Probing the peripheral anionic site of acetylcholinesterase with quantitative structure activity relationships for inhibition by biphenyl‐4‐acyoxylate‐4′‐ N ‐Butylcarbamates

Biphenyl‐4‐acyoxylate‐4′‐ N ‐butylcarbamates 1–8 are synthesized from 4,4′‐biphenol and are characterized as the pseudosubstrate inhibitors of acetylcholinesterase. In other words, the inhibitors bind to the enzyme and react with the enzyme to form the tetrahedral intermediates for the K i steps, and then the tetrahedral intermediates exclude the leaving groups to form a common N ‐butycarbamyl enzyme intermediate for the k c steps. Due to a linear character of the 4,4′‐biphenyl moiety, the 4′‐ N ‐butylcarbamate moieties of the inhibitors react with the Ser200 residue of the enzyme while the 4‐acyoxylate moieties of the inhibitors, on the other hand, should fit in the peripheral anionic site of the enzyme, which is located at the mouth of the deep active site gorge. Thus, carbamates with varied acyl substituents at the 4‐position of the biphenyl ring are good candidates for probing the quantitative structure activity relationships for the peripheral anionic site of the enzyme. The fact that the p K i , log k c , and log K i values are correlated with neither the Taft substituent constant (σ*) nor the Taft steric constant ( E s ) indicates that the 4‐acyoxylate moieties of the inhibitors are too far away from the reaction center. However, the p K i , log k c , and log K i values are linearly correlated with the Hansch hydrophobicity constant, π. The intensity constants (ψ) for these correlations are 0.16, −0.035, and 0.13, respectively. These results indicate that interactions between the 4‐acyoxylate groups of the inhibitors and the peripheral anionic site of the enzyme are mainly hydrophobic ones. The correlation results are slightly improved by using the two‐parameter correlations with the Taft substituent steric constant, E s , and π. For p K i , log k c , and log K i – E s –π correlations, the ψ values are 0.21, −0.021, and 0.19, respectively; the intensity constants for steric effect (δ) are 0.08, 0.022, and 0.10, respectively. Besides hydrophobic interactions, the two‐parameter correlations also suggest that little steric hindrance occurs for the bulkier inhibitors to pass by the peripheral anionic site of the enzyme. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biochem Mol Toxicol 19:234–243, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/jbt.20087