Model studies on the first enzyme-catalyzed Ugi reaction.

Multicomponent reactions are powerful tools for organic chemistry, and among them, the Ugi reaction provides remarkable improvement in many fields of organic chemistry such us combinatorial chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and peptide chemistry. A new, enzyme-catalyzed example of the Ugi three-component reaction is presented. The studies include the selection of an enzyme as well as determination of the scope and limitations of the newly described reaction. The presented method combines the enzyme promiscuity and multicomponent reaction advantages in the first one-pot formation of dipeptide 1.