Probing O-dealkylation and deamination aging processes in tabun-conjugated AChE: a computational study

Abstract

The mechanisms of the aging process of tabun-conjugated acetylcholinesterase were explored using density functional theory calculations. The free energy surfaces were calculated for O-dealkylation (C–O bond breaking) and deamination (P–N bond breaking) pathways for the aging process of tabun-conjugated acetylcholinesterase as suggested by mass and crystallographic studies. Initially, the calculations were performed using tabun-conjugated serine (SUN) molecule. O-dealkylation mechanism proceeds via one-step SN2 type process, whereas the deamination process proceeds via two steps addition–elimination reaction at the phosphorus center of SUN molecule. The recent proposal of another deamination mechanism using human butyrylcholinesterase (hBChE) conjugated with N-mono methyl analogue of tabun (TA4) has also been explored (Nachon et al. in Chem Biol Interact 187:44–48, 2010). The rate-determining activation barrier calculated for this deamination mechanism (26.3 kcal/mol) was comparable with O-dealkylation process (26.9 kcal/mol) with B3LYP/6-31+G* level of theory. To examine the influence of catalytic residue His447, additional calculations were performed with imidazole group of His447 residue. The incorporation of imidazole group of catalytic residue His447 showed marked decrease in the free energies of activation for all the studied aging processes of tabun-inhibited serine. The aging mechanisms have been explored with TA4-inhibited serine, and calculated results showed that the deamination with the rearrangement process is markedly preferred in this case, which supports the Nachon et al. proposal based on the crystallographic studies.