Singlet-Oxygen Generation by Peroxidases and Peroxygenases for Chemoenzymatic Synthesis

Singlet oxygen is a reactive oxygen species undesired in living cells but a rare and valuable reagent in chemical synthesis. We present a fluorescence spectroscopic analysis of the singlet-oxygen formation activity of commercial peroxidases and novel peroxygenases. Singlet-oxygen sensor green (SOSG) is used as fluorogenic singlet oxygen trap. Establishing a kinetic model for the reaction cascade to the fluorescent SOSG endoperoxide permits a kinetic analysis of enzymatic singlet-oxygen formation. All peroxidases and peroxygenases show singlet-oxygen formation. No singlet oxygen activity could be found for any catalase under investigation. Substrate inhibition is observed for all reactive enzymes. The commercial dye-decolorizing peroxidase industrially used for dairy bleaching shows the highest singlet-oxygen activity and the lowest inhibition. This enzyme was immobilized on a textile carrier and successfully applied for a chemical synthesis. Here, ascaridole was synthesized via enzymatically produced singlet oxygen. © 2020 Wiley-VCH Gmb

Asymmetric synthesis of (S)-phenylacetylcarbinol – closing a gap in C–C bond formation

(S)-Phenylacetylcarbinol [(S)-PAC] and its derivatives are valuable intermediates for the synthesis of various active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), but their selective synthesis is challenging. As no highly selective enzymes or chemical catalysts were available, we used semi-rational enzyme engineering to tailor a potent biocatalyst to be >97% stereoselective for the synthesis of (S)-PAC. By optimizing the reaction and process used, industrially relevant product concentrations of >48 g L−1 (up to 320 mM) were achieved. In addition, the best enzyme variant gave access to a broad range of ring-substituted (S)-PAC derivatives with high stereoselectivity, especially for meta-substituted products

Direct biocatalytic one-pot-transformation of cyclohexanol with molecular oxygen into ɛ-caprolactone

Staudt S, Bornscheuer UT, Menyes U, Hummel W, Gröger H. Direct biocatalytic one-pot-transformation of cyclohexanol with molecular oxygen into ɛ-caprolactone. Enzyme and microbial technology. 2013;53(4):288-292.The development of a biocatalytic process concept for ɛ-caprolactone, which directly converts cyclohexanol as an easily available industrial raw material into the desired ɛ-caprolactone in a one-pot fashion while only requiring air as sole reagent, is reported. The desired product ɛ-caprolactone was obtained with 94-97% conversion when operating at a substrate concentration in the range of 20-60mM. At higher substrate concentrations, however, a significant drop of conversion was found. Subsequent detailed studies on the impact of the starting material, intermediate and product components revealed a significant inhibition and partial deactivation of the BVMO by the product ɛ-caprolactone (in particular at higher concentrations) as well as an inhibition of the BVMO by cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone

Efficient 2-step biocatalytic strategies for the synthesis of all nor(pseudo)ephedrine isomers

Chiral 1,2-amino alcohols are important building blocks for chemistry and pharmacy. Here, we developed two different biocatalytic 2-step cascades for the synthesis of all four nor(pseudo)ephedrine (N(P)E) stereoisomers. In the first one, the combination of an (R)-selective thiamine diphosphate (ThDP)-dependent carboligase with an (S)- or (R)-selective ω-transaminase resulted in the formation of (1R,2S)-NE or (1R,2R)-NPE in excellent optical purities (ee >99% and de >98%). For the synthesis of (1R,2R)-NPE, space–time yields up to [similar]26 g L−1 d−1 have been achieved. Since a highly (S)-selective carboligase is currently not available for this reaction, another strategy was followed to complement the nor(pseudo)ephedrine platform. Here, the combination of an (S)-selective transaminase with an (S)-selective alcohol dehydrogenase yielded (1S,2S)-NPE with an ee >98% and a de >99%. Although lyophilized whole cells are cheap to prepare and were shown to be appropriate for use as biocatalysts, higher optical purities were observed with purified enzymes. These synthetic enzyme cascade reactions render the N(P)E-products accessible from inexpensive, achiral starting materials in only two reaction steps and without the isolation of the reaction intermediates

An Enzyme Cascade Synthesis of ε-Caprolactone and its Oligomers

Schmidt S, Scherkus C, Muschiol J, et al. An Enzyme Cascade Synthesis of ε-Caprolactone and its Oligomers. Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English). 2015;54(9):2784-2787.Poly-ε-caprolactone (PCL) is chemically produced on an industrial scale in spite of the need for hazardous peracetic acid as an oxidation reagent. Although Baeyer-Villiger monooxygenases (BVMO) in principle enable the enzymatic synthesis of ε-caprolactone (ε-CL) directly from cyclohexanone with molecular oxygen, current systems suffer from low productivity and are subject to substrate and product inhibition. The major limitations for such a biocatalytic route to produce this bulk chemical were overcome by combining an alcohol dehydrogenase with a BVMO to enable the efficient oxidation of cyclohexanol to ε-CL. Key to success was a subsequent direct ring-opening oligomerization of in situ formed ε-CL in the aqueous phase by using lipase A from Candida antarctica, thus efficiently solving the product inhibition problem and leading to the formation of oligo-ε-CL at more than 20 g L(-1) when starting from 200 mM cyclohexanol. This oligomer is easily chemically polymerized to PCL

Singlet‐Oxygen Generation by Peroxidases and Peroxygenases for Chemoenzymatic Synthesis

Singlet oxygen is a reactive oxygen species undesired in living cells but a rare and valuable reagent in chemical synthesis. We present a fluorescence spectroscopic analysis of the singlet-oxygen formation activity of commercial peroxidases and novel peroxygenases. Singlet-oxygen sensor green (SOSG) is used as fluorogenic singlet oxygen trap. Establishing a kinetic model for the reaction cascade to the fluorescent SOSG endoperoxide permits a kinetic analysis of enzymatic singlet-oxygen formation. All peroxidases and peroxygenases show singlet-oxygen formation. No singlet oxygen activity could be found for any catalase under investigation. Substrate inhibition is observed for all reactive enzymes. The commercial dye-decolorizing peroxidase industrially used for dairy bleaching shows the highest singlet-oxygen activity and the lowest inhibition. This enzyme was immobilized on a textile carrier and successfully applied for a chemical synthesis. Here, ascaridole was synthesized via enzymatically produced singlet oxygen. © 2020 Wiley-VCH Gmb