Tethered Pyridoxamine Proteins

Protein ALBP-PX was the first pyridoxamine-conjugated protein to be synthesized and structurally characterized. Under single-turnover conditions, this protein demonstrated amino acid production rates of only 56% of the free cofactor. However, depending on the nature of the a-keto acid, ALBP-PX did show a range of optical inductions for the amino acid product. Notably, enantiomeric excesses in the order of 94% were observed for the production of valine. Additionally, several trends were noted. All amino acid products that showed optical induction favored the 1-enantiomer, except alanine, which favored the d-enantiomer. Furthermore, a-keto acids with branched side chains 

To explain the observed optical induction, a substrate was incorporated into the molecular model of the protein. A substrate such as a-ketoglutarate could be included in the protein model with a geometry that allowed stereoselective protonation of the quinoid intermediate by solvent, consistent with the enantiomeric excess (ee) of the 1-stereoisomer product. Moreover, the geometry consistent with production of the d-enantiomer appeared too sterically crowded for most substrates. However, pyruvic acid, which was the only substrate to favor the d-enantiomer product, was small enough to adopt the alternative geometry and also had the potential to interact with an arginine group. 

Pyridoxal and Pyridoxamine Amino Add Chimera Containing Peptides 

Work in the Imperiali laboratory has also focused on exploring the ability of minimal peptide scaffolds to augment the rate of coenzyme-mediated transaminations [22-25]. To accomplish this, a strategy has been developed in which the core functionality of the coenzyme is incorporated as an integral constituent of an unnatural coenzyme amino acid chimera construct. Thus, non-cova-lent binding of the coenzyme to the peptide or protein scaffold is unnecessary. Both the pyridoxal and pyridoxamine analogs have been synthesized in a form competent for Fmoc-based solid phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) (Fig. 7) [23,24]. 

The pyridoxal amino acid analog (Pal) was stereoselectively synthesized from a readily available pyridoxol derivative and the residue was incorporated into peptides at the alcohol oxidation state in protected form. Oxidation of the 4 -alcohol group to the desired aldehyde was achieved post-synthetically on free. 

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