Cigan E, Pletz J, Berger SA, Hierzberger B, Grilec-Zlamal M, Steiner A, Oroz-Guinea I, Kroutil W. Concise synthesis of (
R)-reticuline and (+)-salutaridine by combining early-stage organic synthesis and late-stage biocatalysis.
Chem Sci 2023;
14:9863-9871. [PMID:
37736642 PMCID:
PMC10510765 DOI:
10.1039/d3sc02304d]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2023] [Accepted: 08/10/2023] [Indexed: 09/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Efficient access to the morphinan scaffold remains a major challenge in both synthetic chemistry and biotechnology. Here, a biomimetic chemo-enzymatic strategy to synthesize the natural promorphinan intermediate (+)-salutaridine is demonstrated. By combining early-stage organic synthesis with enzymatic asymmetric key step transformations, the prochiral natural intermediate 1,2-dehydroreticuline was prepared and subsequently stereoselectively reduced by the enzyme 1,2-dehydroreticuline reductase obtaining (R)-reticuline in high ee and yield (>99% ee, up to quant. conversion, 92% isol. yield). In the final step, membrane-bound salutaridine synthase was used to perform the selective ortho-para phenol coupling to give (+)-salutaridine. The synthetic route shows the potential of combining early-stage advanced organic chemistry to minimize protecting group techniques with late-stage multi-step biocatalysis to provide an unprecedented access to the medicinally important compound class of promorphinans.
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