Carbonyl zinc catalysis

For reduction of carbonyl compounds catalysis is necessary. One of the major contributing effects to enzymic catalysis is polarization of the carbonyl substrate by an electrophile (eq. 16), which is usually imidazole or a zinc ion embedded in the peptide chain... 

Carboxypeptidases are zinc-containing enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of polypeptides at the C-terminal peptide bond. The bovine enzyme form A is a monomeric protein comprising 307 amino acid residues. The structure was determined in the laboratory of William Lipscomb, Harvard University, in 1970 and later refined to 1.5 A resolution. Biochemical and x-ray studies have shown that the zinc atom is essential for catalysis by binding to the carbonyl oxygen of the substrate. This binding weakens the C =0 bond by... 

There is little doubt that the zinc ion acts as an electrophilic catalyst to polarize the carbonyl group and stabilize the negative charge that develops on the oxygen (Chapter 2, section B7).151 The ionized carboxylate of Glu-270 is impli-cated in catalysis from the pH-rate profile.152... 

In 1991, Li and Chan reported the use of indium to mediate Barbier-Grignard-type reactions in water (Eq. 8.49).108 When the allylation was mediated by indium in water, the reaction went smoothly at room temperature without any promoter, whereas the use of zinc and tin usually requires acid catalysis, heat, or sonication. The mildness of the reaction conditions makes it possible to use the indium method to allylate a methyl ketone in the presence of an acid-sensitive acetal functional group (Eq. 8.50). Furthermore, the coupling of ethyl 2-(bromomethyl)acrylate with carbonyl compounds proceeds equally well under the same reaction conditions, giving ready access to various hydroxyl acids including, for example, sialic acids. 

The first, made by Ichikawa et al. [29], was the evidence that rhodium or iridium cluster carbonyls, when adsorbed on zinc oxide, titania, lanthanum oxides, zirconia or magnesia, could produce quite selectively ethanol by the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. This was a timely discovery (metallic catalytic particles produced by traditional methods could not reproduce such selectivity) since it came at a period of geopolitical tension after the Kippur war in 1973, which caused the price of crude oil to increase enormously. Therefore, that period was characterized by intense research into selective Fischer-Tropsch catalysis. 

The copper(II)-promoted hydrolysis of glycylglycine has been studied in some detail.120 Copper(II) ions catalyze the hydrolysis of glycylglycine in the pH range 3.5 to 6 at 85 °C.120 The pH rate profile has a maximum at pH 4.2, consistent with the view that the catalytically active species in the reaction is the carbonyl-bonded complex. The decrease in rate at higher pH is associated with the formation of a catalytically inactive complex produced by ionization of the peptide hydrogen atom. This view has subsequently been confirmed by other workers,121 in conjunction with an IR investigation of the structures of the copper(II) and zinc(II) complexes in D20 solution.122 Catalysis by cobalt(II),123 and zinc(II), nickel(II) and manganese(II) has also been studied.124-126... 

Breslow and coworkers420 have studied the hydrolysis of the anhydrides (128) and (129) in both the presence and absence of zinc(II) (and other metal ions). In the the absence of metal ion, hydrolysis of the anhydrides is independent of pH in the region 1.0-7.5, as also occurs with phthalic anhydride.421 However, in the presence of zinc(II), the hydrolysis is first order in hydroxide above pH 5. Table 28 lists values of kobs for the various substrates at pH 7.5 (for the metal complex k0bs = kOH[0H-]). The catalytic effects are of the order of 103. The pH dependence of the zinc(II) catalysis is consistent with attack by external hydroxide on a complex such as (130) where the metal acts as a Lewis acid catalyst. A further possibility involves attack by coordinated hydroxide on an uncoordinated anhydride carbonyl (131), and there is some evidence that this is indeed the process which does occur. 

Carbonic anhydrase is a zinc(II) metalloenzyme which catalyzes the hydration and dehydration of carbon dioxide, C02+H20 H+ + HC03. 25 As a result there has been considerable interest in the metal ion-promoted hydration of carbonyl substrates as potential model systems for the enzyme. For example, Pocker and Meany519 studied the reversible hydration of 2- and 4-pyridinecarbaldehyde by carbonic anhydrase, zinc(II), cobalt(II), H20 and OH. The catalytic efficiency of bovine carbonic anhydrase is ca. 108 times greater than that of water for hydration of both 2- and 4-pyridinecarbaldehydes. Zinc(II) and cobalt(II) are ca. 107 times more effective than water for the hydration of 2-pyridinecarbaldehyde, but are much less effective with 4-pyridinecarbaldehyde. Presumably in the case of 2-pyridinecarbaldehyde complexes of type (166) are formed in solution. Polarization of the carbonyl group by the metal ion assists nucleophilic attack by water or hydroxide ion. Further studies of this reaction have been made,520,521 but the mechanistic details of the catalysis are unclear. Metal-bound nucleophiles (M—OH or M—OH2) could, for example, be involved in the catalysis. 

The NAD+-dependent alcohol dehydrogenase from horse liver contains one catalytically essential zinc ion at each of its two active sites. An essential feature of the enzymic catalysis appears to involve direct coordination of the enzyme-bound zinc by the carbonyl and hydroxyl groups of the aldehyde and alcohol substrates. Polarization of the carbonyl group by the metal ion should assist nucleophilic attack by hydride ion. A number of studies have confirmed this view. Zinc(II) catalyzes the reduction of l,10-phenanthroline-2-carbaldehyde by lV-propyl-l,4-dihy-dronicotinamide in acetonitrile,526 and provides an interesting model reaction for alcohol dehydrogenase (Scheme 45). The model reaction proceeds by direct hydrogen transfer and is absolutely dependent on the presence of zinc(II). The zinc(II) ion also catalyzes the reduction of 2- and 4-pyridinecarbaldehyde by Et4N BH4-.526 The zinc complex of the 2-aldehyde is reduced at least 7 x 105 times faster than the free aldehyde, whereas the zinc complex of the 4-aldehyde is reduced only 102 times faster than the free aldehyde. A direct interaction of zinc(II) with the carbonyl function is clearly required for marked catalytic effects to be observed. 

Thus, many metal ions catalyze the hydrolysis of esters [7,8], amides [9], and nitriles [10] via electrophilic activation of the C=0 or C=N group. This type of catalysis is characteristic of coordination complexes and is very common in metalloenzyme-mediated processes. Zinc(II), for example, is a key structural component of more than 300 enzymes, in which its primary function is to act as a Lewis acid (see Chapter 4). The mechanism of action of zinc proteases, e.g., thermolysin, involves electrophilic activation of an amide carbonyl group by coordination to zinc(II) in the active site (Figure 4). 

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