A new approach to the synthesis of di- and tripeptides with unnatural amino acids using organozinc chemistry

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/S0040-4020(97)00879-X

Di- and tripeptides which incorporate an iodoalanine unit at the C-terminus can be converted into the corresponding organozinc reagents upon treatment with activated zinc. These C-terminal di- and tripeptide organozinc reagents react with electrophiles either under palladium catalysis, or by prior transmetallation to a zinc/copper reagent, to give di- and tripeptides incorporating non-proteinogenic amino acids without loss of stereochemical purity.