Four synthetic routes to selectively protected derivatives and
isomers of meso-diaminopimelic acid
(DAP) (1a), a key constituent of bacterial peptidoglycan,
were investigated.
N-(tert-butyloxycarbonyl)-d-allylglycine (2) and
N-(benzyloxycarbonyl)-l-allylglycine
(4) were esterified to ethylene
glycol and cyclized via olefin metathesis to a protected derivative
7 of 2,7-diaminosuberic acid.
Analogous linking of propane-1,3-diol with 2 and
potential precursors of N-(benzyloxycarbonyl)-l-vinylglycine moieties, such as
N-(benzyloxycarbonyl)-l-glutamate or
N-(benzyloxycarbonyl)-l-methionine sulfoxide, gave 12 or 15, both of which
produced the α,β-unsaturated ester 14 upon
attempted generation of the vinylglycine precursor for olefin
metathesis to DAP derivatives. An
alternative route, based on SnCl4-catalyzed ene reaction of
methyl N-(benzyloxycarbonyl)-l-allylglycinate (18) with glyoxylate esters of
phenylcyclohexanol isomers as chiral auxiliaries, gave
ca. 85:15 ratios of diastereomeric alcohols (19 or
20). These could be transformed to DAP
derivatives
in a series of steps employing azide displacement of corresponding
mesylates to introduce the second
nitrogen. A third method, involving reduction of pure dimethyl
(6S)-2-keto-6-[N-(benzyloxycarbonyl)amino]pimelate (32) to the corresponding alcohol
33 with (S)-binaphthol−ruthenium
catalyst
as the key step, gives a 79:21 isomeric ratio. The fourth route
employs the bis(oxazoline)−copper
complex 41 as a chiral catalyst for the ene reaction of
methyl (S)-4-(phenylthio)allylglycinate
(39)
and methyl glyoxylate to afford 42 in 94:6 isomeric ratio.
Nickel boride removal of sulfur and the
double bond in the presence of the Cbz group gives the desired alcohol,
dimethyl (2S,6S)-6-[N-(benzyloxycarbonyl)amino]-2-hydroxyheptane-1,7-dioate
(33). The required selectively protected
second nitrogen is introduced using Mitsunobu inversion with
N-tert-butyl
[[2-(trimethylsilyl)ethyl]sulfonyl]carbamate (34) as a key
step.