Construction of Thioamide Peptide via Sulfur-Involved Amino Acids/Amino Aldehydes Coupling.

A sulfur-involved ligation for thioamide quasi-peptides was developed via amino acids and amino aldehydes coupling. The key to the transformation was the chelation of copper with imines for chiral activation and fixation. In this environment, linear polysulfur decreased the alkalinity of single sulfur anions to prevent racemization caused by the interaction between sulfur and sodium sulfide. Dipeptides, tripeptides, tetrapeptides, and the linkage between the drug and amino acids were successfully obtained.