Determining ligand orientation and transphosphonylation mechanisms on acetylcholinesterase by Rp, Sp enantiomer selectivity and site-specific mutagenesis

Acetylcholinesterase, an enzyme of the serine hydrolase family, catalyzes the rapid hydrolysis of certain carboxyl esters. Other acyl esters efficiently transacylate the enzyme with a subsequent, slow deacylation step. Of these, the phosphoryl and phosphonyl esters are perhaps of greatest mechanistic interest since individual enantiomers of known absolute stereochemistry can be isolated and their interactions with the dissymmetric enzyme active site examined. We describe here studies of a series of enantiomeric Rp- and Sp-alkylphosphonates interacting with mouse acetylcholinesterase. Since the acetylcholinesterase is generated by recombinant DNA methods, mutant enzymes can be made with specific replacements of individual amino acid side chains. Individual amino acid replacements in the acyl pocket, the choline subsite and at the active center gorge entry have been generated, and the reaction kinetics of the mutant enzymes analyzed. These studies have shown that substitution of aliphatic amino acids for phenylalanines 295 and 297 in the acyl pocket diminishes, and in some cases, actually inverts chiral preferences. The combined structure-activity approach, where both ligand and enzyme are modified systematically, has enabled us to show that the restricted dimensions of the acyl pocket in the active center dictate enantiomeric selectivity. Moreover, the reactions of compounds of known absolute stereochemistry show three requirements for efficient transphosphonylation: (a) apposition of the phosphate with the gamma-oxygen on Ser 203 to form a pentavalent, presumed trigonal bipyramidal intermediate, (b) polarization of the phosphonyl oxygen bond by its positioning in the oxyanion hole, and (c) positioning the leaving group towards the gorge exit.