Towards preparative chemoenzymatic oxidative decarboxylation of glutamic acid

The chemoenzymatic oxidative decarboxylation of glutamic acid to the corresponding nitrile using the vanadium chloroperoxidase from Curvularia inaequalis (CiVCPO) as HOBr generation catalysts has been investigated. Product inhibition was identified as major limitation. Nevertheless, 1630000 turnovers and kcat of 75 s−1 were achieved using 100 mM glutamate. The semi-preparative enzymatic oxidative decarboxylation of glutamate was also demonstrated.