The fungus Cordyceps militaris has been previously shown to be capable of inverting the chirality of 2-phenylpropionic acid from its (R)-enantiomer to its (S)antipode. The structure of this compound is similar to the 2-arylpropionic acid nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which have also been reported to undergo a similar chiral inversion process in mammals and man. We report here an investigation into the substrate specificity of the enzyme system present in C. militaris using pure enantiomers and racemates of ibuprofen and ketoprofen and racemates of indoprofen, suprofen, flurbiprofen, and fenoprofen and the structurally related compounds 2-phenylbutyric acid and 2-phenoxypropionic acid as substrates, using optimised incubation conditions developed for the inversion of 2-phenylpropionic acid.
The results demonstrated that C. militaris is capable of inverting the chirality of all the compounds investigated, which suggests that the active sites of the enzymes are very flexible with regard to the molecular dimensions of the substrate molecule and the spatial occupation of the groups surrounding the chiral centre. Metabolism of all the substrates was observed but the rate of metabolism varied extensively depending on the substrate. Achiral HPLC analysis was used to detect any potential metabolites and the results suggested that the site of the metabolism appeared to be at the aliphatic side groups only, with the aromatic ring being left intact in all cases. These results suggest that C. militaris could be a valuable tool in the investigation of the prospective metabolic fates of new 2-arylpropionic acids during their development.