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A mild one-pot methodology has been developed to deracemise rac-2-phenyl-1-propanol by combining the use of non-selective laccase/TEMPO-mediated oxidation with enantioselective bioreduction of the racemic aldehyde intermediate under dynamic conditions. The process was easily scalable and stereocontrollable by selecting the suitable biocatalyst.

The combination of two cofactor self-sufficient biocatalytic cascade modules allowed the successful transformation of cyclohexanol into the nylon-6 monomer 6-aminohexanoic acid at the expense of only oxygen and ammonia. A hitherto unprecedented carboxylic acid capping strategy was introduced to minimize the formation of the dead-end intermediate 6-hydroxyhexanoic acid. For this purpose, the precursor e-caprolactone was converted in aqueous medium in the presence of methanol into the corresponding methyl ester instead of the acid. Hence, it was shown for the first time that esterases--specifically horse liver esterase--can perform the selective ring-opening of e-caprolactone with a clear preference for methanol over water as the nucleophile.

Deracemisierung, also die Umwandlung eines Racemats in ein enantiomerenreines Produkt mit theoretisch 100 % Ausbeute und 100 % ee, stellt eine attraktive, aber auch anspruchsvolle Option fur die asymmetrische Synthese dar. Hier beschreiben wir ein neuartiges Konzept einer chemo-enzymatischen Deracemisierung mittels einer Kaskadenreaktion. Die Reaktionsfolge beinhaltet zwei enantioselektive Oxidationsschritte und einen nicht stereoselektiven Reduktionsschritt, durch welche zur gleichen Zeit eine Stereoinversion und eine kinetische Racematspaltung realisiert werden. Dieses Konzept wird anhand der Umwandlung von rac-Benzylisochinolinen in optisch reine (S)-Berbine vorgestellt. Die racemischen Substrate wurden in enantiomerenreine Produkte (ee>97 %) umgewandelt, wobei Umsatze von bis zu 98 % und Ausbeuten von bis zu 88 % erreicht wurden.

Various enantiocomplementary ω-transaminases (ωTAs) were investigated in kinetic resolution and asymmetric reductive amination reactions to prepare silodosin amine. Whilst the enzymatic kinetic resolution gave moderate to good results with respect to the yield and enantioselectivity, the asymmetric reductive amination proved to be superior. The best results were obtained with the ωTA originating from (R)-Arthrobacter sp. which afforded the desired bioactive (R)-enantiomer in enantiomerically pure form (ee >97%) at excellent conversion (conv. >97%) under mild and benign reaction conditions.

Chemo-enzymatic deracemisation was applied to obtain the (S)-enantiomer of 1-benzylisoquinolines from the racemate in high isolated yield (up to 85%) and excellent optical purity (ee > 97%). The one-pot deracemisation protocol encompassed enantioselective oxidation by a monoamine oxidase (MAO-N) and concomitant reduction of the resulting iminium species by ammonia-borane. The challenge was the oxidation at the sterically demanding chiral centre. Recently developed variants of MAO-N, featuring an enlarged active-site pocket, turned out to be suitable biocatalysts for these substrates. In contrast to previous MAO-N variants, which preferentially converted the (S)-enantiomer, the MAO-N variant D11 used in the present study was found to oxidise all tested benzylisoquinoline substrates with (R)-enantiopreference. The structural determinants of enantioselectivity were investigated by means of protein–ligand docking simulations. The applicability of the deracemisation system was demonstrated on preparative scale (150 mg) for three benzylisoquinoline alkaloids (natural as well as non-natural), including the hypotensive and antispasmodic agent (S)-reticuline.

Various (S)-selective and (R)-selective ω-transaminases were investigated for the amination of 1- and 2-tetralone and derivatives as well as of 3- and 4-chromanone. All ketones tested were aminated to give the corresponding enantiopure amines (ee > 99%) employing at least one of the enzymes investigated. In most of the cases the (S)- as well as the (R)-enantiomer was obtained in optically pure form. The amination of 3-chromanone was performed on a 100 mg scale leading to optically pure (R)-3-aminochromane (ee > 99%) with complete conversion and 78% isolated yield.

Various artificial network designs that involve biocatalysts were tested for the asymmetric amination of sec-alcohols to the corresponding α-chiral primary amines. The artificial systems tested involved three to five redox enzymes and were exemplary of a range of different sec-alcohol substrates. Alcohols were oxidised to the corresponding ketone by an alcohol dehydrogenase. The ketones were subsequently aminated by employing a ω-transaminase. Of special interest were redox-neutral designs in which the hydride abstracted in the oxidation step was reused in the amination step of the cascade. Under optimised conditions up to 91 % conversion of an alcohol to the amine was achieved.

(S)-Rivastigmine [(S)-1] was obtained via a four-step synthesis using an asymmetric enzymatic transamination protocol as the key step. An early introduction of the carbamate pharmacophore side chain avoided the use of protective group strategies and hence led to a considerable shortcut. This strategy required a novel ω-transaminase from Paracoccus denitrificans, which could transform the highly polar key substrate 3-acetylphenyl ethyl(methyl)carbamate (4) to the corresponding amine (S)-5 in 99% ee and >80% conversion.

A chemoenzymatic approach for the asymmetric total synthesis of the title compounds is described that employs an enantioselective oxidative C-C bond formation catalyzed by berberine bridge enzyme (BBE) in the asymmetric key step. This unique reaction yielded enantiomerically pure (R)-benzylisoquinoline derivatives and (S)-berbines such as the natural product (S)-scoulerine, a sedative and muscle relaxing agent. The racemic substrates rac-1 required for the biotransformation were prepared in 4-8 linear steps using either a Bischler-Napieralski cyclization or a C1-Cα alkylation approach. The chemoenzymatic synthesis was applied to the preparation of fourteen enantiomerically pure alkaloids, including the natural products (S)-scoulerine and (R)-reticuline, and gave overall yields of up to 20% over 5-9 linear steps.

The combination of an oxidation and a reduction in a cascade allows performing transformations in a very economic and efficient fashion. The challenge is how to combine an oxidation with a reduction in one pot, either by running the two reactions simultaneously or in a stepwise fashion without isolation of intermediates. The broader availability of various redox enzymes nowadays has triggered the recent investigation of various oxidation–reduction cascades.

Four (R)-ω-transaminases originating from Hyphomonas neptunium (HN-ωTA), Aspergillus terreus (AT-ωTA) and Arthrobacter sp. (ArR-ωTA), as well as an evolved transaminase (ArRmut11-ωTA) were successfully employed for the amination of prochiral ketones leading to optically pure (R)-amines. The first three transaminases displayed perfect stereoselectivity for the amination of all substrates tested (ee >99%). Furthermore, the transaminase AT-ωTA led in most cases to better conversion than ArR-ωTA and HN-ωTA using D-alanine as amine donor. α-Tetralone, which was the only substrate not accepted by HN-ωTA, ArR-ωTA, and AT-ωTA, was successfully transformed with perfect enantioselectivity (ee >99%) into the corresponding optically pure amine employing the variant ArRmut11-ωTA.

An efficient route for the synthesis of all four diastereomers of PMP-protected α-amino-γ-butyrolacton to access γ-hydroxynorvaline was established. The asymmetric key steps comprise an organocatalytic Mannich reaction and an enzymatic ketone reduction. Three reaction steps could be integrated in a one-pot process, using 2-PrOH both as solvent and as reducing agent. The sequential construction of stereogenic centres gave access to each of the four stereoisomers in high yield and with excellent stereocontrol.

Lactobacillus brevis ADH (LBADH) is an alcohol dehydrogenase that is commonly employed to reduce alkyl or aryl ketones usually bearing a methyl, an ethyl or a chloromethyl as a small ketone substituent to the corresponding (R)-alcohols. Herein we have tested a series of 24 acetophenone derivatives differing in their size and electronic properties for their reduction employing LBADH. After plotting the relative activity against the measured substrate volumes we observed that apart from the substrate size other effects must be responsible for the activity obtained. Compared to acetophenone (100% relative activity), other small substrates such as propiophenone, α,α,α-trifluoroacetophenone, α-hydroxyacetophenone, and benzoylacetonitrile had relative activities lower than 30%, while medium-sized ketones such as α-bromo-, α,α-dichloro-, and α,α-dibromoacetophenone presented relative activities between 70% and 550%. Moreover, the comparison between the enzymatic activity and the obtained final conversions using an excess or just 2.5 equiv. of the hydrogen donor 2-propanol, denoted again deviations between them. These data supported that these hydrogen transfer (HT) transformations are mainly thermodynamically controlled. For instance, bulky α-halogenated derivatives could be quantitatively reduced by LBADH even employing 2.5 equiv. of 2-propanol independently of their kinetic values. Finally, we found good correlations between the IR absorption band of the carbonyl groups and the degrees of conversion obtained in these HT processes, making this simple method a convenient tool to predict the success of these transformations.

This account focuses on the application of ω-transaminases, lyases, and oxidases for the preparation of amines considering mainly work from our own lab. Examples are given to access α-chiral primary amines from the corresponding ketones as well as terminal amines from primary alcohols via a two-step biocascade. 2,6-Disubstituted piperidines, as examples for secondary amines, are prepared by biocatalytical regioselective asymmetric monoamination of designated diketones followed by spontaneous ring closure and a subsequent diastereoselective reduction step. Optically pure tert-amines such as berbines and N-methyl benzylisoquinolines are obtained by kinetic resolution via an enantioselective aerobic oxidative C–C bond formation.

The amination of benzylic and cinnamic alcohols was achieved via a biocatalytic, one-pot oxidation–transamination cascade in aqueous medium at physiological conditions. Alcohol oxidation by galactose oxidase at the expense of O2 furnished the corresponding aldehydes, which were aminated using ω-transaminases in situ. The applicability of this method was demonstrated by a short synthesis of the antifungal agent naftifine.