Butyrylcholinesterase activity towards long-chain alkanoylcholines: kinetics and mechanism.

The hydrolysis of long-chain alkanoylcholines catalyzed by butyrylcholinesterase (EC 3.1.1.8) has been studied. Radiolabelled substrates have been used and a radiochromatographic detection method developed earlier has been applied. The long-chain choline esters were found to be excellent substrates for butyrylcholinesterase at low concentrations, with Km values lower than those of short-chain analogues. At higher substrate concentrations, however, the hydrolysis reaction is inhibited, due to the formation of mixed micelles between the amphiphilic substrate and the corresponding alkanoic acid formed in the hydrolysis reaction. The inhibition may also partially be the result of conformational changes of the protein following adsorption of the cationic amphiphile. Critical micelle concentrations (CMC) for the long-chain substrates, as well as for mixed micelles, have been determined.

High level of pyridoxal 5'-phosphate in the cerebrospinal fluid of adult celiac patients.

Adults with intestinal malabsorption due to celiac disease show reduced central serotonin metabolism, probably induced by a lack of essential dietary factors. Investigating a role proposed for vitamin B6 deficiency, a regular finding in untreated celiacs, the present study yields no support for the hypothesis that direct inhibition at the decarboxylation step by vitamin B6 deficiency accounts for low central serotonin turnover in adult celiacs: 11 untreated patients showing reduced 5-HIAA in the cerebrospinal fluid (71+/- 26.8 pmol/ml) had a significantly higher concentration of the metabolically active B6 vitamer pyridoxal 5'-phosphate in lumbar cerebrospinal fluid (0.06 +/- 0.34 ng/ml) than controls (0.24 +/- 0.07 ng/ml) (p less than 0.01). Cerebrospinal fluid tryptophan, precursor of serotonin, was normal (2035 %/- 649 pmol/ml). Raised pyridoxal 5'-phosphate in the cerebrospinal fluid in untreated celiac disease is an unexpected finding. Possibly it is secondary to the diminished central monamine metabolism in these patients, but further studies are needed bearing in mind that mental depression is a major cause for disability in adult celiac disease.

Toxic mussels and okadaic acid induce rapid hypersecretion in the rat small intestine.

The diarrheic activity of algal toxins in blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) has been quantitatively determined in ligated intestinal loops of the rat. Hepatopancreas from toxic mussels were disintegrated by freeze-pressing, and the homogenized tissue suspended in an equal amount (w/v) of buffer or in the liquid recovered after steaming. When such suspensions were injected into ligated loops of rat small intestine a rapid fluid secretion was observed. In contrast, the liquid from non-toxic mussel tissue homogenate was absorbed. Toxic tissue homogenates, liquid recovered after steaming of toxic mussels as well as purified okadaic acid produced maximum fluid accumulation in the loops within two hours. The maximum net fluid accumulation observed was ca 300 mg of weight increase per cm length of intestine. Within a range of 50-200 mg/cm the dose-response relationship was close to linear (r = 0.96, 0.99). In duplicate tests the average deviation from the mean was +/- 9 mg/cm (SD = +/- 4.9). Mussels yielding less than 100 mg/cm of weight increase per g hepatopancreas have been allowed for human consumption, a quantity agreeing with the allowed level of okadaic acid. The minimum quantity of okadaic acid which produced significant secretion in the rat intestinal ligated loop test was approx. 0.5 microgram. On a body weight basis, therefore, humans are estimated to be at least four times as sensitive as the rat to enteral challenge with okadaic acid.

Seasonal, geographic and individual variation of okadaic acid content in cultivated mussels in Sweden.

In Western Europe the dinoflagellate toxin, okadaic acid (OA) has been the main cause of diarrheic shellfish poisoning (DSP). Chemical determination of OA in mussels by homogenization of the hepatopancreas, extraction, purification, reaction with 9-anthryldiazomethane (ADAM), HPLC-separation, and fluorometric quantification has been used for weekly monitoring of mussel growing farms and to control harvested mussels. Within a week, substantial rises (from 0.41 to 5.4 micrograms OA/g hepatopancreas) as well as great reductions (from 7.2 to 1.8 micrograms/g hepatopancreas) were recorded. The rapid rise implies that weekly sampling is not sufficient to ensure that mussels are free from toxic levels of OA. The rapid decrease reveals that efficient toxin clearance mechanisms exist in the mussels. Substantial OA clearance occurs also at low temperatures (1.4-3 degrees C). Within a mussel growing site the OA concentrations could differ considerably between adjacent mussels (0.63 and 4.2 micrograms OA/g hepatop.) and even more between mussels grown at different depths along the same rope (0.63 and 10 micrograms OA/g hepatop.). These data emphasize the importance of sampling in studies on DST in mussels. Great differences between the different mussel growing sites were also observed. These data have been discussed with respect to the spread of the toxin by the sea, and the possibilities of reducing the exposure of the mussels to the toxic algae.

Bacterial uptake of octyl ethanolamine increases with pH.

The uptake of octyl ethanolamine (C8EA) by Pseudomonas pseudoalcaligenes was determined at pH 7.1-10.0. At pH 9.1 the total uptake was nearly three times higher and at pH 10.0 four times higher than at pH 7.1. Also the initial rate of uptake was lowest at pH 7.1. At pH 7.1 five to ten times higher concentrations of C8EA were needed than at pH 9.1 to achieve the same degree of leakage of cytoplasmic constituents. The results support the hypothesis that penetration of the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane by C8EA in its uncharged form is favoured. This takes place particularly with high pH in the suspending medium. In the cytoplasm, the pH is lower, and C8EA becomes more protonated. This will prevent back diffusion, promote accumulation and enhance membrane interaction and toxicity at high pH.

Resolution studies on two regioisomeric chiral stationary phases: effects from reversed orientation of an amide group.

Two new polymeric chiral stationary phases, incorporating the selectors trans-9,10-dihydro-9,10-ethanoanthracene-11,12-dicarboxylic acid bis-allylamide, 1 (DEABA) and trans-11,12-diamino-9,10-dihydro-9,10-ethanoanthracene bis-butenoylamide, 2 (DDEBB), respectively, have been evaluated by chromatographic resolution of a series of structurally different racemates. For some groups of compounds, where large separation factors were obtained, more detailed studies were performed by the use of different retention modifiers. As an effect from the reversed orientation of the amide group in the two selectors, the enantiomers of the racemates investigated are separated in opposite order of elution on the two columns.

Determination of enantiomer separation factors by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and by chiral liquid chromatography.

The equilibrium constants K+ and K- for formation of the diastereomeric complexes of the two enantiomers of O,O'-dibenzoyltartaric acid (DBTA) with the chiral selector N,N'-diallyltartardiamide bis-(4-tert.-butylbenzoate) (TBB) have been determined by 1H-NMR. The experiments were performed at different temperatures in CDCl3 or in cyclohexane-d12/2-propanol-d8 mixtures. The equilibrium constants from the 1H-NMR results have been compared with the retention factors (k') obtained from the chromatographic resolution of rac. DBTA on a Kromasil CHI-TBB column with the same solvents as mobile phases. A satisfactory correlation between the 1H-NMR data and the chromatographic data was found.

Recent advances in methods of direct optical resolution.

Very great advances have been made in the field of direct optical resolution of organic compounds by chromatographic techniques. Chiral capillary gas chromatography now permits a determination of the enantiomeric composition of a few nanograms of a compound present in a mixture of many others. Coupled with high resolution mass spectrometry the technique will additionally permit structural elucidation; of great interest in pheromone research and related areas. Analytical separations of enantiomers are now also carried out by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methods based on a variety of principles. Basically, two main types are used, differing as to whether the mobile phase has to be a chiral medium or not. Two-dimensional HPLC, whereby compounds separated on a non-chiral column are progressively and automatically transferred to a chiral column for optical resolution, has been used successsfully for chiral amino acid separations. Many different chiral sorbents for preparative LC and HPLC resolutions have been prepared; some of these are now used in columns capable of producing pure enantiomers from a given racemate at a rate of the order of one gram/hour in continuous, automatic HPLC procedures. Apart from all important applications of these results of optical resolution technology, an increased knowledge of the underlying chiral recognition phenomena responsible for enantioselection has also been achieved.

A new method for the determination of estrogen-2-hydroxylase activity.

A new method is described for determining the activity of a monooxygenase, acting by specific hydroxylation at the 2- position of the aromatic ring of estrogenic compounds with the formation of catechol estrogens. The procedure is based on separation of the catechol estrogen product from the substrate by high performance reversed-phase chromatography with amperometric detection in a thin-layer flow-cell by electrooxidation at a graphite-paste anode. Due to the very high detector sensitivity for the enzymatically generated product and an uncomplicated overall performance, the method offers great advantages over the radioenzymatic assay described earlier.

Chiral discrimination by albumin: a mechanistic study of liquid chromatographic optical resolution of nonaromatic carboxylic acids.

In order to get further insight into the mechanism by which bovine serum albumin (BSA) discriminates between enantiomers of organic acids, some radioisotopically labeled, nonaromatic carboxylic acids were studied under varying mobile phase conditions. It was found for a series of N-alkanoyl-DL-[3H]leucines that the D-enantiomers were much more strongly retained and that the composition of the mobile phase could be adjusted to give very large (alpha > 20) enantiomeric separation factors. The elution order was consistent with what has been found earlier for other N-acyl derivatives as well as for N-arylcarbomoyl derivatives of simple aliphatic amino acids. A marked increase in the hydrophobic interaction of the D-enantiomers with the chiral phase was found upon a lowering of the mobile phase strength, conditions under which the L-form was only slightly influenced. These and other results are consistent with a chiral recognition model by which inclusion of the compound in a hydrophobic chiral cavity of BSA with simultaneous charge interaction is assumed to take place and whereby discrimination is determined by the steric bulk and orientation of the alpha-substituent.

Chromatographic methods for optical purity determination of drugs.

Current awareness of the different actions that may be exerted by the two enantiomers of a racemic drug has prompted an increasing interest in chromatographic methods to determine enantiomer composition on a small scale. Of particular interest in this respect is the possibility of using columns containing chiral stationary phases which directly separate the enantiomers. The intensive ongoing research in this field has led to a number of commercially available columns for both gas and liquid chromatography suitable for this purpose. Since most drugs are favourably determined by reversed-phase liquid chromatography, columns containing chiral stationary phases which can be operated in the same mode, are of particular interest. Some of the most recent achievements in this area are highlighted in this paper.

A new chiral selector based on trans-acenaphthen-1,2-dicarboxylic acid.

The chiral selectors (R,R)- and (S,S)-trans-acenaphthen-1,2-dicarboxylic acid bis-allylamide have been synthesized and characterized. The route to the selectors involved synthesis of the trans-dicarboxylic acid via sodiation and carbonation of acenaphthylene, followed by reaction of the bis-acid chloride with allylamine. The racemic bis-allylamide derivative was resolved into its enantiomers by preparative liquid chromatography. The chiral discrimination effect from the (R,R)-selector in the 1H-NMR spectra of a mixture of the enantiomers of O,O'-dibenzoyltartaric acid was studied as a function of temperature. Due to certain ambiguities in the literature concerning the absolute configuration of the (+)-rotating trans-acenaphthen-1,2-dicarboxylic acid, its brucine salt was subjected to X-ray crystallography. This showed the (+)-form to be of (R,R)-configuration.

A useful route to (R)- and (S)-tert-leucine.

Resolution of 1-(2-furyl)-2,2-dimethylpropylamine, an intermediate on a synthetic route to tert-leucine, followed by oxidation of the respective enantiomers, constitutes an interesting and useful strategy to (R)- and (S)-tert-leucine.

Characterization of bacterial L-(-)-tyrosine decarboxylase by isoelectric focusing and gel chromatography.

The purification of L-(-)-tyrosine apodecarboxylase (TAD) (E.C. 4.1.1.25), obtained from extracts of cells of Streptococcus faecalis, has been investigated by means of preparative isoelectric focusing, molecular sieve chromatography and hydrophobic interaction chromatography. Isoelectric focusing demonstrated two separate fractions possessing enzyme activity that had pI values of 4.5 and ca. 3.2. In the chromatographic methods, however, the activity was obtained in a single peak. It was found that hydrophobic interaction chromatography on phenyl-Sepharose was particularly suitable for purification purposes. The enzyme is very firmly bound to octyl-Sepharose CL-4B but retains most of its activity even in the bound state.

Analysis of a lipase-catalyzed kinetic resolution by chiral normal-phase liquid chromatography.

As part of our investigation of structure-activity relationships in a Candida rugosa lipase-catalyzed ester hydrolysis reaction, methyl 2-(octylsulfinyl)benzoate has been studied, with respect to rate and enantioselectivity behaviour, using two different lipase preparations. A chiral normal-phase liquid chromatography method has been developed for determination of the experimental data, degree of conversion (c) and enantiomeric excess of the substrate (ees) or the product (eep), needed for calculation of the enantioselectivity in a kinetic resolution of this kind. A recently developed new class of network-polymeric chiral stationary phases, giving baseline-resolution with high selectivities for the ester substrates as well as their corresponding carboxylic acid products, permits, without any derivatization, an accurate and direct determination of the rate of the hydrolysis reaction and of the enantioselectivity from one and the same chromatogram.

Solvent-dependent enantioselective interaction of some bis-allylamide chiral selectors studied by NMR.

A series of chiral selectors, all of them bis-allylamides of C(2)-symmetric dicarboxylic acids, were studied by NMR in different solvents in an attempt to affect the equilibria between free selector and the diastereomeric complexes formed by its interaction with the (+)- and (-)-forms of O,O'-dibenzoyltartaric acid (DBTA). The results show that by changing the polarity of the solvent the equilibria are displaced, as observed from changing chemical shift differences. Phase-sensitive (1)H[(1)H]-NOESY experiments revealed different interactions between the chiral selector and the analyte enantiomers. The individual equilibrium constants were determined by separate studies of the equilibria between the selector and the respective enantiomers of the chiral DBTA probe.

Enantiomerization at sulfur, selenium and tellurium stereogenic centres: studies by dynamic chiral liquid chromatography and chiroptical methods.

While it has been shown that enantiomerization of chiral tri- and tetracoordinate sulfur compounds can take place via a variety of different mechanisms, much less is known concerning the corresponding selenium and tellurium analogues. Studies of the stereochemical integrity of heteroatom centers have often been hampered by the lack of access to, or the instability of, optically active material and most investigations have been made on epimerization reactions, i.e. diastereomer interconversions. By the application of dynamic chromatography on a chiral stationary phase, particularly dynamic LC, however, enantiomerization rates can be estimated without any isolation of the individual enantiomers. In addition to chiroptical methods, we have applied this technique, which involves a comparison of simulated and experimental chromatograms, to the study of some stereolabile S, Se and Te compounds in order to learn more about their enantiomerization mechanisms.

A selective postcolumn o-phthalaldehyde-derivatization system for the determination of histamine in biological material by high-performance liquid chromatography.

Based on studies of the reaction between histamine and o-phthalaldehyde in alkaline solution, a method optimized for the determination of histamine in biological samples by means of HPLC and postcolumn o-phthalaldehyde derivatization has been developed. The method permits determination of histamine even at low-picomolar levels. By means of a valve, placed immediately after the column outlet, the eluent stream can be switched between the fluorimetric and an electrochemical detector system whereby electroactive biogenic amines may also be studied under the same chromatographic conditions.

Uptake and turnover of dopamine in rat mast cells studied by cytofluorometry and high performance liquid chromatography.

Uptake and turnover of dopamine (DA) in rat peritoneal mast cells were studied by a cytofluorometric technique. The main advantage of the method is that it permits the study of the distribution of amine content within populations of cells. Catecholamines and indolamines can be differentiated, but subtler structural differences in this group of compounds cannot be distinguished. We, therefore, combined the cytofluorometric measurements with a liquid chromatographic method based on reversed-phase chromatography followed by amperometric detection in a thin layer flow cell. Intraperitoneally injected L-DOPA was rapidly decarboxylated to DA, which was accumulated in mast cell granules. The elimination of DA from the mast cells was much faster than previously published 5-hydroxytryptamine and histamine elimination rates. No evidence of intracellular conversion of DA before its elimination was found and simultaneous heparin quantitations gave no evidence of an elimination pathway due to exocytosis of granules. Electron microscopy disclosed no structural changes that could be related to exocytosis during the elimination phase of DA. The rapid elimination together with absence of inhibition of DA-uptake after storage of exogenous 5-hydroxytryptamine suggest that the mechanism of DA storage differs from the mechanism of storage of endogenous mast cell amines.

Absolute configuration of a diaryldiacyloxy spiroselenurane and resolution of a carbon analog.

The enantiomers of 3,3'-spirobi(3-selenaphthalide) (2) were obtained via direct separation by liquid chromatography on a chiral stationary phase. Determination of the absolute configuration was made by X-ray crystallography with the use of the anomalous dispersion technique. The first eluted (+)-form (lambda = 302 and 365 nm) of 2 was found to have (S)-configuration. By a comparison of CD-spectra, the same (S)-configuration could be assigned to the (+)-forms of the sulfur (1) and tellurium (7) analogs of 2. An asymmetric dichloro-substituted spirobilactone (4) was also synthesized and separated into its enantiomers. Relative configurations between 4 and its parent compound (3) were established from the corresponding chiroptical data obtained. Chirality 12: 71-75, 2000.