Experimental and kinetic studies of the Escherichia coli glucuronylsynthase: an engineered enzyme for the synthesis of glucuronide conjugates

The detection and study of glucuronide metabolites is essential in many fields including pharmaceutical development, sports drug testing, and the detection of agricultural residues. Therefore, the development of improved methods for the synthesis of glucuronide conjugates is an important aim. The glycosynthase derived from E. coli β-glucuronidase provides an efficient, scalable, single-step synthesis of β-glucuronides under mild conditions. In this article we report on experimental and kinetic studies of the E. coli glucuronylsynthase, including the influence of acceptor substrate, pH, temperature, cosolvents, and detergents, leading to optimized conditions for glucuronide synthesis. Enzyme kinetics also reveals that both substrate and product inhibition may occur in glucuronylsynthase reactions but that these effects can be ameliorated through the judicious choice of acceptor and donor substrate concentrations. An investigation of temporary polar substituents was conducted leading to improved aqueous solubility of hydrophobic steroidal acceptors. In this way the synthesis of the steroidal metabolite dehydroepiandrosterone 3-β-D-glucuronide was achieved in three steps and 86% overall yield from dehydroepiandrosterone.