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Enzymatic assembly of carbon-carbon bonds via iron-catalysed sp3 C-H functionalization.

ABSTRACT: Although abundant in organic molecules, carbon-hydrogen (C-H) bonds are typically considered unreactive and unavailable for chemical manipulation. Recent advances in C-H functionalization technology have begun to transform this logic, while emphasizing the importance of and challenges associated with selective alkylation at a sp3 carbon1,2. Here we describe iron-based catalysts for the enantio-, regio- and chemoselective intermolecular alkylation of sp3 C-H bonds through carbene C-H insertion. The catalysts, derived from a cytochrome P450 enzyme in which the native cysteine axial ligand has been substituted for serine (cytochrome P411), are fully genetically encoded and produced in bacteria, where they can be tuned by directed evolution for activity and selectivity. That these proteins activate iron, the most abundant transition metal, to perform this chemistry provides a desirable alternative to noble-metal catalysts, which have dominated the field of C-H functionalization1,2. The laboratory-evolved enzymes functionalize diverse substrates containing benzylic, allylic or ?-amino C-H bonds with high turnover and excellent selectivity. Furthermore, they have enabled the development of concise routes to several natural products. The use of the native iron-haem cofactor of these enzymes to mediate sp3 C-H alkylation suggests that diverse haem proteins could serve as potential catalysts for this abiological transformation, and will facilitate the development of new enzymatic C-H functionalization reactions for applications in chemistry and synthetic biology.

SUBMITTER: Zhang RK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6440214 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Many enzymes oxidize unactivated aliphatic C-H bonds selectively to form alcohols; however, biological systems do not possess enzymes that catalyse the analogous aminations of C-H bonds. The absence of such enzymes limits the discovery of potential medicinal candidates because nitrogen-containing groups are crucial to the biological activity of therapeutic agents and clinically useful natural products. In one prominent example illustrating the importance of incorporating nitrogen-based functionality, the conversion of the ketone of erythromycin to the -N(Me)CH2- group in azithromycin leads to a compound that can be dosed once daily with a shorter treatment time. For such reasons, synthetic chemists have sought catalysts that directly convert C-H bonds to C-N bonds. Most currently used catalysts for C-H bond amination are ill suited to the intermolecular functionalization of complex molecules because they require excess substrate or directing groups, harsh reaction conditions, weak or acidic C-H bonds, or reagents containing specialized groups on the nitrogen atom. Among C-H bond amination reactions, those forming a C-N bond at a tertiary alkyl group would be particularly valuable, because this linkage is difficult to form from ketones or alcohols that might be created in a biosynthetic pathway by oxidation. Here we report a mild, selective, iron-catalysed azidation of tertiary C-H bonds that occurs without excess of the valuable substrate. The reaction tolerates aqueous environments and is suitable for the functionalization of complex structures in the late stages of a multistep synthesis. Moreover, this azidation makes it possible to install a range of nitrogen-based functional groups, including those from Huisgen 'click' cycloadditions and the Staudinger ligation. We anticipate that these reactions will create opportunities to modify natural products, their precursors and their derivatives to produce analogues that contain different polarity and charge as a result of nitrogen-containing groups. It could also be used to help identify targets of biologically active molecules by creating a point of attachment--for example, to fluorescent tags or 'handles' for affinity chromatography--directly on complex molecular structures.

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Enzymatic assembly of carbon-carbon bonds via iron-catalysed sp3 C-H functionalization.

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