N-acetoxy-N-alkoxyamides - a new class of nitrenium ion precursors which are mutagenic

Discovery of N-X anomeric amides as electrophilic halogenation reagents

Electrophilic halogenation is a widely used tool employed by medicinal chemists to either pre-functionalize molecules for further diversity or incorporate a halogen atom into drugs or drug-like compounds to solve metabolic problems or modulate off-target effects. Current methods to increase the power of halogenation rely on either the invention of new reagents or activating commercially available reagents with various additives such as Lewis or Brønsted acids, Lewis bases and hydrogen-bonding activators. There is a high demand for new reagents that can halogenate otherwise unreactive compounds under mild conditions. Here we report the invention of a class of halogenating reagents based on anomeric amides, taking advantage of the energy stored in the pyramidalized nitrogen of N-X anomeric amides as a driving force. These robust halogenating methods are compatible with a variety of functional groups and heterocycles, as exemplified on over 50 compounds (including 13 gram-scale examples and 1 flow chemistry scale-up).

Heteroatom Substitution at Amide Nitrogen-Resonance Reduction and HERON Reactions of Anomeric Amides

This review describes how resonance in amides is greatly affected upon substitution at nitrogen by two electronegative atoms. Nitrogen becomes strongly pyramidal and resonance stabilisation, evaluated computationally, can be reduced to as little as 50% that of N,N-dimethylacetamide. However, this occurs without significant twisting about the amide bond, which is borne out both experimentally and theoretically. In certain configurations, reduced resonance and pronounced anomeric effects between heteroatom substituents are instrumental in driving the HERON (Heteroatom Rearrangement On Nitrogen) reaction, in which the more electronegative atom migrates from nitrogen to the carbonyl carbon in concert with heterolysis of the amide bond, to generate acyl derivatives and heteroatom-substituted nitrenes. In other cases the anomeric effect facilitates S_N1 and S_N2 reactivity at the amide nitrogen.

Development of the HERON Reaction: A Historical Account

This account describes the discovery and development of the HERON reaction, a reaction with special connection to the Heron Island Conferences on Reactive Intermediates and Unusual Molecules. This modern ‘named’ reaction describes an unusual rearrangement of bisheteroatom-substituted amides RCON(X)(Y) whereby the more electron deficient group, X, migrates from nitrogen to the carbonyl carbon giving an acyl derivative, RC(O)X, and Y-stabilised nitrenes. In it, the origins, mechanistic elucidation, and theoretical validation are described in more or less chronological order. Along that time line we introduce the concepts of ‘anomeric amides’, ‘amidicity’ in anomeric amides, and their role in the HERON reaction. All known versions of the reaction that have since been discovered are outlined and a basic understanding of the relative roles of reduced resonance and the anomeric driving force, both functions of the heteroatom substituents at the amide nitrogen, are quantified.

Mutagenicity of N-acyloxy-N-alkoxyamides as an indicator of DNA intercalation part 1: evidence for naphthalene as a DNA intercalator

N-Acyloxy-N-alkoxyamides are direct-acting mutagens in S. typhimurium TA100 with a linear dependence upon log P that maximises at log P0 = 6.4. Eight N-acyloxy-N-alkoxyamides (2-9) bearing a naphthalene group on any of the three side-chains and with log P0 < 6.4 have been demonstrated to be significantly and uniformly more mutagenic towards S. typhimurium TA100 than 50 mutagens without naphthalene. The activity enhancement of 2-9 is likely due to intercalative binding of naphthalene to bacterial DNA as a number are also active in TA98, a frame-shift strain of S. typhimurium, which is modified by intercalators. DNA damage profiles for naphthalene-bearing mutagens confirm enhanced reactivity with DNA when naphthalene is incorporated and a different binding mode when compared to mutagens without naphthalene. The effect is independent of whether the naphthalene is attached to an electron-donating alkyl or electron-withdrawing acyl group, alkyl tether length or, in the case of 6 and 7, the point of attachment to naphthalene. A new quantitative structure activity relationship has been constructed for all 58 congeners incorporating log P and an indicator variable, I, for the presence (I = 1) or absence (I = 0) of naphthalene and from which the activity enhancing effect of a naphthalene has been quantified at between three and four log P units. Contrary to conventional views, simple naphthalene groups could target molecules to DNA through intercalation.

The effect of hydrophobicity upon the direct mutagenicity of N-acyloxy-N-alkoxyamides--Bilinear dependence upon LogP

N-Acyloxy-N-alkoxyamides 1 are direct-acting mutagens for which a bilinear QSAR has been established, which predicts with accuracy their activity in the Ames reverse mutation assay in Salmonella typhimurium TA100, based upon their hydrophobicity (LogP), reactivity (pKA of the carboxylic acid of the N-carboxyl group) and TAFT steric parameters. From activity data for 55 congeners and incorporating five mutagens bearing long-chain hydrocarbons on the alkoxyl and acyloxyl groups, designed for this study, a maximal LogPo, is found to be LogP=6.4. Mutagens with LogP<than this value show a linear hydrophobic dependence (h=0.24) relating to their binding to bacterial DNA and those with LogP>LogPo undergo lipid entrapment which masks the DNA binding effect. The QSAR has been used to differentiate between lipophilicity and steric inhibition to groove binding in a series of outliers bearing large tert-butyl groups as well as to confirm the enhancement to DNA binding of the naphthalene moiety, which is shown to be equivalent to about 3.5LogP units.

Studies of the Structure, Amidicity, and Reactivity of N-Chlorohydroxamic Esters and N-Chloro-β,β-dialkylhydrazides: Anomeric Amides with Low Resonance Energies

Density functional calculations have been carried out to determine the properties of the title anomeric amides. At the B3LYP/6-31G(d) level, N-chloro-N-methoxyacetamide 8a is computed to be strongly pyramidal at nitrogen with a long amide bond that is untwisted. N-Chloro-N-dimethylaminoacetamide 9a is completely planar, but its amide bond is still much longer than that in N,N-dimethylacetamide 4. This is a steric, rather than a resonance, effect. COSNAR and a trans-amidation method calculate low resonance energies for both model amides, which is attributed to the combined electronegativity of the heteroatoms at the amide nitrogen and the strong anomeric effect when there is a chlorine substituent on nitrogen. When M06 and ωB97X-D dispersion-corrected density functional methods are used with the expanded 6-311++G(d,p) basis set, the resonance energies of 8a (–34 kJ mol–1) and 9a (–49 kJ mol–1) are in line with the gross electronegativity of the substituent atoms. Unlike other anomeric amides, 8a and 9a are not predicted to undergo HERON reactivity.

Thermal Decomposition of N-Acyloxy-N-alkoxyamides - a New HERON Reaction

The HERON reaction has been observed in the thermal decompositions of N-acyloxy-N-alkoxyamides 1b, members of the class of anomeric amides. The N,N-bisoxo-substitution results in reduced amide resonance and this, combined with an nO–σ*NOAcyl anomeric destabilization of the N–OAcyl bond, results in their intramolecular rearrangement to anhydrides 42 and alkoxynitrenes 43 in competition with homolysis of the N–OAcyl bond to alkoxyamidyls 51. The primary HERON product alkoxynitrenes are scavenged by oxygen, giving a nitrate ester, in competition with a rearrangement to nitriles and dimerization to hyponitrites, leading, under the conditions, to alcohols and aldehydes. Persistent alkoxyamidyls most likely form a 1,3-diradical in a solvent-cage reaction, which cyclizes to 3,5-disubstituted-(5H)-1,4,2-dioxazoles 47. Substituent effects support this competition reaction.

SN2 Substitution Reactions at the Amide Nitrogen in the Anomeric Mutagens, N-Acyloxy-N-alkoxyamides

N-Acyloxy-N-alkoxyamides 1a are unusual anomeric amides that are pyramidal at the nitrogen because of bis oxyl substitution. Through this configuration, they lose most of their amide character and resemble α-haloketones in reactivity. They are susceptible to SN2 reactions at nitrogen, a process that is responsible for their mutagenic behaviour. Kinetic studies have been carried out with the nucleophile N-methylaniline that show that, like SN2 reactions at carbon centres, the rate constant for SN2 displacement of carboxylate is lowered by branching β to the nitrogen centre, or bulky groups on the alkoxyl side chain. Branching or bulky groups on the carboxylate leaving group, however, do not impact on the rate of substitution, which is mostly controlled by the pKA of the departing carboxylate group. These results are in line with computed properties for the model reaction of ammonia with N-acetoxy-N-methoxyacetamide but are in contrast to the role of steric effects on their mutagenicity.

The role of steric effects in the direct mutagenicity of N-acyloxy-N-alkoxyamides

Electrophilic N-acyloxy-N-alkoxyamides are mutagenic in Salmonella typhimurium TA100 without the need for S9 metabolic activation and they react with DNA at guanine-N7 at physiological pH. Since these are direct-acting mutagens, structural factors influence binding and reactivity with DNA. Mutagenicity in TA100 can be predicted by a QSAR incorporating hydrophobicity (logP), stability to substitution reactions at nitrogen (pK(a) of the leaving acid) and steric effects of para-aryl substituents (E(s)). A number of mutagens exhibit activities that deviate markedly from the predicted values and they fall into two classes: di-tert-butylated N-benzoyloxy-N-benzyloxybenzamides, which--because of their size--are most probably excluded from the major groove or are unable to achieve a transition state for reaction with DNA, and N-benzoyloxy-N-butoxyalkylamides with branching alpha-to the amide carbonyl, which are resistant to S(N)2 reactions at the amide nitrogen.

The HERON reaction — Origin, theoretical background, and prevalence

The origin of the HERON reaction is reviewed from a historical perspective and shown to have its foundation in the unusual properties of bisheteroatom-substituted amides, so-called anomeric amides. The reaction involves migration of anomerically destabilized oxo-substituents on an amide nitrogen to the amide carbon and dissociation of the amide bond. Computational work providing a theoretical basis for the reaction is presented, together with physical organic measurements that support results therefrom. The rearrangement has been observed in a number of chemical transformations of N-alkoxy-N-aminoamides, reactions of 1-acyloxy-1-alkoxydiazenes, N-alkoxy-N-aminocarbamates, N-alkoxyhydroxamic acids, as well as in the gas-phase reactions of N-acyloxy-N-alkoxyamides.Key words: HERON reaction, anomeric amides, rearrangements, hindered esters, concerted reactions.

Crystal structures and properties of mutagenic N-acyloxy-N-alkoxyamides — “most pyramidal” acyclic amides

X-Ray data for two N-acyloxy-N-alkoxyamides, a class of direct-acting mutagens, indicate extreme pyramidalisation at the amide nitrogen in keeping with spectroscopic and theoretically determined properties of amides with bisoxosubstitution at nitrogen. The combined electronegativity of two oxygens leads to average angles at nitrogen of 107.8 and 108.1 degrees and [chiN] of 66 degrees and 65 degrees. The sp3 nature of nitrogen results in negligible amide resonance as evidenced by long N-C(O) bonds, high IR carbonyl stretch frequencies, carbonyl 13C NMR data and very low amide isomerisation barriers. In addition, conformations in the solid state support a strong n(O)-sigma*(NOAc), anomeric interaction as predicted by molecular orbital theory. HF/6-31G* calculations on formamide, N-methoxyformamide and N-formyloxy-N-methoxyformamide support these findings.

Mutagenicity of electrophilic N-acyloxy-N-alkoxyamides

N-acyloxy-N-alkoxybenzamides are mutagenic in TA100 without the need for metabolic activation with S9. Electronic effects of substituents on both the benzamide ring in N-acetoxy-N-butoxybenzamides or the benzyloxy ring in N-acetoxy-N-benzyloxybenzamides do not influence mutagenicity levels. For N-benzoyloxy-N-benzyloxybenzamides, mutagenicity levels are inversely related to the electron-withdrawing effect of substituents on the benzoyloxy leaving group. Since reactivities increase with increasing electron-withdrawing effects, mutagenicity correlates with stability rather than reactivity of these mutagens. Hydrophobicity is the dominant factor controlling mutagenicity levels and data for all mutagens correlate with computed logP values with a lower dependence (h=0.22) than that recorded for indirect mutagens (h=1.0), except where a sterically demanding p-tert-butyl substituent or a naphthyl group is present. N-acetoxy-N-butoxynaphthamide exhibits a much higher level of mutagenicity than predicted by its logP value and activity may be ascribed to an intercalative binding process with DNA rather than straightforward hydrophobic binding in the major or minor groove. Since these are direct-acting mutagens, structural factors influence binding and reactivity towards DNA.

Bimolecular Reactions of Mutagenic N-Acyloxy-N-alkoxybenzamides with Aromatic Amines

Mutagenic N-acyloxy- N-alkoxybenzamides undergo SN2 reactions at the amide nitrogen with N-methylaniline and ring-substituted anilines in reactions modelling the possible mode of interaction between the mutagens and nucleic acids and which may be responsible for their biological activity.