Tetrahedron

Asymmetric reduction of dihydrofolate using dihydrofolate reductase and chiral boron-containing compounds

L Rees, E Valente, CJ Suckling, HCS Wood

Index: Rees, Lilias; Valente, Edward; Suckling, Colin J.; Wood, Hamish C. S. Tetrahedron, 1986 , vol. 42, # 1 p. 117 - 136

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Citation Number: 11

Abstract

The reduction of dihydrofolic acid to chiral tetrahydrofolic acid has been investigated by enzymic and non-enzymic means. With dihydrofolate reductase from E. coli as catalyst and recycling systems for NADPH, up to 1 g of optically pure stable tetrahydrofolate derivatives was obtained. The technique makes the possibility of synthesising chiral 5- formyltetrahydrofolate (leucovorin) for use in cancer rescue therapy attainable. In contrast, ...