Mechanism of hydrolysis and structure-stability relationship of enaminones as potential prodrugs of model primary amines.

The objective of this work was to investigate the chemistry and the structure-stability relationship of enaminones (a class of enamines formed between a primary amine and a 1,3-dicarbonyl compound) and to evaluate their potential usefulness as prodrugs of primary amines. The acid-catalyzed degradation of the enaminones was found to be very sensitive to minor differences in the structure of the 1,3-dicarbonyl compound used to form the enaminone, but relatively insensitive to changes in the amine portion of the enaminones. A correlation was found between the rate of enaminone hydrolysis and the pKa of the 1,3-dicarbonyl compound, suggesting that the rate-controlling step in the hydrolysis of the enaminones was the proton addition to the vinyl carbon of the enaminone. Enaminones formed with cyclic 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds were significantly more stable than those formed with structurally similar acyclic compounds. Based on chemical stability considerations alone, enaminones do not appear to be good candidates as prodrugs of primary amines. Evidence is presented, however, that enaminones formed between amines and 1,3-ketoesters or lactones may be subject to enzyme-catalyzed degradation. Further research on the design of enaminones destabilized by a triggering enzymatic event that results in the loss of conjugation (e.g., ester or lactone hydrolysis or an oxidation/reduction event) may prove worth pursuing.