Reetz, M.T.

Chimia 2002, 56, 721-723, 10.2533/000942902777679920

The first step in applying the recently proposed concept concerning the application of directed evolution to the creation of selective hybrid catalysts is described, specifically the covalent attachment of Mn-salen moieties and of Cu-, Pd-, and Rh-complexes of dipyridine derivatives as well as the implantation of a diphosphine moiety in a protein, future steps being cycles of mutagenesis/screening.

Maréchal, J.-D.

ACS Catal. 2015, 5, 2469-2480, 10.1021/acscatal.5b00010

The development of artificial enzymes aims at expanding the scope of biocatalysis. Over recent years, artificial metalloenzymes based on the insertion of homogeneous catalysts in biomolecules have received an increasing amount of attention. Rational or pseudorational design of these composites is a challenging task because of the complexity of the identification of efficient complementarities among the cofactor, the substrate, and the biological partner. Molecular modeling represents an interesting alternative to help in this task. However, little attention has been paid to this field so far. In this manuscript, we aim at reviewing our efforts in developing strategies efficient to computationally drive the design of artificial metalloenzymes. From protein–ligand dockings to multiscale approaches, we intend to demonstrate that modeling could be useful at the different steps of the design. This Perspective ultimately aims at providing computational chemists with illustration of the applications of their tools for artificial metalloenzymes and convincing enzyme designers of the capabilities, qualitative and quantitative, of computational methodologies.

Luk, L.Y.P.

Chem. Commun. 2021, 57, 1919-1922, 10.1039/d0cc08142f

Here, the streptavidin–biotin technology was applied to enable organocatalytic transfer hydrogenation. By introducing a biotin-tethered pyrrolidine (1) to the tetrameric streptavidin (T-Sav), the resulting hybrid catalyst was able to mediate hydride transfer from dihydro-benzylnicotinamide (BNAH) to α,β-unsaturated aldehydes. Hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde and some of its aryl-substituted analogues was found to be nearly quantitative. Kinetic measurements revealed that the T-Sav:1 assembly possesses enzyme-like behavior, whereas isotope effect analysis, performed by QM/MM simulations, illustrated that the step of hydride transfer is at least partially rate-limiting. These results have proven the concept that T-Sav can be used to host secondary amine-catalyzed transfer hydrogenations.

Soumillion, P.

ChemBioChem 2006, 7, 1013-1016, 10.1002/cbic.200600127

Enantioselective epoxidation of styrene was observed in the presence of manganese‐containing carbonic anhydrase as catalyst. The probable oxygen‐transfer reagent is peroxymonocarbonate, which has a structural similarity with the hydrogenocarbonate substrate of the natural reaction. Styrene was chosen as the enzyme possesses a small hydrophobic cavity close to the active site.

Pecoraro, V.L.

J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, 142, 15282-15294, 10.1021/jacs.0c04757

Blue copper proteins have a constrained Cu(II) geometry that has proven difficult to recapitulate outside native cupredoxin folds. Previous work has successfully designed green copper proteins which could be tuned blue using exogenous ligands, but the question of how one can create a self-contained blue copper site within a de novo scaffold, especially one removed from a cupredoxin fold, remained. We have recently reported a red copper protein site within a three helical bundle scaffold which we later revisited and determined to be a nitrosocyanin mimic, with a CuHis2CysGlu binding site. We now report efforts to rationally design this construct toward either green or blue copper chromophores using mutation strategies that have proven successful in native cupredoxins. By rotating the metal binding site, we created a de novo green copper protein. This in turn was converted to a blue copper protein by removing an axial methionine. Following this rational sequence, we have successfully created red, green, and blue copper proteins within an alpha helical fold, enabling comparisons for the first time of their structure and function disconnected from the overall cupredoxin fold.

Barker, P.D.; Boss, S.R.

Johnson Matthey Technol. Rev. 2020, 64, 407-418, 10.1595/205651320x15928204097766

Generation of artificial metalloenzymes (ArMs) has gained much inspiration from the general understanding of natural metalloenzymes. Over the last decade, a multitude of methods generating transition metal-protein hybrids have been developed and many of these new-to-nature constructs catalyse reactions previously reserved for the realm of synthetic chemistry. This perspective will focus on ArMs incorporating 4d and 5d transition metals. It aims to summarise the significant advances made to date and asks whether there are chemical strategies, used in nature to optimise metal catalysts, that have yet to be fully recognised in the synthetic enzyme world, particularly whether artificial enzymes produced to date fully take advantage of the structural and energetic context provided by the protein. Further, the argument is put forward that, based on precedence, in the majority of naturally evolved metalloenzymes the direct coordination bonding between the metal and the protein scaffold is integral to catalysis. Therefore, the protein can attenuate metal activity by positioning ligand atoms in the form of amino acids, as well as making non-covalent contributions to catalysis, through intermolecular interactions that pre-organise substrates and stabilise transition states. This highlights the often neglected but crucial element of natural systems that is the energetic contribution towards activating metal centres through protein fold energy. Finally, general principles needed for a different approach to the formation of ArMs are set out, utilising direct coordination inspired by the activation of an organometallic cofactor upon protein binding. This methodology, observed in nature, delivers true interdependence between metal and protein. When combined with the ability to efficiently evolve enzymes, new problems in catalysis could be addressed in a faster and more specific manner than with simpler small molecule catalysts.

Tanaka, K.

Proc. Jpn. Acad., Ser. B, Phys. Biol. Sci. 2020, 96, 79-94, 10.2183/pjab.96.007

In order to harness the functionality of metals, nature has evolved over billions of years to utilize metalloproteins as key components in numerous cellular processes. Despite this, transition metals such as ruthenium, palladium, iridium, and gold are largely absent from naturally occurring metalloproteins, likely due to their scarcity as precious metals. To mimic the evolutionary process of nature, the field of artificial metalloenzymes (ArMs) was born as a way to benefit from the unique chemoselectivity and orthogonality of transition metals in a biological setting. In its current state, numerous examples have successfully incorporated transition metals into a variety of protein scaffolds. Using these ArMs, many examples of new-to-nature reactions have been carried out, some of which have shown substantial biocompatibility. Given the rapid rate at which this field is growing, this review aims to highlight some important studies that have begun to take the next step within this field; namely the development of ArM-centered drug therapies or biotechnological tools.

Clark, D.S.; Hartwig, J.F.; Keasling, J.D.; Mukhopadhyay, A.

Nat. Chem. 2021, 13, 1186-1191, 10.1038/s41557-021-00801-3

Synthetic biology enables microbial hosts to produce complex molecules from organisms that are rare or difficult to cultivate, but the structures of these molecules are limited to those formed by reactions of natural enzymes. The integration of artificial metalloenzymes (ArMs) that catalyse unnatural reactions into metabolic networks could broaden the cache of molecules produced biosynthetically. Here we report an engineered microbial cell expressing a heterologous biosynthetic pathway, containing both natural enzymes and ArMs, that produces an unnatural product with high diastereoselectivity. We engineered Escherichia coli with a heterologous terpene biosynthetic pathway and an ArM containing an iridium–porphyrin complex that was transported into the cell with a heterologous transport system. We improved the diastereoselectivity and product titre of the unnatural product by evolving the ArM and selecting the appropriate gene induction and cultivation conditions. This work shows that synthetic biology and synthetic chemistry can produce, by combining natural and artificial enzymes in whole cells, molecules that were previously inaccessible to nature.

Ward, T.R.

Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 11587-11590, 10.1002/anie.201605010

Regulation of enzymatic activity is vital to living organisms. Here, we report the development and the genetic optimization of an artificial zymogen requiring the action of a natural protease to upregulate its latent asymmetric transfer hydrogenase activity.

Ueno, T.

Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol. 2015, 25, 88-97, 10.1016/j.cbpa.2014.12.026

Self-assembled protein cages providing nanosized internal spaces which are capable of encapsulating metal ions/complexes, enzymes/proteins have great potential for use as catalytic nanoreactors in efforts to mimic confined cellular environments for synthetic applications. Despite many uses in biomineralization, drug delivery, bio-imaging and so on, applications in catalysis are relatively rare. Because of their restricted size, protein cages are excellent candidates for use as vessels to exert control over reaction kinetics and product selectivity. Virus capsids with larger internal spaces can encapsulate multiple enzymes and can mimic natural enzymatic reactions. The apo-ferritin cage is known to accommodate various metal ions/complexes and suitable for organic transformation reactions in an aqueous medium. This review highlights the importance, prospects and recent significant research on catalytic reactions using the apo-ferritin cage and virus capsids.

Sheldon, R.A.

Top. Catal. 2000, 13, 259-265, 10.1023/A:1009094619249

Approaches to the rational design of vanadium-based biocatalytic and biomimetic model systems as catalysts for enantioselective oxidations are reviewed. Incorporation of vanadate ion into the active site of phytase (E.C. 3.1.3.8), which in vivo mediates the hydrolysis of phosphate esters, afforded a relatively stable and inexpensive semi-synthetic peroxidase. It catalysed the enantioselective oxidation of prochiral sulfides with H2O2 affording the S-sulfoxide, e.g., in 68% ee at 100% conversion for thioanisole. Amongst the transition metal oxoanions that are known to be potent inhibitors of phosphatases, only vanadate resulted in a semi-synthetic peroxidase, when incorporated into phytase. In a biomimetic approach, vanadium complexes of chiral Schiff's base complexes were encapsulated in the super cages of a hydrophobic zeolite Y. Unfortunately, these ship-in-a-bottle complexes afforded only racemic sulfoxide in the catalytic oxidation of thioanisole with H2O2.

Mahy, J.-P.

Biochimie 2009, 91, 1321-1323, 10.1016/j.biochi.2009.03.002

The design of artificial hemoproteins that could lead to new biocatalysts for selective oxidation reactions of organic compounds presents a huge interest especially in pharmacology, both for a better understanding of the metabolic profile of drugs and for the synthesis of enantiomerically pure molecules that could be involved in the design of drugs. The present results show that the so-called “host-guest strategy” that involves the non-covalent incorporation of anionic water-soluble iron-porphyrins into xylanase A from Streptomyces lividans, a low cost protein, leads to such an artificial hemoprotein that is able to perform the stereoselective oxidation of sulfides.

Mahy, J.-P.

J. Porphyr. Phthalocyanines 2014, 18, 1063-1092, 10.1142/S1088424614500813

The design of artificial hemoproteins that could lead to new biocatalysts for selective oxidation reactions using clean oxidants such as O 2 or H 2 O 2 under ecocompatible conditions constitutes a really promising challenge for a wide range of industrial applications. In vivo, such reactions are performed by heme-thiolate proteins, cytochromes P450, that catalyze the oxidation of drugs by dioxygen in the presence of electrons delivered from NADPH by cytochrome P450 reductase. Several strategies were used to design new artificial hemoproteins to mimic these enzymes, that associate synthetic metalloporphyrin derivatives to a protein that is supposed to induce a selectivity in the catalyzed reaction. A first generation of artificial hemoproteins or "hemoabzymes" was obtained by the non-covalent association of synthetic hemes such as N-methyl-mesoporphyrin IX, Fe(III) -α3β-tetra-o-carboxyphenylporphyrin or microperoxidase 8 with monoclonal antibodies raised against these cofactors. The obtained antibody-metalloporphyrin complexes displayed a peroxidase activity and some of them catalyzed the regio-selective nitration of phenols by H 2 O 2/ NO 2 and the stereo-selective oxidation of sulphides by H 2 O 2. A second generation of artificial hemoproteins or "hemozymes", was obtained by the non-covalent association of non-relevant proteins with metalloporphyrin derivatives. Several strategies were used, the most successful of which, named "host-guest" strategy involved the non-covalent incorporation of metalloporphyrin derivatives into easily affordable proteins. The artificial hemoproteins obtained were found to be able to perform efficiently the stereoselective oxidation of organic compounds such as sulphides and alkenes by H 2 O 2 and KHSO 5.

Ward, T.R.

Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 1400-1404, 10.1002/anie.200704865

A structure is worth a thousand words: Guided by the X‐ray structure of an S‐selective artificial transfer hydrogenase, designed evolution was used to optimize the selectivity of hybrid catalysts. Fine‐tuning of the second coordination sphere of the ruthenium center (see picture, orange sphere) by introduction of two point mutations allowed the identification of selective artificial transfer hydrogenases for the reduction of dialkyl ketones.

Salmain, M.

Dalton Trans. 2010, 39, 5605, 10.1039/c001630f

Covalent embedding of a (η6-arene) ruthenium(II) complex into the protein papain gives rise to a metalloenzyme displaying a catalytic efficiency for a Lewis acid-mediated catalysed Diels–Alder reaction enhanced by two orders of magnitude in water.