Transaminases enantiomerically pure amines

While kinetic resolution with the help of lipases or esterases has seen the greatest success for the synthesis of enantiomerically pure amines, the same target can be reached by employing co-transaminases (co-TA) to reductively transaminate ketones to either (S)- or (K)-amines, depending on the transaminase. The reaction is shown in Figure 7.22 with acetophenone and (S)-transaminase as an example (Shin, 1998, 1999). 

Among the various enzymes capable of producing optically-active amino acids, transamination reactions, catalyzed by enzymes known as aminotransferases or transaminases, have broad potential for the synthesis of a wide variety of enantio-merically pure (R)- and (S)-compounds containing amine groups. Indeed, various examples of the use of aminotransferases for the production of d- and L-amino acids, both naturally-occurring and non-natural, have been published17 151. In addition, certain aminotransferases have been found to act on amines, and methods for the production of enantiomerically pure amines by transamination have been described116-211. This method allows for yields of up to 100% whereas routes based on hydrolases require external racemization to reach such yield levels. In this section we will focus on the application of aminotransferases. 

While most methods for the synthesis of enantiomerically pure amines have employed kinetic resolution with the help of lipases or esterases, a method independent of kinetic resolution has been developed using the transamination of ketones catalyzed by co-transaminases ([Pg.880]

Scheme 4.2 Different techniques to prepare enantiomerically pure amines employing a-transaminases (a-TAs) including the advantages and drawbacks of each method.

Figure 7.22 Enantiomerically pure (S)-amines via co-transaminases (Drauz, 2002).

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