Computational characterization of enzyme-bound thiamin diphosphate reveals a surprisingly stable tricyclic state: implications for catalysis

• Ferran Planas,
• Michael J. McLeish and
• Fahmi Himo

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 145–159, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.15

• is an unusual cofactor in that, even without the enzyme, it can catalyze many of these reactions [2]. For example, the decarboxylation of pyruvate in water can be accomplished by ThDP, but when it is bound to the enzyme pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC), the decarboxylation rate is increased by 12 orders

• for the APH+ form. However, solid-state NMR using 15N and 13C-labeled ThDP has been used to identify APH+ on pyruvate decarboxylase and the E1 component of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex [18]. In addition to the plethora of experimental investigations, a number of computational studies have

• , computational studies have been used to investigate full reaction mechanisms of ThDP enzymes, including pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC) [25][26][27][28], benzoylformate decarboxylase (BFDC) [29][30], acetohydroxy acid synthase [24][31][32][33][34][35], pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) [36], benzaldehyde lyase [37

Gold(I)-catalysed synthesis of a furan analogue of thiamine pyrophosphate

• Amjid Iqbal,
• El-Habib Sahraoui and
• Finian J. Leeper

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 2580–2585, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.270

• , involving gold(I)-catalysed cyclisation of an alkynyl alcohol to form the furan ring. The furan analogue of thiamine diphosphate (ThDP) was also made and tested for binding to and inhibition of pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC) from Zymomonas mobilis (overexpressed in E. coli with a N-terminal His-tag). It is a

• ; pyruvate decarboxylase; thiamine diphosphate; Introduction The biologically active form of vitamin B1 is thiamine diphosphate (ThDP, 1, Figure 1), which is an essential cofactor and involved in a number of metabolic pathways, including oxidative and non-oxidative decarboxylation of α-keto acids (e.g

• ., pyruvate dehydrogenase, pyruvate decarboxylase), the formation of amino acid precursors (acetohydroxy acid synthase), and ketol transfer between sugars (transketolase) [1]. One common feature of ThDP-dependent enzymes is to catalyse the cleavage and formation of bonds adjacent to the carbon of a carbonyl