Carbonyl catalysis enables a biomimetic asymmetric Mannich reaction.

Chiral amines are widely used as catalysts in asymmetric synthesis to activate carbonyl groups for α-functionalization. Carbonyl catalysis reverses that strategy by using a carbonyl group to activate a primary amine. Inspired by biological carbonyl catalysis, which is exemplified by reactions of pyridoxal-dependent enzymes, we developed an N-quaternized pyridoxal catalyst for the asymmetric Mannich reaction of glycinate with aryl N-diphenylphosphinyl imines. The catalyst exhibits high activity and stereoselectivity, likely enabled by enzyme-like cooperative bifunctional activation of the substrates. Our work demonstrates the catalytic utility of the pyridoxal moiety in asymmetric catalysis.

Enzyme-Inspired Axially Chiral Pyridoxamines Armed with a Cooperative Lateral Amine Chain for Enantioselective Biomimetic Transamination.

Enzymatic transamination is catalyzed by pyridoxal/pyridoxamine, and it involves remarkable cooperative catalysis of a Lys residue in the transaminase. Inspired by transaminases, we developed a class of axially chiral pyridoxamines 11 bearing a lateral amine arm. The pyridoxamines exhibited high catalytic activity and excellent enantioselectivity in asymmetric transamination of α-keto acids, to give various α-amino acids in 67-99% yields with 83-94% ee's. The lateral amine arm likely participates in cooperative catalysis as the Lys residue does in biological transamination and has an important impact on the transamination in terms of activity and enantioselectivity.