Peptide coupling between amino acids and the carboxylic acid of a functionalized chlorido-gold(I)-phosphane.

We have developed a protocol for the direct coupling between methyl ester protected amino acids and the chlorido-gold(I)-phosphane (p-HOOC(C6H4)PPh2)AuCl. By applying the EDC·HCl/NHS strategy (EDC·HCl = N-ethyl-N′-(3-(dimethylamino)propyl)carbodiimide hydrochloride, NHS = N-hydroxysuccinimide), the methyl esters of l-phenylalanine, glycine, l-leucine, l-alanine, and l-methionine are coupled with the carboxylic acid of the gold complex in moderate to good yields (62–88%). All amino acid tagged gold complexes were characterized by 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy and high-resolution mass spectrometry. As corroborated by measurement of the angle of optical rotation, no racemization occurred during the reaction. The molecular structure of the leucine derivative was determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. In the course of developing an efficient coupling protocol, the acyl chlorides (p-Cl(O)C(C6H4)PPh2)AuX (X = Cl, Br) were also prepared and characterized.