Practical synthesis of L-erythro- and L-threo-4-fluoroglutamic acids using aminoacylase

Bacterial defluorination of 4-fluoroglutamic acid

Fluorinated amino acids are used as enzyme inhibitors, mechanistic probes and in the production of pharmacologically active peptides. Because enantiomerically pure 4-fluoroglutamate is difficult to prepare, the selective degradation of the L-isomer is a potentially convenient method of obtaining D-4-fluoroglutamate from the racemate. In this paper, we describe our investigations on the degradation of 4-fluoroglutamate by bacteria. Fluoride ion was detected in resting-cell cultures of a number of bacteria that were incubated with racemic 4-fluoroglutamate. Analysis of the culture supernatants by chiral gas chromatography-mass spectrometry revealed that only the L-isomer was degraded. The degradation of 4-fluoroglutamate was also examined in cell-free extracts of Streptomyces cattleya and Proteus mirabilis, and it was observed that equimolar concentrations of fluoride ion and ammonia were generated. The activity was located in the soluble fraction of cell extracts, thus is not related to the L-2-amino-4-chloro-4-pentenoic acid dehydrochlorinase previously identified in membrane fractions of P. mirabilis.

Synthesis of L-4,4-difluoroglutamic acid via nucleophilic addition to a chiral aldehyde

Fluorine-containing derivatives of amino acids are assuming increasing importance as probes of biological function and enzyme mechanism. We now report a new, flexible route to enantiomerically pure L-4,4-difluoroglutamic acid that exploits the addition of difluorinated nucleophiles to configurationally stable alpha-aminoaldehydes. Conversion of the difluorinated adducts to L-4,4-difluoroglutamic acid can be accomplished in three steps by Barton-McCombie dehydroxylation and acid hydrolysis.

New gamma-fluoromethotrexates modified in the pteridine ring: synthesis and in vitro immunosuppressive activity

Our continuing program to develop new antifolate drugs useful against rheumatoid arthritis led us to modify the pteridine ring of gamma-fluoromethotrexate. Pyrrolopyrimidine derivatives 1e and 1t were found to exhibit potent suppressive effects on the responses of both T and B cells to mitogens, although tetrahydropyridopyrimidine derivatives 2e and 2t and quinazoline derivatives 3e, 3t and 4e showed very weak suppressive activities. Thus, conversion of the pteridine ring of gamma-fluoromethotrexate to a pyrrolopyrimidine ring led to a new potential antirheumatic compound.