussionWith respect to the enantioselective hydrolysis (deacyla-Leu, Phe and Trp-PNP) mediated by unmodified a-, b-and g-CyDs, the kinetic parameters obtained on the basis of the MichaelisMenten principle, the binding constant (K b ) for the formation of CyD-substrate complex and the rate constant (k 2 ) for the deacylation of substrate by CyD, are summarized in Table 1-3. The noteworthy aspects are as follows: (a) Overall, the deacylation mediated by a-CyD was favorable for all of the L-enantiomeric substrates (reflected in k 2 K b , L/Dϭ1.5-1.7), though the K b for D-isomer of Phe substrate and k 2 values for D-isomer of Ala substrate were larger than those for the corresponding L-isomers. (b) In the case of the reaction by bCyD, L-enantiomer-selectivity was also observed for the deacylation of Ala, Leu and Phe substrates (L/Dϭ1.5-3.2), while D-enantiomeric selectivity (D/Lϭ1.4) was observed for the deacylation of Trp substrate. (c) Relatively higher L-enantioselectivity was obtained in the deacylation mediated by gCyD (L/Dϭ2.6-9.0). Most remarkably, the highest enantioselectivity (L/Dϭ9.0) was attained for the deacylation of Ala substrate. Furthermore, it was also attractive that this fairly high enantioselectivity (L/Dϭ9.0) could be mainly originated in the deacylation process of substrates, because it was reflected by a fairly large k 2 L /k 2 D value (7.4) and a smallOn the other hand, Table 4 shows the results of energies for the inclusion complexes on Z-D(L)-Ala-PNP having different shapes with g-CyD calculated by molecular mechanics with water solvent effects. It was suggested that the con...