Noncovalent interactions define and modulate biomolecular structure, function, and dynamics. In many protein secondary structures, an intimate interaction exists between adjacent carbonyl groups of the main-chain amide bonds. As this short contact contributes to the energetics of protein conformational stability as well as protein−ligand interactions, understanding its nature is crucial. The intimacy of the carbonyl groups could arise from a charge−charge or dipole−dipole interaction, or n→π * electronic delocalization. This last putative origin, which is reminiscent of the Bürgi−Dunitz trajectory, involves delocalization of the lone pairs (n) of the oxygen (Oi−1) of a peptide bond over the antibonding orbital (π*) of the carbonyl group (Ci=Oi) of the subsequent peptide bond. By installing isosteric chemical substituents in a peptidic model system and using NMR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, and ab initio calculations to analyze the consequences, the intimate interaction between adjacent carbonyl groups is shown to arise primarily from n→π* electronic delocalization. This finding has implications for organic, biological, and medicinal chemistry.

N-Acetylmethanopyrrolidine and its four 5-syn/anti-fluoro and hydroxy derivatives have been synthesized from 2-azabicyclo[2.2.0]hex-5-ene, a 1,2-dihydropyridine photoproduct. These conformationally constrained mimics of idealized Cβ-gauche and Cβ-anti conformers of pyrrolidines were prepared in order to determine the inherent bridge bias and subsequent heteroatom substituent effects upon trans/cis amide preferences. The bridgehead position and also the presence of gauche(syn)/anti-5-fluoro or 5-hydroxy substituents have minimal influence upon KT/C values of N-acetylamide conformers in both CDCl3 (43–54% trans) and D2O (53–58% trans). O-Benzoylation enhances the trans amide preferences in CDCl3 (65% for a syn-OBz, 61% for a trans-OBz) but has minimal effect in D2O. The synthetic methods developed for N-BOC-methanopyrrolidines should prove useful in the synthesis of more complex derivatives containing α-ester substituents. The KT/C results obtained in this study establish baseline amide preferences that will enable determination of contributions of α-ester substituents to trans-amide preferences in methanoprolines.

Proline derivatives with a Cγ-exo pucker typically display a high amide bond trans:cis (KT/C) ratio. This pucker enhances n→π* overlap of the amide oxygen and ester carbonyl carbon, which favors a trans amide bond. If there were no difference in n→π* interaction between the ring puckers, then the correlation between ring pucker and KT/C might be broken. To explore this possibility, proline conformations were constrained using a methylene bridge. We synthesized discrete gauche and anti 5-fluoro and 5-hydroxy N-acetyl-methanoproline methyl esters from 3-syn and 3-anti fluoro and hydroxyl methanopyrrolidines, using directed α-metallation to introduce the α-ester group. NBO calculations reveal minimal n→π* orbital interactions, so contributions from other forces might be of greater importance in determining KT/C for the methanoprolines. Consistent with this hypothesis, greater trans amide preferences were found in CDCl3 for anti isomers en-MetFlp and en-MetHyp (72-78% trans) than for the syn stereoisomers ex-MetFlp and ex-MetHyp (54-67% trans). These, and other, KT/C results that we report here indicate how substituents on proline analogues can affect amide preferences by pathways other than ring puckering and n→π* overlap and suggest that caution should be exercised in assigning enhanced pyrrolidine Cγ-exo ring puckering based solely on enhanced trans amide preference.

Novel 5-X-substituted-2-azabicyclo[2.1.1]hexanes (X = 5-syn-Cl, -Br, -I, -Ph, -NHCOOR (R = Me, Bn, t-Bu), -CH2CH2COOMe and X = 5-anti-Br, -I, -Ph) were synthesized from the X = 5-syn-carboxy derivative. New 5-anti-X-2-azabicyclo[2.1.1]hexanes, X = NHCOOR (R = Me, Bn), were prepared stereoselectively from the X = 5-anti-carboxy substrate.