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Background: The use of biocatalysts has become an increasingly attractive alternative to traditional chemical methods, due to the high selectivity, mild reaction conditions and environmentally-friendly processes in nonaqueous catalysis of nucleosids. However, the extensive use of organic solvents may generally suffer from sever drawbacks such as volatileness and toxicity to the environment and lower activity of the biocatalyst. Recently, ionic liquids are considered promising solvents for nonaqueous biocatalysis of polyhydroxyl compounds as ILs are environmental-friendly., Results: In this research, we developed new IL-containing reaction systems for synthesis of long chain nucleoside ester catalyzed by Pseudomonas fluorescens whole-cells. Various ILs exerted significant but different effects on the bio-reaction. And their effects were closely related with both the anions and cations of the ILs. Use of 10% [BMI][PF6]/THF gave high reaction efficiency of arabinocytosine laurate synthesis, in which the initial rate, product yield and 5'-regioselectivity reached 2.34 mmol/L·h, 81.1% and >99%, respectively. Furthermore, SEM analysis revealed that ILs can alter the cell surface morphology, improve the permeability of cell envelopes and thus facilitate the mass transfer of substrates to the active sites of cell-bound enzymes., Conclusion: Our research demonstrated the potential of ILs as promising reaction medium for achieving highly efficient and regioselective whole-cell catalysis.

Enzymatic regioselective acylation of pyrimidine nucleosides was mediated by immobilized lipase from Penicillium expansum in 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (MeTHF), a bio-solvent derived from biomass. Despite of the moderate dissolution ability of MeTHF toward nucleosides, the initial enzymatic reaction rate was much higher in this eco-friendly solvent than in other commonly used organic solvents. This could be explained by the lower apparent activation energy of the enzymatic reaction (24.5 vs. 43.3-57.1kJ/mol) and the higher catalytic efficiency of the enzyme (Vmax/Km, 5.8 vs. 1.1-2.9h(-1)) in MeTHF. The enzymatic acylation of a group of ribonucleosides afforded the desirable 5'-esters with the conversions of 96-99% and 5'-regioselectivities of 96 to >99%. In enzymatic acylation of 2'-deoxynucleosides, however, 5'-regioselectivities showed a clear dependence on the 5-substituents present in the base moiety although the substrate conversions reached >98% within 1-3h. In the cases of 2',3'-dideoxynucleoside analogs, the reaction rate decreased markedly due to the lack of 3'-hydroxyl., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Nucleoside derivatives are a class of compounds that have attracted intense interest in biotechnology and medicine. Use of biocatalysts opens exciting opportunities for selective synthesis of many nucleoside derivatives, and such an approach offers simplicity, exquisite selectivity and environmentally benign processes. Here we reviewed current achievements in the biocatalytic transformation of nucleoside derivatives from the literature between 2000 and 2009. This article is arranged according to the types of reactions that can be employed to transform nucleoside derivatives, which include acylation, deacylation, glycosylation, halogenation and deamination., ((c) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)