Antibody catalysis has been used for the first time in a very efficient and highly enantioselective synthesis of natural products. Aldolase antibody 38C2 (Aldrich no. 47,995-0) catalyzes the aldol reaction between α-hydroxylated ketones and aldehydes to give syn-α,β-dihydroxy ketones with ee values>99% (see below). Since 38C2 also catalyzes the retro-aldol reaction, it is possible to prepare the other enantiomers by kinetic resolution. This has been applied in total syntheses of ten brevicomins.
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List et al. (1998) studied this question.
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