Accessibility of N-acyl-d-mannosamines to N-acetyl-d-neuraminic acid aldolase Original Research Article

N-Acetyl-d-neuraminic acid (NeuNAc) aldolase is an important enzyme for the metabolic engineering of cell-surface NeuNAc using chemically modified d-mannosamines. To explore the optimal substrates for this application, eight N-acyl derivatives of d-mannosamine were prepared, and their accessibility to NeuNAc aldolase was quantitatively investigated. The N-propionyl-, N-butanoyl-, N-iso-butanoyl-, N-pivaloyl-, and N-phenylacetyl-d-mannosamines proved to be as good substrates as, or even better than, the natural N-acetyl-d-mannosamine, while the N-trifluoropropionyl and benzoyl derivatives were poor. It was proposed that the electronic effects might have a significant influence on the enzymatic aldol condensation reaction of d-mannosamine derivatives, with electron-deficient acyl groups having a negative impact. The results suggest that N-propionyl-, N-butanoyl-, N-iso-butanoyl-, and N-phenylacetyl-d-mannosamines may be employed to bioengineer NeuNAc on cells.