Diastereo- and enantioseparation of a N^α-Boc amino acid with a zwitterionic quinine-based stationary phase: Focus on the stereorecognition mechanism

Highlights: • The ZWIX(+) column allowed getting the Boc-Aph(Hor)-OH (1) isomeric peaks resolved. • ECD studies and molecular dynamic simulations allowed to assign the elution order. • Molecular descriptors revealed the active role of achiral elements of the CSP. - Abstract: A chiral chromatography method enabling the simultaneous diastereo- and enantioseparation of N^α-Boc-N⁴-(hydroorotyl)-4-aminophenylalanine [Boc-Aph(Hor)-OH, 1] was optimized with a quinine-based zwitterionic stationary phase. The polar-ionic eluent system consisting of ACN:MeOH:water—49.7:49.7:0.6 (v/v/v) with formic acid (4.0 mM) and diethylamine (2.5 mM), allowed the successful separation of the four acid stereoisomers: α_D,D-/D,L-1 = 1.08; α_D,L-/L,D-1 = 1.08; α_L,D-/L,L-1 = 1.40. According to the in-house developed synthetic procedure and the recorded electronic circular dichroism spectra, the following stereoisomeric elution order was readily established in the optimal chromatographic conditions: D,D-1 < D,L-1 < L,D-1 < L,L-1. With the aim of better understanding the molecular basis of the retention behaviour of the four stereoisomers in the employed chromatographic system and conditions, a computational protocol consisting in molecular dynamics simulations was applied. The use of the three descriptors INTER (in kcal mol⁻¹, encoding for the interaction energy between the selector SO unit and the whole system), INTER-SA (in kcal mol⁻¹, encoding for the interaction energy between SO and the sole selectand SA), and SELF (in kcal mol⁻¹, encoding for the conformational energy of SA relative to its minimum energy registered by the collected snapshots) revealed the active role of achiral sub-structural elements of the chiral stationary phase and eluent components in the overall stereorecognition mechanism