Methylmalonic acid , applications

In patients with vitamin B12 deficiency, methylmalonic acid and homocysteine levels may be high. Monitor for resolution of neurologic symptoms (i.e., confusion and paresthesias), if applicable, and Hgb levels periodically until the levels normalize. 

So far we have referred to the decarboxylative enzymes that work on the naturally occurring intermediates of biochemical pathways. Due to the high affinity for the native substrates by these enzymes, however, the applicability to nonnatural synthetic substrates was somewhat limited. Thus we intended to develop a new biocatalysis, such as an enzyme which can decarboxylate a-aryl-a-methylmalonic acids to yield enantiomerically enriched a-substituted a-arylacetic acids because those products are useful compounds as antiinflammatory agents [8-10] and the chiral derivatizing agents [11]. 

Di-tert-butyl methylenemalonate was originally prepared by phenyl-sulfenylation of di-tert-butyl methylmalonate and thermal elimination of the related sulfoxide.8 Because methylenemalonate esters are customarily prepared by Knoevenagel-type condensation of malonic esters with formaldehyde equivalents, the considerably more convenient procedure described herein was subsequently adapted from Bachman and Tanner s study using paraformaldehyde under metal ion catalysis.39 The approximately 6% di-tert-butyl malonate accompanying the product has presented no interference in the aforementioned reactions with nucleophilic alkenes under neutral or acidic conditions, but its presence should be taken into consideration in other applications. 

F8. Frenkel, E. P., and Kitchens, R. L., Applicability of an enzymatic quantitation of methylmalonic, proprionic, and acetic acids in normal and megaloblastic states. Blood 49, 125-137 (1977). 

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