Phenylalanine Dehydrogenase Catalyzed Reductive Amination of 6-(1′,3′-Dioxolan-2′-YL)-2-Keto-Hexanoic Acid to 6-(1′,3′-Dioxolan-2′-YL)-2S-Aminohexanoic Acid with Nadh Regeneration and Enzyme and Cofactor Retention

Synthesis of C-N bonds by nicotinamide-dependent oxidoreductase: an overview

Compounds containing chiral C-N bonds play a vital role in the composition of biologically active natural products and small pharmaceutical molecules. Therefore, the development of efficient and convenient methods for synthesizing compounds containing chiral C-N bonds is a crucial area of research. Nicotinamide-dependent oxidoreductases (NDOs) emerge as promising biocatalysts for asymmetric synthesis of chiral C-N bonds due to their mild reaction conditions, exceptional stereoselectivity, high atom economy, and environmentally friendly nature. This review aims to present the structural characteristics and catalytic mechanisms of various NDOs, including imine reductases/ketimine reductases, reductive aminases, EneIRED, and amino acid dehydrogenases. Additionally, the review highlights protein engineering strategies employed to modify the stereoselectivity, substrate specificity, and cofactor preference of NDOs. Furthermore, the applications of NDOs in synthesizing essential medicinal chemicals, such as noncanonical amino acids and chiral amine compounds, are extensively examined. Finally, the review outlines future perspectives by addressing challenges and discussing the potential of utilizing NDOs to establish efficient biosynthesis platforms for C-N bond synthesis. In conclusion, NDOs provide an economical, efficient, and environmentally friendly toolbox for asymmetric synthesis of C-N bonds, thus contributing significantly to the field of pharmaceutical chemical development.

Enzymatic asymmetric synthesis of chiral amino acids

This review summarizes the progress achieved in the enzymatic asymmetric synthesis of chiral amino acids from prochiral substrates.

Effect of molecular mobility on coupled enzymatic reactions involving cofactor regeneration using nanoparticle-attached enzymes

Cofactor-dependent multi-step enzymatic reactions generally require dynamic interactions among cofactor, enzyme and substrate molecules. Maintaining such molecular interactions can be quite challenging especially when the catalysts are tethered to solid state supports for heterogeneous catalysis for either biosynthesis or biosensing. The current work examines the effects of the pattern of immobilization, which presumably impacts molecular interactions on the surface of solid supports, on the reaction kinetics of a multienzymic system including glutamate dehydrogenase, glucose dehydrogenase and cofactor NAD(H). Interestingly, particle collision due to Brownian motion of nanoparticles successfully enabled the coupled reactions involving a regeneration cycle of NAD(H) even when the enzymes and cofactor were immobilized separately onto superparamagnetic nanoparticles (124 nm). The impact of particle motion and collision was evident in that the overall reaction rate was increased by over 100% by applying a moderate alternating magnetic field (500 Hz, 17 Gs), or using additional spacers, both of which could improve the mobility of the immobilized catalysts. We further observed that integrated immobilization, which allowed the cofactor to be placed in the molecular vicinity of enzymes on the same nanoparticles, could enhance the reaction rate by 1.8 fold. These results demonstrated the feasibility in manipulating molecular interactions among immobilized catalyst components by using nanoscale fabrication for efficient multienzymic biosynthesis.

Nanoparticle-supported multi-enzyme biocatalysis with in situ cofactor regeneration

Although there have been a long history of studying and using immobilized enzymes, little has been reported regarding the nature of immobilized cofactors. Herein we report that cofactor NAD(H) covalently attached to silica nanoparticles successfully coordinated with particle-immobilized enzymes and enabled multistep biotransformations. Specifically, silica nanoparticle-attached glutamate dehydrogenase (GLDH), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and NAD(H) were prepared and applied to catalyze the coupled reactions for production of alpha-ketoglutarate and lactate with the cofactor regenerated within the reaction cycle. It appeared that particle-particle collision driven by Brownian motion of the nanoparticles provided effective interactions among the catalytic components, and thus realized a dynamic shuttling of the particle-supported cofactor between the two enzymes to keep the reaction cycles continuing. Total turnover numbers (TTNs) as high as 20,000h(-1) were observed for the cofactor. It appeared to us that the use of particle-attached cofactor promises a new biochemical processing strategy for cofactor-dependent biotransformations.

Particle-tethered NADH for production of methanol from CO(2) catalyzed by coimmobilized enzymes

Efficient cofactor regeneration and reuse are highly desired for many important biotransformation applications. Here we show for the first time that cofactor NAD(H) covalently attached to micro particles, which can be easily recovered and reused, effectively mediated multistep reactions catalyzed by enzymes that were also immobilized with the micro particles. Such an immobilized enzyme-cofactor catalytic system was examined for the production of methanol from CO(2) with in situ cofactor regeneration. Four enzymes including formate, formaldehyde, alcohol, and glutamate dehydrogenases were coimmobilized using the same particles as that used for cofactor immobilization (enzymes and cofactor were immobilized separately). Reactions were performed by bubbling CO(2) in a suspension solution of the particle-attached enzymes and cofactor. It appeared that the collision among the particles afforded sufficient interactions between the cofactor and enzymes, and thus enabled the sequential transformation of CO(2) to methanol along with cofactor regeneration. For a 30-min batch reaction, a productivity of 0.02 micromol methanol/h/g-enzyme was achieved. That was lower than but comparable to the 0.04 micromol methanol/h/g-enzyme observed for free enzymes and cofactor at the same reaction conditions. The immobilized system showed fairly good stabilities in reusing. Over 80% of their original productivity was retained after 11 reusing cycles, with a cumulative methanol yield based on the amount of cofactor reached 127%. That was a promising enhancement in cofactor utilization as compared to the single-batch yield of 12% observed with free enzymes and free cofactor.

Cofactor regeneration for sustainable enzymatic biosynthesis

Oxidoreductases are attractive catalysts for biosynthesis of chiral compounds and polymers, construction of biosensors, and degradation of environmental pollutants. Their practical applications, however, can be quite challenging since they often require cofactors such as nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP). These cofactors are generally expensive. Efficient regeneration of cofactors is therefore critical to the economic viability of industrial-scale biotransformations using oxidoreductases. The chemistry of cofactor regeneration is well known nowadays. The challenge is mostly regarding how to achieve the regeneration with immobilized enzyme systems which are preferred for industrial processes to facilitate the recovery and continuous use of the catalysts. This has become a great hurdle for the industrialization of many promising enzymatic processes, and as a result, most of the biotransformations involving cofactors have been traditionally performed with living cells in industry. Accompanying the rapidly growing interest in industrial biotechnology, immobilized enzyme biocatalyst systems with cofactor regeneration have been the focus for many studies reported since the late 1990s. The current paper reviews the methods of cofactor retention for development of sustainable and regenerative biocatalysts as revealed in these recent studies, with the intent to complement other reviewing articles that are mostly regeneration chemistry-oriented. We classify in this paper the methods of sustainable cofactor regeneration into two categories, namely membrane entrapment and solid-attachment of cofactors.

Enzymatic synthesis of chiral intermediates for Omapatrilat, an antihypertensive drug

Biocatalytic processes were used to prepare chiral intermediates required for the synthesis of Omapatrilat 1 by three different routes. The synthesis and enzymatic conversion of 2-keto-6-hydroxyhexanoic acid 3 to L-6-hydroxynorleucine 2 was demonstrated by reductive amination using beef liver glutamate dehydrogenase. To avoid the lengthy chemical synthesis of the ketoacid 3, a second route was developed to prepare the ketoacid by treatment of racemic 6-hydroxy norleucine [readily available from hydrolysis of 5-(4-hydroxybutyl) hydantoin 4] with D-amino acid oxidase from porcine kidney or Trigonopsis variabilis followed by reductive amination to convert the mixture completely to L-6-hydroxynorleucine in 98% yield and 99% enantiomeric excess (e.e.). The enzymatic synthesis of (S)-2-amino-5-(1,3-dioxolan-2-yl)-pentanoic acid (allysine ethylene acetal, 5) was demonstrated using phenylalanine dehydrogenase (PDH) from T. intermedius. Phenylalanine dehydrogenase was cloned and overexpressed in Escherichia coli and Pichia pastoris. Using PDH from E. coli or P. pastoris, the enzymatic process was scale-up to prepare kg quantity of allysine ethylene acetal 5. The reaction yields of >94% and e.e. of >98% were obtained for allysine ethylene acetal 5. An enzymatic process was developed for the synthesis of [4S-(4a,7a,10ab)]1-octahydro-5-oxo-4 [[(phenylmethoxy)carbonyl]amino]-7H-pyrido-[2,1-b] [1,3]thiazepine-7-carboxylic acid [BMS-199541-01]. The enzymatic oxidation of the epsilon-amino group of lysine in the dipeptide dimer N(2)-[N[[(phenyl-methoxy)carbonyl] L-homocysteinyl] L-lysine)-1,1-disulphide [BMS-201391-01] to produce BMS-199541-01 using a novel L-lysine epsilon-aminotransferase (LAT) from Sphingomonas paucimobilis SC 16113 was demonstrated. This enzyme was overexpressed in E. coli and a process was developed using the recombinant enzyme.