Enantiopure synthesis of all four stereoisomers of carbapenam-3-carboxylic acid methyl ester.

The retro-Dieckmann reaction has been used as a stereodivergent synthetic tool on N-Boc-7-azabicyclo[2.2.1]heptan-2-one-1-carboxylic acid methyl ester to obtain enantiopure trans- and cis-5-(carboxymethyl)pyrrolidine-2-carboxylic acid methyl esters. These disubstituted pyrrolidines have been used as starting materials to develop concise and straightforward syntheses of all four stereoisomers of carbapenam-3-carboxylic acid methyl esters. In this way, we have confirmed unequivocally the stereochemistry of two carbapenams isolated from strains of Serratia and Erwinia species.