Screening of microorganisms suitable for the whole cell biocatalised synthesis of deazapurine nucleosides with potential antiviral or antihelmintic activity

BENTANCOR, LETICIA, LEWKOWICZ, ELIZABETH AND IRIBARREN, ADOLFO M.

Villa Carlos Paz, Córdoba

Congreso; XXXVIII Reunión anual SAIBBM; 2002

saibbm

Purine nucleoside analogues play a prominent role in the therapy of viral infections. Thereby, AZT (3?- azido-3?-deoxythymidine) is actually one of the most used drug against HIV. The classical synthesis involves common organic chemical reactions, with low regioselectivity and efficiency. Biotransformations are a beneficial alternative, in particular those that involve whole cells as biocatalysts. Purine nucleosides are produced from more available pirimidine ones by microorganisms that contain intracellular nucleoside phosphorylases in high yields in chemical and environmental clean conditions. On the other hand, deazapurine bases are widely used in veterinary medicine as antihelmintics. Most of the approved drugs belong to the group of benzimidazoles but the development of new analogues is still necessary. Taking into account these antecedents, we considered interesting to prepare deazapurine nucleosides carrying natural and modified sugar moieties and asses their potential antiviral or antihelmintic activity. With this aim, we have screened our bacterial collection to select the strains that perform the desired reactions. Aeromona, E.coli, Citrobater and Erwinia were found to afford the best yields (higher than 80%). Selection conditions depended on nucleoside structure.