Synthesis of coenzyme A thioesters using methyl acyl phosphates in an aqueous medium

Ultraviolet Excitation of M-O2 (M = Phenalenone, Fluorenone, Pyridine, & Acridine) Complexes Resulting in 1O2

In our experiment, a trace amount of an organic molecule (M = 1H-phenalen-1-one, 9-fluorenone, pyridine, or acridine) was seeded into a gas mix consisting of 3% O2 with a rare gas buffer (He or Ar) and then supersonically expanded. We excited the resulting molecular beam with ultraviolet light at either 355 nm (1H-phenalen-1-one, 9-fluorenone, or acridine) or 266 nm (pyridine) and used resonance enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) spectroscopy to probe for the formation of O2 in the a-1Δg state, 1O2. For all systems, the REMPI spectra demonstrate that ultraviolet excitation results in the formation of 1O2 and the oxygen product is confirmed to be in the ground vibrational state and with an effective rotational temperature below 80 K. We then recorded the velocity map ion image of the 1O2 product. From the ion images, we determined the center-of-mass translational energy distribution, P(ET), assuming photodissociation of a bimolecular M-O2 complex. We also report results from electronic structure calculations that allow for a determination of the M-O2 ground state binding energy. We use the complex binding energy, the energy to form 1O2, and the adiabatic triplet energy for each organic molecule to determine the available energy following photodissociation. For dissociation of a bimolecular complex, this available energy may be partitioned into either center-of-mass recoil or internal degrees of freedom of the organic moiety. We use the available energy to generate a Prior distribution, which predicts statistical energy partitioning during dissociation. For low available energies, less than 0.2 eV, we find that the statistical prediction is in reasonable agreement with the experimental observations. However, at higher available energies, the experimental distribution is biased to lower center-of-mass kinetic energies compared with the statistical prediction, which suggests the complex undergoes vibrational predissociation.

The Antimicrobial and Antibiofilm Potential of New Water-Soluble Tris-Quaternary Ammonium Compounds

The invention and innovation of highly effective antimicrobials are always crucial tasks for medical and organic chemistry, especially at the current time, when there is a serious threat of shortages of effective antimicrobials following the pandemic. In the study presented in this article, we established a new approach to synthesizing three novel series of bioactive water-soluble tris-quaternary ammonium compounds using an optimized one-pot method, and we assessed their antimicrobial and antibiofilm potential. Five pathogenic microorganisms of the ESKAPE group, including highly resistant clinical isolates, were used as the test samples. Moreover, we highlighted the dependence of antibacterial activity from the hydrophilic-hydrophobic balance of the QACs and noted the significant performance of the desired products on biofilms with MBEC as low as 16 mg/L against bacteria and 8 mg/L against fungi. Particularly notable was the high activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii, which are among the most resilient bacteria known. The presented work will provide useful insights for future research on the topic.

Multicationic Quaternary Ammonium Compounds: A Framework for Combating Bacterial Resistance

During previous stages of research, high biocidal activity toward microorganism archival strains has been used as the main indicator in the development of new antiseptic formulations. Although this factor remains one of the most important characteristics of biocide efficiency, the scale of antimicrobial resistance spread causes serious concern. Therefore, focus shifts toward the development of formulations with a stable effect even in the case of prolonged contact with pathogens. Here, we introduce an original isocyanuric acid alkylation method with the use of available alkyl dichlorides, which opened access to a wide panel of multi-QACs with alkyl chains of various lengths between the nitrogen atoms of triazine and pyridine cycles. We used a complex approach for the resulting series of 17 compounds, including their antibiofilm properties, bacterial tolerance development, and antimicrobial activity toward multiresistant pathogenic strains. As a result of these efforts, available compounds have shown higher levels of antibacterial activity against ESKAPE pathogens than widely used commercial QACs. Hit compounds possessed high activity toward clinical bacterial strains and have also demonstrated a long-term biocidal effect without significant development of microorganism tolerance. The overall results indicated a high level of antibacterial activity and the broad application prospects of multi-QACs based on isocyanuric acid against multiresistant bacterial strains.

Friedel-Crafts-Type Acylation and Amidation Reactions in Strong Brønsted Acid: Taming Superelectrophiles

In this review, we discuss Friedel-Crafts-type aromatic amidation and acylation reactions, not exhaustively, but mainly based on our research results. The electrophilic species involved are isocyanate cation and acylium cation, respectively, and both have a common ⁺C=O structure, which can be generated from carboxylic acid functionalities in a strong Brønsted acid. Carbamates substituted with methyl salicylate can be easily ionized to the isocyanate cation upon (di)protonation of the salicylate. Carboxylic acids can be used directly as a source of acylium cations. However, aminocarboxylic acids are inert in acidic media because two positively charged sites, ammonium and acylium cation, will be generated, resulting in energetically unfavorable charge-charge repulsion. Nevertheless, the aromatic acylation of aminocarboxylic acids can be achieved by using tailored phosphoric acid esters as Lewis bases to abrogate the charge-charge repulsion. Both examples tame the superelectrophilic character.

Screening of Acetyl Donors and the Robust Enzymatic Synthesis of Acetyl-CoA by 10-Deacetylbaccatin III-10-β-O-acetyltransferase

Acetyl-CoA is the precursor of many bio-manufacturing products and is also the hub of the cellular metabolism of energy and substances. However, acetyl-CoA is not a bulk commodity and its application is hindered due to its high cost and low yield. In this study, we screened acetyl donor candidates and utilized 10-deacetylbaccatin III-10-β-O-acetyltransferase (DBAT) in the synthesis of acetyl-CoA with CoASH as the acetyl acceptor. Among the tested candidates, acetylsalicylic acid methyl ester was identified to be the best acetyl donor, followed by acetyl-trans-resveratrol, acetylsalicylic acid ethyl ester, acetylsalicylsalicylic acid, and 4-acetoxyacetanilide. The enzymatic reaction conditions were optimized and the maximum yield of acetyl-CoA reached 14.82 mg/mL, which is the highest yield among all reported approaches to date. Meanwhile, 4.22 mg/mL of the by-product salicylic acid methyl ester, which is another industrial material, was produced. Additionally, a preliminary purification process for acetyl-CoA was established, in which 40 mg acetyl-CoA (HPLC purity > 98%) was acquired from the finished 20 mL reaction system (feeding 46 mg CoASH and 34 mg ASME) with a recovery rate of 86%. Our study lays the foundation for the large-scale production of acetyl-CoA by an enzymatic approach and will promote its application in different fields.

Seven-enzyme in vitro cascade to (3R)-3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA

Economical and environmentally-friendly routes to convert feedstock chemicals like acetate into valuable chiral products such as (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate are in demand. Here, seven enzymes (CoaA, CoaD, CoaE, ACS, BktB, PhaB, and GDH) are employed in a one-pot, in vitro, biocatalytic synthesis of (3R)-3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA, which was readily isolated. This platform generates not only chiral diketide building blocks but also desirable CoA derivatives.

Potent dialkyl substrate-product analogue inhibitors and inactivators of α-methylacyl-coenzyme A racemase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis by rational design

Rational approaches for the design of enzyme inhibitors furnish powerful strategies for developing pharmaceutical agents and tools for probing biological mechanisms. A new strategy for the development of gem-disubstituted substrate-product analogues as inhibitors of racemases and epimerases is elaborated using α-methylacyl-coenzyme A racemase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MtMCR) as a model enzyme. MtMCR catalyzes the epimerization at C2 of acyl-CoA substrates, a key step in the metabolism of branched-chain fatty acids. Moreover, the human enzyme is a potential target for the development of therapeutic agents directed against prostate cancer. We show that rationally designed, N,N-dialkylcarbamoyl-CoA substrate-product analogues inactivate MtMCR. Binding greatly exceeds that of the substrate, (S)-ibuprofenoyl-CoA, up to ∼250-fold and is proportional to the alkyl chain length (4-12 carbons) with the N,N-didecyl and N,N-didodecyl species having competitive inhibition constants with values of 1.9 ± 0.2 μM and 0.42 ± 0.04 μM, respectively. The presence of two decyl chains enhanced binding over a single decyl chain by ∼204-fold. Overall, the results reveal that gem-disubstituted substrate-product analogues can yield extremely potent inhibitors of an epimerase with a capacious active site.

Electrophilic activation of aminocarboxylic acid by phosphate ester promotes Friedel-Crafts acylation by overcoming charge-charge repulsion

Friedel-Crafts acylation of aromatic compounds with aminocarboxylic acids proceeds efficiently in the presence of a tailored phosphate ester and a strong Brønsted acid, despite the strong charge-charge repulsion associated with acylium ion formation. Here, we investigate the mechanism of this electrophilic aromatic acylation reaction, focusing on how the aminocarboxylic acid is activated by the phosphate ester and how the charge-charge repulsion is overcome. In the first step of the reaction, an acyl phosphate is generated from the aminocarboxylic acid through the intervention of the phosphate ester, which possesses three methyl salicylate ester linkages. The o-methyl salicylates enhance the reactivity of the phosphate ester via a protonation-induced conformational change, thereby overwhelming the charge-charge repulsion associated with the acylium ion formation. Weakening of the resonance interaction in the C(O)-O(P) bond by the lone-pair electrons of the ether oxygen atom of the carboxylic acid functionality contributes to the rapid formation of the acylium ion. Thus, our results show that the formation of aromatic ketones from various carboxylic acids proceeds because the strong leaving ability of the acyl phosphate overwhelms the charge-charge repulsion associated with the formation of the acylium ion. This information will be helpful to improve the design of tailored phosphate reagents.

Using the pimeloyl-CoA synthetase adenylation fold to synthesize fatty acid thioesters

Biotin is an essential vitamin in plants and mammals, functioning as the carbon dioxide carrier within central lipid metabolism. Bacterial pimeloyl-CoA synthetase (BioW) acts as a highly specific substrate-selection gate, ensuring the integrity of the carbon chain in biotin synthesis. BioW catalyzes the condensation of pimelic acid (C7 dicarboxylic acid) with CoASH in an ATP-dependent manner to form pimeloyl-CoA, the first dedicated biotin building block. Multiple structures of Bacillus subtilis BioW together capture all three substrates, as well as the intermediate pimeloyl-adenylate and product pyrophosphate (PP_i), indicating that the enzyme uses an internal ruler to select the correct dicarboxylic acid substrate. Both the catalytic mechanism and the surprising stability of the adenylate intermediate were rationalized through site-directed mutagenesis. Building on this understanding, BioW was engineered to synthesize high-value heptanoyl (C7) and octanoyl (C8) monocarboxylic acid-CoA and C8 dicarboxylic-CoA products, highlighting the enzyme's synthetic potential.

Chemoselective generation of acyl phosphates, acylium ion equivalents, from carboxylic acids and an organophosphate ester in the presence of a Brønsted acid

Reactions of an organophosphate ester with carboxylic acids proceeded smoothly and chemoselectively in the presence of a Brønsted acid, affording acyl phosphate intermediates, leading to formation of various functional aromatic ketones.

Copper-catalyzed oxidative dehydrogenative coupling of carboxylic acids with H-phosphonates: an efficient and practical approach to acyl phosphate esters

A practical method through a copper-catalyzed dehydrogenative coupling of carboxylic acids with H-phosphonates to construct acyl phosphate esters has been developed.

On-Demand Targeting: Investigating Biology with Proximity-Directed Chemistry

Proximity enhancement is a central chemical tenet underpinning an exciting suite of small-molecule toolsets that have allowed us to unravel many biological complexities. The leitmotif of this opus is "tethering"-a strategy in which a multifunctional small molecule serves as a template to bring proteins/biomolecules together. Scaffolding approaches have been powerfully applied to control diverse biological outcomes such as protein-protein association, protein stability, activity, and improve imaging capabilities. A new twist on this strategy has recently appeared, in which the small-molecule probe is engineered to unleash controlled amounts of reactive chemical signals within the microenvironment of a target protein. Modification of a specific target elicits a precisely timed and spatially controlled gain-of-function (or dominant loss-of-function) signaling response. Presented herein is a unique personal outlook conceptualizing the powerful proximity-enhanced chemical biology toolsets into two paradigms: "multifunctional scaffolding" versus "on-demand targeting". By addressing the latest advances and challenges in the established yet constantly evolving multifunctional scaffolding strategies as well as in the emerging on-demand precision targeting (and related) systems, this Perspective is aimed at choosing when it is best to employ each of the two strategies, with an emphasis toward further promoting novel applications and discoveries stemming from these innovative chemical biology platforms.