Lewis acid facilitated regioselective synthesis of τ-histidinoalanine

τ-Histidinoalanine, with an unusual cross-link between His and Ala, is the central component of theonellamides, a family of bioactive peptidic natural products. Previous syntheses of this residue were plagued with low regioselectivity in the alkylation step. Herein, we report two novel routes to τ-histidinoalanine, involving alkylation of Boc-His-OMe with a serine-derived β-lactone and β-bromoalanine, respectively, as the electrophiles. The use of Mg(OTf)2 as a catalyst was found to be essential to ensure high regioselectivity for the τ-isomer, presumably due to the formation of a six-membered ring chelation involving the π-nitrogen atom of histidine.