Ansgar Bokel got his manuscript entitled "Molecular evolution of a cytochrome P450 for the synthesis of potential antidepressant (2R,6R)-hydroxynorketamine " published in Chemical Communications.
Saturation mutagenesis at seven first-sphere residues of the cytochrome P450 monooxygenase 154E1 (CYP154E1) from Thermobifidia fusca YX was applied to construct a variant with only three substitutions that enabled the effective two-step synthesis of the potential antidepressant (2R,6R)-hydroxynorketamine. A recombinant E. coli whole-cell system was essential for GC/MS based medium-throughput screening and at the same time facilitated the oxidation of the substrate (R)-ketamine at a higher scale for product isolation and subsequent NMR analysis.
Bokel A, Hutter MC, Urlacher VB, 2021, Molecular evolution of a cytochrome P450 for the synthesis of potential antidepressant (2R,6R)-hydroxynorketamine, Chemical Communications, 57:520-523, https://doi.org/10.1039/D0CC06729F
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