Studies and application of the enzymes of fluorometabolite biosynthesis in Streptomyces cattleya

Abstract

This thesis focuses on studies investigating the structure of intermediates involved in fluorometabolite biosynthesis, and the potential applications of the fluorinase enzyme in positron emission tomography (PET). Chapter 1 introduces the rare natural occurrence of fluorinated compounds. The bacterium Streptomyces cattleya is known to biosynthesise two fluorinated secondary metabolites: the toxin fluoroacetate (FAc) and the antibiotic 4-fluorothreonine (4-FT). The enzymes and intermediates identified on this fluorometabolite biosynthetic pathway in S. cattleya, prior to this research, are discussed in detail. Chapter 2 presents studies towards the unambiguous structural identification of (3R,4S)-5- deoxy-5-fluoro-D-ribulose-1-phosphate (5-FRulP) as the third fluorinated intermediate on the biosynthetic pathway to fluoroacetate and 4-fluorothreonine in S. cattleya. Chapter 3 describes the synthetic routes to key molecules, necessary as reference compounds and substrates, to underpin the subsequent studies in this thesis. In particular, synthetic routes to 5'-deoxy-5'-fluoroadenosine (5'-FDA), 5'-deoxy-5'-fluoroinosine (5'-FDI), 5-deoxy-5-fluoro-D-ribose (5-FDR) and 5-deoxy-5-fluoro-D-xylose (5-FDX) are described. Chapter 4 describes the use of the fluorinase enzyme from S. cattleya as a tool for the synthesis of new [¹⁸F]-labelled sugars with potential application in positron emission tomography (PET). A new route to 5-deoxy-5-[¹⁸F]fluoro-D-ribose ([¹⁸F]FDR) is developed in a two-step enzymatic synthesis. A total of three potential radiotracers ([¹⁸F]FDA, [¹⁸F]FDR and [¹⁸F]FDI) are synthesised using fluorinase-coupled enzyme reactions. In addition, in vitro studies are reported with these [¹⁸F]-labelled sugars to investigate their uptake and potential as PET radiotracers in cancer cells. A preliminary rat imaging study with [¹⁸F]FDA is reported. Chapter 5 details the experimental procedures for the compounds synthesised in this research and the biological procedures for chemo-enzymatic syntheses and protein purification.