Stereospecific Biotransformation of Dihydrodaidzein into (3S)-Equol by the Human Intestinal Bacterium Eggerthella Strain Julong 732

Stereochemical course of isoflavanone dihydrodaidzein (DHD) reduction into the isoflavan (3S)-equol via tetrahydrodaidzein (THD) by the human intestinal anaerobic bacterium Eggerthella strain Julong 732 was studied. THD was synthesized by catalytic hydrogenation, and each stereoisomer was separated by chiral high-performance liquid chromatography. Circular dichroism spectroscopy was used to elucidate the absolute configurations of four synthetic THD stereoisomers. Rapid racemization of DHD catalyzed by Julong 732 prevented the substrate stereospecificity in the conversion of DHD into THD from being confirmed. The absolute configuration of THD, prepared by reduction of DHD in the cell-free incubation, was assigned as (3R,4S) via comparison of the retention time to that of the authentic THD by chiral chromatography. Dehydroequol (DE) was unable to produce the (3S)-equol both in the cell-free reaction and in the bacterial transformation, negating the possible intermediacy of DE. Finally, the intermediate (3R,4S)-THD was reduced into (3S)-equol by the whole cell, indicating the inversion of stereochemistry at C-3 during the reduction. A possible mechanism accounting for the racemization of DHD and the inversion of configuration of THD during reduction into (3S)-equol is proposed.Isoflavones are natural dietary phytoestrogens mainly occurring in the leguminous plants, such as soybean. Daidzein and genistein, two major isoflavones in soybean, have received a considerable attention due to their bioactivities beneficial to the human health, including estrogenic (9), anticancer (14), antioxidant (1, 21), and cardioprotective (11) activities. Recently, special interest has been focused on the biological effects of the daidzein metabolites, which are being actively studied for drug development (5, 16).Daidzein is known to be metabolized in the human intestine by the resident microflora, and various metabolites, such as dihydrodaidzein (DHD), 7,4′-dihydroxyisoflavan-4-ol (tetrahydrodaidzein; THD), 7,4′-dihydroxyisoflav-3-ene (dehydroequol; DE), O-desmethylangolensin (O-DMA), and equol, are detected in the human urine (Fig. ​(Fig.1)1) (6, 7, 10). Among the metabolites, (3S)-equol has about 100 times higher estrogenic activity than daidzein itself (15). However, only about 30 to 50% of humans can produce equol from daidzein (12). In addition, a high correlation was found between the beneficial effects on females by soy food intake and the presence of equol in their urine (4). Therefore, the ability to metabolize daidzein into equol conferred by the intestinal microflora in human is regarded as a hallmark of daidzein responsiveness (3, 34).Open in a separate windowFIG. 1.Proposed pathway for isoflavone daidzein reduction by intestinal microflora leading to equol formation. The absolute configuration of THD is depicted as (3R,4S) according to the conclusion of the present study.The daidzein metabolic sequence has been proposed based on the presence of various metabolites of daidzein produced by the human intestinal bacteria; daidzein is reduced into DHD, then into THD and DE, and finally into (3S)-equol in sequential reactions (Fig. ​(Fig.1)1) (7, 10). However, the pathway and the individual reactions in the pathway have not been fully elucidated partly due to the unavailability of pure microbial isolates.To confirm the proposed metabolic pathway of the human intestinal microflora, attempts have been made to isolate the daidzein-metabolizing bacterial phenotype from human feces. The reduction of daidzein into equol through the cooperation of the microfloral community in the human intestine is thought to be likely and was demonstrated by using the whole microflora from human (2) and monkey (23) feces. However, daidzein metabolism by the whole-rat intestinal flora results in the formation of DHD, and further reaction leading to the formation of unknown aliphatic compounds was implied (24).Various bacterial phenotypes have been suggested to have a responsible role in daidzein metabolism in the small intestines of animals. An anaerobic bacterium, Clostridium sp. strain HGH6 (8), and a Clostridium-like strain, TM-40 (27), were found to reduce daidzein into DHD, and the C-ring cleavage was executed by a strain of Eubacterium (25). A human intestinal bacterium that could produce equol was first reported in 2005. Eggerthella strain Julong 732, which could not reduce daidzein into DHD, was found to reduce DHD into equol (28), thus establishing the aforementioned reduction sequence leading to the biologically active (S)-equol from daidzein via DHD in the human intestine (7, 10). Eggerthella species are normal residents of the human gut, and some species are implicated as causative agents of bacteremia (13). The microbial phenotypes that can reduce daidzein all the way into equol were recently isolated from mice (19), rats (20), pigs (33), and humans (18, 32). Nevertheless, the enzymology of the reduction, such as the nature of the enzyme responsible and the reaction mechanism, has yet to be established.In the present study, the enzyme reaction mechanisms of two consecutive reduction reactions converting DHD into (3S)-equol were stereochemically assessed. To this end, four stereoisomers of THD were first synthesized, and their absolute configurations were determined. With the correlation of the absolute configuration of the synthetic THD isomers and the circular dichroism (CD) spectra at hand, the absolute configuration of THD produced through the cell-free bacterial reduction of DHD was determined. Each synthetic THD stereoisomer was then tested as a metabolic feedstock for (3S)-equol production during the growth of Julong 732. We found that only one of the THD steroisomers, (3R,4S)-THD, the very stereoisomer produced by the bacterial DHD reduction, was converted into (3S)-equol and that the final reduction accompanied the inversion of the configuration at C-3 of THD.