Regioselective nitration of phenol induced by catalytic antibodies

Catalytic antibodies with a metalloporphyrin cofactor represent a new generation of biocatalysts tailored for selective oxidations. Thus monoclonal antibodies, 3A3, were raised against microperoxidase 8 (MP8), and the corresponding 3A3-MP8 complexes were shown previously to have a high peroxidase activity. This paper shows that those complexes also catalyzed efficiently the nitration of phenol into 2- and 4-nitrophenol by NO₂ ^– in the presence of H₂O₂. pH dependence studies suggested that no amino acid from the antibody protein participated in the heterolytic cleavage of the O-O bond of H₂O₂. The inhibition of the reaction by cyanide and radical scavengers suggested a MP8-mediated peroxidase-like mechanism, involving the reduction of high-valent iron-oxo species by NO₂ ^– and phenol producing, respectively, NO₂ · and phenoxy radicals, which then reacted to give nitrophenols. Finally, the antibody protein appears to have two major roles: (i) it protects MP8 toward oxidative degradations and (ii) it induces a regioselectivity of the reaction toward the formation of 2-nitrophenol.