Transforming an esterase into an enantioselective catecholase through bioconjugation of a versatile metal-chelating inhibitor.

Metal complexes introduced into protein scaffolds can generate versatile biomimetic catalysts endowed with a variety of catalytic properties. Here, we synthesized and covalently bound a bipyridinyl derivative to the active centre of an esterase to generate a biomimetic catalyst that shows catecholase activity and enantioselective catalytic oxidation of (+)-catechin.

Manipulating the stereoselectivity of the thermostable Baeyer-Villiger monooxygenase TmCHMO by directed evolution.

Baeyer-Villiger monooxygenases (BVMOs) and evolved mutants have been shown to be excellent biocatalysts in many stereoselective Baeyer-Villiger transformations, but industrial applications are rare which is partly due to the insufficient thermostability of BVMOs under operating conditions. In the present study, the substrate scope of the recently discovered thermally stable BVMO, TmCHMO from Thermocrispum municipale, was studied. This revealed that the wild-type (WT) enzyme catalyzes the oxidation of a variety of structurally different ketones with notable activity and enantioselectivity, including the desymmetrization of 4-methylcyclohexanone (99% ee, S). In order to induce the reversal of enantioselectivity of this reaction as well as the transformations of other substrates, directed evolution based on iterative saturation mutagenesis (ISM) was applied, leading to (R)-selectivity (94% ee) without affecting the thermostability of the biocatalyst.

Automated evaluation of protein binding affinity of anti-inflammatory choline based ionic liquids.

In this work, an automated system for the study of the interaction of drugs with human serum albumin (HSA) was developed. The methodology was based on the quenching of the intrinsic fluorescence of HSA by binding of the drug to one of its binding sites. The fluorescence quenching assay was implemented in a sequential injection analysis (SIA) system and the optimized assay was applied to ionic liquids based on the association of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs with choline (IL-API). In each cycle, 100 µL of HSA and 100 µL of IL-API (variable concentration) were aspirated at a flow rate of 1 mL min(-1) and then sent through the reaction coil to the detector where the fluorescence intensity was measured. In the optimized conditions the effect of increasing concentrations of choline ketoprofenate and choline naproxenate (and respective starting materials: ketoprofen and naproxen) on the intrinsic fluorescence of HSA was studied and the dissociation constants (Kd) were calculated by means of models of drug-protein binding in the equilibrium. The calculated Kd showed that all the compounds bind strongly to HSA (Kd<100 µmol L(-1)) and that the use of the drugs in the IL format does not affect or can even improve their HSA binding. The obtained results were compared with those provided by a conventional batch assay and the relative errors were lower than 4.5%. The developed SIA methodology showed to be robust and exhibited good repeatability in all the assay conditions (rsd<6.5%).

Direct extraction of genomic DNA from maize with aqueous ionic liquid buffer systems for applications in genetically modified organisms analysis.

To date, the extraction of genomic DNA is considered a bottleneck in the process of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) detection. Conventional DNA isolation methods are associated with long extraction times and multiple pipetting and centrifugation steps, which makes the entire procedure not only tedious and complicated but also prone to sample cross-contamination. In recent times, ionic liquids have emerged as innovative solvents for biomass processing, due to their outstanding properties for dissolution of biomass and biopolymers. In this study, a novel, easily applicable, and time-efficient method for the direct extraction of genomic DNA from biomass based on aqueous-ionic liquid solutions was developed. The straightforward protocol relies on extraction of maize in a 10 % solution of ionic liquids in aqueous phosphate buffer for 5 min at room temperature, followed by a denaturation step at 95 °C for 10 min and a simple filtration to remove residual biopolymers. A set of 22 ionic liquids was tested in a buffer system and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium dimethylphosphate, as well as the environmentally benign choline formate, were identified as ideal candidates. With this strategy, the quality of the genomic DNA extracted was significantly improved and the extraction protocol was notably simplified compared with a well-established method.

Micellar catalysis in aqueous-ionic liquid systems.

We present the application of ionic liquid-aqueous micellar solutions as reaction media for Diels-Alder reaction and found that reaction rates could be significantly increased compared to the reaction in water.