Forward and reverse (retro) iron(III) or gallium(III) desferrioxamine E and ring-expanded analogues prepared using metal-templated synthesis from endo-hydroxamic acid monomers.

A metal-templated synthesis (MTS) approach was used to preorganize the forward endo-hydroxamic acid monomer 4-[(5-aminopentyl)(hydroxy)amino]-4-oxobutanoic acid (for-PBH) about iron(III) in a 1:3 metal/ligand ratio to furnish the iron(III) siderophore for-[Fe(DFOE)] (ferrioxamine E) following peptide coupling. Substitution of for-PBH with the reverse (retro) hydroxamic acid analogue 3-(6-amino-N-hydroxyhexanamido)propanoic acid (ret-PBH) furnished ret-[Fe(DFOE)] (ret-ferrioxamine E). As isomers, for-[Fe(DFOE)] and ret-[Fe(DFOE)] gave identical mass spectrometry signals ([M + H(+)](+), m/zcalc 654.3, m/zobs 654.3), yet for-[Fe(DFOE)] eluted in a more polar window (tR = 23.44 min) than ret-[Fe(DFOE)] (tR = 28.13 min) on a C18 reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) column. for-[Ga(DFOE)] (tR = 22.99 min) and ret-[Ga(DFOE)] (tR = 28.11 min) were prepared using gallium(III) as the metal-ion template and showed the same trend for the retention time. Ring-expanded analogues of for-[Fe(DFOE)] and ret-[Fe(DFOE)] were prepared from endo-hydroxamic acid monomers with one additional methylene unit in the amine-containing region, 4-[(6-aminohexyl)(hydroxy)amino]-4-oxobutanoic acid (for-HBH) or 3-(7-amino-N-hydroxyheptanamido)propanoic acid (ret-HBH), to give the corresponding tris(homoferrioxamine E) macrocycles, for-[Fe(HHDFOE)] or ret-[Fe(HHDFOE)] ([M + H(+)](+), m/zcalc 696.3, m/zobs 696.4). The MTS reaction using a constitutional isomer of for-HBH that transposed the methylene unit to the carboxylic acid containing region, 5-[(5-aminopentyl)(hydroxy)amino]-5-oxopentanoic acid (for-PPH), gave the macrocycle for-[Fe(HPDFOE)] in a yield significantly less than that for for-[Fe(HHDFOE)], with the gallium(III) analogue for-[Ga(HPDFOE)] unable to be detected. The work demonstrates the utility and limits of MTS for the assembly of macrocyclic siderophores from endo-hydroxamic acid monomers. Indirect measures (RP-HPLC order of elution, c log P values, molecular mechanics, and density functional theory calculations) of the relative water solubility of the ligands, the iron(III) macrocycles, and the apomacrocycles were consistent in identifying for-DFOE as the most water-soluble macrocycle from for-DFOE, ret-DFOE, for-HHDFOE, ret-HHDFOE, and for-HPDFOE. From this group, only for-DFOE is known in nature, which could suggest that water solubility is an important trait in its natural selection.