Selective biocatalytic synthesis and crystal structure of (2R,6R)-hydroxyketaminium chloride, C13H17Cl2NO2

C13H17Cl2NO2, triclinic, P1 (no. 1), a = 7.1486(3) Å, b = 7.8265(3) Å, c = 13.6579(5) Å, α = 81.085(3)°, β = 77.487(4)°, γ = 73.335(4)°, Z = 2, V = 711.13(5) Å3, R gt (F) = 0.0536, wRref  = 0.0878, T = 290 K.

Molecular evolution of a cytochrome P450 for the synthesis of potential antidepressant (2R,6R)-hydroxynorketamine

Saturation mutagenesis at seven first-sphere residues of the cytochrome P450 monooxygenase 154E1 (CYP154E1) from Thermobifida fusca YX was applied to construct a variant with only three substitutions that enabled the effective two-step synthesis of the potential antidepressant (2R,6R)-hydroxynorketamine. A recombinant E. coli whole-cell system was essential for GC/MS based medium-throughput screening and at the same time facilitated the oxidation of the substrate (R)-ketamine at a higher scale for product isolation and subsequent NMR analysis.