Angewandte
Chemie
DOI: 10.1002/anie.200805782
Chemical Ligation
Epimerization-Free Block Synthesis of Peptides from Thioacids and
Amines with the Sanger and Mukaiyama Reagents
David Crich* and Indrajeet Sharma
Dedicated to Professor Carl R. Johnson
The reaction of 2,4-dinitrobenzenesulfonamides with thioa-
cids to give amides was described in 1998 by Tomkinson and
co-workers.[1] We extended this reaction to the synthesis of
peptides and their glycoconjugates by combining amino
thioacids and their C-terminal-peptide congeners with N-
terminal sulfonamides.[2a] In a three-component coupling, we
used this process to capture thioacids generated in situ from
the nucleophilic ring-opening of a variety of cyclic thioanhy-
drides.[2b] These reactions involve nucleophilic aromatic
substitution of the thiocarboxylate group on the electron-
deficient sulfonamide with the formation of a highly reactive
S-(2,4-dinitrophenyl) thioester, and its subsequent condensa-
tion with the released amine.[2a,3–6] We show herein that amide
bonds can be formed by the coupling of thioacids with amines
under the aegis of 2,4-dinitrofluorobenzene and other elec-
tron-deficient arenes and heteroarenes at ambient temper-
ature.
The Sanger reagent, 2,4-dinitrofluorobenzene, was tradi-
tionally used for the degradation of peptides and proteins
through its reaction with N-terminal amines and for the
identification of N-terminal amino acids.[7] Sanger noted,
however, that thiols and other nucleophiles, including the side
chains of histidine and tyrosine, competed with amines for
capture by 2,4-dinitrofluorobenzene.[7a] We surmised that a
thiocarboxylate salt would react significantly more rapidly
than an amine with this reagent and thus enable the formation
of the thioester and ultimately peptide synthesis. In this way, a
peptide degradation reagent could effectively be turned into a
reagent for their synthesis (Scheme 1).
Scheme 1. Amide-forming reaction with the Sanger reagent.
Table 1: Preparation of thioesters from protected amino acids and
thiols.[a]
Reagent
Thioester
Yield [%]
DCC
DCC
DCC
DIC
DIC
DIC
Boc-l-Val-SFm
Boc-Aib-SFm
Boc-l-Asp-(a-OBn)-g-SFm
Fmoc-l-Ala-STmob
Boc-l-Phe-STmob
Z-l-Val-STrt
99
82
97
98
96
95
72
82
PyBop
PyBop
Z-l-Ala-l-Phe-SFm
Boc-l-Lys(Boc)-l-Arg(Pbf)-l-Asn(Trt)-
-l-Arg(Pbf)-SFm
[a] Aib=2-aminoisobutyric acid, Bn=benzyl, Boc=tert-butoxycarbonyl,
DCC=dicyclohexylcarbodiimide,
Fmoc=9-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl,
DIC=diisopropylcarbodiimide,
FmSH=9-fluorenylmethylthiol,
Pbf=2,2,4,6,7-pentamethyldihydrobenzofuran-5-sulfonyl, PyBop=(1H-
benzotriazol-1-yloxy)tris(pyrrolidino)phosphonium hexafluorophos-
phate, TmobSH=2,4,6-trimethoxybenzylthiol, TrtSH=triphenylmetha-
nethiol, Z=benzyloxycarbonyl.
A series of thioesters was prepared by the coupling of
suitably protected amino acids with 9-fluorenylmethane-
thiol,[2a] 2,4,6-trimethoxybenzyl thiol,[8] or triphenylmethane-
thiol (Table 1). With simple carbamate-protected amino acids,
carbodiimide coupling reagents were employed for these
condensations; however, with peptides (Table 1, last two
entries) we preferred to use the reagent (1H-benzotriazol-1-
yloxy)tris(pyrrolidino)phosphonium
hexafluorophosphate
(PyBop) recommended by Kajihara and co-workers[9] to
avoid the problem of epimerization in the thioesterification of
all but simple amino acids. The final entry in Table 1 is
noteworthy for both the sterically hindered nature of the
reaction site and the fact that no epimerization was observed
under the PyBop coupling conditions. When the same
thioester was prepared under the carbodiimide–hydroxyben-
zotriazole conditions reported[10] for epimerization-free thio-
ester synthesis, the product was obtained in good yield (77%)
but as a 3:1 mixture of epimers. The requisite thioacids were
released cleanly from the thioesters with piperidine[2a] in the
case of the fluorenylmethyl thioesters, or with trifluoroacetic
acid for the trimethoxybenzyl thioesters and triphenylmethyl
thioesters,[11] and used immediately in the peptide-bond-
forming reactions.
[*] Prof. Dr. D. Crich, I. Sharma
Department of Chemistry, Wayne State University
5101 Cass Avenue, Detroit, MI 48202 (USA)
Prof. Dr. D. Crich
Centre de Recherche CNRS de Gif-sur-Yvette
Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles
Avenue de la Terrasse, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette (France)
Fax : (+33)1-6907-7752
E-mail: dcrich@icsn.cnrs-gif.fr
The coupling of thioacids with amines in the presence of
the Sanger reagent was first investigated by using thioacetic
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 2355 –2358
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