Ketones whole cell reduction

Goldberg, K., Schroer, K., Luetz, S. and Liese, A. (2007) Biocatalytic ketone reduction - a powerful tool for the production of chiral alcohols - part II whole-cell reductions. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, 76, 249-255. 

The ready availability of baker s yeast and the ease of operation of the whole-cell reduction are two of the attractive features of these processes. Many other organisms can be used to reduce ketones to secondary... 

Carnell et al. discovered that whole cells of Cunninghamella echinulata NRRL1384 were able to deracemize racemic N-(l-hydroxy-l-phenylethyl)benzamide (24) to produce the (R) enantiomer (Figure 5.17) [30]. The deracemization involves fast, highly (S)-selective oxidation, followed by slower, partially (R)-selective reduction of the ketone (25). Optimization by removing competing extracellular amidase/prote-ase activity resulted in 82% yield and 92% ee. 

O Water absorbing polymer Figure 8.26 Asymmetric reduction of ketones in CO2 by Geotrichum candidum immobilized whole cell [20], (a) Time course for the reduction of o-fluoroacetophenone (b) substrate specificity (c) apparatus for C. candidum-cata yzed reduction with semiflow process using scC02. 

Reduction of carbon-carbon double bond Microalgae easily reduce carbon-carbon double bonds in enone. Usually, the reduction of carbonyl group and carbon-carbon double bond proceeds concomitantly to afford the mixture of corresponding saturated ketone, saturated alcohol, and unsaturated alcohol because a whole cell of microalgae has two types of reductases to reduce carbonyl and olefinic groups. The use of isolated reductase, which reduces carbon-carbon double bond chemoselectively, can produce saturated ketones selectively. 

Prochiral aryl and dialkyl ketones are enantioselectively reduced to the corresponding alcohols using whole-cell bioconversions, or an Ir1 amino sulfide catalyst prepared in situ.695 Comparative studies show that the biocatalytic approach is the more suitable for enantioselective reduction of chloro-substituted ketones, whereas reduction of a,/ -unsaturated compounds is better achieved using the Ir1 catalyst. An important step in the total synthesis of brevetoxin B involves hydrogenation of an ester using [Ir(cod)(py) P(cy)3 ]PF6.696... 

The reduction of several ketones, which were transformed by the wild-type lyophilized cells of Rhodococcus ruber DSM 44541 with moderate stereoselectivity, was reinvestigated employing lyophilized cells of Escherichia coli containing the overexpressed alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH- A ) from Rhodococcus ruber DSM 44541. The recombinant whole-cell biocatalyst significantly increased the activity and enantioselectivity [41]. For example, the enantiomeric excess of (R)-2-chloro-l-phenylethanol increased from 43 to >99%. This study clearly demonstrated the advantages of the recombinant whole cell biocatalysts over the wild-type whole cells. 

In summary, ketoreductases have emerged as valuable catalysts for asymmetric ketone reductions and are preparing to enter the mainstream of synthetic chemistry of chiral alcohols. These biocatalysts are used in three forms wild-type whole-cell microorganism, recombinant... 

Carballeira, J.D., Alvarez, E., Campillo,M,etal. (2004)DiplogelasinosporagrovesiilNll 171018, anew whole cell biocatalyst for the stereoselective reduction of ketones. Tetrahedron Asymmetry, 15 (6), 951-962. 

Most asymmetric reductions that can be enzymatically effected have been the reactions of ketones. These reactions can be conducted with whole cells as well as with isolated enzymes. In the latter case, of course, at least one equivalent of a cofactor such as NADH or NADPH (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) is required to serve as the actual reductant in the reaction system. 

Enzyme reductions of carbonyl groups have important applications in the synthesis of chiral compounds (as described in Chapter 10). Dehydrogenases are enzymes that catalyse, for example, the reduction of carbonyl groups they require co-factors as their co-substrates. Dehydrogenase-catalysed transformations on a practical scale can be performed with purified enzymes or with whole cells, which avoid the use of added expensive co-factors. Bakers yeast is the whole cell system most often used for the reduction of aldehydes and ketones. Biocatalytic activity can also be used to reduce carbon carbon double bonds. Since the enzymes for this reduction are not commercially available, the majority of these experiments were performed with bakers yeast1 41. 

An example of biocatalytic C=0 bond reduction has also been reported in the literature. The asymmetric reduction of ketones via whole-cell bioconversions and TH was tested by van Leeuwen et al. as complementary approaches to asymmetric... 

An example of a whole-cell process is the two-step synthesis of an enantiopure epoxide by asymmetric reduction of an a-chloro ketone (Scheme 6.4), catalyzed by recombinant whole cells of an Escherichia coli sp. overexpressing an (R)-KRED from Lactobacillus kefir and GDH from Thermoplasma acidophilum, to the corresponding chlorohydrin, followed by non-enzymatic base-catalyzed ring closure to the epoxide [17]. 

Whole cells of bakers yeast [BMIM][PF6]/buffer (two-phase) Reduction of ketones 32... 

Figure 1.44 Double ketone reduction in a whole cell process.

Figure 13.29 Ketone reduction by whole cells of yeast Montelukast (Singulair ) Montelukast (Singulair )n (Shafiee, 1998b).

Chiral alcohols are valuable products mainly as building blocks for pharmaceuticals or agro chemicals or as part of chiral catalysts. Cheap biotransformation methods for the selective reduction of particular ketone compounds are known for many years rather catalyzed by fermentation than with isolated enzymes. Products prepared with whole cells such as baker s yeast often lack high enantioselectivity and there were several attemps to use isolated enzymes. Resolution of racemates with hydrolases are known in some cases but very often the reduction of the prochiral ketone using alcohol dehydrogenases are much more attractive. 

Using isolated enzymes instead of whole cells, similar problems are to be considered only in a few cases. ADH from Thermoanaerobium brockii shows varying enantiomeric excess of the product depending on the structure of the ketone to be reduced. Conversions with this enzyme yield in products with low (20% for the reduction of acetophenone) or high ee value (100% for the reduction of p-Cl-acetophenone). Predictions about the stereospecificity of HLADH catalyzed reductions can be made for simple acyclic substrates applying Prelog s rule [37] and for more complex compounds using the cubic-space model developed by Jones and Jakovac [38],... 

Whole Cell vs. Enzymes as Means for the Reduction of Ketones... 

For the synthesis of (7 )-alcohols by reduction of the corresponding ketones, an E. coli whole-cell catalyst was constructed based on an ADH from L. kefir. Some preparative examples using these designer cells are summarized in section 9.4. 

Based on the (/ )-specific ADH from L. kefir, a recombinant E. coli strain was constructed as a whole-cell biocatalyst, and co-expressed GDH was used for regeneration of NADPH [157]. These designer cells were applied for the reduction of 4-fluoroacetophenone to the corresponding optically active (/ )-4-fluorophe-nylethan-l-ol at 0.5 M educt concentration [158]. After a reaction time of 23 h, a conversion of >95% has been achieved, and the purified isolated chiral alcohol showed an ee value of >99% (87% yield). (S)-p-Halohydrins were obtained with this whole-cell catalyst by means of an enantioselective reduction of the corresponding ketones with both high conversions of >95% and enantioselectivities of >99% (Fig. 40). Base-induced cyclization of the [S-halohydrin led to enantiomeri-cally pure (S)-epoxides in high yield and enantiomeric purity (>99% ee) [159]. 

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