Direct Electrochemical Regeneration of NADH and Its Biomimetics

Abstract

Enzyme-catalyzed redox transformations are an attractive approach for conversion of unactivated alkanes into value-added products under mild reaction conditions. This is especially true since advancements in the area of enzyme engineering has led to a dramatic expansion in the use of modified oxidoreductases for selective functionalization of commodity petrochemicals in non-aqueous media. Despite their appeal, many redox enzymes rely on stoichiometric quantities of expensive coenzymes, such as nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH), that are not easily regenerated. The use of direct electrochemistry to catalytically regenerate NADH has long been an aspiration of chemists as a convenient and straightforward method that would enable use of the expensive cofactor in enzyme-catalyzed synthesis on an industrial scale. Unfortunately, direct electrochemical reduction of the oxidized form of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) results in unstable radical intermediates that rapidly form biologically inactive byproducts. Recent progress has been made towards the development of inexpensive artificial NADH biomimetics as replacements for the natural coenzyme, but the strategies to regenerate these biomimetic coenzymes is equally limiting. A primary focus of our research is to design synthetic analogues of NAD+ and NADH that are both enzymatically active and electrochemically regenerable. We will present our recent progress in understanding the structure-reactivity relationships that lead to dimerization over the preferred formation of 1,4-dihydronicotinamide in NAD+ and its biomimetics, and we will describe strategies to prevent dimerization of electrochemically reduced NAD+.