Fungal Treatment for the Valorization of Technical Soda Lignin.

Technical lignins produced as a by-product in biorefinery processes represent a potential source of renewable carbon. In consideration of the possibilities of the industrial transformation of this substrate into various valuable bio-based molecules, the biological deconstruction of a technical soda lignin by filamentous fungi was investigated. The ability of three basidiomycetes (Polyporus brumalis, Pycnoporus sanguineus and Leiotrametes menziesii) to modify this material, the resultant structural and chemical changes, and the secreted proteins during growth on this substrate were investigated. The three fungi could grow on the technical lignin alone, and the growth rate increased when the media were supplemented with glucose or maltose. The proteomic analysis of the culture supernatants after three days of growth revealed the secretion of numerous Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes (CAZymes). The secretomic profiles varied widely between the strains and the presence of technical lignin alone triggered the early secretion of many lignin-acting oxidoreductases. The secretomes were notably rich in glycoside hydrolases and H2O2-producing auxiliary activity enzymes with copper radical oxidases being induced on lignin for all strains. The lignin treatment by fungi modified both the soluble and insoluble lignin fractions. A significant decrease in the amount of soluble higher molar mass compounds was observed in the case of P. sanguineus. This strain was also responsible for the modification of the lower molar mass compounds of the lignin insoluble fraction and a 40% decrease in the thioacidolysis yield. The similarity in the activities of P. sanguineus and P. brumalis in modifying the functional groups of the technical lignin were observed, the results suggest that the lignin has undergone structural changes, or at least changes in its composition, and pave the route for the utilization of filamentous fungi to functionalize technical lignins and produce the enzymes of interest for biorefinery applications.

The cubane paradigm in bioactive molecule discovery: further scope, limitations and the cyclooctatetraene complement.

The cubane phenyl ring bioisostere paradigm was further explored in an extensive study covering a wide range of pharmaceutical and agrochemical templates, which included antibiotics (cefaclor, penicillin G) and antihistamine (diphenhydramine), a smooth muscle relaxant (alverine), an anaesthetic (ketamine), an agrochemical instecticide (triflumuron), an antiparasitic (benznidazole) and an anticancer agent (tamibarotene). This investigation highlights the scope and limitations of incorporating cubane into bioactive molecule discovery, both in terms of synthetic compatibility and physical property matching. Cubane maintained bioisosterism in the case of the Chagas disease antiparasitic benznidazole, although it was less active in the case of the anticancer agent (tamibarotenne). Application of the cyclooctatetraene (COT) (bio)motif complement was found to optimize benznidazole relative to the benzene parent, and augmented anticancer activity relative to the cubane analogue in the case of tamibarotene. Like all bioisosteres, scaffolds and biomotifs, however, there are limitations (e.g. synthetic implementation), and these have been specifically highlighted herein using failed examples. A summary of all templates prepared to date by our group that were biologically evaluated strongly supports the concept that cubane is a valuable tool in bioactive molecule discovery and COT is a viable complement.

Direct Observation of an Oxepin from a Bacterial Cytochrome P450-Catalyzed Oxidation.

The cytochromes P450 are hemoproteins that catalyze a range of oxidative C-H functionalization reactions, including aliphatic and aromatic hydroxylation. These transformations are important in a range of biological contexts, including biosynthesis and xenobiotic biodegradation. Much work has been carried out on the mechanism of aliphatic hydroxylation, implicating hydrogen atom abstraction, but aromatic hydroxylation is postulated to proceed differently. One mechanism invokes as the key intermediate an arene oxide (and/or its oxepin tautomer). Conclusive isolation of this intermediate has remained elusive and, currently, direct formation of phenols from a Meisenheimer intermediate is believed to be favored. We report here the identification of a P450 [P450cam (CYP101A1) and P450cin (CYP176A1)]-generated arene oxide as a product of in vitro oxidation of tert-butylbenzene. Computations (CBS-QB3) predict that the arene oxide and oxepin have similar stabilities to other arene oxides/oxepins implicated (but not detected) in P450-mediated transformations, suggesting that arene oxides can be unstable terminal products of P450-catalyzed aromatic oxidation that can explain the origin of some observed metabolites.