Biocatalysts for natural product biosynthesis

Area of Science:

• Biocatalysis
• Natural Product Synthesis
• Medicinal Chemistry

Background:

• Natural products are vital sources of pharmaceuticals due to their diverse biological activities.
• Enzymes from natural product biosynthetic pathways are increasingly utilized as biocatalysts.
• These enzymes facilitate modification of complex natural compounds, leading to new drug candidates.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review recent advancements in engineering natural product enzymes for pharmaceutical applications.
• To highlight the use of biocatalysts in synthesizing novel scaffolds and complex molecules.
• To discuss the potential of enzyme engineering in drug discovery and development.

Main Methods:

• Engineering of polyketide catalytic domains for novel polyketide synthesis.
• Development of tailoring enzymes (non-oxidative) as biocatalysts.
• In vitro total synthesis of natural products utilizing purified enzyme components.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated success in generating innovative molecular scaffolds through enzyme engineering.
• Enabled large-scale synthesis of chiral building blocks crucial for drug development.
• Facilitated the semisynthesis of medicinally relevant natural product derivatives.

Conclusions:

• Enzyme engineering offers a powerful approach for pharmaceutical synthesis.
• Advances in genomics and genome mining will accelerate the discovery of new biocatalysts.
• Biocatalysts derived from natural product pathways hold significant promise for future drug discovery.