L-Glutamic acid methyl ester

A new method for the synthesis of γ-glutamylmethylamide is presented. Glutamic acid γ-methyl ester was used as substrate for γ-glutamylmethylamide synthesis catalyzed by Escherichia coli with γ-glutamyltranspeptidase activity. Reaction conditions were optimized by using 300 mM glutamic acid γ-methyl ester and 3,000 mM methylamine at pH 10 and 40 °C. Bioconversion rate of γ-glutamylmethylamide reached 87 % after 10 h. γ-Glutamyltranspeptidase was reversibly inhibited only when glutamic acid γ-methyl ester was above 300 mM.

Monatin, 4-hydroxy-4-(3-indolylmethyl)-glutamic acid, is a naturally occurring sweet amino acid. The (2R,4R)-monatin isomer has been found to be the sweetest among its four stereoisomers. A concise and efficient synthesis of (2R,4R)-monatin was accomplished by the alkylation of (4R)-N-tert-butoxycarbonyl (tBoc)-4-tert-butyldimethylsilyoxy-D-pyroglutamic acid methyl ester with tert-butyl 3-(bromomethyl)-1H-indole-1-carboxylate to give (4R)-N-tBoc-4-tert-butyldimethylsilyloxy-4-(N-tBoc-3-indolylmethyl)-D-pyroglutamic acid methyl ester, i.e., the lactam form of (2R,4R)-monatin with protecting groups. This was followed by the hydrolysis of the lactam ring and deprotection. The 4-hydroxyl D-pyroglutamic acid derivative was demonstrated to be a suitable precursor for the efficient preparation of (2R,4R)-monatin in high optical purity because the alkylation proceeded in regioselective and stereoselective manners at C4 to form appropriate asymmetric tetra-substituted carbon center; the resulting alkylated pyroglutamic acid derivative was then easily converted into the linear form of monatin.

Fungal species of genus Sepedonium are rich sources of diverse secondary metabolites (e.g., alkaloids, peptaibols), which exhibit variable biological activities. Herein, two new peptaibols, named ampullosporin F (1) and ampullosporin G (2), together with five known compounds, ampullosporin A (3), peptaibolin (4), chrysosporide (5), c(Trp-Ser) (6) and c(Trp-Ala) (7), have been isolated from the culture of Sepedonium ampullosporum Damon strain KSH534. The structures of 1 and 2 were elucidated based on ESI-HRMSn experiments and intense 1D and 2D NMR analyses. The sequence of ampullosporin F (1) was determined to be Ac-Trp1-Ala2-Aib3-Aib4-Leu5-Aib6-Gln7-Aib8-Aib9-Aib10-GluOMe11-Leu12-Aib13-Gln14-Leuol15, while ampullosporin G (2) differs from 1 by exchanging the position of Gln7 with GluOMe11. Furthermore, the total synthesis of 1 and 2 was carried out on solid-phase to confirm the absolute configuration of all chiral amino acids as L. In addition, ampullosporin F (1) and G (2) showed significant antifungal activity against B. cinerea and P. infestans, but were inactive against S. tritici. Cell viability assays using human prostate (PC-3) and colorectal (HT-29) cancer cells confirmed potent anticancer activities of 1 and 2. Furthermore, a molecular docking study was performed in silico as an attempt to explain the structure-activity correlation of the characteristic ampullosporins (1-3).