A R T I C L E S
Peters et al.
pholipid substrates.69 Assay conditions for the sPLA2 lag-time measure-
ments were 0.15 mM unilamellar liposomes in a Hepes buffer (150
nM sPLA2, 0.15 M KCl, 1 mM NaN3, 0.03 mM CaCl2, 0.01 mM
EDTA, and 0.01 M Hepes (pH ) 7.5)). The catalytic reaction was
initiated by adding 8.9 µL of a 42 µM sPLA2 stock solution to 2.5 mL
of a thermostated liposome suspension equilibrated 20 min prior to
addition of the enzyme. The time elapsed between addition of sPLA2
and a sudden increase in the intrinsic fluorescence emission from sPLA2
(tryptophan emission), due to a burst in the sPLA2 activity, is defined
as the characteristic lag time of the enzyme. The emission takes place
at 340 nm after excitation at 285 nm. The total amount of hydrolyzed
lipid 1000 s after the sPLA2 burst was determined by HPLC.
HPLC Quantification. HPLC analysis was performed using a 5
µL diol column, a mobile phase composed of CHCl3/MeOH/H2O (730:
230:25, v/v), and an evaporative light scattering detector. Sample (100
µL) was withdrawn from a 0.15 mM liposome suspension, which was
rapidly mixed with 1 mL of CHCl3/methanol/acetic acid (2:4:1) in order
to quench the enzymatic reaction. The solution was washed with 1 mL
of water, and 20 µL of the organic phase were used for HPLC.
Synthesis of (R)-1-O-Hexadecyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (2R)
from (R)-O-Benzyl Glycidol (4R). Carried out as earlier described by
Andresen and co-workers.62
Synthesis of (R)-1-O-Hexadecyl-3-lyso-glycero-2-phosphocholine
(8). To a solution of 7 (253 mg, 0.442 mmol) in EtOAc/MeOH (20
mL, 1:1) under N2 at room temperature Pd/C 10% (33 mg) was added.
The reaction mixture was placed under H2 with vigorous stirring for
1.5 h, after which TLC (CH2Cl2/MeOH/H2O 65:25:4) showed no
remaining starting material. The solution was filtered through a glass
filter, which was washed successively with CH2Cl2. Concentrating in
vacuo gave 213 mg (quantitative) of 8 as a white solid, which was
dried at 0.1 mmHg for 1 h and used without further purification in the
next step. Rf ) 0.13 (CH2Cl2/MeOH/H2O 65:25:4). 1H NMR (300 MHz,
CDCl3/CD3OD 9:1): δ 4.20-4.10 (m, 3H), 3.65-3.25 (m, 8H), 3.20-
3.08 (m, 9H), 1.59 (m, 2H), 1.26 (br.s, 26H), 0.88 (t, 3H). 13C NMR
(75 MHz, CDCl3/CD3OD 9:1): δ 76.1 (d, J ) 7.4 Hz), 71.8, 71.1 (d,
J ) 5.1 Hz), 66.4 (d, J ) 6.1 Hz), 63.9 (d, J ) 4.8 Hz), 59.5 (d, J )
4.7 Hz), 54.4, 32.1, 29.9, 29.8, 29.6, 29.4, 26.3, 25.2, 22.9, 14.3.
Synthesis of (S)-1-O-Hexadecyl-3-palmitoyl-glycero-2-phospho-
choline (3S). 8 (236 mg, 0.49 mmol) was dissolved in dry CH2Cl2 (25
mL) to which Et3N (0.17 mL, 1.22 mmol), DMAP (24 mg, 0.20 mmol),
and palmitoyl chloride (0.37 mL, 1.22 mmol) were added. The yellow
reaction mixture was stirred overnight at room temperature, after which
TLC (CH2Cl2/MeOH/H2O 65:25:4) indicated that the reaction had gone
to completion. The reaction mixture was concentrated and purified by
flash chromatogaphy (CH2Cl2/MeOH/H2O 65:25:1 f CH2Cl2/MeOH/
H2O 65:25:4) to give 294 mg (83%) of 3S. Rf ) 0.28 (CH2Cl2/MeOH/
Synthesis of (S)-1-O-Hexadecyl-3-O-benzyl-glycerol (6). To a
flame-dried flask containing washed NaH (0.23 g, 9.6 mmol) under
N2 at 0 °C cetylalcohol (1.94 g, 8.02 mmol) in dry THF (20 mL) was
added. The NaH was washed by a continuous extraction of the NaH
dispersion (60% mineral oil) with dry hexane. The reaction was heated
to 80 °C for 1 h. (S)-O-Benzyl glycidol (4S) (1.05 g, 6.1 mmol) was
added followed by DMF (10 mL). The reaction was stirred overnight
at 80 °C. The reaction was cooled to room temperature and stirred 20
min after the addition of water (2 mL). Removal of solvent in vacuo
gave a brown residue, which was redissolved in ether (40 mL), washed
with brine (5 × 10 mL), and dried over Na2SO4. Purification by flash
chromatography (CH2Cl2/ether 100:1) gave 1.86 g (71%) of 6. Rf )
1
H2O 65:25:4). H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl3): δ 4.45-4.18 (m, 5H),
3.80 (m, 2H) 3.57 (m, 2H), 3.45-3.23 (m, 11H), 2.30 (t, J ) 6.7 Hz,
2H), 1.59 (m, 2H), 1.51 (m, 2H), 1.26 (br.s, 50H), 0.88 (t, 6H). 13C
NMR (75 MHz, CDCl3): δ 173.8, 76.9 (d), 71.8, 70.4 (d), 66.2 (d),
63.8 (d), 59.4 (d), 54.5, 35.5, 32.1, 29.9, 29.8, 29.6, 29.4, 26.3, 25.2,
22.9, 14.3.
Molecular Dynamics Simulations. The crystal structures of (i)
European Honeybee (Apis Mellifera)-venom phospholipase A2 com-
plexed with the transition-state analogue, 1-O-octyl-2-heptylphosphonyl-
sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine (diC8(2Ph)PE), resolved to 2.0 Å19
and (ii) Human sPLA2-IIA complexed with 6-phenyl-4(R)-(7-phenyl-
heptanoylamino)-hexanoic acid resolved to 2.1 Å70 were obtained from
the Protein Data Bank71 (entry codes: 1poc and 1kqu, respectively).
The initial modeling step involved placing diC8(2Ph)PE into the binding
cleft of sPLA2-IIA, which was done by (i) deleting the inhibitor in
1kqu (keeping calcium ions and water molecules in the structure), (ii)
deleting calcium ions and water molecules in 1poc, (iii) aligning 1poc
with 1kqu, and (iii) finally deleting the bee-venom phospholipase A2
structure. The structures of the six phospholipids (Figure 1) were built
from diC8(2Ph)PE using SPARTAN version 1.0.2 (Wavefunction Inc.,
Irvine, California). Missing distance, angle, and torsion parameters were
obtained from the CHARMM27 parameter set describing similar atom
types. The structures were solvated using the program SOLVATE.72
To neutralize the systems, 18 water molecules were randomly replaced
with chloride ions. The final systems contained ∼4900 water molecules,
and the simulation cell dimensions were ∼53 × 52 × 67 Å3. For the
simulations, the molecular dynamics (MD) program NAMD73 was used
with the Charmm27 all hydrogens parameter set and with the TIP3
water model.74 Each complex was simulated at least three times (Table
1) starting from different initial conditions, which were obtained by
varying the number of steps used in energy minimization of the systems.
1
0.11 (CH2Cl2/ether 100:1). H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl3): δ 7.32 (m,
5H), 4.56 (s, 2H), 4.00 (m, 1H), 3.60-3.30 (m, 6H), 1.59 (m, 2H),
1.26 (br.s, 26H) 0.88 (t, 3H). 13C NMR (75 MHz, CDCl3): δ 138.3,
128.6, 127.9, 73.6, 72.1, 71.9, 71.7, 69.7, 32.2, 30.0, 29.9, 29.9, 29.9,
29.8, 29.7, 26.4, 23.0, 14.4.
Synthesis of (S)-1-O-Hexadecyl-3-O-benzyl-glycero-2-phospho-
choline (7). To a solution of POCl3 (79.8 µL, 0.856 mmol) in dry CH2-
Cl2 (0.5 mL) under N2 at 0 °C a solution of 6 (272.2 mg, 0.679 mmol)
and Et3N (0.13 mL, 0.910 mmol) in CH2Cl2 (2 mL) was added dropwise
over 15 min. The reaction mixture was stirred for 1 h under N2 at room
temperature, after which pyridine (0.44 mL, 5.43 mmol) and choline
tosylate (374 mg, 1.36 mmol) were added at 0 °C. After 2 h, the orange
reaction mixture was allowed to warm to room temperature and was
left stirring overnight. After 24 h of stirring, TLC (CH2Cl2/MeOH/
H2O 65:25:4) indicated that the reaction had gone to completion. Water
(0.2 mL) was added, and the reaction mixture was stirred for 1 h and
concentrated to a white solid by azeotropic distillation with toluene.
The residue was dissolved in THF/H2O 9:1 and slowly passed through
an MB-3 column (2 cm), and the solvent was removed by azeotropic
distillation with ethanol and toluene in vacuo. The crude product was
purified by column chromatography (CH2Cl2/MeOH/H2O 65:25:1) giv-
1
ing 7 in 253 mg (65%). Rf ) 0.17 (CH2Cl2/MeOH/H2O 65:25:1). H
(70) Hansford, K. A.; Reid, R. C.; Clark, C. I.; Tyndall, J. D. A.; Whitehouse,
M. W.; Guthrie, T.; McGeary, R. P.; Schafer, K.; Martin, J. L.; Fairlie, D.
P. ChemBioChem 2003, 4, 181-185.
NMR (300 MHz, CDCl3): δ 7.32 (m, 5H), 4.54 (s, 2H), 4.40 (m, 1H),
4.20 (m, 2H), 3.78-3.45 (m, 6H), 3.40 (t, J ) 6.1 Hz, 2H), 3.08 (s,
9H), 1.59 (m, 2H), 1.26 (br.s, 26H), 0.89 (t, 3H). 13C NMR (75 MHz,
CDCl3): δ 138.3, 128.6, 127.9, 73.5, 73.2 (d, J ) 7.3 Hz), 71.7, 71.6
(d, J ) 4.9 Hz), 70.9 (d, J ) 4.8 Hz), 66.3 (d, J ) 5.3 Hz), 59.2 (d,
J ) 4.8 Hz), 54.4, 32.1, 29.9, 29.8, 29.6, 29.4, 26.3, 25.2, 22.9, 14.3.
(71) Bernstein, F. C.; Koetzle, T. F.; Williams, G. J.; Meyer, E. E.; Brice, M.
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1977, 112, 535-542.
(72) Grubmu¨ller, H. Solvate: a program to create atomic solvent models.
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N.; Phillips, J.; Shinozaki, A.; Varadarajan, K.; Schulten, K. J. Comput.
Phys. 1999, 151, 283-312.
(74) Jorgensen, W. L.; Chandrasekhar, J.; Medura, J. D.; Impey, R. W.; Klein,
M. L. J. Chem. Phys. 1983, 79, 926-935.
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Heinrikson, R. L. J. Biol. Chem. 1984, 259, 13839-13843.
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