Enzyme cyclic phosphate ester

The nucleotide cyclic AMP (3, 5 -cyclic adenosine monophosphate, cAMP) is a cyclic phosphate ester of particular biochemical significance. It is formed from the triester ATP by the action of the enzyme adenylate cyclase, via nucleophilic attack of the ribose 3 -hydroxyl onto the nearest P=0 group, displacing diphosphate as leaving group. It is subsequently inactivated by hydrolysis to 5 -AMP through the action of a phosphodiesterase enzyme. 

With the existence of this new cyclodextrin lock, it was again important to select a key to fit it and to serve as substrate. For this we wanted a cyclic phosphate ester that this cyclodextrin bisimidazole could hydrolyze. The enzyme ribonuclease hydrolyzes cyclic phosphates as the second step in the hydrolysis of RNA, and cyclic phosphates are used as assay substrates for the enzyme. The advantage to us of such a substrate was that the geometry of the transition state would be relatively well-defined, so that it should be possible to design congruence between the catalyst and the transition state. Molecular model building indicated that a possible substrate was the cyclic phosphate derived from 4-f-butylcatechol (VIII). Indeed, the cyclodextrin bisimidazole (VII) is a catalyst for the cleavage of cyclic phosphate (VIII) (14). 

Breslow and co-workers have studied the mechanism of imidazole-catalyzed hydrolysis of both cyclic phosphate esters and of RNA (67-72). These studies are directed toward a more detailed understanding of the mechanism of the hydrolysis of RNA catalyzed by ribonuclease A (RNase A). In particular, recent studies by Breslow and co-workers have addressed the interesting and enzymologically pertinent question of the origin of the bell-shaped dependence of hydrolytic rate constant on pH in both enzymic and nonenzymic reactions. 

A different kind of selectivity has been observed with cyclodextrin bisimidazoles. These species were synthesized as mimics of the enzyme ribonuclease, and indeed they do perform the cleavage of certain bound phosphate esters with a mechanism closely related to that of the natural enzyme [26]. Of course in the natural enzyme there is considerable selectivity, including regioselectivity. For instance, the natural enzyme can cleave a cyclic phosphate ester between C-2 and C-3 of a ribose unit in such a way as to leave the phosphate group entirely on C-3. Ordinary chemical hydrolysis of such a molecule would lead to a mixture of C-2 and C-3 phosphates. Our cyclodextrin bisimidazole is able to imitate such selectivity. 

The most convincing evidence in favor of a uniform 3,5-diester linkage between nucleotides has been obtained by the action of various enzymes on synthetic diesters of known constitution.218 217 Ribonuclease and spleen extracts were found to act only on nucleoside 3-(benzyl hydrogen phosphates), but not on other isomers, to give nucleoside cyclic phosphates which are broken down further to give nucleoside 3-phosphates. It is concluded, by analogy, that polynucleotides, which are substrates for these enzymes, also possess ester groupings at the 3-positions, rather than at the... 

Recently the related cyclization of the phenyl ester of c/j-tetrahydrofuran-3,4-diol monophosphate to the corresponding five-membered phosphate with loss of phenol has been shown to be subject to general catalysis by imidazole132. This reaction serves as a model for the first step in the action of ribonuclease which leads to the formation of the nucleoside 2 ,3 -cyclic phosphate. The actual details of the transition state leading to the cyclic phosphate as catalyzed by the enzyme are presently the subject of some debate. One possibility is the in-line mechanism (53)... 

Considerable ingenuity was required in both the synthesis of these chiral compounds695 697 and the stereochemical analysis of the products formed from them by enzymes.698 700 In one experiment the phospho group was transferred from chiral phenyl phosphate to a diol acceptor using E. coli alkaline phosphatase as a catalyst (Eq. 12-36). In this reaction transfer of the phospho group occurred without inversion. The chirality of the product was determined as follows. It was cyclized by a nonenzymatic in-line displacement to give equimolar ratios of three isomeric cyclic diesters. These were methylated with diazomethane to a mixture of three pairs of diastereoisomers triesters. These dia-stereoisomers were separated and the chirality was determined by a sophisticated mass spectrometric analysis.692 A simpler analysis employs 31P NMR spectroscopy and is illustrated in Fig. 12-22. Since alkaline phosphatase is relatively nonspecific, most phosphate esters produced by the action of phosphotransferases can have their phospho groups transferred without inversion to 1,2-propanediol and the chirality can be determined by this method. 

Anatoxin-a(s) is a phosphate ester of a cyclic iV-hydroxyguanidine (Fig. 16.2) [5]. It is the only natural organophosphate known and, as the synthetic parathion and malathion, irreversibly inhibits acetylcholinesterase. When this enzyme is inhibited, acetylcholine is no longer hydrolysed, the postsynaptic membrane cannot be repolarised, the nerve influx is blocked and the muscle cannot be contracted. 

In 1970, Eckstein and co-workers reported the first stereochemical study of an enzyme-catalyzed hydrolysis of a phosphate ester, the hydrolysis of the endo isomer of uridine 2, 3 -cyclic phosphorothioate (enrfo-cyclic UMPS) (72) by ribonuclease A (RNase A) 13). The hydrolysis of RNA catalyzed either by base or by RNase A proceeds by a two-step mechanism in which the 2 -hydroxyl group of a nucleotide unit within an RNA molecule acts as a nucleophile on the 3 -phosphodiester bond to displace the 5 -hydroxyl group of the neighboring nucleoside to form a 2, 3 -cyciic phosphate intermediate. RNase A then catalyzes the hydrolysis of this cyclic phosphate, mimicked by Eckstein s endo-cyclic UMPS, to yield the ultimate 3 -mononucleotide product. 

Phosphate esters can be cleaved by template catalysts, especially those with cyclodextrin binding groups and linked catalytic groups. Catalysis of the hydrolysis of a bound cyclic phosphate by ribonuclease mimics has been extensively studied [92-98], as has catalysis by enzyme mimics carrying bound metal ions [99-102]. 

The 3, 5 -cyclic monophosphate of adenosine (cAMP) (2.148) is an important secondary messenger for intercellular communication in biochemistry. When the cell is stimulated by the first messenger, compound 2.148 is formed from adenosine triphosphate (ATP) (Scheme 2.25). This reaction is catalysed by an adenosine cyclase enzyme. The cAMP then goes on to activate other intracellular enzymes, so producing a cell response. The response is terminated by the hydrolysis of cAMP by phosphodiesterase (a phosphate-ester-hydrolysis enzyme). The action of adenylate cyclase has been mimicked successfully with a p-cyclodextrin complex of Pr(iii) and other lanthanide(iii) metals, under physiological conditions. The... 

A peculiar specificity of action was found with an enzyme from guinea pig liver nuclei. This enzyme splits ordinary dinucleotide bonds to form 3 -phosphate esters. When it is given cyclic nucleotides as substrates, on the other hand, it liberates exclusively 2 esters. It is not certain, however,... 

---