Enzyme-kinetic investigation of different sarin analogues reacting with human acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase

Abstract

The pertinent threat of using organophosphorus compound (OP)-type chemical warfare agents (nerve agents) during military conflicts and by non-state actors requires the continuous search for more effective medical countermeasures. OP inhibit acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and therefore standard treatment of respective poisoning includes AChE reactivators (oximes) in combination with antimuscarinic agents. Hereby, standard oximes, 2-PAM and obidoxime, are considered to be rather insufficient against various nerve agents. Numerous experimental oximes have been investigated in the last decades by in vitro and in vivo models. Recently, we studied the reactivating potency of several oximes with human AChE inhibited by structurally different OP and observed remarkable differences depending on the OP and oxime. In order to investigate structure-activity relationships we determined the various kinetic constants (inhibition, reactivation, aging) for a series of sarin analogues bearing a methyl, ethyl, n-propyl, n-butyl, i-propyl, i-butyl, cyclohexyl or pinacolyl group with human AChE and BChE. The rate constants for the inhibition of human erythrocyte AChE and plasma BChE by these OP (k(i)), for the spontaneous dealkylation (k(a)) and reactivation (k(s)) of OP-inhibited AChE and BChE as well as for the oxime-induced reactivation of OP-inhibited AChE and BChE by the oximes obidoxime, 2-PAM, HI 6, HLö 7 and MMB-4 were determined. With compounds bearing a n-alkyl group the inhibition rate constant increased with chain length. A relation between chain length and spontaneous reactivation velocity was also observed. In contrast, no structure-activity dependence could be observed for the oxime-induced reactivation of AChE and BChE inhibited by the compounds tested. In general, OP-inhibited AChE and BChE were susceptible towards reactivation by oximes. HLö 7 was the most potent reactivator followed by HI 6 and obidoxime while 2-PAM and MMB-4 were rather weak reactivators. These data indicate a potential structure-activity relationship concerning inhibition and spontaneous reactivation but not for oxime-induced reactivation.