Lipoic acid acids

Coemymes effecting transfer of hydrogen. These include the pyridine nucleotides, nicotinamide-adenine dinucleolide and nicotinamide-adenine dinucleolide phosphate the flavin nucleotides such as flavin-adenine dinucleotide and lipoic acid. 

The telomer 40 is converted into lipoic acid (136) by modification of three functional groups, as shown[l 16]. 

Lipoic acid a growth factor required by a variety of different organisms... 

Although a variety of oxidizing agents are available for this transformation it occurs so readily that thiols are slowly converted to disulfides by the oxygen m the air Dithiols give cyclic disulfides by intramolecular sulfur-sulfur bond formation An example of a cyclic disulfide is the coenzyme a lipoic acid The last step m the laboratory synthesis of a lipoic acid IS an iron(III) catalyzed oxidation of the dithiol shown... 

Rapid and reversible making and breaking of the sulfur-sulfur bond is essential to the biological function of a lipoic acid... 

DL-a-Lipoic acid ( -6,8-thioctic acid, 5-[l,2]-dithiolan-3-ylvaleric acid) [1077-28-7] M... 

Sulfur-containing heterocycles are also coim-non. Compounds in which sulfur is the heteroatom in three-, four-, five-, and six-membered rings, as well as larger rings, are all well known. Two interesting heterocyclic compounds that contain sulfur-sulfur bonds are lipoic acid and lenthionine. 

Lipoic acid Lipoyl-lysine complexes (lipoamide)... 

Lipoic acid exists as a mixture of two structures a closed-ring disulfide form and an open-chain reduced form (Figure 18.33). Oxidation-reduction cycles interconvert these two species. As is the case for biotin, lipoic acid does not often occur free in nature, but rather is covalently attached in amide linkage with lysine residues on enzymes. The enzyme that catalyzes the formation of the lipoamide nk.2Lg c requires ATP and produces lipoamide-enzyme conjugates, AMP, and pyrophosphate as products of the reaction. 

Lipoic acid is an acyl group carrier. It is found in pyruvate dehydrogenase zard a-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase, two multienzyme complexes involved in carbohydrate metabolism (Figure 18.34). Lipoie acid functions to couple acyl-group transfer and electron transfer during oxidation and decarboxylation of a-keto adds. 

The special properties of lipoic acid arise from the ring strain experienced by oxidized lipoic acid. The closed ring form is approximately 20 kj higher in energy than the open-chain form, and this results in a strong negative reduction potential of about —0.30 V. The oxidized form readily oxidizes cyanides to isothiocyanates and sulfhydryl groups to mixed disulfides. 

Lipoic acid (6,8-dithiooctanoic acid) was isolated and characterized in 1951 in studies that showed that it was required for the growth of certain bacteria and protozoa. This accomplishment was one of the most impressive feats of isolation in the early history of biochemistry. Eli Lilly and Co., in cooperation with Lester J. Reed at the University of Texas and I. C. Gunsalus at the... 

University of Illinois, isolated Just 30 mg of lipoic acid from approximately 10 tons of liver No evidence exists of a dietary lipoic acid requirement by humans stricdy speaking, it is not considered a vitamin. Nevertheless, it is an essential component of several enzymes of intermediary metabolism and is present in body tissues in small amounts. 

FIGURE 18.33 The oxidized and reduced forms of lipoic acid and the structure of the lipoic acid-lysine conjugate. 

The pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC) is a noncovalent assembly of three different enzymes operating in concert to catalyze successive steps in the conversion of pyruvate to acetyl-CoA. The active sites of ail three enzymes are not far removed from one another, and the product of the first enzyme is passed directly to the second enzyme and so on, without diffusion of substrates and products through the solution. The overall reaction (see A Deeper Look Reaction Mechanism of the Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex ) involves a total of five coenzymes thiamine pyrophosphate, coenzyme A, lipoic acid, NAD+, and FAD. 

The mechanism of the pyruvate dehydrogenase reaction is a tour de force of mechanistic chemistry, involving as it does a total of three enzymes (a) and five different coenzymes—thiamine pyrophosphate, lipoic acid, coenzyme A, FAD, and NAD (b). 

The first step of this reaction, decarboxylation of pyruvate and transfer of the acetyl group to lipoic acid, depends on accumulation of negative charge on the carbonyl carbon of pyruvate. This is facilitated by the quaternary nitrogen on the thiazolium group of thiamine pyrophosphate. As shown in (c), this cationic... 

Hydroxyetliyl group is transferred to lipoic acid and oxidized to form acetyl dihydro lipoamide... 

The reaction of hydroxyethyl-TPP with the oxidized form of lipoic acid yields the energy-rich thiol ester of reduced lipoic acid and results in oxidation of the hydroxyl-carbon of the two-carbon substrate unit (c). This is followed by nucleophilic attack by coenzyme A on the carbonyl-carbon (a characteristic feature of CoA chemistry). The result is transfer of the acetyl group from lipoic acid to CoA. The subsequent oxidation of lipoic acid is catalyzed by the FAD-dependent dihydrolipoyl dehydrogenase and NAD is reduced. 

Lipoamide Lipoic acid is linked through an amide bond to a lysine residue in the enzyme... 

Both chiral lactones and ketones have been utilized in asymmetric synthesis of bioactive compounds like lipoic acid [175[ and natural products like various insect pheromones [176[. 

Figure 17-5. Oxidative decarboxylation of pyruvate by the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex. Lipoic acid is joined by an amide link to a lysine residue of the transacetylase component of the enzyme complex. It forms a long flexible arm, allowing the lipoic acid prosthetic group to rotate sequentially between the active sites of each of the enzymes of the complex. (NAD nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide FAD, flavin adenine dinucleotide TDP, thiamin diphosphate.)...

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