Background and Prior art reference Gabapentin, (1-aminomethyl) eye lohexane-1 -acetic acid is an antiepileptic drug, which has been found to have pain-relieving properties. Additionally, it is claimed to have anti-anxiety activity as also beneficial properties in treating neuro¬ degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's. Gabapentin and its analogues are reported to exert their activity by binding to the alpha 2-delta sub unit of calcium channel.

WO 99/14184 reports the synthesis of gabapentin analogues 3-methyl, 4- methyl and 3,5-dimethyl gabapentin and their biological activity. In all these analogues the aminomethyl group could preferentially occupy the equatorial position in the more stable conformation along with certain percentage in the axial position. However the exact conformation in which these bind to a receptor is not known. If the energy differences are not significant, binding with the aminomethyl group in the axial position cannot be ruled out. This document does not claim the report of t-butyl gabapentin specifically but covers it in a generic way.

The tertiary butyl group has been known as an anchoring substituent on the cyclohexane ring occupying exclusively the equatorial confirmation in the ring. Therefore, if one were to synthesize 1 -aminomethyl cyclohexane- 1 -acetic acids with a 4-t-butyl group in cis or trans stereochemistry with respect to the aminomethyl group to obtain Z and E stereoisomer respectively it should be feasible to study better, the optimal conformation for good binding of 4-t-butyl gabapentin with the alpha 2 delta sub unit of the calcium channel.

However, prior art search revealed the report of 4-t-butyl gabapentin in documents US 6103932 and WO 02/00347 A2. US 6103932 recites and claims 4-t- butyl gabapentin, and a pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof or a prodrug thereof, while WO 2002/00347A 2 notes the use of t-bmylgabapentin in the form of a prodrug without any example. The document also describes general synthetic methods for the preparation of alkyl gabapentin analogues having one or more alkyl substituents in the cyclohexane ring. There is no specific example describing the preparation of the compound 4-t-butylgabapentin. This patent also records the radio ligand-binding assay with the alpha 2 detla sub unit derived from porcine brain tissue giving an IC50 value of 200micro M for 4-t-butyl gabapentin, again without stereochemistry, thus missing out a solution to the crucial and challenging issue of conformational identity in the native and bound states.

US 6103932 describe various synthetic routes for the preparation gabapentin analogues where as WO 99/14184 restricts itself to the use of a nitro methyl intermediate to obtain gabapentin analogues. In the former patent, two routes are employed:, (a) an alkyl-substiruted cyclohexanone is converted to a cyanocyclohexylidene acetic ester, which is treated with aqueous alcoholic sodium cyanide to 1-cyanocyclohexane acetic ester, which upon reduction gives an azaspirodecanone. Hydrolysis of the lactam with 1 : 1 HCl affords the a,lkyl substituted gabapentin hydrochloride. In the second route, an alkyl substituted cyclohexanone is treated with ethyl cyanoacetate and ammonia gas in methanol to afford a dicyano spiroglutarimide which is hydrolysed by hot concentrated sulphuric acid to an alkyl substituted cyclohexane-1,1- diacetic acid. The diacid is converted to the anhydride, which is opened up with methanol to give the half-ester acid. This is treated with ethyl chloroformate followed by sodium azide. Thermolysis of the acyLazide gives an isocyanate which upon hydrolysis with concentrated hydrochloric acid yields the alkyl substituted gabapentin hydrochloride.

In WO 99/14184, the method adopted is to add nitrometha.ne to an alkyl substituted cyclohexylidene acetic ester, which upon catalytic reduction affords the alkyl-substituted azaspirodecanone. Hydrolysis with 6 N HCl and evaporation affords the alkyl substituted gabapentin hydrochloride.

US Patent No 6103932 and PCT Int'l Application publication WO 99/14184 describe examples wherein the final products, gabapentin analogues are obtained only as hydrochloride salts. Thus, in order to establish the optimal conformation for the compound 4-t-butyl gabapentin, which can bind with the alpha2delta. subunit of the calcium channel, it is necessary to obtain cis and trans form of 4-t-fc>utylgabapentin with high purity.

There are prior art references on gabapentin analogues wifJh one or more methyl groups in the cyclohexane ring and publications on their binding activity. The ascertainment of the precise conformation in which the amino group in gabapentin binds to the alpha2delta subunit can have great significance in the design of newer analogues of gabapentin and more specifically alkyl gabapentin analogues None of the prior art document reports cis and trans stereoisomers of 4-t-butylgabapentin and their process of preparation.

Objects of the Invention

Main object of the invention is to report pure forms Z(cis) and E(trans) stereoisomers of 4-t-butylgabapentin.

Another object of the present invention is to synthesize EZ mixture of 4-t- butylgabapentin, separate the mixture into pure stereoisomers and characterize them by using physical methods, namely, IR, high field proton NMR and single crystal X-ray crystallography.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide Z and E stereoisomers of 4-t- butylgabapentin and its pharmaceutically acceptable salts as an agent for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders.

Description of the accompanied diagram

Fig 1 depicts schematic expression of the preparation of cis and trans isomers of 4-t-butylgabapentin.

Description of the invention

In accordance with the objects, the present invention provides a report of cis(Z) and trans(E) stereoisomers of 4-t-butylgabapentin and process for their preparation in high purity.

The process for the preparation of the cis and trans isomer of 4-t- butylgabapentin has been achieved, as outlined in Fig I. 4-t-Butyl-cyclohexanone (I) was treated with ethylcyano acetate and ammonia in methanol to yield ammonium salt of dicyanoimide (2) . Hydrolysis of (2) with hot sulfuric acid afforded the diacid (3) which was converted to the anhydride (4). (4) treated with aqueous ammonia to give the mono-amide (5) as a mixture containing approximately equal proportions of stereoisomers.. Reaction of (5) with sodium hypobromite solution led to the formation of lactam (6) as a mixture of stereoisomers [proton NMR (7) and its isomer with NCH2 axial in the ratio of 3:2] from which one of the isomer could be crystallized out in pure form from methanol-hexane, mp 176-7°C and its structure identified as (7) by NMR and single crystal X-ray analysis ( Hydrolysis of lactam (6) with hot concentrated HCl gave a mixture of isomers of 4-t-butyl gabapentin hydrochloride (8). Crystallization of (8) from water afforded in pure form, mp 146-147°C, the isomer hemihydrate (9) with aminomethyl group in the anxial position. Dissolution of (8) in water followed by neutralization with aqueous NaOH to pH 7 precipitated the free-amino acid, surprisingly in good yield, a mixture of stereoisomers of 4-t-butyl gabapentin (10). Obviously the much poorer water solubility of (10) compared to the other gabapentin analogues is due to the presence of the more lipophilic t-butyl group. Fractional crystallization of (10) from methanol water allowed the separation of pure crystals of the Z stereoisomer (11) (Cis amino methyl ) mp 183-1840C and E-stereoisomer (12) (trans amino methyl ) mp 182-183 of 4-t-butyl gabapentin to which structural assignments were made by high field proton NMR and X-ray diffraction. CHnCOOH .2 .;CH2CONH2

t -Bu The stereoisomers and its pharmaceutically acceptable salts of the present invention can be used as an agent for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. A pharmaceutical composition comprising an effective amount of these compounds may be used for the treatment.

The present invention is illustrated with following example and should not be construed to limit the scope of the invention.

Example

Preparation of Zf cis) and E(trans) stereoisomers of 4-t-butyl gabapentin:

Step-1 Preparation of ammonium salt of l,5-dicyano-2,4-dioxo-9-t-butyl-3- azaspiroundecane (2)

204 gms (1.32 mole) of 4-t-butyl cyclohexanone and 299.3 gms (2.64 mole) of ethyl cyano acetate were mixed, cooled to -5°C and treated with 640 ml of 15% wt/vol methanolic ammonia (pre-cooled to -5°C) at -5° to 00C, slowly over a period 90minutes. The combined mixture was stirred for 1 hour and refrigerated at -5° to 00C for a time period 96 hr. A thick product was formed and was filtered and washed with 100 ml of chilled methanol and dried to get the ammonium salt of l,5-dicyano-2,4- dioxo-9-t-butyl-3-azaspiroundecane (2) ; mp 238 - 24O0C.

O NNH4+

Step-2 Preparation of 4-t-butylcyclohexyl-l,l-diacetic acid (3)

300 ml of 60% sulphuric acid (wt/vol) was heated to 125-1300C. 89 gms of the ammonium salt (2) of step (1) was added in small portions to the hot sulphuric acid mixture at about 125-130°C. During the addition of the salt, the reaction was exothermic and at the end of the addition which was completed over a period of 3 hrs, the temperature was allowed to rise up to 1400C. The reaction mixture was maintained at 130-1400C for 15 hrs. Then it was cooled to 25-3O0C and the ash coloured solid was filtered. This crude diacid was washed with 200 ml of water. Then the wet product was suspended in 300 ml of 20% ammonia solution, warmed and filtered over a bed of hyflo supercel. The clear filtrate was acidified with concentrated HCl to get pure 4-t-butylcyclohexyl-l,l-diaceticacid(3), which was dried at 60-700C; mp 178 - 1830C. NC COOH NNH4+ COOH NC O

Step-3 Preparation of 4-t-butylcyclohexyl-l,l-diaceticacid monoamide (5)

28.8 gms of 4-t-butyl cyclohexyl-l,l-diacetic acid (3) was refluxed with 47.7 gms(0.6 mole) of freshly distilled acetyl chloride for 3 hrs .The volatiles were distilled at around 800C in water bath under vacuum to obtain as anhydride (4) which was quenched in 100 ml of aqueous ammonia. The resultant aqueous ammonia was stirred for 30 minutes at 25-300C and washed with toluene to remove neutral impurities. The purified ammonium salt solution was acidified to pH 1-2 with concentrated HCl. The solid precipitated was filtered and dried at 60-70 0C to get 4-t-butyl cyclohexyl-1,1- diacetic acid mono amide (5), mp: 176-1800C.

COOH CONH 2

COOH N ' — C00H

3 5

Step-4 Preparation of 8-t-butyl-azaspiro [4,5]-undecan-3-one (6) 15.68 gms (0.39 mole) of sodium hydroxide was dissolved in 110.5 ml of water and chilled to 0 - -5°C. To this 12.86 gms (0.08 mole) of bromine was added over 30 min. followed by 20 gms of (5) which was added in several lots at 0 to -50C. The reaction mixture was stirred at the same temperature for 30 min. It was then heated slowly over an hour to 80 -85°C, and the temperature maintained at 80-850C for 6 hr. The reaction mixture was now cooled to 25-300C and extracted with 300 ml of ethylene dichloride (EDC). The aqueous layer was again heated to 80-850C, cooled and extracted with 300 ml of EDC. Both EDC layers were combined and distilled to obtain a mixture of stereoisomeres of t-butylgabalactam (6), m.p 150-1540C, which was almost white in colour. Crystallization of (6) from methanol-hexane gave one of the isomer (7) in pure form mp 176-1770C.

H CONH N 2 COOH CO

5 6 Step-5 Preparation of t-butylgabapentin hydrochloride (8) 2 gms of t-butylgabalactam (6) (0.009 mole) was heated with 5 ml of concentrated HCl at 95-1000C forlβhrs. The resultant clear solution was cooled to 700C when a solid separated; 5 ml toluene was added, the mixture further cooled to 300C and filtered to get t-butyl gabapentin hydrochloride. The aqueous portion of the mother liquor was separated and heated to 95-1000C for 8 hr. The clear solution was cooled and 5 ml toluene was added. The solid formed again was filtered to get an_other crop of the t-butylgabapentin hydrochloride. Both the crops were combined and stirred with 10 ml of acetone for 30 min. The product was filtered to get 4-t-butylgabar>entin hydrochloride (8) as a mixture of cis and trans isomers, m.p 172-ISO0C. Crystallization from water gave one of the isomer (9) in the pure form as a hemihydrate; mp 146-1470C.

NH, . HCI CO COOH

6 8

Step-6 Preparation of 4-t-butylgabapentin (10)

2 gms of (0.0076 mole) of 4-t-butylgabapentin hydrochloride (8) was dissolved in 4 ml water. The clear solution was heated to 45- 50 0C, treated with charcoa.1 and filtered. The filtrate was neutralized with 10% sodium hydroxide solution to jpH 7. The solid precipitate was filtered and was washed with 2ml water. The wet product was warmed with 10 ml of methanol, filtered at room temperature and dried to afford the mixture of cis and trans 4-t-butyl- gabapentin (10); mp 176 - 1800C. NH2 .HCI MH, COOH COOH

10 Step-7 Preparation of E and Z isomers of 4-t-butyl gabapentin Compound (10) on crystallization from MeOH/EtOH/H2O yielded two forms of conformational isomers Z and E designated as (11) and (12) respectively. Z (l l), mp l83-184°C E (12), mp l82-183°C The structures of (11) and (12) were determined by NMR and X-ray diffraction data.