Preparation of 4-(4'-Hydroxyanilino)-5-anilinophthalimide and 4,5-Bis-(4'-hydroxyanilino)-phthalimide by Microbial Hydroxylation

Evaluation of Microbial Transformation of 10-deoxoartemisinin by UPLC-ESI-Q-TOF-MSE

10-deoxoartemisinin is a semisynthetic derivative of artemisinin that lacks a lactone carbonyl group at the 10-position, and has stronger antimalarial properties than artemisinin. However, 10-deoxoartemisinin has limited utility as a therapeutic agent because of its low solubility and bioavailability. Hydroxylated 10-deoxoartemisinins are a series of properties-improved derivatives. Via microbial transformation, which can hydroxylate 10-deoxoartemisinin at multiple sites, the biotransformation products of 10-deoxoartemisinin have been investigated in this paper. Using ultra-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-ESI-Q-TOF-MS^E) combined with UNIFI software, products of microbial transformation of 10-deoxoartemisinin were rapidly and directly analyzed. The hydroxylation abilities of nine microorganisms were compared using this method. All of the microorganisms evaluated were able to hydroxylate 10-deoxoartemisinin, and a total of 35 hydroxylated products were identified. These can be grouped into dihydroxylated 10-deoxoartemisinins, monohydroxylated 10-deoxoartemisinins, hydroxylated dehydrogenated 10-deoxoartemisinins, and hydroxylated hydrogenated 10-deoxoartemisinins. Cunninghamella echinulata and Cunninghamella blakesleeana are able to hydroxylate 10-deoxoartemisinin, and their biotransformation products are investigated here for the first time. Cunninghamella elegans CICC 40250 was shown to most efficiently hydroxylate 10-deoxoartemisinin, and could serve as a model organism for microbial transformation. This method could be used to generate additional hydroxylated 10-deoxoartemisinins for further research.

The CYPome of the model xenobiotic-biotransforming fungus Cunninghamella elegans

The fungus Cunninghamella elegans is recognised as a microbial model of mammalian drug metabolism owing to its ability to catabolise xenobiotic compounds in an analogous fashion to animals. Its ability to produce phase I (oxidative) metabolites of drugs is associated with cytochrome P450 (CYP) activity; however, almost nothing is known about these enzymes in the fungus. In this paper we report the in silico analysis of the genome sequence of C. elegans B9769, which contains 32 genes putatively coding for CYPs. Based on their predicted amino acid sequences these were classified as belonging to CYP509, 5203, 5208, 5313, 5210, 61 and 51 families. Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR revealed that the gene coding for CYP5313D1 was significantly upregulated when C. elegans DSM1908 was cultivated in sabouraud dextrose in contrast to its expression in cells grown in Roswell Park Memorial Institute medium. This corresponded to the fungus' xenobiotic biotransformation ability when grown in the two media. Heterologous expression of cyp5313D1 in Pichia pastoris resulted in a recombinant strain that biotransformed flurbiprofen to 4'-hydroxyflurbiprofen, the same metabolite generated by C. elegans cultures. This is the first report of a xenobiotic-biotransforming CYP from this biotechnologically important fungus.