Catalytic Asymmetric Hydrogenation of Dehydroamino Acid Esters with Biscarbamate Protection and Its Application to the Synthesis of xCT Inhibitors.

Catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation of dehydroamino acid esters with biscarbamate protection was examined for the first time to prepare optically active amino acids. The new method was successfully applied to the synthesis of new cystine-glutamate exchanger inhibitors.