Hemoprotein-catalyzed cyclopropanation en route to the chiral cyclopropanol fragment of grazoprevir.

Reactions that were once the exclusive province of synthetic catalysts can increasingly be addressed using biocatalysis. Through discovery of non-natural enzyme reactions, biochemists have significantly expanded the reach of enzymatic catalysis to include carbene transfer chemistries including olefin cyclopropanation. Here we describe hemoprotein cyclopropanation catalysts derived from thermophilic bacterial globins that react with diazoacetone and an unactivated olefin substrate to furnish a cyclopropyl ketone, a previously unreported reaction for enzyme catalysts. We further demonstrate that the resulting cyclopropyl ketone can be converted to a key cyclopropanol intermediate that occurs en route to the anti-hepatitis C drug grazoprevir.