Chiral (S)-pyrrolidine trifluoromethanesulfonamide has been shown to serve as an effective catalyst for direct Michael addition reactions of aldehydes and ketones with nitroolefins. A wide range of aldehydes and ketones as Michael donors and nitroolefins as acceptors participate in the process, which proceeds with high levels of enantioselectivity (up to 99 % ee) and diastereoselectivity (up to 50:1 d.r.). The methodology has been employed successfully in an efficient synthesis of the potent H(3) agonist Sch 50917. In addition, a practical three-step procedure for the preparation of (S)-pyrrolidine trifluoromethanesulfonamide has been developed. The high levels of stereochemical control attending Michael addition reactions catalyzed by this pyrrolidine sulfonamide, have been investigated by using ab initio and density functional methods. Transition state structures for the rate-limiting C--C bond-forming step, corresponding to re- and si-face addition to the reactive conformation of the key enamine intermediates have been calculated. Analysis of these structures indicates that hydrogen bonding plays an important role in catalysis and that the energy barrier for si-face attack in reactions of aldehydes to form 2R,3S products is lower than that for the re-face attack leading to 2S,3R products. In contrast, the energy barrier for re-face addition is lower than that for si-face addition in reactions of ketones. The computational results, which are in good agreement with the experimental observations, are discussed in the context of the stereochemical course of these Michael addition reactions.
Prostaglandin H synthase isoforms 1 and 2 (PGHS-1 and -2) catalyze the first two steps in the biosynthesis of prostaglandins. Resonance Raman spectroscopy was used to characterize the PGHS heme active site and its immediate environment. Ferric PGHS-1 has a predominant six-coordinate high-spin heme at room temperature, with water as the sixth ligand. The proximal histidine ligand (or the distal water ligand) of this hexacoordinate high-spin heme species was reversibly photolabile, leading to a pentacoordinate high-spin ferric heme iron. Ferrous PGHS-1 has a single species of five-coordinate high-spin heme, as evident from nu(2) at 1558 cm(-1) and nu(3) at 1471 cm(-1). nu(4) at 1359 cm(-1) indicates that histidine is the proximal ligand. A weak band at 226-228 cm(-1) was tentatively assigned as the Fe-His stretching vibration. Cyanoferric PGHS-1 exhibited a nu(Fe)(-)(CN) line at 446 cm(-1) and delta(Fe)(-)(C)(-)(N) at 410 cm(-1), indicating a "linear" Fe-C-N binding conformation with the proximal histidine. This linkage agrees well with the open distal heme pocket in PGHS-1. The ferrous PGHS-1 CO complex exhibited three important marker lines: nu(Fe)(-)(CO) (531 cm(-1)), delta(Fe)(-)(C)(-)(O) (567 cm(-1)), and nu(C)(-)(O) (1954 cm(-1)). No hydrogen bonding was detected for the heme-bound CO in PGHS-1. These frequencies markedly deviated from the nu(Fe)(-)(CO)/nu(C)(-)(O) correlation curve for heme proteins and porphyrins with a proximal histidine or imidazolate, suggesting an extremely weak bond between the heme iron and the proximal histidine in PGHS-1. At alkaline pH, PGHS-1 is converted to a second CO binding conformation (nu(Fe)(-)(CO): 496 cm(-1)) where disruption of the hydrogen bonding interactions to the proximal histidine may occur.
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