Mammalian and microbial cell-free conversion of anthracycline antibiotics and analogs

Cell-free preparations of Streptomyces nogalater and rat liver catalyze reduced pyridine nucleotide dependent conversion of nogalamycin to 7-deoxynogalarol and nogalose (Scheme 1). The mammalian process requires TPNH and has a specific activity of 85 nmoles of 7-deoxynogalarol formed per hour per mg of protein while the bacterial process prefers DPNH and has a specific activity of 5. The oxygen-sensitive conversions have pH optima of 7.5 (rat) and 9 (S. nogalater). Other anthracycline substrates converted to their 7-deoxyaglycones by both systems include nogamycin, 7(R)-O-methylnogarol, 7(R)-O-methylnogalarol, doxorubicin (Adriamycin), steffimycin, and steffimycin B.