天然产物生物合成与抗肿瘤药物合成生物学研究

结构复杂多样的天然产物是现代药物的重要组成部分和新药发现的重要源泉.天然产物的生物合成研究,是从基因和蛋白水平阐明天然产物的合成途径,通过酶催化的化学反应将基因与化合物的结构单元建立一种对应关系,从而理解自然界神奇的化学合成、生物拮抗及生理调控过程.天然产物的合成生物学研究核心是通过在发酵友好、高效的微生物中设计、构建目标化合物的生物合成途径,经系统地调控和优化重组微生物,从而发酵生产来源稀缺的天然产物类药物、前体或新化合物.本文结合相关领域的进展,对本研究组近年来关于抗肿瘤天然产物生物合成及抗癌药物合成生物学的工作进行系统的介绍.     

基于合成生物学的微生物制造研究进展

基于合成生物学的微生物制造在天然产物药物、生物能源、生物基化学品及生物传感器件的研究中发挥越来越重要的作用。本文系统地介绍了合成生物学研究领域的最新技术进展,包括DNA和染色体合成、新生物元件开发与元件库标准化、染色体工程与最小基因组技术、途径装配技术等,并阐述了合成生物学在微生物制造领域内所取得的突破和巨大的应用价值。     

生物催化不对称还原制备氟代手性醇

由于氟原子的特殊性质，化合物中引入氟原子可显著改变其物理化学性质。因此，氟原子在药物中的应用越来越广。此外，80%药物分子结构属于手性分子。其中，氟代手性醇常见于手性药物结构中，该类结构的合成方法研究具有重要的意义。不对称还原含氟酮是合成此结构的常见方法。与化学还原方法相比，生物催化还原具有对映选择性强、产率高和易于分离纯化等优点。生物催化，特别是酶催化还原含氟酮类化合物成为手性药物合成领域的研究热点。本文从纯化酶催化和全细胞催化两个方面，综述了近年来含氟酮生物催化还原合成氟代手性醇的研究进展，并分析总结了氟代对酮生物催化还原的影响，最后对生物催化还原法未来的发展进行了展望。     

卤代酶与生物卤化反应进展

卤化物在生物圈内广泛存在,许多天然卤化物广泛应用在药理学领域。根据催化机理,催化形成C-X键的卤代酶（halogenases）主要分为两大类型：卤代过氧化物酶（haloperoxidases）和黄素依赖型卤代酶（flavin—dependent halogenases）,另外还有非血红素Fe（Ⅱ）／α-酮戊二酸盐依赖型卤代酶（non—heme Fe^3／α-ketoglutarate（aKG）-dependentha logenases）、甲基卤代转移酶（methyl halide transferases）和氟化酶（fluorinases）等。本文综述了目前已知的卤代酶的发现、分子作用机制和生物催化潜力。近年来,卤代酶在生物卤化过程中的重要生物学功能已经引起了广泛关注。利用组合生物合成、定向进化等现代生物技术合成有价值的天然卤代衍生物将有广阔的应用前景。     

生物法合成稀有己酮糖的研究进展

稀有糖是一类在自然界中存在但含量很低、同时具有重要生理功能的一类单糖及其衍生物,在膳食、保健、医药等领域中发挥着重要的作用。此外稀有糖还可以作为多种天然产物和药物的合成前体。然而稀有糖的合成成本较高,大大制约了其广泛应用。当前利用微生物和酶转化法合成稀有糖成为一种强有利的工具。综述了生物法合成稀有己酮糖(包括D-塔格糖、D-山梨糖、D-阿洛酮糖、L-塔格糖、L-果糖、L-山梨糖和1-脱氧-L-果糖等)的研究进展,探讨了稀有己酮糖合成策略的研究趋势。     

木质纤维素原料中漆酶天然介体的研究进展

漆酶作为一种多功能金属氧化酶,被认为是未来工业生物催化中"可持续环境友好过程生物技术的工具"。但是由于典型漆酶催化体系中合成介体存在价格昂贵且有毒等问题而一直未能实现工业化。从木质素小分子前体物质或者中间体及降解产物中寻找稳定、高效、低毒和价廉的天然介体成为当前的研究热点和重点。本文从漆酶介体的类型与催化机理、木质纤维素原料炼制中间产物(如汽爆秸秆水洗液、造纸黑液、木质纤维素生物降解产物等)中天然介体的种类与分离等方面,论述从木质纤维素原料降解产物中分离漆酶天然介体并进行应用的可行性,为挖掘高反应活性的漆酶天然催化介体,构建漆酶多介体连续催化体系,实现木质纤维素原料降解产物的定向高值利用奠定基础。     

ω-转氨酶不对称合成手性胺及非天然氨基酸的研究进展

ω-转氨酶不对称合成手性胺及非天然氨基酸是目前生物加工过程的研究热点之一。ω-转氨酶具有优良的立体选择性及区域选择性,利用其进行生物催化生产手性胺,已被应用于医药、农药和化工等领域。本文中,笔者综述了ω-转氨酶的基本结构特性,并以转氨酶法制备西他列汀关键中间体等为例,同时阐述了该酶的高通量筛选方法及分子改造方面的研究进展,并对级联反应提高手性胺产量的策略作了进一步讨论。最后,本文简要总结了ω-转氨酶在不对称合成非天然氨基酸中的具体应用。     

复杂天然产物合成人工生物系统的设计与构建

天然产物是人类疾病预防和治疗药物的最重要来源。合成生物学技术的蓬勃发展为天然产物的开发注入了全新的活力。文中重点介绍了如何利用合成生物技术进行复杂天然产物合成人工生物系统的设计与构建,包括与此相关的生物元件理性设计、生物元件挖掘、途径装配与集成,模块的组装与系统的适配等内容。     

光合生产植物天然产物的代谢工程蓝藻研究现状

蓝藻是植物天然产物光合生产的理想平台,它们不仅具有遗传背景简单、营养需求低和高CO_2固定效率等优势,还可以解决生物法制备天然产物所面临的植物源酶适配性、还原力供应和对昂贵底物依赖等限制因素。介绍了近年来利用蓝藻光合生产植物天然产物及前体物质的最新研究进展和发展趋势,分析了蓝藻生产天然产物的优势,为进一步开发天然产物的光合平台提供指导,并对产业化发展方向进行了展望。     

酵母生物多样性开发及工业应用

酵母是一类包括酿酒酵母和非常规酵母在内的多种单细胞真菌的总称,其中酿酒酵母是应用较多的重要工业微生物,广泛应用于生物医药、食品、轻工和生物燃料生产等不同生物制造领域。近年来,研究者从不同生态环境中分离了大量的酵母菌株,鉴定了多个新种,也发现了抗逆性不同以及具有多种活性产物合成能力的菌株,证明天然酵母资源具有丰富的生物多样性和功能多样性。利用基因组挖掘以及转录组、蛋白组等多组学分析研究,可进一步开发利用酵母遗传多样性,获得酶和调节蛋白的基因以及启动子等遗传元件改造酵母菌株。除了利用酵母的天然遗传多样性,还可通过诱变、驯化、代谢工程改造及合成生物学等技术产生具有多种非天然多样性的菌株。此外,对天然遗传元件也可以进行突变和定向进化,所产生的新遗传元件可用于有效提升菌株的性能。开发利用酵母的生物多样性,对构建高效酵母细胞工厂,生产生物酶、疫苗以及多种活性天然产物等产品具有重要意义。文中对酵母生物多样性的研究现状进行综述,并对未来高效开发利用酵母菌株资源和遗传资源的研究进行了展望。文中所总结的研究方法和思路也可为研究其他工业微生物的多样性及进行高效菌株的选育提供参考。     

Fluorine biocatalysis

The introduction of fluorine atoms into organic molecules has received considerable attention as these organofluorines have often found widespread applications in bioorganic chemistry, medicinal chemistry and biomaterial science. Despite innovation of synthetic C–F forming methodologies, selective fluorination is still extremely challenging. Therefore, a biotransformation approach using fluorine biocatalysts is needed to selectively introduce fluorine into structurally diverse molecules. Yet, there are few ways that enable incorporation of fluorine into structurally complex bioactive molecules. One is to extend the substrate scope of the existing enzyme inventory. Another is to expand the biosynthetic pathways to accept fluorinated precursors for producing fluorinated bioactive molecules. Finally, an understanding of the physiological roles of fluorometabolites in the producing microorganisms will advance our ability to engineer a microorganism to produce novel fluorinated commodities. Here, we review the fluorinase biotechnology and fluorine biocatalysts that incorporate fluorine motifs to generate fluorinated molecules, and highlight areas for future developments.     

Temporal and fluoride control of secondary metabolism regulates cellular organofluorine biosynthesis

Elucidating mechanisms of natural organofluorine biosynthesis is essential for a basic understanding of fluorine biochemistry in living systems as well as for expanding biological methods for fluorine incorporation into small molecules of interest. To meet this goal we have combined massively parallel sequencing technologies, genetic knockout, and in vitro biochemical approaches to investigate the fluoride response of the only known genetic host of an organofluorine-producing pathway, Streptomyces cattleya. Interestingly, we have discovered that the major mode of S. cattleya's resistance to the fluorinated toxin it produces, fluoroacetate, may be due to temporal control of production rather than the ability of the host's metabolic machinery to discriminate between fluorinated and non-fluorinated molecules. Indeed, neither the acetate kinase/phosphotransacetylase acetate assimilation pathway nor the TCA cycle enzymes (citrate synthase and aconitase) exclude fluorinated substrates based on in vitro biochemical characterization. Furthermore, disruption of the fluoroacetate resistance gene encoding a fluoroacetyl-CoA thioesterase (FlK) does not appear to lead to an observable growth defect related to organofluorine production. By showing that a switch in central metabolism can mediate and control molecular fluorine incorporation, our findings reveal a new potential strategy toward diversifying simple fluorinated building blocks into more complex products.     

Lessons and revelations from biomimetic syntheses

Biomimetic synthesis describes the field of organic chemistry that aims to emulate the natural, biosynthetic processes toward natural products. As well as providing insight into how molecules are formed in nature, the benefits of this approach to total synthesis are numerous and extend beyond the gains typical of traditional synthesis. For example, using biosynthetic proposals to design a synthetic route can highlight alternative methods to the desired target. The pursuit of biomimetic syntheses also promotes the development of new reactions to prove or disprove a biosynthetic proposal or to unravel mechanistic implications of a proposed biosynthesis and can lead to the identification of new natural products. Here we look at some recent compelling examples and examine how biomimetic synthesis has led to the discovery of new procedures and principles that would not have been found by other approaches.     

Microbial production of small peptide: pathway engineering and synthetic biology

Small peptides are a group of natural products with low molecular weights and complex structures. The diverse structures of small peptides endow them with broad bioactivities and suggest their potential therapeutic use in the medical field. The remaining challenge is methods to address the main limitations, namely (i) the low amount of available small peptides from natural sources, and (ii) complex processes required for traditional chemical synthesis. Therefore, harnessing microbial cells as workhorse appears to be a promising approach to synthesize these bioactive peptides. As an emerging engineering technology, synthetic biology aims to create standard, well-characterized and controllable synthetic systems for the biosynthesis of natural products. In this review, we describe the recent developments in the microbial production of small peptides. More importantly, synthetic biology approaches are considered for the production of small peptides, with an emphasis on chassis cells, the evolution of biosynthetic pathways, strain improvements and fermentation.     

Recent advances in the chemoenzymatic synthesis of bioactive natural products

The field of organic chemistry has recently witnessed a rapid rise in the use of chemoenzymatic strategies for the synthesis of complex molecules. Under this paradigm, biocatalytic methods and contemporary synthetic methods are used synergistically in a multistep approach toward a target molecule. In light of the unparalleled regioselectivity and stereoselectivity of enzymatic transformations and the reaction diversity of contemporary organic chemistry, chemoenzymatic strategies hold enormous potential for streamlining access to important bioactive molecules. This review covers recent demonstrations of chemoenzymatic approaches in chemical synthesis, with special emphasis on the preparation of medicinally relevant natural products.     

Fluorine: a new element in protein design

Fluorocarbons are quintessentially man-made molecules, fluorine being all but absent from biology. Perfluorinated molecules exhibit novel physicochemical properties that include extreme chemical inertness, thermal stability, and an unusual propensity for phase segregation. The question we and others have sought to answer is to what extent can these properties be engineered into proteins? Here, we review recent studies in which proteins have been designed that incorporate highly fluorinated analogs of hydrophobic amino acids with the aim of creating proteins with novel chemical and biological properties. Fluorination seems to be a general and effective strategy to enhance the stability of proteins, both soluble and membrane bound, against chemical and thermal denaturation, although retaining structure and biological activity. Most studies have focused on small proteins that can be produced by peptide synthesis as synthesis of large proteins containing specifically fluorinated residues remains challenging. However, the development of various biosynthetic methods for introducing noncanonical amino acids into proteins promises to expand the utility of fluorinated amino acids in protein design.     

Uridine natural products: Challenging targets and inspiration for novel small molecule inhibitors

Nucleoside derivatives, in particular those featuring uridine, are familiar components of the nucleoside family of bioactive natural products. The structural complexity and biological activities of these compounds have inspired research from organic chemistry and chemical biology communities seeking to develop novel approaches to assemble the challenging molecular targets, to gain inspiration for enzyme inhibitor development and to fuel antibiotic discovery efforts. This review will present recent case studies describing the total synthesis and biosynthesis of uridine natural products, and de novo synthetic efforts exploiting features of the natural products to produce simplified scaffolds. This research has culminated in the development of complementary strategies that can lead to effective uridine-based inhibitors and antibiotics. The strengths and challenges of the juxtaposing methods will be illustrated by examining select uridine natural products. Moreover, structure–activity relationships (SAR) for each natural product-inspired scaffold will be discussed, highlighting the impact on inhibitor development, with the aim of future uridine-based small molecule expansion.     

Sugars containing alpha,beta-unsaturated carbonyl systems: synthesis and their usefulness as scaffolds in carbohydrate chemistry

The alpha,beta-unsaturated carbonyl function occurs in a wide variety of bioactive natural products. It is usually associated with the bioactivities of these compounds and acts as Michael acceptors for the addition of protein nucleophilic groups. The design and synthesis of sugars containing this functionality has provided a wide range of compounds, which can serve as building blocks of high synthetic versatility. This review deals with the chemistry of sugar-based molecules bearing singly linked or fused unsaturated lactones and ketones along with that of pyranoid enones and enonolactones. Examples are given of their syntheses and transformations into a variety of complex sugar derivatives such as branched-chain sugars, C-nucleosides, C-glycosyl derivatives, and various natural products, including selected analogues.     

Regioselective enzymatic acylation of multi-hydroxyl compounds in organic synthesis

With current developments in enzyme-catalyzed reactions and techniques available for rational redesign of natural biocatalysts, the enzymatic biosynthesis can become one of the most valuable synthetic methods. Enzymatic regioselective catalysis in organic media has played a key role in pursuing asymmetric synthesis for active chiral compounds. Here, we shortly describe some historical issues of the rapidly growing area, enzymatic catalysis in synthetic organic chemistry and then review researches that have been carried out in the regioselective enzymatic catalysis for the past two decades. An application of this technology to the modification of some potential target drug compound will be also presented.