Modular Enzymatic Cascade Synthesis of Nucleotides Using a (d)ATP Regeneration System.

Maryke Fehlau,Felix Kaspar,Peter Neubauer,Julia Schollmeyer,Anke Wagner,Katja F Hellendahl

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2020.00854

Abstract

Nucleoside-5’-triphosphates (NTPs) and their analogs are building blocks of DNA and are important compounds in both pharmaceutical and molecular biology applications. Currently, commercially available base or sugar modified NTPs are mainly synthesized chemically. Since the chemical production of NTPs is time-consuming and generally inefficient, alternative approaches are under development. Here we present a simple, efficient and generalizable enzymatic synthesis method for the conversion of nucleosides to NTPs. Our one-pot method is modular, applicable to a wide range of natural and modified nucleotide products and accesses NTPs directly from cheap nucleoside precursors. Nucleoside kinases, nucleoside monophosphate (NMP) kinases and a nucleoside diphosphate (NDP) kinase were applied as biocatalysts. Enzymes with different substrate specificities were combined to produce derivatives of adenosine and cytidine triphosphate with conversions of 4 to 26%. The implementation of a (deoxy)ATP recycling system resulted in a significant increase in the conversion to all NTP products, furnishing 4 different NTPs in quantitative conversion. Natural (deoxy)NTPs were synthesized with 60 to >99% conversion and sugar- and base-modified NTPs were produced with 69 to >99% and 27 to 75% conversion, respectively. The presented method is suitable for the efficient synthesis of a wide range of natural and modified NTPs in a sustainable one-pot process.

Highlights

Modified nucleotides are important small molecules in molecular biology and pharmaceutical applications
Wild-type nucleoside and nucleotide kinases were obtained from BioNukleo GmbH (Berlin, Germany) except for widespectrum deoxynucleoside kinase from Drosophila melanogaster (DmdNK)
We aimed to use a modular enzymatic cascade system to synthesize a range of natural as well as sugar- and base-modified NTPs using the respective nucleosides as substrates

Summary

Introduction

Modified nucleotides are important small molecules in molecular biology and pharmaceutical applications. The application of nucleotide prodrugs is of increasing interest (Pradere et al, 2014) as most of the known nucleoside analog drugs are only active as the respective nucleoside. In a number of approaches including the application of sofosbuvir or remdesivir, protected nucleoside monophosphates (NMPs) were administered to overcome the first activation step in vivo (Pradere et al, 2014; Ko et al, 2020). Methods have been developed for the production of NDP or NTP prodrugs with an increased biological availability of the respective nucleoside drug as shown for sofosbuvir or remdesivir (Pradere et al, 2014)

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Conclusion