4-(Fmoc-amino)-1-methyl-1H-imidazole-2-carboxylic acid

A new methodology for the synthesis of side chain mono- or bis-methylated Fmoc-Dap, -Dab and -Orn amino acids was developed by probing the reactivity of commercially available Fmoc amino acids.

Antimicrobial hydrogels are prepared based on the co-assembly of commercial Fmoc-phenylalanine and Fmoc-leucine, which act as the hydrogelator and antimicrobial building block, respectively. This co-assembled antimicrobial hydrogel is demonstrated to exhibit selective bactericidal activity for gram-positive bacteria while being biocompatible with normal mammalian cells, showing great potential as an antimicrobial coating for clinical anti-infective applications.

Simple solid-phase synthesis of 3,10-dihydro-2H-benzo[e]imidazo[1,2-b][1,2,4]thiadiazin-2-one 5,5-dioxides is described, with Fmoc-α-amino acids and 2-nitrobenzenesulfonyl chlorides (2-NosCls) being the key building blocks. Fmoc-α-amino acids were immobilized on Wang resin and transformed to the corresponding 2-nitrobenzenesulfonamides in two steps. After reduction of the nitro group, Fmoc-thioureas were synthesized followed by cyclization of the 1,2,4-benzothiadiazine-1,1-dioxide scaffold with diisopropylcarbodiimide (DIC). Cleavage of the Fmoc protecting group followed by spontaneous cyclative cleavage gave the target products in excellent crude purity.

N-sulfanylethylanilide (SEAlide) peptides 1, obtainable using Fmoc-based solid-phase peptide synthesis (Fmoc SPPS), function as crypto-thioesters in native chemical ligation (NCL), yielding a wide variety of peptides/proteins. Their acylating potential with N-terminal cysteinyl peptides 2 can be tuned by the presence or absence of phosphate salts, leading to one-pot/multifragment ligation, operating under kinetically controlled conditions. SEAlide peptides have already been shown to be promising for use in protein synthesis; however, a widely applicable method for the synthesis of N-Fmoc amino acyl-N-sulfanylethylaniline linkers 4, required for the preparation of SEAlide peptides, is unavailable. The present study addresses the development of efficient condensation protocols of 20 naturally occurring amino acid derivatives to the N-sulfanylethylaniline linker 5. N-Fmoc amino acyl aniline linkers 4 of practical use in NCL chemistry, except in the case of the proline- or aspartic acid-containing linker, were successfully synthesized by coupling of POCl(3)- or SOCl(2)-activated Fmoc amino acid derivatives with sodium anilide species 6, without accompanying racemization and loss of side-chain protection.