Enzyme Arene oxidation

This chapter begins, thus, with a short introduction to the chemical reactivity of epoxides. We continue with a description of the epoxides hydrolases and their biochemistry, and devote most of its length to a systematic discussion of the substrates hydrated by these enzymes. Arene oxides and diol epoxides will be presented first, followed by a large variety of alkene and cy-cloalkene oxides. 

Phenolic compounds are commonplace natural products Figure 24 2 presents a sampling of some naturally occurring phenols Phenolic natural products can arise by a number of different biosynthetic pathways In animals aromatic rings are hydroxylated by way of arene oxide intermediates formed by the enzyme catalyzed reaction between an aromatic ring and molecular oxygen... 

As with an isolated double bond, epoxide formation in an aromatic ring, i.e., arene oxide formation, can occur mechanistically either by a concerted addition of oxene to form the arene oxide in a single step, pathway 1, or by a stepwise process, pathway 2 (Fig. 4.78). The stepwise process, pathway 2, would involve the initial addition of enzyme-bound Fe03+ to a specific carbon to form a tetrahedral intermediate, electron transfer from the aryl group to heme to form a carbonium ion adjacent to the oxygen adduct followed by... 

In contrast, a number of alkene epoxides (10.3) are chemically quite stable, i.e., intrinsically less reactive than arene oxides. Examples of epoxide metabolites that have proven to be stable enough to be isolated in the absence of degrading enzymes include 1,2-epoxyoctane (10.4), 1,2-epoxycyclohex-ane (10.5), 1-phenyl-1,2-epoxy ethane (styrene oxide, 10.6), and cis- 1,2-diphenyl-1,2-epoxyethane (cfv-stilbene oxide, 10.7) [12], The same is true of alclofenac epoxide (10.8), hexobarbital epoxide (10.9), and a few other epoxides of bioactive compounds. 

The microsomal epoxide hydrolases (microsomal EH, mEH), predominantly found in the endoplasmic reticulum, regio- and stereoselectively catalyze the hydration of both alkene and arene oxides, including oxides of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. These enzymes have been purified to homogeneity from various species and tissues [22] [41 - 46], The human microsomal EH contains 455 amino acids (Mr 52.5 kDa) and is the product of the EPHX1 gene [47] (also known as HYL1 [48]). 

As explained in the Introduction, alkene oxides (10.3) are generally chemically quite stable, indicating reduced reactivity compared to arene oxides. Under physiologically relevant conditions, they have little capacity to undergo rearrangement reactions, one exception being the acid-catalyzed 1,2-shift of a proton observed in some olefin epoxides (see Sect. 10.2.1 and Fig. 10.3). Alkene oxides are also resistant to uncatalyzed hydration, thus, in the absence of hydrolases enzymes, many alkene oxides that are formed as metabolites are stable enough to be isolated. 

The data in Table 10.1 suggest that the reactivity of epoxide hydrolase toward alkene oxides is highly variable and appears to depend, among other things, on the size of the substrate (compare epoxybutane to epoxyoctane), steric features (compare epoxyoctane to cycloalkene oxides), and electronic factors (see the chlorinated epoxides). In fact, comprehensive structure-metabolism relationships have not been reported for substrates of EH, in contrast to some narrow relationships that are valid for closely related series of substrates. A group of arene oxides, along with two alkene oxides to be discussed below (epoxyoctane and styrene oxide), are compared as substrates of human liver EH in Table 10.2 [119]. Clearly, the two alkene oxides are among the better substrates for the human enzyme, as they are for the rat enzyme (Table 10.1). 

This enzyme [EC 3.3.2.3], also known as epoxide hydra-tase and arene-oxide hydratase, catalyzes the hydrolysis... 

The NIH shift has been found to occur during aromatic hydroxylations catalyzed by enzymes present in plants, animals, fungi and bacteria. It is thus evident that the acid catalyzed (or spontaneous) isomerization of oxepins-arene oxides is a very important type of in vivo reaction. It should be emphasized that the NIH shift may occur under either acid-catalyzed or neutral (spontaneous) conditions (76ACR378). The direct chemical oxidation of aromatic rings has also yielded both phenols (obtained via the NIH shift) and arene oxides (80JCS(P1)1693>. 

The metabolism of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by enzymes present in animal livers involves epoxidation as the initial step. As indicated in Section 5.17.1.2, evidence is available to suggest that oxepins (29)-(34) are present as minor contributors to the arene oxide-oxepin equilibrium and thus may legitimately be considered as metabolic intermediates. 

As has been stated before, oxirane derivatives are formed as intermediates during metabolic oxidations at carbon-carbon double bonds. These epoxides (arene oxides) undergo spontaneous isomerization to phenols, or enzymic hydration via epoxide hydrase to trans- dihydrodiols, or reaction with reduced glutathione (GSH) via specific GSH-transferases to the corresponding conjugates (Scheme 11), which eventually appear in urine... 

Groves et al. found that a simple heme-iodosobenzene system mimics the enzymic reactions.127 Cyclohexane and cyclohexene are oxidized to cyclohexanol and a mixture of cyclohexene oxide and cyclohexenol respectively by this system. Using meso-tetrakis-a,/J,a,/J-(o-acylamidophenyl)por-phinatoiron(III) chloride where the acyl group is (i )-2-phenylpropionyl or (S)-2 -methoxy-carbonyl-l,T-binaphthyl-2-carbonyl, optically active styrene oxides are obtained in 51% e.e. The Fe(TPP)Cl-PhIO system can also oxygenate arenes to arene oxides.128 Based on the following observations, mechanisms involving O—Felv(Por) t as the active species have been proposed (Scheme 30).127... 

Institute of Health) shift.80,110,111 Originally, the term NIH shift was used as a phenomenological description of the consequence of hydroxylation of aromatic compounds by mixed-function oxygenases. These enzymes catalyze the oxidation of aromatic substrates by deriving oxygen from molecular oxygen and not from water.80,110,111 Later studies narrowed the term to include arene oxide involvement.80... 

Phenanthrene is transformed to trans-9,10- (major), trans-1,2- (minor), and trans-3,4-dihydrodiol (minor) metabolites via monooxygenase-catalyzed formation of arene oxides, followed by epoxide hydrolase-catalyzed hydration in mammalian liver systems.219-221 In bacterial cultures, phenanthrene is converted to cis-3,4- (major) and cis-1,2- dihydrodiols (minor) through the action of dioxygenase enzymes and molecular oxygen.221,222 Recently, Boyd et al.10 have prepared trons-3,4-dihydroxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydrophenanthrene (359) and cis-3,4-dihydroxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydrophenanthrene (360) in optically pure forms. These compounds have made possible the determination of the configurations of the trans- and cis-3,4-dihydrodiol metabolites of phenanthrene (361 and 362) as (-)-(3R,4R) and ( + )-(3S,4R), respectively. 

What is remarkable, however, is the stereochemical influence of a 13-hydroxyl group, p-hydroxycarbocations such as 31 are formed not only from arene oxide as precursors but from arene dihydrodiols. As shown for the parent benzene dihydrodiols in Scheme 23, arene dihydrodiols exist as cis-and /ra/rv-isomers. The m-isomers are obtained as products of the action on the aromatic molecule of dioxygenase enzymes and have been prepared on a large scale by fermentation.92 The trans-isomers are normally accessible by straightforward synthesis, for example, from the arene oxide. Both isomers undergo acid-catalyzed dehydration to the parent aromatic molecule, as is also shown in Scheme 23. It is clear that their reactions should involve a common carbocation intermediate,163 164 and in so far as there is little difference in the stabilities of the isomers,165 their difference in reactivities might have been expected to be small. 

At least two systems can be cited as catalysts of peroxide oxidation the first are the iron (III) porphyrins (44) and the second are the Gif reagents (45,46), based on iron salt catalysis in a pyridine/acetic acid solvent with peroxide reagents and other oxidants. The author s opinion is that more than systems for stress testing these are tools useful for the synthesis of impurities, especially epoxides. From another point of view, they are often considered as potential biomimetic systems, predicting drug metabolism. Metabolites are sometimes also degradation impurities, but this is not a general rule, because enzymes and free radicals have different reactivity an example is the metabolic synthesis of arene oxides that never can be obtained by radical oxidation. 

The epoxidation of aldrin to dieldrin is an example of the metabolic formation of a stable epoxide (Figure 10.1A), while the oxidation of naphthalene was one of the earliest understood examples of an epoxide (arene oxide) as an intermediate in aromatic hydroxylation (Figure 10.1B). The arene oxide can rearrange nonenzy-matically to yield predominantly 1-naphthol, can interact with the enzyme epoxide hydrolase to yield the dihydrodiol, or can interact with glutathione -transferase to yield the glutathione conjugate that ultimately is metabolized to a mercapturic acid. This reaction is also of importance in the metabolism of the insecticide carbaryl, which contains the naphthalene nucleus. 

The assay method described by Eaton and Stapleton (1989), measures the activities of both cytosolic glutathione 5-transferase and microsomal epoxide hydrolase toward benzo[a]pyrene-4,5-oxide as a substrate. These enzymes are important in the biotransformation of many epoxide xenobiotics, including potentially carcinogenic arene oxides. 

The one-carbon unit required for the formation of the /8-carboline tricycle is derived from 5-methyltetrahydrofolic acid, a cofactor present in platelets ( ). This finding led to a diagnostic assay which allows for the measurement of the enzyme activity of human platelets in terms of their ability to produce, on addition of tryptamine, TBC 25. This alkaloid, when given to rats, led to two metabolites hydroxylated in the aromatic ring at C-6 and C-7, respectively (59). The formation of these metabolites may proceed via an arene oxide. 

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