Thioesters displacement reactions

The serine proteases catalyze a nucleophilic displacement reaction of a group attached to a carbonyl carbon—such groups comprising esters, thioesters, and amides. The reaction carried out by this class of enzymes is essentially an acyl transfer in which the substrate binds to the enzyme, forming the noncovalent Michaelis complex, followed by the formation of a covalent bond between the carbonyl carbon of the... 

Ceftiofur (57) differs from the preceding cephalosporin derivatives in that it ha.s a thioester moiety at C-3. This can be introduced by displacement of the C-3 acetyl group of 7-aminocepha-losporanic acid (40) with hydrogen sulfide and esterification with 2-furylcarboxylic acid to give synthon 5reacted with trimethylsilylated oximinoether derivative 55 (itself obtained from the corresponding acid by reaction with dicyclohexylcarbodiimide and 1-hydroxy-benzotriazole) to produce, after deprotecting, ceftiofur (57) [18]. 

The stable P-unsubstituted phosphinous amide H2PN(SiMe3)2 has been shown to suffer the nucleophilic displacement of the disilazane moiety by the action of thiols R-SH giving the phosphinous thioesters R-S-PH2 [13]. For the sake of brevity we shall not comment on other relevant reactions of AT-silyl phosphinous amides, such as the anionic P-silylation [115] and P-alkylation [22], the consecutive dialkylation of PH derivatives [18] and the fluorodesily-lation of P-fluoro-JV-silyl derivatives [140]. 

Many such activated acyl derivatives have been developed, and the field has been reviewed [7-9]. The most commonly used irreversible acyl donors are various types of vinyl esters. During the acylation of the enzyme, vinyl alcohols are liberated, which rapidly tautomerize to non-nucleophilic carbonyl compounds (Scheme 4.5). The acyl-enzyme then reacts with the racemic nucleophile (e.g., an alcohol or amine). Many vinyl esters and isopropenyl acetate are commercially available, and others can be made from vinyl and isopropenyl acetate by Lewis acid- or palladium-catalyzed reactions with acids [10-12] or from transition metal-catalyzed additions to acetylenes [13-15]. If ethoxyacetylene is used in such reactions, R1 in the resulting acyl donor will be OEt (Scheme 4.5), and hence the end product from the acyl donor leaving group will be the innocuous ethyl acetate [16]. Other frequently used acylation agents that act as more or less irreversible acyl donors are the easily prepared 2,2,2-trifluoro- and 2,2,2-trichloro-ethyl esters [17-23]. Less frequently used are oxime esters and cyanomethyl ester [7]. S-ethyl thioesters such as the thiooctanoate has also been used, and here the ethanethiol formed is allowed to evaporate to displace the equilibrium [24, 25]. Some anhydrides can also serve as irreversible acyl donors. 

For purposes of classifying the reactions of metabolism, in this book the nucleophilic displacements are grouped into four subtypes (Table 10-1). These are displacements on (A) a saturated carbon atom, often from a methyl group or a glycosyl group (B) a carbonyl group of an ester, thioester, or amide (C) a phospho group or (D) a sulfur atom. In addition, many enzymes employ in sequence a displacement on a carbon atom followed by a second displacement on a phosphorus atom (or vice versa). 

Let us consider the mechanism of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase in detail (Figure 16.8). In step 1, the aldehyde substrate reacts with the sulfhydryl group of cysteine 149 on the enzyme to form a hemithioacetal. Step 2 is the transfer of a hydride ion to a molecule of NAD + that is tightly bound to the enzyme and is adjacent to the cysteine residue. This reaction is favored by the deprotonation of the hemithioacetal by histidine 176. The products of this reaction are the reduced coenzyme NADH and a thioester intermediate. This thioester intermediate has a free energy close to that of the reactants. In step 3, orthophosphate attacks the thioester to form 1,3-BPG and free the cysteine residue. This displacement occurs only after the NADH formed from the aldehyde oxidation has left the enzyme and been replaced by a second NAD+. The positive charge on the NAD+ may help polarize the thioester intermediate to facilitate the attack by orthophosphate. 

However, 4-chlorobenzoyl-CoA dehalogenase is also a member of the enoyl-CoA hydratase superfamily. The mechanism of its reaction involves nucleophilic aromatic substitution in which an active site Asp adds to the 4-position of the benzoyl ring to necessarily form a Meisenheimer complex this Meisenheimer complex is an analog of a thioester enolate anion. Although the Meisenheimer complex cannot be observed for displacement of chloride from 4-chlorobenzoyl-CoA due to the rate constants for formation and decomposition of the intermediate, the Meisen-... 

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