Ketoreductases

Chapters 5-8 are directed to emerging enzymes, which include oxynitrilases, aldolases, ketoreductases, oxidases, nitrile hydratases, and nitrilases, and their recent applications especially in synthesis of chiral drugs and intermediates. 

Ketoreductases catalyze the reversible reduction of ketones and oxidation of alcohols using cofactor NADH/NADPH as the reductant or NAD + /NADP+ as oxidant. Alcohol oxidases catalyze the oxidation of alcohols with dioxygen as the oxidant. Both categories of enzymes belong to the oxidoreductase family. In this chapter, the recent advances in the synthetic application of these two categories of enzymes are described. 

In a study aim to develop biocatalytic process for the synthesis of Kaneka alcohol, apotential intermediate for the synthesis of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, cell suspensions of Acine-tobacter sp. SC 13 874 was found to reduce diketo ethyl ester to give the desired syn-(AR,5S)-dihydroxy ester with an ee of 99% and a de of 63% (Figure 7.4). When the tert-butyl ester was used as the starting material, a mixture of mono- and di-hydroxy esters was obtained with the dihydroxy ester showing an ee of 87% and de of 51% for the desired, sy -(3/t,5,Sr)-dihydroxy ester [16]. Three different ketoreductases were purified from this strain. Reductase I only catalyzes the reduction of diketo ester to its monohydroxy products, whereas reductase II catalyzes the formation of dihydroxy products from monohydroxy substrates. A third reductase (III) catalyzes the reduction of diketo ester to, vv -(3/t,55)-dihydroxy ester. 

In an effort to develop easy-to-use ketoreductase toolbox , we have surveyed the activity and enantioselectivity of a collection of ketoreductases (KRED) from various sources toward the reduction of a variety of ketones [90,91]. These studies served as a useful guideline for developing enzymatic processes for the production of optically pure chiral alcohols. For example, several chiral chlorohydrins of pharmaceutical importance were synthesized in both enantiomeric forms using the enzymes in this ketoreductase collection (Table 7.2) [92]. Further applications of this collection and other commercially available ketoreductases can be found in a recent review [9]. 

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... 

Compared with ketoreductases, the synthetic application of alcohol oxidases has been less explored. However, selective oxidation of primary alcohols to aldehydes is superior to the chemical methods in terms of conversion yields, selectivity, and environmental friendliness of reaction conditions. In addition, coupling of alcohol oxidase with other enzymes provides a tremendous opportunity to develop multi-enzyme processes for the production of complex molecules. Therefore, a growing impact of alcohol oxidases on synthetic organic chemistry is expected in the coming years. 

Zhu, D., Mukherjee, C., Rozzell, J.D. et al. (2006) A recombinant ketoreductase tool-box. Assessing the substrate selectivity and stereoselectivity toward the reduction of beta-ketoesters. Tetrahedron, 62 (5), 901-905. 

Figure 11.2 Biosynthesis of the nine-membered enediynes. Members of this family share a common biosynthetic pathway for the enediyne core intermediate. Domains are shown in circles with abbreviations (KS, ketosynthase AT, acyltransferase KR, ketoreductase DH, dehydratase TE, thioesterase ACP, acyl carrier protein PPT, phosphopantetheine transferase)...

L, loading module DH, dehydratase KS, p-ketosynthase KR, ketoreductase MT methyltransferase PS, pyran synthase DHh and KRh are DH and KR-like sequences, together with the FkbH domain, they are involved in the formation of D-lactate starter unit HMG-CS, hydroxy-methyl-glutaryl CoA synthase. Acyl-carrier-protein domains are shown as small filled balls with chain attached by the thiol group. The box shows the HMG-CS pathway for the formation of exocyclic enoate. 

Aldehydes and ketones are readily reduced back to primary and secondary alcohols, respectively. In the case of ketones, although the reduction is reversible, ketoreductase utilizes NADPH, the concentration of which is higher than NADP+, and this drives the reaction toward the secondary alcohol. A good example is warfarin as shown in Figure 5.3 (19). However, aldehydes are further oxidized to carboxylic acids and carboxylic acids are not reduced back to aldehydes thus eliminating the aldehyde. Reductive metabolism of esters and amides also does not generally occur. 

All polyketides use the same general mechanism for chain elongation. Acetyl coenzyme A provides acetate (C2) units, which are condensed by a ketosynthase (KS). This in turn catalyzes condensation of the growing chain onto an acyl carrier protein (ACP), as generalized in Fig. 1.4. Enzymes such as ketoreductase (KR), enoyl reductase (ER), and dehydratase (DH) establish the oxidation state of caibon during translation, imparting structural diversity. Successive translation of each module leads to a chain of the required length that is eventually passed to thioeste-rase (TE), which releases the chain as a free acid or lactone. 

Biocatalysis is still an emerging field hence, some transformations are more established than others.Panke et alP have performed a survey of patent applications in the area of biocatalysis granted between the years 2000 and 2004. They found that although hydrolases, which perform hydrolyses and esterifications, still command widespread attention and remain the most utilized class of enzyme (Figure 1.5), significant focus has turned towards the use of biocatalysts with different activities and in particular alcohol dehydrogenases (ADHs) - also known as ketoreductases (KREDs) - used for asymmetric ketone reduction. 

Ketoreductase enzymes KRED-104 (120mg) and KRED-108 (30mg) and NADP+ (30 mg) were added to 0.5 m potassium phosphate buffer pH 6.5 (9.5 niL) that was stirring at 35 °C. The reaction was started with the addition of a solution of ketone substrate (100 mg) in isopropanol (0.5 mL) and aged for 12h. 

Enzyme-catalysed Synthesis of a-Alkyl-j8-hydroxy Ketones and Esters by Isolated Ketoreductases... 

Kalaitzakis, D., Rozzell, J.D., Kambourakis, and S. Smonou, L, Highly stereoselective reductions of a-alky 1-1,3-diketones and a-alkyl-/3-keto esters catalyzed by isolated NADPH-depen-dent ketoreductases. Org. Lett., 2005, 7, 4799-4801. 

Kalaitzakis, D., Rozzell, J.D., Kambourakis, S. and Smonou, I., Synthesis of valuable chiral intermediates by isolated ketoreductases application in the s3mthesis of -alkyl—hydroxy ketones and 1,3-diols. Adv. Synth. Catal, 2006, 348, 1958-1969. 

The asymmetric formation of industrially useful diaryl methanols can be realized through either the addition of aryl nucleophiles to aromatic aldehydes or the reduction of diaryl ketones. The latter route is frequently the more desirable, as the starting materials are often inexpensive and readily available and nonselective background reactions are not as common. For good enantioselectivity, chemical catalysts of diaryl ketone reductions require large steric or electronic differentiation between the two aryl components of the substrate and, as a result, have substantially limited applicability. In contrast, recent work has shown commercially available ketoreductase enzymes to have excellent results with a much broader range of substrates in reactions that are very easy to operate (Figure 9.6). ... 

Procedure 1 General Procedure for the Ketoreductase Reduction of Diaryl Ketones... 

M potassium phosphate buffer pH 7 (36 mL) tetrahydrofuran (THF, 4mL) ketoreductase enzyme (Codexis Inc, 80 mg) glucose dehydrogenase enzyme (Codexis Inc, 80 mg)... 

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