Abstract (eng)
One of the most important approaches for the development of new drugs is the chemical modification of natural products with known structures and effects. The most elegant way to produce modified natural products is probably the genetic manipulation and cultivation of suitable microorganisms. However, this requires a detailed understanding of the underlying biosynthetic mechanisms. The present work addresses the investigation of the mechanisms of nonribosomal peptide biosynthesis. Nonribosomal peptides (NRPs) are produced by multienzyme complexes, called NRPSs (nonribosomal peptide synthetases), in some fungi and bacteria, and some of them show unique biological activities of particular importance. These include, inter alia, antibiotic, cytostatic and immunosuppressive effects. The best known example is probably the β-lactam antibiotic penicillin.
The last decades brought an enormous progress in the understanding of NRPS assembly line operations and in special cases it was already possible to derive the structure of previously unknown NRPs from the corresponding genetic information. However, some mechanistic details of the biosynthesis of these peptides are often still completely unclear. This makes the development of new methods of investigation necessary. The mechanistic uncertainties are particularly based on the fact that the various intermediates of the NRP biosynthesis are covalently bound to the enzyme complexes throughout the whole assembly process. The aim of this work was to develop a strategy for the synthesis of amino acid derivatives that in feeding experiments are expected to interact with the NRPSs in a way to allow the in vivo off-loading of intermediates. After extraction of the bacteria, analysis of the extracts by UPLC-HR-ESI-MS should verify the presence of the expected intermediates. These and similar principles are already applied successfully by the Tosin group for investigations on polyketide synthases (PKSs).
This work presents the first successful synthesis, purification and characterization of various amino acid derivatives. Particular attention is paid to the development of the synthetic strategy which led to compound 14a. To the best of my knowledge, this substance represents the first described aminoacyl carba(dethia)-N-decanoyl cysteamine. It is hoped that these amino acid derivatives are able to trap intermediates of the NRP biosynthesis in near future. However, the tested compounds appear to be relatively toxic for the investigated bacterial strain S. lasaliensis ACP12 (S970A). Thus, no intermediate, off-loaded from NRPSs by using these probes, could be detected so far. Further work is currently being made within the Tosin group.