Probing the effects of microwave irradiation on enzyme-catalysed organic transformations: the case of lipase-catalysed transesterification reactions

Thermal Effect in the Microwave-assisted Aminolysis of Benzoates and Amines

Background:

Microwave selective heating thermal effect is obvious in unimolecular organic reactions. However, it is unclear whether it exists in bimolecular organic reactions under strictly controlled reaction temperature conditions.

Objective:

To determine whether microwave selective heating effect exists in the microwave-assisted bimolecular reactions.

Methods:

Hammett linear relationships in “one-pot” aminolyses of mixed 4-nitrophenyl substituted benzoates with benzylamine and 4-nitrophenyl benzoate with mixed substituted anilines were selected as molecular level probes to explore the thermal effect in the microwave-assisted bimolecular reactions.

Results:

In less polar solvent, there is an obvious “hot spots” effect. “One-pot” aminolyses of mixed 4-nitrophenyl substituted benzoates with benzylamine and 4-nitrophenyl benzoate with mixed substituted anilines were performed in less polar solvent toluene under oil-bath and microwave heating conditions. Generally, slopes of Hammett plots or effect of substituents on reaction rates decrease along with temperature increases under oil-bath heating conditions. Under microwave irradiation conditions, slopes of Hammett plots or effect of substituents on reaction rates decrease in comparison with those under oil-bath heating conditions at the same setting temperature, revealing that higher temperature regions (“hot spots”) still exist in intermolecular organic reactions.

Conclusion:

Microwave selective heating thermal effect still exists in bimolecular organic reactions under strictly controlled reaction temperature conditions, revealing that higher temperature regions (“hot spots”) do exist in intermolecular organic reactions.

Microwave Thermal Effect on Diels-Alder Reaction of Furan and Maleimide

Background:

Higher temperature regions (hot spots) have been observed in organic reactions and are attributed to microwave selective heating. The accumulated heat in reaction systems accelerates certain reactions.

Methods:

The theoretical calculation was applied to select a suitable Diels-Alder reaction as a molecular probe to determine the microwave thermal effect on Diels-Alder reaction, one class of bimolecular reactions. The kinetic investigations were utilized to determine the reaction activation energies and further to calculate the actual reaction temperatures under different microwave conditions from the Arrhenius equation.

Results:

On the basis of the theoretical calculational results, Diels-Alder reaction of furan and maleimide was selected as a molecular probe to determine the microwave thermal effect in Diels- Alder reaction. Their activation energies under thermal conditions were determined from kinetic data by using the Arrhenius equation. The actual reaction temperatures under different microwave conditions were further deduced from their activation energies and the Arrhenius equation.

Conclusion:

Higher temperature regions (hot spots) were observed in Diels-Alder reaction, and they are more obvious in less polar solvents than those in more polar solvents in the microwave irradiated reactions.

Cook Your Samples: The Application of Microwave Irradiation in Speeding Up Biological Processes

Classic and conventional procedures in molecular cloning are inherent compositions in modern molecular biological experiments and are frequently involved in daily laboratory activities. They take up the majority of the total time input in spite of the availability of well-designed specialized commercial kits. A similar situation is also in the field of biotechnology. Fortunately, microwave/ultrasonic irradiation has been found to be capable of speeding up these processes, such as proteolysis in sample preparation for proteomics research, and digestion, ligation, (de)phosphorylation of DNA with the corresponding enzymes, even the introduction of DNA samples to recipient cells, and biotransformation (e.g., the production of biodiesel). Microwave/ultrasonic irradiation, when used solely or in combination with other existing operations, makes it possible to finish these time-consuming processes in as short as 1 min with comparable or even improved efficiency, and there is no need of reagent upgradation. The adoption of irradiation is ideal because it eliminates any possible side effects of the chemicals used as performance enhancer(s) that will inevitably make the system more complicated at least. More notably, the needed irradiation in the laboratory can be generated by a common microwave oven or ultrasonic cleaner. Taken together, microwave/ultrasonic irradiation provides an accessible method to make the procedures mentioned above time- and cost- efficient. In this article, we reviewed the relevant literature and discussed the experiment and mechanism details.

Investigation of Selective Microwave Heating Phenomena in the Reactions of 2-Substituted Pyridines

Debated selective microwave heating effects were investigated in a rearrangement and a benzylation reaction involving 2-substituted pyridines. An accurate, reproducible comparison technique and simultaneous temperature measurement using both external infrared and internal fibre optic sensors were utilized. The experimental details of the benzylation reaction were thoroughly addressed to resolve the inconsistencies that have been discussed previously in the literature. Hidden inhomogeneities in temperature and concentration were revealed within the reaction mixtures during microwave heating, which could be prevented by the modification of the vessel wall using an inert fluoropolymer liner. Instead of the previously proposed microscopic thermal microwave effect, the enhanced reaction rate could be explained by macroscopic-scale localized heating in the boundary layers close to the vessel surface in the microwave-heated experiment.

Microwave-induced inactivation of DNA-based hybrid catalyst in asymmetric catalysis

DNA-based hybrid catalysts have gained strong interests in asymmetric reactions. However, to maintain the high enantioselectivity, these reactions are usually conducted at relatively low temperatures (e.g. <5 °C) for 2-3 days. Aiming to improve the reaction's turnover rate, we evaluated microwave irradiation with simultaneous cooling as potential energy source since this method has been widely used to accelerate various chemical and enzymatic reactions. However, our data indicated that microwave irradiation induced an inactivation of DNA-based hybrid catalyst even at low temperatures (such as 5 °C). Circular dichroism (CD) spectra and gel electrophoresis of DNA suggest that microwave exposure degrades DNA molecules and disrupts DNA double-stranded structures, causing changes of DNA-metal ligand binding properties and thus poor DNA catalytic performance.

Microwave non-thermal effect reduces ELISA timing to less than 5 minutes

Microwave-mediated ELISA, which occurs in less than 5 minutes, is due to a microwave non-thermal effect. We postulate that the microwave non-thermal effect is a microwave catalytic effect acting by lowering the activation energy of reactants.

Microwave-assisted kinetic resolution of homochiral (Z)-cyclooct-5-ene-1,2-diol and (Z)-2-acetoxycyclooct-4-enyl acetate using lipases

Over the last decade, the use of biocatalysts has become an attractive alternative to conventional chemical methods, especially for organic synthesis, due to their unusual properties. Among these enzymes, lipases are the most widely used, because they are cheap, easily available, cofactor-free, and have broad substrate specificity. Combined to microwave heating in non-aqueous medium, recent results suggest that irradiation may influence the enzyme activity. This Communication reports the benefits of lipases and the microwave irradiation on the kinetic resolution of racemic homochiral (Z)-cyclooct-5-ene-1,2-diol and (Z)-2-acetoxycyclooct-4-enyl acetate. In order to best achieve the kinetic resolution, different parameters were studied including the type of lipase, the temperature, the impact of microwave power compared to conventional heating. Optimization of the reaction parameters lead to the obtainment of highly enriched or enantiopure diols and diesters in a clean, efficient and safe way.

Development of rapid microwave-mediated and low-temperature bacterial transformations

The introduction of exogenous DNA into Escherichia coli is a cornerstone of molecular biology. Herein, we investigate two new mechanisms for bacterial transformation involving either the use of microwave irradiation or a freeze-thaw protocol in liquid nitrogen. Ultimately, both methods afforded successful transfer of plasmid DNA into bacterial cells, with the freeze-thaw technique yielding efficiencies of ~10(5). More importantly, both techniques effectively eliminated the need for the preparation of competent cells.

Can electromagnetic fields influence the structure and enzymatic digest of proteins? A critical evaluation of microwave-assisted proteomics protocols

This study reevaluates the putative advantages of microwave-assisted tryptic digests compared to conventionally heated protocols performed at the same temperature. An initial investigation of enzyme stability in a temperature range of 37-80 °C demonstrated that trypsin activity declines sharply at temperatures above 60 °C, regardless if microwave dielectric heating or conventional heating is employed. Tryptic digests of three proteins of different size (bovine serum albumin, cytochrome c and β-casein) were thus performed at 37 °C and 50 °C using both microwave and conventional heating applying accurate internal fiber-optic probe reaction temperature measurements. The impact of the heating method on protein degradation and peptide fragment generation was analyzed by SDS-PAGE and MALDI-TOF-MS. Time-dependent tryptic digestion of the three proteins and subsequent analysis of the corresponding cleavage products by MALDI-TOF provided virtually identical results for both microwave and conventional heating. In addition, the impact of electromagnetic field strength on the tertiary structure of trypsin and BSA was evaluated by molecular mechanics calculations. These simulations revealed that the applied field in a typical laboratory microwave reactor is 3-4 orders of magnitude too low to induce conformational changes in proteins or enzymes.

Microwave-assisted enzymatic synthesis of beef tallow biodiesel

Optimal conditions for the microwave-assisted enzymatic synthesis of biodiesel have been developed by a full 2² factorial design leading to a set of seven runs with different combinations of molar ratio and temperature. The main goal was to reduce the reaction time preliminarily established by a process of conventional heating. Reactions yielding biodiesel, in which beef tallow and ethanol used as raw materials were catalyzed by lipase from Burkholderia cepacia immobilized on silica-PVA and microwave irradiations within the range of 8-15 W were performed to reach the reaction temperature. Under optimized conditions (1:6 molar ratio of beef tallow to ethanol molar ratio at 50°C) almost total conversion of the fatty acid presented in the original beef tallow was converted into ethyl esters in a reaction that required 8 h, i.e., a productivity of about 92 mg ethyl esters g⁻¹ h⁻¹. This represents an increase of sixfold for the process carried out under conventional heating. In general, the process promises low energy demand and higher biodiesel productivity. The microwave assistance speeds up the enzyme catalyzed reactions, decreases the destructive effects on the enzyme of the operational conditions such as, higher temperature, stability, and specificity to its substrate, and allows the entire reaction medium to be heated uniformly.

Microwave accelerated transglycosylation of rutin by cyclodextrin glucanotransferase from Bacillus sp. SK13.002

Rutin was subjected to intermolecular transglycosylation assisted with microwave irradiation using cyclodextrin glucanotransferase (CGTase) produced from Bacillus sp. SK13.002. Compared with the conventional enzymatic method for rutin transglycosylation (without microwave irradiation), microwave-assisted reaction (MAR) was much faster and thus more efficient. While the conventional reaction took dozens of hours to reach the highest conversion rate of rutin and yield of transglycosylated rutin, MAR of rutin transglycosylation completed within only 6 min providing almost the same conversion rate of rutin and yield of products consisting of mono-, di-, tri-, tetra-, penta-glucosylated rutins. The optimum transglycosylation conditions for microwave irradiation were 40 °C and 60 W with the reaction system consisting mainly of the mixture of 0.3 g rutin (0.49 mmol) pre-dissolved in 15 mL methanol, 1.8 g maltodextrin in 15 mL of 0.2 M sodium acetate buffer (pH 5.5) and CGTase (900 U). Results from this study indicated that MAR could be a potentially useful and economical technique for a faster and more efficient transglycosylation of rutin.