A simple and efficient one-pot, three-component Strecker reaction of protected amino acids, aromatic aldehydes, and trimethylsilyl cyanide has been developed for the synthesis of chiral α-amino nitriles. The reaction was carried out in the presence of catalytic amount of phosphotungstic acid (H3[P(W3O10)4]) as an environmentally friendly cata...

Unnatural chiral α-amino acids are widely used in fields of organic chemistry, biochemistry and medicinal chemistry, and their synthesis has attracted extensive attention. Although the asymmetric synthesis provides some efficient protocols, noble and elaborate catalysts, ligands and additives are usually required which leads to high cost. Distinctly, it is attractive to make unnatural chiral α-...

Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) have been attracting attention as tools for intracellular delivery of membrane-impermeant functional molecules. Among the variety CPPs that developed, many are composed both natural and unnatural amino acids. We previously synthesized α,α-disubstituted α-amino acids (dAAs) containing a five-membered carbocyclic ring in its side chain revealed utility dAAs develo...