Diasteroselective conjugate addition of diethylaluminum cyanide to a conjugated N-enoyl system: an alternative synthesis of (S)-pregabalin

Abstract

We have explored in this work the conjugate addition of diethylaluminum cyanide (Nagata’s reagent) to an N-enoyl system bearing the (R)-4-phenyl-2-oxazolidinone chiral auxiliary. Since this method provided a practical synthesis of γ-amino acids, we report the conjugate addition of diethylaluminum cyanide as the key step in the synthesis of (S)-pregabalin 1 in a five-step sequence of reactions from commercially available starting materials.