Lactobacillus brevis ADH (LBADH) is an alcohol dehydrogenase that is commonly employed to reduce alkyl or aryl ketones usually bearing a methyl, an ethyl or a chloromethyl as a small ketone substituent to the corresponding (R)-alcohols. Herein we have tested a series of 24 acetophenone derivatives differing in their size and electronic properties for their reduction employing LBADH. After plotting the relative activity against the measured substrate volumes we observed that apart from the substrate size other effects must be responsible for the activity obtained. Compared to acetophenone (100% relative activity), other small substrates such as propiophenone, α,α,α-trifluoroacetophenone, α-hydroxyacetophenone, and benzoylacetonitrile had relative activities lower than 30%, while medium-sized ketones such as α-bromo-, α,α-dichloro-, and α,α-dibromoacetophenone presented relative activities between 70% and 550%. Moreover, the comparison between the enzymatic activity and the obtained final conversions using an excess or just 2.5 equiv. of the hydrogen donor 2-propanol, denoted again deviations between them. These data supported that these hydrogen transfer (HT) transformations are mainly thermodynamically controlled. For instance, bulky α-halogenated derivatives could be quantitatively reduced by LBADH even employing 2.5 equiv. of 2-propanol independently of their kinetic values. Finally, we found good correlations between the IR absorption band of the carbonyl groups and the degrees of conversion obtained in these HT processes, making this simple method a convenient tool to predict the success of these transformations.

Abstract. The use of purified and overexpressed alcohol dehydrogenases to synthesize enantiopure fluorinated alcohols is shown. Performing the bioreductions with ADH-A from Rhodococcus ruber overexpressed in E. coli, no external cofactor was necessary to obtain the enantiopure (R)-derivatives.Employing Lactobacillus brevis ADH, it was possible to achieve the synthesis of enantiopure (S)-fluorohydrins at 0.5 M substrate concentration. Furthermore, due to the activated character of these substrates, it was not necessary a huge excess of the hydrogen donor.

ABSTRACT. A series of enantiopure hydroxy esters and lactones has been synthesized in a chemodivergent manner via alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) reduction of the corresponding keto esters by means of cascade or tandem protocols. Thus, ADH from Rhodococcus ruber (ADH-A) or Lactobacillus brevis (LBADH) afforded both antipodes in a very selective way when dealing with small derivatives. With bulkier substrates, ADH from Ralstonia sp. (RasADH) was successfully employed to achieve the synthesis of enantioenriched γ-or δ-hydroxy esters. To isolate the corresponding lactones, two different approaches were followed: a cascade reaction by spontaneous cyclization of the hydroxy ester intermediate, or a one-pot two-step tandem protocol. Moreover, a chemoenzymatic route was designed to obtain a chiral brominated lactone 2 which enabled further modifications in a sequential fashion by Pd-catalyzed reactions affording relevant functionalized lactones.

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