Solid-phase synthesis of α-substituted proline hydantoins and analogs

The manual solid-phase preparation of racemic α-substituted bicyclic proline hydantoins and analogs, which can potentially contain up to four sites of structural diversity (ring size and substitution on the ring or at the ring fusion), is described. Key steps involved alkylation of aldimines of resin-bound amino acids with α,ω-dihaloalkanes and intramolecular displacement of the halide to generate α-substituted prolines and homologs. After formation of resin-bound ureas by reaction of these sterically-hindered secondary amines with isocyanates, base-catalyzed cyclization/cleavage yielded the desired hydantoin products.