Electrostatic properties of phosphorylethanolamine at 123 K from crystal diffraction

Dipole Moment Enhancement in Molecular Crystals from X-ray Diffraction Data

Although reliable determination of the molecular dipole moment from experimental charge density analyses on molecular crystals is a challenging undertaking, these values are becoming increasingly common experimental results. We collate all known experimental determinations and use this database to identify broad trends in the dipole moment enhancements implied by these measurements as well as outliers for which enhancements are pronounced. Compelling evidence emerges that molecular dipole moments from X-ray diffraction data can provide a wealth of information on the change in the molecular charge distribution that results from crystal formation. Most importantly, these experiments are unrivalled in their potential to provide this information in such detail and deserve to be exploited to a much greater extent. The considerable number of experimental determinations now available has enabled us to pinpoint those studies that merit further attention, either because they point unequivocally to a considerable enhancement in the crystal (of 50 % or more), or because the experimental determinations suggest enhancements of 100 % or more--much larger than independent theoretical estimates. In both cases further detailed experimental and theoretical studies are indicated.

Intramolecular general acid catalysis of the hydrolysis of 2-(2'-imidazolium)phenyl phosphate, and bond length-reactivity correlations for reactions of phosphate monoester monoanions

Rate constants for the hydrolysis of 2-(2'-imidazolium)phenyl hydrogen phosphate (IMPP) in water at pH<6 indicate that activation by the imidazolium moiety disappears with the deprotonation of the phosphate group, and the reaction involves the hydrogen-bonding of the imidazolium NH with the aryl oxygen leaving group. The reaction should involve a near-planar conformation of the imidazolium and the phenyl groups in the activated complex, which favors proton-transfer. The crystal structure of IMPP was solved, and a bond length-reactivity correlation for reactions of phosphate monoester monoanions is described.

Structural determinants of activity at the GABAB receptor. A comparison of phosphoethanolamine and related GABA analogs

Phosphoethanolamine is a phosphomonoester that is reduced in Alzheimer disease brain. Despite its close structural similarity to GABA and the GABAB partial agonist 3-aminopropylphosphonic acid, phosphoethanolamine binds very poorly to GABAB receptors (IC50 = 7.5 +/- 0.8 mM). In this study, we examined whether the marked decrease in binding affinity associated with the presence of an ester oxygen in place of the alpha-CH2 group of GABAergic compounds also occurred in sulfonates and used high resolution solution NMR and molecular mechanics calculations to determine the structural basis of this decrease in activity. The sulfonate analog of GABA, 3-amino-propylsulfonic acid, became > 2500-fold less potent when the alpha-CH2 was replaced by an ester oxygen. Structural studies showed that the active alpha-CH2 compounds (GABA, 3-aminopropylphosphonic acid, and 3-aminopropylsulfonic acid) prefer a fully extended conformation. The inactive compounds, phosphoethanolamine and ethanolamine-O-sulfate, exist in a gauche conformation around the C beta-C gamma bond. This study, which suggests conformational differences, may explain how PE can be so efficiently excluded from GABAB receptors, despite being present in millimolar concentrations in brain. Exclusion of phosphoethanolamine from GABAB receptors may be an important physiologic control mechanism in the regulation of inhibitory neurotransmission.

Biophysical view of the role of interfaces in biomolecular recognition

Molecular recognition plays a key role in life. Macromolecular interactions at and with interfaces are of paramount importance in this respect. It is therefore crucial to understand and quantify the forces near the surfaces of biological interest in sufficient detail. Specific binding of large molecules, such as antibodies, is affected by the proximity of polar surfaces, for example. On the one hand, the presence of the net surface charges may raise or lower the local macromolecular concentration depending on the relative sign of the charges involved. On the other hand, the ligands attached to strongly polar surfaces always attract and bind their corresponding antibodies less efficiently than the corresponding dissolved molecules. The reason for this is the non-Coulombic repulsion between the ligand-presenting polar surface and the approaching macromolecule. This force is promoted by the surface hydrophilicity and the width of the interfacial region. A simple, direct hydration force is seldom, if ever, seen in such systems. (This is owing to the very short range (Lambda (h ) reverse similar 0.1 nm ) of pure hydration force.) The non-specific adsorption of proteins to the lipid bilayer is also little affected by the overall repulsion between the macromolecule and the bilayer surface; such an adsorption is governed more by the number of defects and/or by the availability of the hydrophobic binding sites in the interfacial region. Artificial lipid membranes typically offer numerous such binding sites to the surrounding macromolecules. Multiple non-specific protein adsorption, which results in partial macromolecular denaturation or complement activation, is therefore one of the main reasons for the rapid elimination of lipid vesicles from the blood stream in vivo. To promote the circulation time of an intravenously injected lipid suspension it is therefore necessary to modify the surfaces of their constituent lipid bilayers. Increasing the surface net charge density and/or increasing the bilayer surface hydrophilicity is of little use in this respect. In order to affect the non-specific bilayer-protein interactions significantly, an optimal number of water-soluble, short and sufficiently mobile polymers must be attached to the lipid head-groups. These polymers then increase the repulsive barrier of the membrane surface dramatically, due to the generation of a thick and mobile as well as strongly hydrated interface. Owing to this, the affinity for proteins of the resulting surface is lowered and the surface-induced protein denaturation or complement insertion is hampered. Polymer-coated liposomes, consequently, are not attractive for the phagocytic cells. Such liposomes, consequently, remain in the blood circulation much longer than simple lipid vesicles; the former, consequently, may spontaneously accumulate in tumors.

The electrostatic potential for the phosphodiester group determined from X-ray diffraction

The charge density distribution in the crystal structure of ammonium dimethylphosphate at 123 K has been determined from x-ray diffraction data (MoK alpha) using 8437 reflections with sin theta/lambda less than 1.33 A-1 [NH4+.(CH3)2PO4-, M(r) = 143.08, monoclinic, P2(1)/c, a = 10.007(1), b = 6.926(1), c = 9.599(2) A, beta = 105.40(1) degrees, V = 641.4(3) A3, Z = 4, F000 = 304, Dx = 1.4815 g.cm-3, mu = 3.726 cm-1]. Least-squares structure refinement assuming Stewart's rigid pseudoatom model (variables including Slater-type radial exponents and electron populations for multipole terms extending to octapoles for C, N, O, and P, and dipoles for H) gave R(F2) = 0.039 for all reflections. The dimethylphosphate anion is in the gauche-gauche conformation and has approximate twofold symmetry. One phosphoryl O atom forms three hydrogen bonds and the other forms one. Neither of the ester O atoms is hydrogen bonded. For the dimethylphosphate anion isolated from the crystal structure, a map of the electrostatic potential obtained using the pseudoatom charge parameters shows that the phosphoryl O atoms are considerably more electronegative than the ester O atoms. The electrostatic potential distribution obtained in this way has been fitted by least squares to a system of atom-centered point charges. The potential calculated from these point charges agrees with the experimental result. It also agrees reasonably well with potentials obtained from three other systems of point charges that are widely used as part of the semiempirical force field for molecular mechanics and molecular dynamics calculations involving nucleic acids.