Pyridoxamine-Surfactant Systems

Murakami et al. studied alternative pyridoxamine-surfactant systems [23]. These authors synthesized hydrophobic pyridoxamine derivatives (30 and 31) and peptide lipid molecules (32-35). Catalyst 30 or 31 and the peptide lipids formed bilayer membranes in water, which showed transamination reactivity in the presence of metal ions such as Cu(ii). It was proposed that the pyridoxamine moiety was placed in the so-called hydrogen-belt domain interposed between the polar surface region and the hydrophobic domain that is composed of double-chain segments within the bilayer assembly. The basic group (such as imidazole) in the peptide lipid molecules could catalyze the proton transfer involved in the transamination reaction. In addition, marked substrate discrimination by these bilayer membrane systems was performed through hydrophobic interactions between substrates and the catalytic site. 

Murakami et al. also found that the transamination reaction between hydrophobic pyridoxals (36 and 37) and a-amino acids, to produce a-keto acids, was extremely slow for neutral pyridoxals even in the presence of Cu(n) ions [24]. Detailed kinetic analysis of the reactions carried out in the vesicular system indicated that the transformation of the Cu(n) -quinonoid chelate into the Cu(n) -ketimine chelate was kinetically unfavorable compared with the competing formation of the Cu(n)-aldimine chelate from the same quinonoid species. This problem was solved to a certain extent by quaternization of the pyridyl nitrogen in pyridoxal, as Murakami et al. successfully accomplished transamination between catalyst 36 and L-phenylalanine to produce phenylpyruvic acid. 

Having successfully accelerated the reversible isomerization between the aldimine and ketimine Schiff bases, Murakami et al. then studied how to obtain turnovers in the full transamination reaction between one amino acid and one keto acid [25]. They found that the bilayer vesicle system constituted with 33, 36, and Cu(n) ions showed some turnovers for the transamination between L-phenylalanine and pyruvic add. However, such turnover behavior was not observed in a vesicular system composed of 32, 36, and Cu(n) ions, and an aqueous system involving N-methylpyridoxal and Cu(n) ions without amphiphiles. Therefore, both the hydrophobic effect and the imidazole catalysis effect were proposed as important for the turnover behavior. 

Murakami et al. also examined the enantioselectivity of the catalyzed transamination reaction in a bilayer membrane [26]. They contrasted a system composed of a peptide lipid bearing an L-lysine residue (34), a hydrophobic pyridoxal derivative quaternized at the pyridyl nitrogen (37), and Cu(ii) ions. This system exhibited turnover behavior for 

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