The cytochrome P411 enzyme is a
variant of cytochrome P450
BM3 from Bacillus megaterium whose active site is an iron porphyrin imine ([Fe(Por)(NH)]
-)
specie. This specie has been reported to successfully promote the primary amination of benzylic and allylic C(
sp3)−H
bonds. We employed density functional theory to study the electronic structure
of the active site of P411 enzyme and the
primary amination of C−H bond reaction that it catalyzes. The calculated spin densities and
orbital values indicate the existence of resonance
in this specie; namely, [(por)(–OH)Fe
IV–N
2-–H]
- ↔ [(por)(–OH)Fe
III–N
•-–H]
-.
The amination of C(
sp3)−H bonds consists of
two main reaction steps: hydrogen-atom abstraction and
radical recombination, and the former is demonstrated to be the
rate-determining step. Furthermore, we studied the regioselectivity of the
amination of primary and secondary C(
sp3)−H bonds. Our
calculations indicated that the secondary C(
sp3)−H bonds of the substrate would be more favored for the activation
by P411 enzyme. These results provide valuable information for understanding
the properties and selectivity of C−H/C−N bond-activation reactions catalyzed
by the P411 enzyme or other similar enzymes.