The authors report a new method which allows to study an organometallic reaction in real time using an enzymatic reporter. They discovered conditions to rapidly synthesize a halo-unsaturated lactone moiety that is found in a lot of natural products, via a halometalation/carbocyclization. By using a combination of alcohol oxidase and peroxidase in situ they were able to make a colorimetric sensor that allows real time sudy of the reaction.I think this article is really interesting. First, they have discovered a powerful enzymatic screening that works as a colorimetric sensor. This technic may be used to screen diverse experimental conditions in a fast and easy way. Also they report an efficient way to get the xanthatin core found in various natural products, in 5 steps with a good control over the stereochemistry.
I thought this was a very clever way to put together different components to make a useful system. While Dr.Deiters defined chemical biology as the use of small molecule tools to study biological systems, this seems to use biological tools (enzymes) to study a chemical system. But it comes back to biological relevance because they are studying natural products in the organic reaction layer.
ReplyDeleteI agree. The idea of "bringing biological solutions to chemical problems" is another, often overlooked concept op Chemical Biology. E.g., http://www.pnas.org/content/95/25/14590.full
ReplyDeleteHowever, you guys already pointed out several papers that make use of such an approach.