A solid-phase route affording novel 3,5-disubstituted 1,5-benzothiazepin-4(
5H)-ones in optically pure form has been enabled. SNAr reaction of polymer-
bound 4-fluoro-3-nitrobenzoic acid, 12, with L-Fmoc-cysteine, L-13, under b
asic conditions, followed by tin(II) chloride mediated nitro group reductio
n, furnished the primary aniline 15. Reductive alkylation of 15 to the corr
esponding secondary anilines 17 was shown to be feasible for a wide range o
f aldehydes, using an optimized solvent system composed of CH(OMe)(3), DMF,
MeOH, and HOAc, with NaCNBH3 as the reducing agent. In cases of enolizable
aldehydes, benzotriazole was found to be a beneficial additive for the sup
pression of side-products due to imine-enamine tautomerization. Subsequent
cyclization of the secondary anilines 17 using DIC in apolar solvents furni
shed the corresponding N(5)-alkylated 1,5-benzothiazepin-4-ones 19. Followi
ng Fmoc removal from 19, the primary amino group was finally reacted with c
arboxylic acids, isocyanates, sulfonyl chlorides, or aldehydes to afford th
e respective amides 32, ureas 33, sulfonamides 34, or secondary amines 35.
Performing the synthesis with the D-form of Fmoc-cysteine, D-13, resulted i
n the corresponding antipodal products, with no detectable scrambling at C(
3). The solid-phase assembly of 1,5-benzothiazepin-4-ones was also shown to
be compatible with chemical encoding based on dialkylamine tags, enabling
the construction of large combinatorial libraries of the title compounds.