Asymmetric synthesis, biological activity and molecular docking studies of some unsaturated α-amino acids, derivatives of glycine, allylglycine and propargylglycine

Abstract New enantiomerically enriched unsaturated tailor-made amino acids have been obtained. As a starting amino acid synthon for the asymmetric synthesis of tailor-made unsaturated amino acids, Ni(II) square-planar complexes of Schiff's bases of propargylglycine, allylglycine and glycine with chiral auxiliary (S)-2-N-(N'-benzylprolyl)- aminobenzophenone ((S)-BPB) were used. The Cα-alkylation of propargylglycine, allylglycine and glycine moieties resulted in the asymmetric synthesis of novel (S)-α-propargylglycine, (S)-α-allylglycine and glycine derivatives containing an aromatic group in the side chain (de 80–95,5%). After purification and cleavage of the metal complexes, the amino acids were isolated in high enantiomeric purity (ee >99%). Of the obtained 7 tailor-made amino acids 4 showed inhibitory activity to collagenase G. The amino acid with an acetylene bond in the side chain (IC50 = 1.29 ± 0.02 mM) had the best result. Molecular docking showed that the amino acids with activity to collagenase G contained hydrogen and π-π bonds with the enzyme.