Model Studies of Hydride-transfer Reactions

In the following year, Cleland and his coworkers reported further and more emphatic examples of the phenomenon of exaltation of the a-secondary isotope effects in enzymic hydride-transfer reactions. The cases shown in Table 1 for their studies of yeast alcohol dehydrogenase and horse-liver alcohol dehydrogenase would have been expected on traditional grounds to show kinetic isotope effects between 1.00 and 1.13 but in fact values of 1.38 and 1.50 were found. Even more impressively, the oxidation of formate by NAD was expected to exhibit an isotope effect between 1.00 and 1/1.13 = 0.89 - an inverse isotope effect because NAD" was being converted to NADH. The observed value was 1.22, normal rather than inverse. Again the model of coupled motion, with a citation to Kurz and Frieden, was invoked to interpret the findings. 

The catalytic effect of metal ions such as Mg2+ and Zn2+ on the reduction of carbonyl compounds has extensively been studied in connection with the involvement of metal ions in the oxidation-reduction reactions of nicotinamide coenzymes [144-149]. Acceleration effects of Mg2+ on hydride transfer from NADH model compounds to carbonyl compounds have been shown to be ascribed to the catalysis on the initial electron transfer process, which is the rate-determining step of the overall hydride transfer reactions [16,87,149]. The Mg2+ ion has also been shown to accelerate electron transfer from cis-dialkylcobalt(III) complexes to p-ben-zoquinone derivatives [150,151]. In this context, a remarkable catalytic effect of Mg2+ was also found on photoinduced electron transfer reactions from various electron donors to flavin analogs in 1984 [152], The Mg2+ (or Zn2+) ion forms complexes with a flavin analog la and 5-deazaflavins 2a-c with a 1 1 stoichiometry in dry MeCN at 298 K [153] ... 

The hydride anion transfer reactions can almost be completely avoided in the polymerization of 1,3-dioxolane at lower temperature and polymers with polymerization degrees DP equal to DP (calc,)= ([MJq- [M]e)/[IIo could be obtained (rf. Sect. 4.1). Model studies of the interaction between CHsOJHj cation and cyclic and linear acetals have indeed shown that hydride anion transfer can hardly be observed below -30 Clt was also suggested that the original hydride transfer can be decreased if stronger nucleophiles (e.g. ethers) are added . 

Recently, a controversial debate has arisen about whether the optimization of enzyme catalysis may entail the evolutionary implementation of chemical strategies that increase the probability of tunneling and thereby accelerate reaction rates [7]. Kinetic isotope effect experiments have indicated that hydrogen tunneling plays an important role in many proton and hydride transfer reactions in enzymes [8, 9]. Enzyme catalysis of horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase may be understood by a model of vibrationally enhanced proton transfer tunneling [10]. Furthermore, the double proton transfer reaction in DNA base pairs has been studied in detail and even been hypothesized as a possible source of spontaneous mutation [11-13]. 

There have been some extraordinarily effective contributions of model-reaction studies, particularly by Klinman and Mure [2], to the understanding of quinone-cofactor chemistry, but there seem to have been no uses of this approach with respect to hydride-transfer reactions. Readers who wish to acquaint themselves with the current situation should consult Davidson s volume of 1993 [64], Klinman and... 

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