Thiamine pyrophosphate hydroxyethyl derivative

Pyruvate is decarboxylated to form a hydroxyethyl derivative bound to the reactive carbon of thiamine pyrophosphate, the coenzyme of pyruvate dehydrogenase. 

Decarboxylation of an a-keto acid like pyruvate is a difficult reaction for the same reason as are the ketol condensations (see fig. 12.33) Both kinds of reactions require the participation of an intermediate in which the carbonyl carbon carries a negative charge. In all such reactions that occur in metabolism, the intermediate is stabilized by prior condensation of the carbonyl group with thiamine pyrophosphate. In figure 13.5 thiamine pyrophosphate and its hydroxyethyl derivative are written in the doubly ionized ylid form rather than the neutral form because this is the form that actually participates in the reaction even though it is present in much smaller amounts. 

In the first step of the conversion catalyzed by pyruvate decarboxylase, a carbon atom from thiamine pyrophosphate adds to the carbonyl carbon of pyruvate. Decarboxylation produces the key reactive intermediate, hydroxyethyl thiamine pyrophosphate (HETPP). As shown in figure 13.5, the ionized ylid form of HETPP is resonance-stabilized by the existence of a form without charge separation. The next enzyme, dihydrolipoyltransacetylase, catalyzes the transfer of the two-carbon moiety to lipoic acid. A nucleophilic attack by HETPP on the sulfur atom attached to carbon 8 of oxidized lipoic acid displaces the electrons of the disulfide bond to the sulfur atom attached to carbon 6. The sulfur then picks up a proton from the environment as shown in figure 13.5. This simple displacement reaction is also an oxidation-reduction reaction, in which the attacking carbon atom is oxidized from the aldehyde level in HETPP to the carboxyl level in the lipoic acid derivative. The oxidized (disulfide) form of lipoic acid is converted to the reduced (mer-capto) form. The fact that the two-carbon moiety has become an acyl group is shown more clearly after dissocia-... 

A. form a hydroxyethyl derivative of the thiazole ring of enzyme-bound thiamine pyrophosphate... 

The syntheses of valine, leucine, and isoleucine from pyruvate are illustrated in Figure 14.9. Valine and isoleucine are synthesized in parallel pathways with the same four enzymes. Valine synthesis begins with the condensation of pyruvate with hydroxyethyl-TPP (a decarboxylation product of a pyruvate-thiamine pyrophosphate intermediate) catalyzed by acetohydroxy acid synthase. The a-acetolactate product is then reduced to form a,/3-dihydroxyisovalerate followed by a dehydration to a-ketoisovalerate. Valine is produced in a subsequent transamination reaction. (a-Ketoisovalerate is also a precursor of leucine.) Isoleucine synthesis also involves hydroxyethyl-TPP, which condenses with a-ketobutyrate to form a-aceto-a-hydroxybutyrate. (a-Ketobutyrate is derived from L-threonine in a deamination reaction catalyzed by threonine deaminase.) a,/3-Dihydroxy-/3-methylvalerate, the reduced product of a-aceto-a-hydroxybutyrate, subsequently loses an HzO molecule, thus forming a-keto-/kmethylvalerate. Isoleucine is then produced during a transamination reaction. In the first step of leucine biosynthesis from a-ketoisovalerate, acetyl-CoA donates a two-carbon unit. Leucine is formed after isomerization, reduction, and transamination. 

According to Breslow, the active aldehyde intermediate in the decarboxylation of pyruvate could be an a-hydroxyethyl derivative of thiamine pyrophosphate, the substituent being attached in position 2 to the thiazole ring . His starting point was the observation that thiazolium salts easily lose a proton at C-2. Thus a stable and reactive zwitterion results that could be capable of forming an acyl carbanion derivative. The near-by amino-pyrimidine ring would have an inductive effect upon electron withdrawal at C-2. Breslow pictures the formation of acetoin from pyruvate and acetaldehyde as follows ... 

Thiamine monophosphate is built from 2-methyl-4-amino-5-hydroxymethyl pyrimidine pyrophosphate and 4-methyl-5-(j8-hydroxyethyl)-thiazole (Fig. 183). The pyrimidine part is derived from 5-aminoimidazole ribonucleotide, an intermediate of purine biosythesis (D 10.4). As yet the origin of C-5 and the CH2OH-group as well as that of the CHg-group is stiU unknown. The thiazole moiety is derived from the precursors given in Fig. 184. Intermediates were not identified. 

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