Insecticide and nerve agent organophosphorus compounds are potent inhibitors of the serine hydrolase superfamily of enzymes. Nerve agents, such as sarin, soman, tabun and VX exert their toxicity by inhibiting human acetycholinesterase at nerve synapses. Following the initial phosphonylation of the active site serine, the enzyme may reactivate spontaneously or through reaction with an appropriate nucleophilic oxime. Alternatively, the enzyme-nerve agent complex can undergo a secondary process, called "aging", which dealkylates the nerve agent adduct and results in a product that is highly resistant to reactivation by any known means. Here we report the structures of paraoxon, soman and sarin complexes of group-VIII phospholipase A2 from bovine brain. In each case, the crystal structures indicate a non-aged adduct; a stereoselective preference for binding of the P S C S isomer of soman and the P S isomer of sarin was also noted. The stability of the non-aged complexes was corroborated by trypsin digest and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, which indicates non-aged complexes are formed with diisopropylfluorophosphate, soman and sarin. The P S stereoselectivity for reaction with sarin was confirmed by reaction of racemic sarin, followed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry using a chiral column to separate and quantitate each stereoisomer. The P S stereoisomers of soman and sarin are known to be the more toxic stereoisomers, as they react preferentially to inhibit human acetylcholinesterase. The results obtained for non-aged complexes of group-VIII phospholipase A2 are compared to those obtained for other serine hydrolases and discussed to partly explain determinants of OP aging. Furthermore, structural insights can now be exploited to engineer variant versions of this enzyme with enhanced nerve agent binding and hydrolysis functions. † This work was supported by NIH Grants 2P20RR015588 from the National Center for Research Resources and 1R01HL084366-A1 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. ‡ Protein Data Bank entry codes 3DT6, 3DT9 and 3DT8 are non-aged group-VIII phospholipase A2 complexes with paraoxon, soman and sarin, respectively.
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Author ManuscriptBiochemistry. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2010 April 21.
Published in final edited form as:Biochemistry. Organophosphorus (OP) compounds such as nerve agents interfere with the catalytic activity of serine hydrolases by forming a covalent phosphorus conjugate. OP compounds are believed to exert toxicity primarily through the inhibition of acetylcholinesterase (AChE), which is responsible for degrading the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. A larger super-family of serine hydrolases have been shown to be inactivated by OPs, with potential clinical consequences (1). In each of these active sites, the serine residue is postulated to react with OPs by a S N 2 mechanism with a trigonal bipyramidal transition state. Upon loss of the displaced leaving group stereoinversion at the chiral phosphorus atom occurs (2). De...