%0 Journal Article
%T The allosteric modulation of lipases and its possible biological relevance
%A Jens K£¿hler
%A Bernhard W¨¹nsch
%J Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling
%D 2007
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1742-4682-4-34
%X Considering the biological relevance of the discovered regulation mechanism we developed a theory that describes the regulation of energy homeostasis and fat metabolism.This theory represents a new approach to explain the cause of the metabolic syndrome and provides an innovative basis for further research activity.Asymmetric syntheses are investigated to produce chiral organic compounds with high enantiomeric purity. Their development has been an expending task of research during the last years. Valuable tools to perform the required chemical reactions are enzymes, which work as catalysts. The substrate to be transformed binds to the chiral binding site of the employed enzyme and is modified enantioselectively. Very often lipases are used for this kind of transformation [1,2]. In water these enzymes catalyze the hydrolysis of esters to afford alcohols and acids. This reaction corresponds to their natural task, hydrolysis of triglycerides. Their catalytic activity is increased by interfacial activation [3]. Since lipases are also stable and active in neat organic solvents, their use as catalysts is very convenient. In organic solvents the equilibrium of the catalyzed reaction is shifted to the direction of esters, which are formed instead of hydrolyzed. Often transesterfications are carried out to produce esters from alcohols. The most useful acyl donors for this feature are enol esters, e.g. vinyl or isopropenyl acetate, as the resulting enols tautomerize into carbonyl compounds. This procedure makes the reaction almost irreversible [4].In our experiments two different lipases were used. We employed the lipase from Burkholderia cepacia and the lipase from Mucor miehei, which are common in organic synthesis. In numerous publications both lipases were investigated and described in detail, their tertiary structures have been characterized by X-ray structure analysis [2-7]. Due to reclassification Burkholderia cepacia was renamed during the last years. Therefore the li
%U http://www.tbiomed.com/content/4/1/34