Solid-phase synthesis of amine-bridged cyclic enkephalin analogues via on-resin cyclization utilizing the Fukuyama-Mitsunobu reaction.

An efficient solid-phase synthetic route is described for the preparation of 13-membered amine-bridged cyclic enkephalin analogues (ABEs) 1a and 1c-1j (Figure 1) resulting from a sulfonamide-containing peptide whose backbone is bound to a resin. The Fukuyama-Mitsunobu reaction of the 2-nitrobenzenesulfonyl-protected amine bound to the solid support with protected aminoethanol in the presence of triphenylphosphine and diisopropyl azodicarboxylate (DIAD) is utilized to prepare a resin-bound sulfonamide-protected secondary amine. After peptide cyclization, this protected amine functionality becomes the "amine bridge" of the target molecule. In addition, the reagent DIAD was found to be a superior reagent compared to diethyl azodicarboxylate (DEAD) in the solid-phase Fukuyama-Mitsunobu reaction.