Bringing Biocatalysis Into the Deuteration Toolbox
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Bringing biocatalysis into the deuteration toolbox J. S. Rowbotham,1 O. Lenz,2 H. A. Reeve1* and K. A. Vincent1* 1Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QR, United Kingdom 2Department of Chemistry, Technische Universität Berlin, Strasse des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin, Germany *Correspondence to: [email protected], [email protected] Chemicals labelled with the heavy hydrogen isotope deuterium (2H) have long been used in chemical and biochemical mechanistic studies, spectroscopy, and as analytical tracers.1 More recently, demonstration of selectively deuterated drug candidates that exhibit advantageous pharmacological traits has spurred innovations in metal-catalysed 2H insertion at targeted sites,2–5 but asymmetric deuteration remains a key challenge.6–8 Here we demonstrate an easy-to-implement biocatalytic deuteration strategy, achieving 2 high chemo-, enantio- and isotopic selectivity, requiring only H2O (D2O) and unlabelled dihydrogen under ambient conditions. The vast library of enzymes established for NADH-dependent C=O, C=C, and C=N bond reductions9 have yet to appear in the toolbox of commonly employed 2H-labelling techniques due to requirements for suitable deuterated reducing equivalents.10 By facilitating transfer of deuterium atoms from 2 + H2O solvent to NAD , with H2 gas as a clean reductant, we open up biocatalysis for asymmetric reductive deuteration as part of a synthetic pathway or in late stage functionalisation. We demonstrate enantioselective deuteration via ketone and alkene reductions and reductive amination, as well as exquisite chemo-control for deuteration of compounds with multiple unsaturated sites. 1 Deuteration has long been used to alter the properties of molecules across a broad range of disciplines, from physical and life sciences, to forensics and environmental monitoring.1,11–13 Indeed, the presence of deuterium can have implications for molecular properties far beyond the augmented mass, including the alteration of spin-characteristics (particularly valuable in NMR spectroscopy), vibrational states, optical properties, neutron-scattering and even solubility.1 One of the most significant impacts of deuteration is manifested by the so-called deuterium kinetic-isotope effect (DKIE), where cleavage of a C-2H bond can be many times slower than for the C-1H counterpart.13 There has been extensive use of DKIEs to provide insight into the mechanisms of chemical and biological processes.1,11,14 There has been recent interest in exploiting potential therapeutic benefits of the DKIE to alter the pharmacokinetic properties of drug candidates and their associated metabolic profiles.13,15–18 Here, deuterium atoms serve to stabilise compounds against physiological degradation routes, such as racemisation and oxidation, leading to lower dose requirements and potentially fewer toxic side products.13,17,19 The interest in deutero-drugs has increased the demand for catalysts that are capable of “precision-deuteration”,17 installing deuterium atoms at well-controlled molecular positions. Hydrogen isotope exchange (HIE) or halogen – deuterium exchange catalysts allow for post- 2 2 2,17,20,21 synthetic deuteration by treating the compound in H2O or under H2 gas. Developments in these catalysts have greatly improved the regioselectivity of deuteration, with notable examples highlighted in Figure 1A. Significantly, however, the enantioselective installation of deuterium is not well established. Whilst a limited number of catalysts have been demonstrated for asymmetric HIE,6,7 these post-synthetic methodologies risk deteriorating the enantiomeric purity of the compound in question.17 In this work, we demonstrate that NADH-dependent biocatalysis, together with an appropriate cofactor 2 2 recycling system, can be harnessed for reductive asymmetric deuteration with H2O as deuterium source and H2 as a clean reductant (Figure 1B). A) State of the art approach to 2H-incorporation Ref. (2) (3) (4) (5) B) Asymmetric reductive deuteration (this work) Ref. this work Figure 1: Methods for introduction of deuterium into organic molecules and drug candidates. (A) State of the art approaches for carbon-hydrogen or carbon-halogen hydrogen 2 2 isotope exchange; these methods use either H2 or H2O as the deuterium source. (B) Overview 2 of the biocatalytic reductive deuteration strategy demonstrated in this work, using H2O as the deuterium source and H2 as a clean reductant. In the field of asymmetric synthesis, biocatalysis has profoundly expanded the toolbox available to organic chemists, with enzymatic transformations offering near-perfect selectivity and mild operating conditions.9 Large scale enzyme evolution has dramatically expanded the scope for biocatalysis, with Sitagliptin offering a notable case study in 3 biocatalytic pharmaceutical synthesis.22 However, despite the growing importance of NADH- dependent reductase enzymes in chiral fine chemical synthesis,23 significant hurdles have impeded their use in deuteration chemistry due to the requirement for deuterated, reduced cofactor, [4-2H]-NAD(P)H which must be continually regenerated in situ (Figure 2A). Laboratory-scale demonstrations have relied on a super-stoichiometric supply of a sacrificial deuterated reductant, [2H]-ethanol, [2H]-isopropanol, [2H]-glucose, or [2H]-formate, for example, with the appropriate dehydrogenase enzyme (Figure 2B).10,24 Such compounds are labour-intensive to prepare, or expensive. In order to overcome these problems, we sought to develop a catalyst that can recycle [4-2H]- + 2 NADH from NAD using (unlabelled) H2 gas as a clean reductant and H2O as the deuterium source. We have previously demonstrated H2-driven NADH recycling using hydrogenase and NAD+ reductase (both produced in-house, see SI Section S2.1) co-immobilised on a carbon 25,26 support. This heterogeneous biocatalyst system couples H2 oxidation by a nickel-iron hydrogenase to the reduction of NAD+ to NADH by a flavin-containing NAD+ reductase 26 + moiety via electron transfer through the carbon. Since the H2 oxidation and NAD reduction 2 catalytic sites are spatially separated, we hypothesised that operation of this system in H2O + instead of H2O, would enable the NAD reductase to transfer deuterium ions from solution to NAD+, thereby forming [4-2H]-NADH (Figure 2C). This suggested the possibility of a new route to recycling the deuterated cofactor, suitable for application in the biocatalysed synthesis of selectively deuterated chemicals, in which the heavy atom label is provided 2 solely by the solvent, H2O. 4 A) reagent 2H-labelled product alkene alkane imine NADH amine carbonyl dependent alcohol enzyme Cofactor turnover Regenerating deuterated [4-2H]-NADH NAD+ cofactor 2 2 B) Current methods for regenerating [4- H]-NADH C) H2-driven regeneration of [4- H]-NADH (this work) H2 NAD+ [4-2H]-NADH NAD+ [4-2H]-NADH 2H O Sacrificial Carbon waste 2 2 [ H]-reductant NAD+ product Heterogeneous biocatalyst dependent dehydrogenase H 2 2H+ + NAD+ [4-2H]-NADH [2H]-glucose gluconolactone 2H+ 2 [ H]-formate CO2 [2H]-isopropanol acetone 2e- Carbon [2H]-ethanol acetaldehyde Hydrogenase NAD+ reductase Reductant: Deuterium source: Reductant: Deuterium source: 2 2 Sacrificial [ H]-reductant H2 H2O Figure 2: Biocatalytic reductive deuteration via recycling of the deuterium labelled cofactor, [4-2H]-NADH. (A) Biocatalytic reductive deuteration requires a supply of [4-2H]-NADH. (B) Conventional [4-2H]-NADH recycling strategies are driven by a sacrificial deuterated reductant. (C) Schematic representation of the heterogeneous biocatalytic system demonstrated 2 2 in this work for H2-driven generation of the labelled cofactor [4- H]-NADH, with H2O supplying the deuterium atoms. For complete structures of the cofactors, see SI Figure S1 and for details of heterogeneous biocatalyst, see SI Figure S2. To test our hypothesis that the heterogeneous biocatalyst system would form deuterated + 2 NADH, we supplied it with 4 mM NAD in H2O under an atmosphere of H2 gas (see SI Section S3.1 for details). Subsequent analysis by HPLC and 1H NMR (SI Figure S3), 5 confirmed that only the biologically-relevant [4]-NADH was generated (at 97% conversion), with the anticipated incorporation of 2H at the [4]-position on the nicotinamide ring ([4-2H]- NADH).26 Following this successful demonstration, we then sought to use H2-dependent biocatalysis to recycle [4-2H]-NADH to drive a range of NADH-dependent reductases. The selected reductases were all from commercial enzyme suppliers, and were chosen to cover three of the most prominent classes of reductive biotransformations: carbonyl-reduction, carbonyl reductive amination, and alkene-reduction. Through operating the heterogeneous biocatalyst 2 2 system with the relevant reductase in H2O, under mild reaction conditions (p H 8.0, 1 bar o H2, 20 C), we were able to demonstrate reactions to form a diverse array of molecules bearing deuterium in carefully-controlled positions (Figure 3, full reaction schemes and product characterisation in SI Section S3). A steady flow of H2 across the reaction headspace was found to be sufficient to drive the reactions, but conventional balloons and sealed pressure vessels were also shown to be suitable alternative setups. In all cases, the chemo-, stereo- and regio-selectivity known for the enzymatic reactions in natural abundance H2O was fully retained upon translation to the deuteration conditions. 6 Figure 3: Asymmetric biocatalytic reductive deuteration