Identification of a newly isolated Rhodotorula mucilaginosa NQ1 and its development for the synthesis of bulky carbonyl compounds by whole-cell bioreduction.

A strain NQ1, which showed efficient asymmetric reduction of 3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl) acetophenone (BTAP) to enantiopure (S)-[3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]ethanol ((S)-BTPE), which is the key intermediate for the synthesis of a receptor antagonist and antidepressant, was isolated from a soil sample. Based on its morphological and internal transcribed spacer sequence, the strain NQ1 was identified to be Rhodotorula mucilaginosa NQ1. Some key reaction parameters involved in the bioreduction catalyzed by whole cells of R. mucilaginosa NQ1 were subsequently optimized, and the optimized conditions for the synthesis of (S)-BTPE were determined to be as follows: 5·0 ml phosphate buffer (200 mmol l-1 , pH 7·0), 80 mmol l-1 of BTAP, 250 g (wet weight) l-1 of resting cell, 35 g l-1 of glucose and a reaction for 18 h at 30°C and 180 rev min-1 . The strain NQ1 exhibited a best yield of 99% and an excellent enantiomeric excess of 99% for the preparation of (S)-BTPE under the above optimal conditions, and could also asymmetrically reduce a variety of bulky prochiral carbonyl compounds to their corresponding optical hydroxyl compound with excellent enantioselectivity. These results indicated that R. mucilaginosa NQ1 had a good capacity to reduce BTAP to its corresponding (S)-BTPE, and might be a new potential biocatalyst for the production of valuable chiral hydroxyl compounds in industry.

Human substance P receptor binding mode of the antagonist drug aprepitant by NMR and crystallography.

Neurokinin 1 receptor (NK1R) has key regulating functions in the central and peripheral nervous systems, and NK1R antagonists such as aprepitant have been approved for treating chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. However, the lack of data on NK1R structure and biochemistry has limited further drug development targeting this receptor. Here, we combine NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography to provide dynamic and static characterisation of the binding mode of aprepitant in complexes with human NK1R variants. 19F-NMR showed a slow off-rate in the binding site, where aprepitant occupies multiple substates that exchange with frequencies in the millisecond range. The environment of the bound ligand is affected by the amino acid in position 2.50, which plays a key role in ligand binding and receptor signaling in class A GPCRs. Crystal structures now reveal how receptor signaling relates to the conformation of the conserved NP7.50xxY motif in transmembrane helix VII.

Continuous production of aprepitant chiral intermediate by immobilized amidase in a packed bed bioreactor.

To develop a highly efficient method for aprepitant chiral intermediate (S)-4-fluorophenylglycine, a continuous reaction system was established in packed bed bioreactor using amidase covalently immobilized on epoxy resin as biocatalyst. The epoxy resin was firstly modified by metal-chelate method and functional groups (Cu2+-IDA) generated were able to rapidly adsorb amidases, which were further covalently bound onto the modified resin with 90.1% immobilization yield and 80.2% activity recovery. The immobilized amidase exhibited excellent thermal stability with the longest half-life of 1456.8 h at 40 °C ever reported. (S)-4-fluorophenylglycine was continuously produced using the reaction system with 49.9% conversion, 99.9% ee, and an outstanding space-time yield of 5.29 kg L-1 d-1. Moreover, the efficient reaction system exhibited a high operational stability and retained 86.3% catalytic activity after 25-day continuous operation. This efficient continuous bioprocess presents great industrial potential for large-scale production of (S)-4-fluorophenylglycine.

From receptor binding kinetics to signal transduction; a missing link in predicting in vivo drug-action.

An important question in drug discovery is how to overcome the significant challenge of high drug attrition rates due to lack of efficacy and safety. A missing link in the understanding of determinants for drug efficacy is the relation between drug-target binding kinetics and signal transduction, particularly in the physiological context of (multiple) endogenous ligands. We hypothesized that the kinetic binding parameters of both drug and endogenous ligand play a crucial role in determining cellular responses, using the NK1 receptor as a model system. We demonstrated that the binding kinetics of both antagonists (DFA and aprepitant) and endogenous agonists (NKA and SP) have significantly different effects on signal transduction profiles, i.e. potency values, in vitro efficacy values and onset rate of signal transduction. The antagonistic effects were most efficacious with slowly dissociating aprepitant and slowly associating NKA while the combination of rapidly dissociating DFA and rapidly associating SP had less significant effects on the signal transduction profiles. These results were consistent throughout different kinetic assays and cellular backgrounds. We conclude that knowledge of the relationship between in vitro drug-target binding kinetics and cellular responses is important to ultimately improve the understanding of drug efficacy in vivo.