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Scheme 4. Synthesis a-aminoamides and aldehydes.
12f was isolated in pure form by normal phase chromatography.
However, during reverse phase HPLC analysis or purification of
12f, using an aq ammonia (pH 9.4) modified mobile phase, imide
13f was generated. Imide 13f did not form under acidic conditions.
This apparent ammonia promoted imide formation was not
observed for any of the alanine derived compounds.
To shed some light on the structural features that facilitate the
conversion of cycloadducts 12 to imides 13, alanine derived a-ami-
noamides 9b, 9c and 9d were used to form imines 11g, 11h and 11i
from aldehyde 2a. Imines 11g and 11h were synthesized in 83%
and 75% yields respectively and subjected to the silver-mediated
cyclization conditions (Table 1, entries 6 and 7). 9d failed to form
imine 11i (Table 1, entry 8).
Scheme 3. Synthetic sequence for formation of 12a and 13a.
We first needed to synthesize a suitable a-aminoamide. For rea-
sons related to our previous initial screening study, we wished to
couple aniline derivative 8a to Boc-alanine, affording 9a. This
was accomplished (Scheme 3) with EEDQ being crucial to the
coupling.14 Microwave irradiation accelerated the reaction, conve-
niently providing 9a in 73% yield. These microwave conditions
were adopted for the formation of all subsequent a-aminoamides
described in this report. To finish the sequence, TFA salt 10a was
formed by deprotection of 9a. The conditions shown in Scheme 1
We initially hypothesized that the electron-withdrawing aryl
ortho-carboxymethyl substituent facilitated the conversion of cyc-
loadducts 12 to imides 13 solely by lowering the pKa of the anilide
proton just enough that some polarization of the N–H bond would
occur. The bond polarization would increase the negatively
charged character of the nitrogen and lead to imide formation. In
keeping with this idea, we were not surprised that 11g did not un-
dergo this process, giving only cycloadduct 12g (20% yield; Table 1,
entry 6) with no accompanying formation of imide 13g. We then
predicted that the para-carboxymethyl substituent of 11h would
exert a similar effect, giving first cycloadduct 12h and then imide
13h. This did not occur. Aryl para-carboxymethyl 11h gave only
cycloadduct 12h (44% yield; Table 1, entry 7) without spontane-
ously affording the imide 13h. This did not support our ‘pKa low-
ering’ hypothesis. Another experiment using aryl ortho-ethyl
species 11j was carried out (Table 1, entry 9). The electronically
neutral, but sterically congested, ortho-ethyl 11j also stopped
reacting at the initial cycloadduct stage, giving 12j (28% yield)
without formation of imide 13j. Thus only the electron-withdraw-
ing, sterically congested ortho-esters afforded imides. We con-
cluded that both of the preceding factors are needed to convert
the cycloadducts 12 to the imides 13.
were then used to form
Effecting the cycloaddition reaction as in Scheme 1 was unsuccess-
ful due to the low solubility of -iminoamide 11a in acetonitrile.
a-iminoamide 11a in 76% yield from 9a.
a
The reaction was therefore performed in dichloromethane (DCM)
using silver fluoride and triethylamine.15 These conditions afforded
the desired product 12a in 22% yield, but also provided a second
product which was, by 1H NMR spectroscopy, a mixture of two
other compounds that showed the absence of the ethyl ester group.
LCMS analysis, which showed a single compound, also showed the
loss of ethanol from the mass of the cycloadduct 12a. As a result of
variable temperature 1H NMR spectroscopy coalescence studies
and 15N NMR spectroscopy we assigned the structure of the second
product to be imide 13a (29% yield) as a 2:1 mixture of atropisom-
ers. Using the less basic silver trifluoroacetate in place of silver
fluoride also afforded the same products, but gave 13a in a dimin-
ished 13% yield.
To probe the scope and limitations of this method and provide
some initial SAR, a series of
synthesized using the above conditions (Scheme 4).
Deprotection of N-Boc-protected -aminoamides 9 provided
their -aminoamide TFA salts (corresponding to Scheme 3, struc-
a-aminoamides and aldehydes was
a
a
ture 10). These TFA salts were combined with aldehydes 2 under
the conditions shown in Scheme 3 to provide the desired imines
11 in 58–92% yields in all but one case (Table 1).
Two fully N-substituted
a-iminoamides 11k (from
a-N-Boc-
aminoamide 9f and aldehyde 2a) and 11n (from
a-N-Boc-aminoa-
mide 9g and aldehyde 2d) were also prepared and subjected to AgF
promoted cyclization. Alanine derived imine 11k failed to afford
any cycloadduct or imine products (Table 1, entry 10). Glycine de-
rived imine 11n afforded cycloadduct 12n in 42% yield with no
imide 13n formed (Table 1, entry 11). We believe A1,3 strain that
is present in the formation of the azo-methine intermediate in
Int-11k prevents the cycloaddition reaction from easily occurring.
This strain would not be present in the case of Int-11n or when
Imines 11b, c, d, and e, derived from 9a and aldehydes 2b, c, d
and e, underwent AgF promoted cyclization as shown in Scheme 3
to afford mixtures of cycloadducts 12b–e and their derived imides
13b–e. Cycloadducts 12b–e were formed in 19–22% yield and imi-
des 13b–e in 23–36% yield, respectively (Table 1, entries 1–4).16
Imine 11f (R1 = H), obtained from aldehyde 2a and glycine derived
a-aminoamide 9e, gave cycloadduct 12f (14% yield) and imide 13f
(28% yield; Table 1, entry 5). We observed, qualitatively, that the
conversion of glycine derived 12f to imide 13f was more facile than
the conversion of alanine derived 12a to imide 13a. Cycloadduct
employing
a secondary amide such as shown by Int-11a
(Scheme 5).