Kinetic Resolution of Racemic Amines to Enantiopure (S)-amines by a Biocatalytic Cascade Employing Amine Dehydrogenase and Alanine Dehydrogenase

Amine dehydrogenases (AmDHs) efficiently catalyze the NAD(P)H-dependent asymmetric reductive amination of prochiral carbonyl substrates with high enantioselectivity. AmDH-catalyzed oxidative deamination can also be used for the kinetic resolution of racemic amines to obtain enantiopure amines. In the present study, kinetic resolution was carried out using a coupled-enzyme cascade consisting of AmDH and alanine dehydrogenase (AlaDH). AlaDH efficiently catalyzed the conversion of pyruvate to alanine, thus recycling the nicotinamide cofactors and driving the reaction forward. The ee values obtained for the kinetic resolution of 25 and 50 mM rac-alpha-methylbenzylamine using the purified enzymatic systems were only 54 and 43%, respectively. The use of whole-cells apparently reduced the substrate/product inhibition, and the use of only 30 and 40 mg(DCW)/mL of whole-cells co-expressing AmDH and AlaDH efficiently resolved 100 mM of rac-2-aminoheptane and rac-alpha-methylbenzylamine into the corresponding enantiopure (S)-amines. Furthermore, the applicability of the reaction protocol demonstrated herein was also successfully tested for the efficient kinetic resolution of wide range of racemic amines.