Phosphate ester hydrolysis intermediates

J. P. Guthrie, Hydration and Dehydration of Phosphoric Acid Derivatives Free Energies of Formation of the Pentacoordinate Intermediates for Phosphate Ester Hydrolysis and of Monomeric Metaphosphate, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1977, 99, 3391. 

The mechanism of phosphate ester hydrolysis by hydroxide is shown in Figure 1 for a phosphodiester substrate. A SN2 mechanism with a trigonal-bipyramidal transition state is generally accepted for the uncatalyzed cleavage of phosphodiesters and phosphotriesters by nucleophilic attack at phosphorus. In uncatalyzed phosphate monoester hydrolysis, a SN1 mechanism with formation of a (POj) intermediate competes with the SN2 mechanism. For alkyl phosphates, nucleophilic attack at the carbon atom is also relevant. In contrast, all enzymatic cleavage reactions of mono-, di-, and triesters seem to follow an SN2... 

The two-step mechanism of phosphate ester hydrolysis by the (Znn)2-containing alkaline phosphatase (AP) (7) is thus somewhat mimicked by 24. The phosphoryl intermediate 25 is generated by nucleophilic attack of the alkoxide moiety in 24b at BNP" and is hydrolyzed by the intramolecular Zn11—OH" species in 25b. Thus, the attack at the BNP... 

Kaiser and Kezdy have pointed out that the failure to observe oxygen exchange in the hydrolysis of sultones can be understood if the preference rules which apply to the pseudorotation of intermediates in phosphate ester hydrolysis can be applied to pentacoordinate sulphur intermediates142. Since on this basis negatively charged groups would be expected to occupy equatorial positions, equilibration of oxygen atoms in a... 

Berente, I., Beke, T., 8c Ndray-Szab6, G. (2007). Quantum mechanical studies on the existence of a trigonal bipyramidal phosphorane intermediate in enzymatic phosphate ester hydrolysis. Theoretical Chemistry Accounts, 118,129. 

Phosphate esters have a variety of mechanistic paths for hydrolysis. Both C-O and P-0 cleavage are possible depending on the situation. A phosphate monoanion is a reasonable leaving group for nucleophilic substitution at carbon and so 8 2 or SnI reactions of neutral phosphate esters are well known. PO cleavage can occur by associative (by way of a pentacoordinate intermediate), dissociative (by way of a metaphosphate species), or concerted (avoiding both of these intermediates) mechanisms. 

Many mechanistic aspects of the hydrolysis of phosphate esters in protic media remain uncertain. In spite of predictions that racemization at phosphorus should be the final outcome if indeed the (hypothetical) metaphosphate intermediate is involved in the solvolysis of monoesters, the results of several studies on the methanolysis of appropriately O-isotopically labelled compounds are consistent with reactions proceeding with inversion of configuration, as observed for all enzymic and non-enzymic systems so far examined this has resulted in the suggestion that if metaphosphate is actually formed, then it must be in a masked form. 

Recently, highly branched macromolecular polyamidoamine dendrimers have been prepared with Co11 bound where the metal ions have additional exchangeable coordination sites.450 These macromolecules show a capacity for catalyzing the hydrolysis of phosphate esters, presumably via intermediate bound phosphoester species. 

The first observed product is the hydroxo-N-bound phosphoramidate complex, although there are almost certainly other intermediates. Both ester hydrolysis (to nitrophenolate ion) and transfer of a phosphate residue from O to N occur. An acceleration of at least 10 fold can be assessed for both processes, compared with the reaction of the uncoordinated ester with NH3 or 0H ion. The O to N transfer is a general biochemical occurrence, e.g. creatine kinase uses and creatine to transform ATP to ADP and form creatine... 

The first suggestion of a practical form of antidotal therapy came in 1949 from Hestrin, who found that acetylcholinesterase (AChE) catalyzed the formation of acetohydroxamlc acid when incubated with sodium acetate and hydroxylamine. Critical in vitro studies in the next decade led to the development of a practical approach to therapy. The crucial concept in these studies was the recognition that the compound formed when AChE reacted with a phosphorus ester was a covalent phosphoryl-enzyme Intermediate similar to that formed in the hydrolysis of acetylcholine. 3 Wilson and colleagues, beginning in 1951, demonstrated that AChE inhibited by alkyl phosphate esters (tetraethyl pyrophosphate, TEPP) could be reactivated by water, but that free enzyme formed much more rapidly in the presence of hydroxylamine. 0 21 Similar results... 

The preceding experiments prove that there is an intermediate on the reaction pathway in each case, the measured rate constants for the formation and decay of the intermediate are at least as high as the value of kcat for the hydrolysis of the ester in the steady state. They do not, however, prove what the intermediate is. The evidence for covalent modification of Ser-195 of the enzyme stems from the early experiments on the irreversible inhibition of the enzyme by organo-phosphates such as diisopropyl fluorophosphate the inhibited protein was subjected to partial hydrolysis, and the peptide containing the phosphate ester was isolated and shown to be esterified on Ser-195.1516 The ultimate characterization of acylenzymes has come from x-ray diffraction studies of nonspecific acylenzymes at low pH, where they are stable (e.g., indolylacryloyl-chymotrypsin),17 and of specific acylenzymes at subzero temperatures and at low pH.18 When stable solutions of acylenzymes are restored to conditions under which they are unstable, they are found to react at the required rate. These experiments thus prove that the acylenzyme does occur on the reaction pathway. They do not rule out, however, the possibility that there are further intermediates. For example, they do not rule out an initial acylation on His-57 followed by rapid intramolecular transfer. Evidence concerning this and any other hypothetical intermediates must come from additional kinetic experiments and examination of the crystal structure of the enzyme. 

Scheme I shows the hydrolysis of a phosphate ester in the presence of tris, which can serve as a phosphate acceptor so that O-phosphoryl-tris is a product as well as P(. It has been shown that in the presence of alcohols such as tris and ethanolamine the rate of substrate utilization is increased, that formation of alcohol exceeds that of phosphate, and that the difference is due to the formation of the O-phosphorylamino alcohol (122, 128). The question was Does the reaction with water and with tris emanate from the Michaelis complex or from a phosphoryl enzyme intermediate (E-P) If the reactions with tris and water stem from a phosphoryl enzyme, the ratio of products tris-phosphate and Pi would be independent of the leaving group RO, but if the reactions stem from the reversible complex containing the leaving group, the ratio of products would depend upon the structure of R. It was found that the ratio of free alcohol to phosphate was 2.39 0.02 for nine different substrates, including esters such as p-cresyl phosphate / -naphthyl phosphate, and phosphoenol pyruvate. This experiment established the occurrence of a phosphoryl enzyme intermediate.

A difficulty with Scheme II is that there is conflicting data as to what is the rate determining step. The fact that all phosphate esters are hydrolyzed at the same rate (see Table VI) would tend to indicate that the rate determining step was the hydrolysis of a common intermediate... 

More recently, isotopic labeling experiments have assumed a major role in establishing the detailed mechanism of enzymic action. It was shown that alkaline phosphatase possesses transferase activity whereby a phos-phoryl residue is transferred directly from a phosphate ester to an acceptor alcohol (18). Later it was found that the enzyme could be specifically labeled at a serine residue with 32P-Pi (19) and that 32P-phosphoserine could also be isolated after incubation with 32P-glucose 6-phosphate (20), providing strong evidence that a phosphoryl enzyme is an intermediate in the hydrolysis of phosphomonoesters. The metal-ion status of alkaline phosphatase is now reasonably well resolved (21-23). Like E. coli phosphatase it is a zinc metalloenzyme with 2-3 g-atom of Zn2+ per mole of enzyme. The metal is essential for catalytic activity and possibly also for maintenance of native enzyme structure. 

The hypothesis that phosphoranes are fleeting intermediates in the hydrolysis of certain phosphate esters (see Refs. 35-46) alternated with interpretations of the experimental data in terms of a transition state with pentacoordinated phosphorus (see Ref. 47). 

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