The well-known epoxide-Ritter reaction generally affords oxazolines with poor to average regioselectivity. Herein, a mechanism-based study of the less known diol-Ritter reaction has provided a highly regioselective procedure for the synthesis of 1-vic-amido-2-esters from either terminal epoxides or 1,2-diols via Lewis acid-catalyzed monoesterification. When treated with a stoichiometric Lewis acid catalyst (BF3), these diol monoesters form dioxonium cation intermediates that are ring-opened with nitrile nucleophiles to form nitrilium intermediates, which undergo rapid and irreversible hydration to give the desired amidoesters. Diester byproduct formation is irreversible and appears to occur through disproportionation of diol monoester. With chiral epoxide starting materials, the formation of amidoester occurs with retention of configuration and no apparent erosion of optical purity as determined by single-crystal X-ray analyses and chiral chromatography, respectively. The direct access to chiral vic-amidoesters is especially practical with regard to the synthesis of antibacterial oxazolidinone analogues of the Zyvox antimicrobial family.

The Ritter reaction of 1,2-diolmonoesters with nitriles to 1- vic-amido-2-esters proceeds through dioxonium and nitrilium cation intermediates. To provide the basis for the reaction mechanism, novel forms of these cations were isolated, characterized, and studied by spectroscopic methods and single crystal X-ray analysis. Ground and transition state energies were determined both experimentally and theoretically. Taken together, these data suggest that the reaction proceeds via rapid formation of the dioxonium cation 9, followed by rate determining yet reversible ring opening by acetonitrile to the corresponding nitrilium cation 10 (computed Δ G⧧ = 24.7 kcal at 50 °C). Rapid, irreversible hydration of the latter affords the corresponding vic-acetamido ester. Controlled addition of H2O to the dioxonium cation 9 in acetonitrile- d3 results in near-quantitative production of deuterated acetamido ester 13a. Kinetics of this conversion (9 to 13a) are biphasic, and the slow phase is ascribed to either direct cation 9 attack by acetamide to form cation 16 via O-alkylation or by reversible ether formation. Deuterium labeling studies suggest O-alkylated cation 16 does not directly isomerize to N-alkylated cation 18; instead, it reverts to vic-amidoester 13a via the nitrilium pathway. Preliminary results indicate high regioselectivity for primary amide formation in the diol-Ritter sequence.

A Taxus canadensis phenylalanine aminomutase (TcPAM) catalyzes the isomerization of (S)-α- to (R)-β-phenylalanine, making (E)-cinnamate (~10%) as a byproduct at steady state. A currently accepted mechanism for TcPAM suggests that the amino group is transferred from the substrate to a prosthetic group comprised of an amino acid triad in the active site and then principally rebinds to the carbon skeleton of the cinnamate intermediate to complete the α-β isomerization. In contrast, when (S)-styryl-α-alanine is used as a substrate, TcPAM produces (2E,4E)-styrylacrylate as the major product (>99%) and (R)-styryl-β-alanine (<1%). Comparison of the rates of conversion of the natural substrate (S)-α-phenylalanine and (S)-styryl-α-alanine to their corresponding products (k(cat) values of 0.053 ± 0.001 and 0.082 ± 0.002 s(-1), respectively) catalyzed by TcPAM suggests that the amino group resides in the active site longer than styrylacrylate. To demonstrate this principle, inhibition constants (K(I)) for selected acrylates ranging from 0.6 to 106 μM were obtained, and each had a lower K(I) compared to that of (2E,4E)-styrylacrylate (337 ± 12 μM). Evaluation of the inhibition constants and the rates at which both the α/β-amino acids (between 7 and 80% yield) and styrylacrylate were made from a corresponding arylacrylate and styryl-α-alanine, respectively, by TcPAM catalysis revealed that the reaction progress was largely dependent on the K(I) of the acrylate. Bicyclic amino donor substrates also transferred their amino groups to an arylacrylate, demonstrating for the first time that ring-fused amino acids are productive substrates in the TcPAM-catalyzed reaction.

A one-pot trisilylation step to protect three hydroxyl groups of baccatin III (1), followed by hydride ester cleavage and base hydrolysis of a triethylsilyl ether at C13, provides efficient access to a key intermediate 9 (top path). This route removes two steps from a previously established reaction sequence to 9 (bottom path). In principle, inclusion of the truncated reaction sequence into widely utilized semisynthetic routes to next generation Taxol (paclitaxel) compounds could conceivably shorten the overall process.

The 10-deacetylbaccatin III:10beta-O-acetyltransferase isolated from Taxus cuspidata regiospecifically transfers short-chain alkanoyl groups from their corresponding CoA thioesters to the C10 hydroxyl of 10-deacetylbaccatin III. This 10-O-acetyltransferase along with five other Taxus acyltransferases on the paclitaxel (Taxol) biosynthetic pathway and one additional Taxus-derived acyltransferases of unknown function were screened for 4-O-acetyltransferase activity against 4-deacetylbaccatin III, 7-acetyl-, 13-acetyl-, and 7,13-diacetyl-4-deacetylbaccatin III. These 4-deacyl derivatives were semisynthesized from the natural product baccatin III via silyl protecting group manipulation, regioselective reductive ester cleavage with sodium bis(2-methoxyethoxy)aluminum hydride, and regioselective acetylation with acetic anhydride. Assays with the 4-deacetylated diterpene substrates and acetyl CoA revealed the taxane 10beta-O-acetyltransferase was able to catalyze the 4-O-acetylation of 4-deacetylbaccatin III to baccatin III and 13-acetyl-4-deacetylbacatin III to 13-acetylbaccatin III, although each was converted at lesser efficiency than with the natural substrate. In contrast, this enzyme was unable to acetylate 7-acetyl-4-deacetylbaccatin III and 7,13-diacetyl-4-deacetylbaccatin III substrates at C4, suggesting that the C7 hydroxyl of baccatin III must remain deacylated for enzyme function. The biocatalytic transfer of an acyl group to the tertiary hydroxyl on the oxetane moiety at C4 of the taxane ring demonstrates that the regiochemistry of the 10beta-acetyltransferase is mutable.