Crystal and molecular structure of adenosine 5'-O-phosphorothioate O-p-nitrophenyl ester (Sp diastereomer). Substrate stereospecificity of snake venom phosphodiesterase.

Phosphorylation of 2',3'-O-methoxymethylidene adenosine with bis(p-nitrophenyl) O,O-phosphorochloridothioate, followed by alkaline and acidic deprotection, afforded a mixture of the Rp and Sp diastereomers of adenosine 5'-O-phosphorothioate O-p-nitrophenyl ester in good yield. Only one of these diastereomers is a substrate for snake venom phosphodiesterase. The other diastereomer, remaining after complete enzymatic digestion of the substrate, was crystallized as the triethylammonium salt in the triclinic space group P1. The structure was solved from three-dimensional X-ray data and refined to an R value of 5.2%. The asymmetric cell unit contains two independent molecules with almost identical conformations. The ribose is puckered C(2')-endo, the heterocycle is in anti position and the C(5')-O(5') bond gauche, gauche. The triethylammonium cation is coordinated to the free oxygen of the phosphorothioate group and the P-S bond has double bond character. The absolute configuration of the phosphorous is Sp. This is in agreement with an earlier stereochemical study of the hydrolysis of the diastereomers of 5'-O-adenosyl 3'-O-uridyl phosphorothioate by snake venom phosphodiesterase.