Biomimetic organic catalyst system development
- 자연과학대학
- Hit3179
- 2017-06-09
"Succeeded in converting toxic substances into high-value drugs using artificial enzymes."
The team has developed a new biomimetic catalyst system with the motif of the metabolic pathway in vivo. A variety of glyoxal (alpha-oxoaldehyde) compounds, such as methylglyoxal, which is highly cytotoxic during various metabolic reactions occurring in the human body, are produced as byproducts, which are converted to an alpha-hydroxy acid such as harmless lactic acid by Glyoxalase I and II enzymes.
The lab has focused on the asymmetric isomerization of hemisioacetal (produced by glyoxal and glutathione) promoted by the Glyoxalase enzyme. Getting an idea from it, the team has developed a novel biomimetic organic catalyst system with high yield and high optical selectivity that can produce chiral a-hydroxythioester compound (which are considered to be key materials for the synthesis of natural products) from the toxic glyoxal compounds. And chiral α-hydroxythioesters, which are used in various medicinal activities such as anticancer activity and antipyretic effect, and α-hydroxyamides, which have a therapeutic effect on Alzheimer's disease, have also been proved to be commercially useful for a novel artificial enzyme system. In addition, since the activity of glyoxalase is decreased due to aging and various oxidative stresses, it is possible to accumulate glyoxal, which is toxic to the body, and cause various diseases. Therefore, the development of artificial glyoxalase enzyme may provide a new starting point of drug discovery research.
The findings are published in the April 2017 issue of Nature Communications, a world-renowned science journal. We are also announcing groundbreaking research results on related organic catalysts in almost every year (2012, 2013, 2015) in the 'Science' and 'Nature Communications' editions.
* Title: "Biomimetic Catalytic Transformation of Toxic α-Oxoaldehydes to High-Value Chiral α-Hydroxythioesters using Artificial Glyoxalase I" (1st author Park, Sangyeon, 2nd author Hwang, Insoo Hwang, 3rd author Lee, Hyeonjoo; Corresponding author: Song, Choongeui)3
The source from: http://www.skku.edu/new_home/etc/research/research40.html