Mimics of Enzymes that Use Thiamine Pyrophosphate as a Co-Enzyme

7 Mimics of Enzymes that Use Thiamine Pyrophosphate as a Co-Enzyme 

Thiamine pyrophosphate (13) is the co-factor for a number of enzymes that can be described as stabilizing hypothetical acyl anion intermediates. For instance, it is the coenzyme for the enzyme carboxylase that catalyses the conversion of pyruvic acid to acetaldehyde. We had early shown that this mechanism involves a thiazolium anion (14) whose second resonance form (15) is a carbene. Ionization of the C-2 proton of the thiazolium ring generates this species that can add nucleophilically to carbonyl groups such as that in pyruvic acid, forming an intermediate whose decarboxylation generates a stabilized anion. 

---