Resolution of Ibuprofen Ester by Catalytic Antibodies in Water-miscible Organic-solvents

The asymmetric hydrolysis of racemic ibuprofen ester is one of the most important methods for chiral separation of ibuprofen. In this work, a catalytic antibody that accelerates the rate of enantioselective hydrolysis of ibuprofen methyl ester was obtained against an immunogen consisting of tetrahedral phosphonate hapten attached to bovine serum albumin (BSA). The catalytic activity of the catalytic antibody in the water-miscible organic-solvent system composed of a buffer solution and N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF) was studied. With 6% DMF in the buffer solution (containing catalytic antibody 0.25∼μmol, 0.2 mol·L−1 phosphate buffer, pH 8) at 37°C for 10 h, a good conversion (48.7%) and high enantiomeric excess (>99%) could be reached. The kinetic analysis of the catalytic antibody-catalyzed reaction showed that the hydrolysis in the water-miscible organic-solvent system with DMF in buffer solution followed the Michaelis-Menten kinetics. The catalytic efficiency (Kcat/Km) was enhanced to 151.91 L·mmol−1·min−1, twice as large as that for the buffer solution only.