Enzyme-catalyzed synthesis of optically pure R(+)-phenylethanol

Enantiocomplementary Bioreduction of 1-(Arylsulfanyl)propan-2-ones

This study explored the enantiocomplementary bioreduction of substituted 1-(arylsulfanyl)propan-2-ones in batch mode using four wild-type yeast strains and two different recombinant alcohol dehydrogenases from Lactobacillus kefir and Rhodococcus aetherivorans. The selected yeast strains and recombinant alcohol dehydrogenases as whole-cell biocatalysts resulted in the corresponding 1-(arylsulfanyl)propan-2-ols with moderate to excellent conversions (60-99%) and high selectivities (ee > 95%). The best bioreductions-in terms of conversion (>90%) and enantiomeric excess (>99% ee)-at preparative scale resulted in the expected chiral alcohols with similar conversion and selectivity to the screening reactions.

Alcohol Dehydrogenases with anti-Prelog Stereopreference in Synthesis of Enantiopure Alcohols

Biocatalytic production of both enantiomers of optically active alcohols with high enantiopurities is of great interest in industry. Alcohol dehydrogenases (ADHs) represent an important class of enzymes that could be used as catalysts to produce optically active alcohols from their corresponding prochiral ketones. This review covers examples of the synthesis of optically active alcohols using ADHs that exhibit anti-Prelog stereopreference. Both wild-type and engineered ADHs that exhibit anti-Prelog stereopreference are highlighted.

Biosynthesis of tert-butyl (3R,5S)-6-chloro-3,5-dihydroxyhexanoate by carbonyl reductase from Rhodosporidium toruloides in mono and biphasic media

tert-Butyl (3R,5S)-6-chloro-3,5-dihydroxyhexanoate ((3R,5S)-CDHH) is the key intermediate for synthesis of atorvastatin and rosuvastatin. Carbonyl reductase exhibits excellent activity toward tert-butyl (S)-6-chloro-5-hydroxy-3-oxohexanoate ((S)-CHOH) to synthesize (3R,5S)-CDHH. In this study, a whole cell biosynthesis reaction system to produce (3R,5S)-CDHH was constructed in organic solvents. A solution of 10% (v/v) Tween-80 was introduced to the reaction system as a co-solvent, which greatly enhanced biotransformation process, giving 98.9% yield, >99% ee and 1.8-fold higher space time yield in 5 h bioconversion of 1 M (S)-CHOH, compared with 98.7% yield and >99% ee in 9 h bioconversion of a purely aqueous reaction system. Moreover, a water-octanol biphasic reaction system was built and 20% of octanol was added as reservoir of substrate resulting in 98% yield, >99% ee and 4.08 mmol L^-1 h^-1 g^-1 (wet cell weight) space time yield. This study paved a way for the whole cell biosynthesis of (3R,5S)-CDHH in mono and biphasic media.

Directed Evolution of Carbonyl Reductase from Rhodosporidium toruloides and Its Application in Stereoselective Synthesis of tert-Butyl (3R,5S)-6-Chloro-3,5-dihydroxyhexanoate

tert-Butyl (3R,5S)-6-chloro-3,5-dihydroxyhexanoate ((3R,5S)-CDHH) is a key intermediate of atorvastatin and rosuvastatin synthesis. Carbonyl reductase RtSCR9 from Rhodosporidium toruloides exhibited excellent activity toward tert-butyl (S)-6-chloro-5-hydroxy-3-oxohexanoate ((S)-CHOH). For the activity of RtSCR9 to be improved, random mutagenesis and site-saturation mutagenesis were performed. Three positive mutants were obtained (mut-Gln95Asp, mut-Ile144Lys, and mut-Phe156Gln). These mutants exhibited 1.94-, 3.03-, and 1.61-fold and 1.93-, 3.15-, and 1.97-fold improvement in the specific activity and k_cat/K_m, respectively. Asymmetric reduction of (S)-CHOH by mut-Ile144Lys coupled with glucose dehydrogenase was conducted. The yield and enantiomeric excess of (3R,5S)-CDHH reached 98 and 99%, respectively, after 8 h bioconversion in a single batch reaction with 1 M (S)-CHOH, and the space-time yield reached 542.83 mmol L^-1 h^-1 g^-1 wet cell weight. This study presents a new carbonyl reductase for efficient synthesis of (3R,5S)-CDHH.

Regeneration of nicotinamide coenzymes: principles and applications for the synthesis of chiral compounds

Dehydrogenases which depend on nicotinamide coenzymes are of increasing interest for the preparation of chiral compounds, either by reduction of a prochiral precursor or by oxidative resolution of their racemate. The regeneration of oxidized and reduced nicotinamide cofactors is a very crucial step because the use of these cofactors in stoichiometric amounts is too expensive for application. There are several possibilities to regenerate nicotinamide cofactors: established methods such as formate/formate dehydrogenase (FDH) for the regeneration of NADH, recently developed electrochemical methods based on new mediator structures, or the application of gene cloning methods for the construction of "designed" cells by heterologous expression of appropriate genes.A very promising approach is enzymatic cofactor regeneration. Only a few enzymes are suitable for the regeneration of oxidized nicotinamide cofactors. Glutamate dehydrogenase can be used for the oxidation of NADH as well as NADPH while L: -lactate dehydrogenase is able to oxidize NADH only. The reduction of NAD(+) is carried out by formate and FDH. Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and glucose dehydrogenase are able to reduce both NAD(+) and NADP(+). Alcohol dehydrogenases (ADHs) are either NAD(+)- or NADP(+)-specific. ADH from horse liver, for example, reduces NAD(+) while ADHs from Lactobacillus strains catalyze the reduction of NADP(+). These enzymes can be applied by their inclusion in whole cell biotransformations with an NAD(P)(+)-dependent primary reaction to achieve in situ the regeneration of the consumed cofactor.Another efficient method for the regeneration of nicotinamide cofactors is the electrochemical approach. Cofactors can be regenerated directly, for example at a carbon anode, or indirectly involving mediators such as redox catalysts based on transition-metal complexes.An increasing number of examples in technical scale applications are known where nicotinamide dependent enzymes were used together with cofactor regenerating enzymes.

Enantioselective reduction of pentoxifylline to lisofylline using whole-cell Lactobacillus kefiri biotransformation

Lisofylline (LSF) is a drug candidate that has been under investigation for acute respiratory distress syndrome, acute lung injury, septic shock and mucositis. As LSF is not commercially available in our country, we produced it for pharmacokinetic studies. In the present work whole-cell reduction of pentoxifylline [1-(5-oxohexyl)-3,5-dimethylxanthine] to LSF [1-(5R-hydroxyhexyl)-3,5-dimethylxanthine] using Lactobacillus kefiri DSM 20587 was investigated. Glucose or 2-propanol was used as a co-substrate to regenerate the NADPH cofactor. The reaction conditions were optimized. The influence of different concentrations of co-substrates on the yield and enantioselectivity of the biotransformation of pentoxifylline into LSF were tested. Maximum yield (100%) of biotransformation was reached in the presence of glucose as a co-substrate. At glucose concentrations of 675 and 900 mM the bioreduction of pentoxifylline proceeded highly enantioselectively (enantiomeric excess for the R enantiomer of 98%).

Efficient regeneration of NADPH using an engineered phosphite dehydrogenase

The in situ regeneration of reduced nicotinamide cofactors (NAD(P)H) is necessary for practical synthesis of many important chemicals. Here, we report the engineering of a highly stable and active mutant phosphite dehydrogenase (12x-A176R PTDH) from Pseudomonas stutzeri and evaluation of its potential as an effective NADPH regeneration system in an enzyme membrane reactor. Two practically important enzymatic reactions including xylose reductase-catalyzed xylitol synthesis and alcohol dehydrogenase-catalyzed (R)-phenylethanol synthesis were used as model systems, and the mutant PTDH was directly compared to the commercially available NADP(+)-specific Pseudomonas sp. 101 formate dehydrogenase (mut Pse-FDH) that is widely used for NADPH regeneration. In both model reactions, the two regeneration enzymes showed similar rates of enzyme activity loss; however, the mutant PTDH showed higher substrate conversion and higher total turnover numbers for NADP(+) than mut Pse-FDH. The space-time yields of the product with the mutant PTDH were also up to fourfold higher than those with mut Pse-FDH. In particular, a space-time yield of 230 g L(-1) d(-1) xylitol was obtained with the mutant PTDH using a charged nanofiltration membrane, representing the highest productivity compared to other existing biological processes for xylitol synthesis based on yeast D-xylose converting strains or similar in vitro enzyme membrane reactor systems.

Improved synthesis of chiral alcohols with Escherichia coli cells co-expressing pyridine nucleotide transhydrogenase, NADP+-dependent alcohol dehydrogenase and NAD+-dependent formate dehydrogenase

Recombinant pyridine nucleotide transhydrogenase (PNT) from Escherichia coli has been used to regenerate NAD+ and NADPH. The pnta and pntb genes encoding for the alpha- and beta-subunits were cloned and co-expressed with NADP+-dependent alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) from Lactobacillus kefir and NAD+-dependent formate dehydrogenase (FDH) from Candida boidinii. Using this whole-cell biocatalyst, efficient conversion of prochiral ketones to chiral alcohols was achieved: 66% acetophenone was reduced to (R)-phenylethanol over 12 h, whereas only 19% (R)-phenylethanol was formed under the same conditions with cells containing ADH and FDH genes but without PNT genes. Cells that were permeabilized with toluene showed ketone reduction only if both cofactors were present.

New alcohol dehydrogenases for the synthesis of chiral compounds

The enantioselective reduction of carbonyl groups is of interest for the production of various chiral compounds such as hydroxy acids, amino acids, hydroxy esters, or alcohols. Such products have high economic value and are most interesting as additives for food and feed or as building blocks for organic synthesis. Enzymatic reactions or biotransformations with whole cells (growing or resting) for this purpose are described. Although conversions with whole cells are advantageous with respect to saving expensive isolation of the desired enzymes, the products often lack high enantiomeric excess and the process results in low time-space-yield. For the synthesis of chiral alcohols, only lab-scale syntheses with commercially available alcohol dehydrogenases have been described yet. However, most of these enzymes are of limited use for technical applications because they lack substrate specificity, stability (yeast ADH) or enantioselectivity (Thermoanaerobium brockii ADH). Furthermore, all enzymes so far described are forming (S)-alcohols. Quite recently, we found and characterized several new bacterial alcohol dehydrogenases, which are suited for the preparation of chiral alcohols as well as for hydroxy esters in technical scale. Remarkably, of all these novel ADHs the (R)-specific enzymes were found in strains of the genus Lactobacillus. Meanwhile, these new enzymes were characterized extensively. Protein data (amino acid sequence, bound cations) confirm that these catalysts are novel enzymes. (R)-specific as well as (S)-specific ADHs accept a broad variety of ketones and ketoesters as substrates. The applicability of alcohol dehydrogenases for chiral syntheses as an example for the technical use of coenzyme-dependent enzymes is demonstrated and discussed in this contribution. In particular NAD-dependent enzymes coupled with the coenzyme regeneration by formate dehydrogenase proved to be economically feasible for the production of fine chemicals.

A kinetic study and application of a novel carbonyl reductase isolated from Rhodococcus erythropolis

The newly described carbonyl reductase from Rhodococcus erythropolis (RECR) accepts a broad range of substrates. Based on the kinetic constants of a variety of methyl and ethyl ketones a hypothetical model of the substrate-binding site is proposed. Whether a substrate of interest may be reduced by the RECR can be predicted from this model together with the kinetic data. A study of initial velocities and product inhibition is presented, which shows that the kinetics of the RECR follow a Theorell-Chance mechanism. The pro-R hydride of NADH is transferred by the enzyme to the re face of the carbonyl compounds yielding (S)-alcohols. The reduction of methyl 3-oxobutanoate and ethyl 4-chloro-3-oxobutanoate catalyzed by the oxidoreductase lead to the corresponding hydroxy compounds with high enantiomeric purity [enantiomeric excess (e.e.) > or = 99%]. The synthesis of ethyl (2R,3S)-3-hydroxy-2-methylbutanoate was accomplished with high diastereoselectivity (diastereomeric excess = 95%) and enantioselectivity (e.e. > or = 95%).

Purification and characterization of a novel carbonyl reductase isolated from Rhodococcus erythropolis

During growth on n-tetradecane a novel NADH-dependent carbonyl reductase is induced in the Gram-positive bacterium Rhodococcus erythropolis (Peters, P., Zelinski, T. and Kula, M.R. (1992) Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 38, 334-340). The enzyme has been purified to homogeneity using fractional pH precipitation, anion exchange chromatography and affinity chromatography. The isoelectric point of the oxidoreductase is 4.4. The apparent molecular mass of the native enzyme is 161 kDa, that of the subunits 40 kDa as determined by SDS gel electrophoresis. A tetrameric structure of the carbonyl reductase is consistent with these results. Important biochemical data concerning the application of the reductase are: a broad pH-optimum, temperature optimum at 40 degrees C and stability at room temperature for more than 5 days. The oxidoreductase accepted as substrate aliphatic and aromatic ketones, keto esters (esters of keto carboxylic acids) and halogenated carbonyl compounds and reduced them to the corresponding hydroxyl compounds with (S)-configuration with more than 98% enantiomeric excess. The NAD(+)-dependent oxidation of primary alcohols was not catalyzed by the carbonyl reductase, whereas secondary alcohols and hydroxy acid esters were oxidized to the corresponding carbonyl compounds at about 10-fold slower reaction rates compared to the reduction.