2024

Yedigenov, Mussa; Amire, Niyaz; Abdirassil, Aizat; Mulikova, Tomiris; Begenov, Azamat; Kiesilä, Anniina; Peshkov, Anatoly A.; Peshkov, Vsevolod A.; Utepbergenov, Darkhan

We report highly enantioselective synthesis of L-α-hydroxy carboxylic acids (L-αHCAs) via enzymatic intramolecular Cannizzaro reaction of (hetero)aryl glyoxals in the presence of glutathione-independent human glyoxalase DJ-1. Combined with the optimized synthesis of D-αHCAs using glyoxalases I and II, this approach offers a general, scalable and operationally simple access to both enantiomers of α-hydroxy acids in moderate to excellent yields with uniformly high enantioselectivity.