Catalytic antibodies have potential applications in medicine and biomedical research as """"""""in vivo"""""""" drug processing systems and in chemistry for the synthesis of complex drugs. This project aims at developing antibody catalysts for synthetic reactions. Three specific projects are proposed for chemical transformations involving enol derivatives: 1) enantioselective enol ether hydrolysis for the synthesis of optically pure aldehydes; 2) enantio- and stereoselective, acid catalyzed, aldol reaction between two enol ethers for the synthesis of B-hydroxy- aldehydes; 3) base catalyzed aldol, Michael and Robinson reactions with carbonyl compounds. Antibodies will be raised against antigenic molecules possessing an ammonium cation moiety as transition state model. Monoclonal antibody clones will be assayed for catalysis using reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). Catalytic reactions will be characterized kinetically and the nature and stereochemical purity of products determined to assess their application potential. This work contributes to the basic understanding of protein catalysis in general and may lead to new catalytic synthetic methods.
