Characterization of an Indole-3-Acetamide Hydrolase from Alcaligenes faecalis subsp. parafaecalis and Its Application in Efficient Preparation of Both Enantiomers of Chiral Building Block 2,3-Dihydro-1,4-Benzodioxin-2-Carboxylic Acid.

Both the enantiomers of 2,3-dihydro-1,4-benzodioxin-2-carboxylic acid are valuable chiral synthons for enantiospecific synthesis of therapeutic agents such as (S)-doxazosin mesylate, WB 4101, MKC 242, 2,3-dihydro-2-hydroxymethyl-1,4-benzodioxin, and N-[2,4-oxo-1,3-thiazolidin-3-yl]-2,3-dihydro-1,4-benzodioxin-2-carboxamide. Pharmaceutical applications require these enantiomers in optically pure form. However, currently available methods suffer from one drawback or other, such as low efficiency, uncommon and not so easily accessible chiral resolving agent and less than optimal enantiomeric purity. Our interest in finding a biocatalyst for efficient production of enantiomerically pure 2,3-dihydro-1,4-benzodioxin-2-carboxylic acid lead us to discover an amidase activity from Alcaligenes faecalis subsp. parafaecalis, which was able to kinetically resolve 2,3-dihydro-1,4-benzodioxin-2-carboxyamide with E value of >200. Thus, at about 50% conversion, (R)-2,3-dihydro-1,4-benzodioxin-2-carboxylic acid was produced in >99% e.e. The remaining amide had (S)-configuration and 99% e.e. The amide and acid were easily separated by aqueous (alkaline)-organic two phase extraction method. The same amidase was able to catalyse, albeit at much lower rate the hydrolysis of (S)-amide to (S)-acid without loss of e.e. The amidase activity was identified as indole-3-acetamide hydrolase (IaaH). IaaH is known to catalyse conversion of indole-3-acetamide (IAM) to indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), which is phytohormone of auxin class and is widespread among plants and bacteria that inhabit plant rhizosphere. IaaH exhibited high activity for 2,3-dihydro-1,4-benzodioxin-2-carboxamide, which was about 65% compared to its natural substrate, indole-3-acetamide. The natural substrate for IaaH indole-3-acetamide shared, at least in part a similar bicyclic structure with 2,3-dihydro-1,4-benzodioxin-2-carboxamide, which may account for high activity of enzyme towards this un-natural substrate. To the best of our knowledge this is the first application of IaaH in production of industrially important molecules.

Novel immunosuppressive agent caerulomycin A exerts its effect by depleting cellular iron content.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Recently, we have described the use of caerulomycin A (CaeA) as a potent novel immunosuppressive agent. Immunosuppressive drugs are crucial for long-term graft survival following organ transplantation and treatment of autoimmune diseases, inflammatory disorders, hypersensitivity to allergens, etc. The objective of this study was to identify cellular targets of CaeA and decipher its mechanism of action. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH: Jurkat cells were treated with CaeA and cellular iron content, iron uptake/release, DNA content and deoxyribonucleoside triphosphate pool determined. Activation of MAPKs; expression level of transferrin receptor 1, ferritin and cell cycle control molecules; reactive oxygen species (ROS) and cell viability were measured using Western blotting, qRT-PCR or flow cytometry. KEY RESULTS: CaeA caused intracellular iron depletion by reducing its uptake and increasing its release by cells. CaeA caused cell cycle arrest by (i) inhibiting ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) enzyme, which catalyses the rate-limiting step in the synthesis of DNA; (ii) stimulating MAPKs signalling transduction pathways that play an important role in cell growth, proliferation and differentiation; and (iii) by targeting cell cycle control molecules such as cyclin D1, cyclin-dependent kinase 4 and p21(CIP1/WAF1) . The effect of CaeA on cell proliferation was reversible. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: CaeA exerts its immunosuppressive effect by targeting iron. The effect is reversible, which makes CaeA an attractive candidate for development as a potent immunosuppressive drug, but also indicates that iron chelation can be used as a rationale approach to selectively suppress the immune system, because compared with normal cells, rapidly proliferating cells require a higher utilization of iron.

Caerulomycin A suppresses immunity by inhibiting T cell activity.

BACKGROUND: Caerulomycin A (CaeA) is a known antifungal and antibiotic agent. Further, CaeA is reported to induce the expansion of regulatory T cell and prolongs the survival of skin allografts in mouse model of transplantation. In the current study, CaeA was purified and characterized from a novel species of actinomycetes, Actinoalloteichus spitiensis. The CaeA was identified for its novel immunosuppressive property by inhibiting in vitro and in vivo function of T cells. METHODS: Isolation, purification and characterization of CaeA were performed using High Performance Flash Chromatography (HPFC), NMR and mass spectrometry techniques. In vitro and in vivo T cell studies were conducted in mice using flowcytometry, ELISA and thymidine-[methyl-(3)H] incorporation. RESULTS: CaeA significantly suppressed T cell activation and IFN-γ secretion. Further, it inhibited the T cells function at G1 phase of cell cycle. No apoptosis was noticed by CaeA at a concentration responsible for inducing T cell retardation. Furthermore, the change in the function of B cells but not macrophages was observed. The CaeA as well exhibited substantial inhibitory activity in vivo. CONCLUSION: This study describes for the first time novel in vitro and in vivo immunosuppressive function of CaeA on T cells and B cells. CaeA has enough potential to act as a future immunosuppressive drug.

Bioreduction of methyl heteroaryl and aryl heteroaryl ketones in high enantiomeric excess with newly isolated fungal strains.

Enantioenriched heteroaryl ethanols and aryl heteroarylmethanols are important intermediates and structural motifs in medicinal chemistry. Asymmetric biocatalytic reduction of corresponding ketones provides a straightforward approach for preparation of these compounds. Accordingly, three newly isolated fungal strains have been described, which produced the desired heteroaryl alcohols in high enantiomeric excess (ee). A broad substrate specificity was observed within these limited number of biocatalysts as demonstrated by preparation of a variety of heteroaryl alcohols, including (S)-5-(1-hydroxyethyl)furo[2,3-c]pyridine, a key intermediate for HIV-1 reverse transcriptase inhibitor, (S)-phenyl(pyridin-2-yl)methanol, an analgesic and (S,S)-2,6-bis(1-hydroxyethyl)pyridine, a chiral building block, mostly in >99% ee and 80-92% yield. Micro-morphologically, one of the isolate was found to be similar to Penicillium funiculosum. However, its ß-tubulin sequence showed only 88% sequence identity with the known ß-tubulin sequences of Penicillium. It may, therefore, represent a new species of Penicillium. The other biocatalysts were identified as Alternaria alternata and Talaromyces flavus.

A catalase-peroxidase for oxidation of ß-lactams to their (R)-sulfoxides.

In this communication we report for the first time a biocatalytic method for stereoselective oxidation of ß-lactams, represented by penicillin-G, penicillin-V and cephalosporin-G to their (R)-sulfoxides. The method involves use of a bacterium, identified as Bacillus pumilis as biocatalyst. The enzyme responsible for oxidase activity has been purified and characterized as catalase-peroxidase (KatG). KatG of B. pumilis is a heme containing protein showing characteristic heme spectra with soret peak at 406 nm and visible peaks at 503 and 635 nm. The major properties that distinguish B. pumilis KatG from other bacterial KatGs are (i) it is a monomer and contains one heme per monomer, whereas KatGs of other bacteria are dimers or tetramers and have low heme content of about one per dimer or two per tetramer and (ii) its 12-residue, N-terminal sequence obtained by Edman degradation did not show significant similarity with any of known KatGs.

Chiral solvating agents for cyanohydrins and carboxylic acids.

We have shown that a structure as simple as an ion pair of (R)- or (S)-mandelate and dimethylamminopyridinium ions possesses structural features that are sufficient for NMR enantiodiscrimination of cyanohydrins. Moreover, (1)H NMR data of cyanohydrins of known configuration obtained in the presence of the mandelate-dimethylaminopyridinium ion pair point to the existence of a correlation between chemical shifts and absolute configuration of cyanohydrins. Mandelate-DMAPH(+) ion pair and mandelonitrile form a 1:1 complex with an association constant of 338 M(-1) (DeltaG(0), -3.4 kcal/mol) for the (R)-mandelonitrile/(R)-mandelate-DMAPH(+) and 139 M(-1) (DeltaG(0), -2.9 kcal/mol) for the (R)-mandelonitrile/(S)-mandelate-DMAPH(+) complex. To understand the origin of enantiodiscrimination, the geometry optimization and energy minimization of the models of ternary complexes of (S)-mandelonitrile/(R)-mandelate/DMAPH(+) and (S)-mandelonitrile/(S)-mandelate/DMAPH(+) complexes was performed using DFT methodology (B3LYP) with the 6-31+G(d) basis set in Gaussian 3.0. Further, analysis of optimized molecular model obtained from theoretical studies suggested that (i) DMAP may be replaced with other amines, (ii) the hydroxyl group of mandelic acid is not necessary for stabilization of ternary complex and may be replaced with other groups such as methyl, (iii) the ion pair should form a stable ternary complex with any hydrogen-bond donor, provided its OH bond is sufficiently polarized, and (iv) alpha-H of racemic mandelic acid should also get resolved with optically pure mandelonitrile. These inferences were experimentally verified, which not only validated the proposed model but also led to development of a new chiral solvating agent for determination of ee of carboxylic acids and absolute configuration of aryl but not alkyl carboxylic acids.

A new chiral shift reagent for the determination of enantiomeric excess and absolute configuration in cyanohydrins.

Optically active mandelic acid in the presence of dimethylaminopyridine is an excellent chiral shift reagent for the determination of enantiomeric excess and absolute configuration in cyanohydrins.

Formation of amyloid fibrils via longitudinal growth of oligomers.

Mature amyloid fibrils are believed to be formed by the lateral association of discrete structural units designated as protofibrils, but this lateral association of protofibrils has never been directly observed. We have recently characterized a thioesterase from Alcaligenes faecalis, which was shown to exist as homomeric oligomers with an average diameter of 21.6 nm consisting of 22 kDa subunits in predominantly beta-sheet structure. In this study, we have shown that upon incubation in a 75% ethanol solution, the oligomeric particles of protein were transformed into amyloid-like fibrils. TEM pictures obtained at various stages during fibril growth helped us to understand to a certain extent the early events in the fibrillization process. When incubated in 75% ethanol, oligomeric particles of protein grew to approximately 35-40 nm in diameter before fusion. Fusion of two oligomers of 35-40 nm resulted in the formation of a fibril. Fibril formation was accompanied by a reduction in the diameter of the particle to approximately 20-25 nm along with concomitant elongation to approximately 110 nm, indicating reorganization and strengthening of the structure. The elongation process continued by sequential addition of oligomeric units to give fibers 500-1000 nm in length with a further reduction in diameter to 17-20 nm. Further elongation resulted in the formation of fibers that were more than 4000 nm in length; the diameter, however, remained constant at 17-20 nm. These data clearly show that the mature fibrils have assembled via longitudinal growth of oligomers and not via lateral association of protofibrils.

Characterization of a novel long-chain acyl-CoA thioesterase from Alcaligenes faecalis.

A novel long-chain acyl-CoA thioesterase from Alcaligenes faecalis has been isolated and characterized. The protein was extracted from the cells with 1 m NaCl, which required 1.5-fold, single-step purification to yield near-homogeneous preparations. In solution, the protein exists as homomeric aggregates, of mean diameter 21.6 nm, consisting of 22-kDa subunits. MS/MS data for peptides obtained by trypsin digestion of the thiosterase did not match any peptide from Escherichia coli thioesterases or any other thioesterases in the database. The thioesterase was associated exclusively with the surface of cells as revealed by ultrastructural studies using electron microscopy and immunogold labeling. It hydrolyzed saturated and unsaturated fatty acyl-CoAs of C12 to C18 chain length with Vmax and Km of 3.58-9.73 micromol x min(-1) x (mg protein)(-1) and 2.66-4.11 microm, respectively. A catalytically important histidine residue is implicated in the active site of the enzyme. The thioesterase was active and stable over a wide range of temperature and pH. Maximum activity was observed at 65 degrees C and pH 10.5, and varied between 60% and 80% at temperatures of 25-70 degrees C and pH 6.5-10. The thioesterase also hydrolyzed p-nitrophenyl esters of C2 to C12 chain length, but substrate competition experiments demonstrated that the long-chain acyl-CoAs are better substrates for thioesterase than p-nitrophenyl esters. When assayed at 37 and 20 degrees C, the affinity and catalytic efficiency of the thioesterase for palmitoleoyl-CoA and cis-vaccenoyl-CoA were reduced approximately twofold at the lower temperature, but remained largely unaltered for palmitoyl-CoA.