Evaluation of 1 H-Triazole-1-[ N, N'-Bis(tert-butoxycarbonyl)]carboxamidine in Solution-Phase and On-Resin Guanidinylation

J Org Chem. 2021 Nov 5;86(21):14371-14380. doi: 10.1021/acs.joc.1c00994. Epub 2021 Oct 18.

Abstract

Several guanidines and guanidinylated peptides have substantial potential as therapeutics, but efficient guanidinylation reagents are vital for easy access to these compounds. Presently, pyrazole-1-carboxamidine type reagents are commonly used in the transformations of amines into corresponding guanidines. Here, we report a comparative study of the utility of 1H-triazole-1-[N,N'-bis(tert-butoxycarbonyl)]carboxamidine, which was synthesized in two steps and readily upscaled to gram amounts. It exhibited excellent performance in solution-phase reactions, rapidly converting a set of representative aliphatic primary and unhindered secondary amines as well as aniline into the corresponding bis(tert-butoxycarbonyl)-protected guanidines. To enable a direct assessment of the reactivity of guanidinylation reagents, conversions were performed in deuterated solvents (d7-DMF or d8-THF), allowing for continuous analysis of the reaction mixtures by 1H and 13C NMR. Likewise, 1H-triazole-1-[N,N'-bis(tert-butoxycarbonyl)]carboxamidine proved to be a versatile reagent in solid-phase conversions, for example, a resin-bound test peptide (KFFKFFK) was fully guanidinylated in only 2 h by using 2 equivalents of the reagent per free amino group. Also, 1H-triazole-1-[N,N'-bis(tert-butoxycarbonyl)]carboxamidine proved capable of completely guanidinylating more sterically hindered N-terminal residues (e.g., N-methyl amino acids or a peptoid) in resin-bound peptides. Its superior reactivity and stability demonstrated under heating conditions make 1H-triazole-1-[N,N'-bis(tert-butoxycarbonyl)]carboxamidine a valuable guanidinylation reagent both in solution- and solid-phase synthesis.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amines
  • Amino Acids
  • Peptides
  • Solid-Phase Synthesis Techniques*
  • Triazoles*

Substances

  • Amines
  • Amino Acids
  • Peptides
  • Triazoles