A Versatile Boc Solid Phase Synthesis of Daptomycin and Analogues Using Site Specific, On-Resin Ozonolysis to Install the Kynurenine Residue.

A de novo solid-phase synthesis of the cyclic lipodepsipeptide daptomycin via Boc chemistry was achieved. The challenging ester bond formation between the nonproteinogenic amino acid kynurenine was achieved by esterification of a threonine residue with a protected tryptophan. Subsequent late-stage on-resin ozonolysis, inspired by the biomimetic pathway, afforded the kynurenine residue directly. Synthetic daptomycin possessed potent antimicrobial activity (MIC100 =1.0 μg mL-1 ) against S. aureus, while five other daptomycin analogues containing (2R,3R)-3-methylglutamic acid, (2S,4S)-4-methylglutamic acid or canonical glutamic acid at position twelve prepared using this new methodology were all inactive, clearly establishing that the (2S,3R)-3-methylglutamic acid plays a key role in the antimicrobial activity of daptomycin.