Glycosidic hydrolysis

More recently, Janda has described the production of a galactopyranosidase antibody in response to hapten [96]. This was designed to accommodate several features of the transition state for glycoside hydrolysis notably a flattened half-chair conformation and substantial sp2 character at the anomeric position. Some 100 clones were isolated in response to immunization with [96] and used to generate a cDNA library for display on the surface of phage (Appendix entry 7.3) (Janda et al., 1997). Rather than proceed to the normal screening for turnover, Janda then created a suicide substrate system to trap the catalytic species. 

The implications of the above observations may be important, especially if similar trends are observed in pyranose anomers. For example, with respect to the mechanism of acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of pyranosides, endocyclic C-0 bond cleavage (preceeded by 05 protonation) may be assisted in P-anomers in which the Cl-01 bond is equatorial, since the 04-Cl bond may already be extended in these anomers. By a similar argument, exocyclic C-0 scission (preceeded by 01 protonation) may be assisted in the hydrolysis of a-pyranosides in which the Cl-01 is axial and extended, thus resembling the transition state. Post and Karplus have recently suggested that enzyme-catalyzed glycoside hydrolysis of P-pyranosides may indeed take place by ring oxygen protonation, followed by endocyclic C-0 bond scission. 

Salicin is an (9-glycoside of a phenol, namely salicyl alcohol. Salicin is a natural antipyretic and analgesic found in willow bark, and is the template from which aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid, see Box 7.13) was developed. Prunasin from cherry laurel is an example of a cyanogenic glycoside, hydrolysis of which leads to release of toxic HCN (see Box 7.7). It is the (9-glucoside of the alcohol mandelonitrile, the trivial name for the cyanohydrin of benzaldehyde. It is the further hydrolysis of mandelonitrile that liberates HCN. 

J. D. McCarter and S. G. Withers, Mechanisms of enzymatic glycoside hydrolysis, Curr. Opin. Struct. Biol, 4 (1994) 885-892. 

D. Piszkiewicz and T. C. Bruise, Glycoside hydrolysis. I. Acetamido and hydroxyl group catalysis in glycoside hydrolysis, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 89 (1967) 6237-6243. 

McCarter, J. and Withers, S. (1994) Mechanisms of enzymatic glycoside hydrolysis. 

---