Computational Studies Suggest Promiscuous <i>Candida antarctica</i> Lipase B as an Environmentally Friendly Alternative for the Production of Epoxides

Environmentally friendly processes are nowadays a trending topic to get highly desired chemical compounds and, in this sense, the use of enzyme-catalyzed routes is becoming promising alternative traditional synthetic methods. In present paper, hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) computational study on epoxidation alkenes catalyzed by Ser105Ala variant promiscuous Candida antarctica lipase B (CALB) presented an attempt search for paths useful intermediates industries. The reaction, described at atomistic level with model full solvated box water molecules, compared peroxy acids chloroform. Free-energy profiles obtained density functional theory (DFT)/MM show how CALB capable epoxide short two-step process free-energy barriers, agreement available experimental data, that significantly lower than those single-step reaction solution. possible (R)-enantioselectivity dictated binding step, explored means alchemical QM/MM perturbation (FEP) methods, and preference (S)-enantiomer derived from landscape steps would cancel out, thus predicting lack enantioselectivity experimentally observed. general, our results provide general information molecular mechanism employed enzyme, potential applications biotechnology.