Carboxylic acids enzymatic reduction

Applications of peroxide formation are underrepresented in chiral synthetic chemistry, most likely owing to the limited stability of such intermediates. Lipoxygenases, as prototype biocatalysts for such reactions, display rather limited substrate specificity. However, interesting functionalizations at allylic positions of unsaturated fatty acids can be realized in high regio- and stereoselectivity, when the enzymatic oxidation is coupled to a chemical or enzymatic reduction process. While early work focused on derivatives of arachidonic acid chemical modifications to the carboxylate moiety are possible, provided that a sufficiently hydrophilic functionality remained. By means of this strategy, chiral diendiols are accessible after hydroperoxide reduction (Scheme 9.12) [103,104]. 

Zhu, D., Ankati, H., Mukheijee, C. et al. (2007) Asymmetric reduction of /3-ketonitriles with a recombinant carbonyl reductase and enzymatic transformation to optically pure /3-hydroxy carboxylic acids. Organic Letters, 9 (13), 2561-2563. 

Cyclic voltammetry has been also used for estimation of the rate constants for oxidation of water-soluble ferrocenes in the presence of HRP (131). There is a perfect match between the data obtained spectrophotometrically and electrochemically (Table IV), which proves that the cyclic voltammetry reveals information on the oxidation of ferrocenes by Compound II. It is interesting to note that an enzyme similar to HRP, viz. cytochrome c peroxidase, which catalyzes the reduction of H202 to water using two equivalents of ferrocytochrome c (133-136), is ca. 100 times more reactive than HRP (131,137). The second-order rate constant equals 1.4 x 106 M-1 s 1 for HOOCFc at pH 6.5 (131). There is no such rate difference in oxidation of [Fe(CN)e]4- by cytochrome c peroxidase and HRP (8). These comparisons should not however create an impression that the enzymatic oxidation of ferrocenes is always fast. The active-R2 subunit of Escherichia coli ribonucleotide reductase, which has dinuclear nonheme iron center in the active site, oxidizes ferrocene carboxylic acid and other water-soluble ferrocenes with a rate constant of... 

The first inhaled glucocorticoid, beclomethasone dipropionate, revolutionized asthma therapy, when it was found that topical delivery to the lung resulted in reduced systemic side-effects (adrenal suppression, oseteoporosis and growth inhibition) typically seen with oral steroid treatments. Interestingly, a further reduction in systemic exposure was achieved with the introduction of fluticasone propionate (1). The evolution of this drug stemmed from observations with the steroid 17-carboxylates that showed that these esters were active topically when esterified, while the parent acids were inactive. Thus it was realized that enzymatic hydrolysis of the ester would lead to systemic deactivation. SAR studies led to a series of carbothioates, which were very active in vivo when topically applied to rodents, but were inactive after oral administration. It was shown that fluticasone propionate (1) underwent first pass metabolism in the liver to the corresponding inactive 173-carboxylic acid (la) (Scheme 1). This observation was... 

Additionally, 1,2-dihydroxyethylene dipeptide analogues without the C-terminal carboxylic acid have been used to obtain aspartyl proteases inhibitors.[641 These efforts include stereoselective alkylation of imines, one-pot reductive amination of epoxy ketones, ring opening of epoxides with sodium azide, diastereoselective dihydroxylation of allylic amines, and enzymatic resolution and stereocontrolled intramolecular amidation. 

Ankati, H., Zhu, D., Yang, Y, Biehl, R.R., and Hua, L. 2009. Asymmetric synthesis of both antipodes of P-hydroxy nitriles and P-hydroxy carboxylic acids via enzymatic reduction or sequential reduction/hydrolysis. Journal of Organic Chemistry, 74 1658-62. 

The reaction of optically active carbinolamines formed by an enzymatically controlled addition of acetaldehyde to amines, illustrated in Fig. 2, may be of theoretical interest, but lacks experimental verification it also would require the presence of acetaldehyde. The more likely pyruvic acid route to optically active TIQs, however, also remains inconclusive. If it indeed proceeds through TIQ-1-carboxylic acids to DIQ intermediates by an oxidative decarboxylation (176,217,218), it requires that it be followed by an asymmetric enzymatic reduction. Although achieved in vitro (35), this reaction has not been realized in vivo. The formation of unequal amounts of the optical isomers of salsolinol and other TIQs in vivo could arise from racemic 1-carboxy-TIQ in an enzymatic decarboxylation, proceeding with (S) and (R) enantiomers at a different rate and thus affording different amounts of (5)- and (/ )-TIQ. With the availability of optically active TIQ-1-carboxylic acids, this possibility can now be tested. 

Do optically active 1-methyl-TIQs, as sketched in Fig. 32 for the synthesis of (7 )-salsolinol, originate from a Pictet-Spengler reaction of dopamine with acetaldehyde derive from ethanol, or are they the result of a Pictet-Spengler reaction of biogenic amines with pyruvic acid, as sketched in Fig. 33 Based on the accumulated data it seems reasonable to propose that optically active TIQs are formed by the pyruvic acid pathway, and that the pyruvic acids may be derived from an impaired glucose metabolism or an impaired amino acid metabolism. Whether the intermediate TIQ-1-carboxylic acids 91a,b are enzymatically decarboxylated to afford 64a,b in a different enantiomeric ratio, or whether optically active TIQs are formed by oxidative decarboxylation of TIQ 91 to DIQ 120, followed by an asymmetric reduction, remains open to question. 

Another enzyme of the carbon reduction cycle activates PGA, converting it to phosphoryl-3-phosphoglyceric acid (IV). This acid anhydride can then be reduced in a subsequent enzymatic step mediated by triose phosphate dehydrogenase. For its reducing agent, this enzyme uses nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) and thereby converts the carboxylic acid to... 

A similar dependence of the configuration of the product on the ( /Z)-configu-ration of the substrate was observed during the yeast-mediated reduction of 2-chloro-acrylate esters [1016]. Whereas the chiral recognition of the (Z)-alkenes was perfect, the (Ej-isomers gave products with lower e.e. In addition, it was shown that the microbial reduction took place on the carboxylic acid stage, which were formed enzymatically by hydrolysis of the starting esters prior to the reduction step [1017] (Scheme 2.138). 

In vitro synthesis of PHA granules from activated substrates may eventually become commercially feasible. In R. eutropha, the maximum rate of PHA synthesis occurs early in accumulation phase and deteriorates slowly thereafter. One would therefore expect that the maximum amount of PHA accumulation would depend on enzymatic activity or on NAD PH or substrate supply. However the most detailed published study on this process points to a physical limitation (86) where polymer synthesis slows to a virtual stop simply because there is no more space available. If this is indeed the case, then the way around such a hmitation is to produce the PHA granules outside the cells. This has been achieved (87,88). Commercial exploitation of this process requires a source of the biosynthetic enz3rmes (easily achievable through molecular biological techniques), substrates, NADP, and a method for NADP reduction already used in commercial steroid transformation processes. This would eliminate or greatly reduce separation costs. The present economic and technical barrier to this process is the lack of an inexpensive method to link coenzyme A to the appropriate carboxylic acid. 

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